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 Daily Independent Online.
* Tuesday, August 10, 2004.
1993 annulment: Don’t
apologise, Nzeribe tells IBB
• Says he should be held
responsible
By
Felix Ofou
Group Politics Editor
Maverick Senator Francis
Arthur Nzeribe has urged former military ruler Ibrahim Babangida not to
apologise for quashing the June 12, 1993 Presidential elections, believed
to have been won by the late Moshood Abiola.
Apparently reacting to calls that
Babangida should apologise for nullyfing the polls, adjudged the freest
and fairest in Nigeria’s history, Nzeribe said there is no basis for the
demand since the former ruler had no hand in the annulment.
“Is Babangida the court? How can a
man take blame for what he did not do? All he simply did was to obey
court orders and nothing more. So, I don’t see how the issue of apology
came about”, he asserted.
On the contrary, Nzeribe, who is
Senate Power, Steel and Metallurgy Committee Chairman, argued that
Babangida deserves praise for obeying the order stopping the release of
the results granted by the late Justice Bassey Ikpeme. He insisted:
“There’s no basis for the apology”.
Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka had in
Kaduna recently asked IBB, as the former military President is also
called, to apologise to Nigerians as a pre-condition to be allowed to
contest the 2007 Presidential race.
To him, “If he (IBB) wants to start
on a clean slate, he must apologise to this nation. In fact, I mean for
many, quite a number of things, but especially for thwarting the
democratic wish of the nation, because the results of June 12 were not
the results of one section of the country alone”.
Nzeribe dismissed the demand, stating
that if blame should be passed at all, it ought to be directed at him
since he obtained the controversial judgment that resulted in the
nullification.
“I was the one who went to court. I actually obtained
three judgments: one stopping the election from taking place, another
that the results should be withheld, and the last stopping the continued
release of the results”.
However, the senator representing
Orlu Senatorial District of Imo State, stressed that his action in going
to court ought to be applauded, as he did not take the option of going to
the streets burning tyres or putting up barricades to express his grief
over the elections.
“All I did was to exercise my
fundamental rights. And what I started almost 10 years ago has become the
vogue. People now rush to court to seek to stop one election or another.
How come nobody is talking about the actions of these people or the
orders of the courts today? But, that was what I did in 1993. I was
aggrieved and I went to court to enforce my rights”.
Nzeribe who cautioned those
tempted to dismiss Vice President Atiku Abubakar as a push-over in the
2007 race, however, declined
to make a specific choice among the top contenders, who include IBB and
former Lagos State Military Administrator Buba Marwa.
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