| IBB ready to apologise
over June 12
By Our reporter
Friday July 30, 2004
Barely 24 hours after Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka,
asked him to apologise to Nigerians for annulling the June
12, 1993 presidential election, former military president,
Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, is set to eat the humble pie.
Daily Sun learnt authoritatively that Babangida will apologise
for voiding the 1993 polls won by Bashorun M.K.O Abiola shortly
before he throws his hat into the ring for the nation’s
number one position in 2007.
On Tuesday in Kaduna, Prof. Soyinka had counselled the former
military president thus: "I did read the interview of
IBB where he was playing around with the word ‘responsibility.’
IBB has to apologise if he wants to start on a clean slate.
He must apologise to this nation. In fact, for many, for a
number of things. But especially for thwarting the democratic
wishes of the nation.
"The result of the June 12 (election) was not the result
of one section alone. It was a national election. So, this
was an assault on our democratic aspirations."
The Babangida camp, Daily Sun learnt, is planning to cash
in on the nature of Nigerians, which easily forgives and forgets
once remorse is shown, a fact also alluded to by Soyinka:
"This (apology) would be the beginning, an attempt to
wipe the democratic slate. Nigerians are very accommodating
people. After that he would then start to present his credentials
like a candidate, like a new applicant."
Daily Sun gathered that IBB’s loyalists have convinced
him to first apologise to the two leading pan-Yoruba groups,
Afenifere, and Yoruba Council of Elders (YCE), after which
he would extend the penitence to the generality of Nigerians.
Since he cancelled what was widely accepted as the nation’s
freest and fairest polls after Abiola was coasting home to
victory, and which led to his leaving power in ignominy, Gen.
Babangida had refused to accept his error and apologise. He
had always merely stressed that he accepted responsibility
for his actions.
In a recent interview with Saturday Sun, Babangida had been
pointedly asked why he refused to apologise to the nation.
And he said: "I have also told Nigerians that look, I
accept full responsibility. You should see the event beyond
a narrow word ‘sorry.’ Nigerians should be able
also to put me in context to say okay, supposing I was him
this thing happened to, what could I have done? It is bigger,
it is a bigger thing to accept responsibility."
Towards tendering the big apology, Babangida, it was learnt,
has raised a number of reputable people, particularly from
the South-West, to soften the ground for him by preparing
the hearts of the people subtly towards forgiveness, once
the apology is made.
Gen. Sani Abacha, who emerged as head of state after he shoved
aside the lame-duck Interim National Government set up by
Babangida while retreating in August, 1993, had clamped Abiola
in jail after the latter declared himself president in June
1994. Abiola eventually died in military detention on July
7, 1998.
The nation, particularly the South-West, has not forgiven
Babangida for the evil he foisted on the nation through the
annulment and Abacha’s eventual emergence, as he chastised
the nation with scorpions for almost five years.
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