The last effort to revalidate the of June 12 Presidential Election through the court was on July 23, a month after the invalidation by the military. The Attorneys-General of 14 SDP-controlled states had in a petition on July 8, asked the Supreme Court to declare that the legislative and executive powers exercised by the Federal Military Government during the transition period, through the promulgation of Decree 63 Laws of the Federation, 1990, were not capable of overriding or superseding the express provision of section 129 (b) and 130 of the 1989 Constitution.
But the apex court, in a unanimous judgement delivered on July 23, said it lacked the jurisdiction to entertain such suit, citing Section 212 of the 1979 Constitution as modified. The court said in the judgement read by then Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mohammed Bello, that it was clear and unambiguous that the court has no jurisdiction on any matter unless it was conferred upon it by the law.
Having failed to achieve the revalidation through constitutional means, civil society organisations and pro-democracy groups resorted to civil disobedient. The Campaign for Democracy (CD), organised three of such protests between June 23 and August 18; the Lagos and Ikeja branches of the Nigeria Bar Associations (NBA) called their members to boycott the courts, also in protest over the annulment. There were series of other demonstrations, mostly in the South West.
The Interim National Government was not meant to succeed. Though it was a recommendation of a tripartite committee headed by Admiral Augustus Aikhomu, General Babangida’s deputy, as a middle of the road approach to the political stalemate, the departing military government had set a bumpy trap for it to fail. On the eve of its departure, the pump price of petrol was increased to N7.50 a liter. This drew the ire of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), which threatened a nationwide industrial action if the military failed to disengage from politics on August 27, promulgate the 1989 Constitution and swear in the President of the Senate, Dr. Iyorchia Ayu as head of state, in the absence of an elected civilian president. Though, Babangida honoured his promise and stepped down, this could not stop the strike.
For nearly one week, social and economic activities throughout the country were paralyzed. This was made worse by the participation of the National Union of Petroleum, Energy and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), and the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), which were affiliate unions of the NLC. On August 31, the head of Interim National Government, Ernest Shonekan, invited the union leaders for dialogue. He also made a broadcast to the nation and appealed for understanding, explaining that the ING was a realistic option for military disengagement from politics on August 27.
Meanwhile, the National Electoral Commission (NEC) was reorganised with the shuffling out of Prof. Humphrey Nwosu, as Chairman, and his placement with Prof. Okon Uya. Most of the Commissioners who worked with Prof. Nwosu opted to retire with him.
The interim government was given a life span of six months within which to arrest the drift in the polity, stabilise the country, restore the confidence of the political class in the electoral process and conduct fresh presidential election. In the new programme, local government election would hold in November 1993 while the presidential election was fixed for February 1994. March 31, 1994, was the handover date to an elected civilian government.
The greatest opposition of the ING came from South West. Babangida’s choice of Shonekan, an Egba, from the same Abeokuta North Local Government Area of Ogun State where Abiola hailed, was an attempt to assuage the feelings of people from the region. Unfortunately, this failed to appease the people. The Egba Solidarity Group, an association of prominent Egba people, asked Shonekan to withdraw from the government. Also, after a meeting in Ibadan, Oyo State, South West leaders directed every Yoruba serving in the ING to resign. Apart from Shonekan, about three South Westerners were serving the new government.
The agitation for the realisation of the June 12 election took a different turn on October 25, when the Nigeria Airways plane was hijacked. The plane, which was on a domestic flight from Lagos to Abuja, was hijacked by four Nigerian youths, Richard Ogunderu, Kabir Adenuga, Bennet Oluwadaisi and Kenny Rasaq-Lawal. Their plan was to divert the plane to Frankfurt, Germany, but the pilot informed them that the aircraft did not have enough fuel for the journey. They then landed in Niamey, the Niger Republic, but were unable to refill the aircraft as the airport was surrounded by Nigerien gendarmes. Over 196 people were on board, made up of businessmen and top Nigeria government officials, including women and children. A group, which called itself, Movement for the Advancement of Democracy (MAD) led by one Mallam Jerry Yusuf, a Kogi businessman, claimed responsibility for the hijack.
During the ensuing negotiations with the Nigerian government, the hijackers demanded the revalidation of the annulled June 12, 1993 Presidential Election and installation of Abiola as President. Abiola however distanced himself from the hijackers, and called for the release of the hostages. The hijackers gave the government 72 hours to meet their demand or they would set the plane ablaze.
As the negotiations were going on, the gendarmes stormed the plane in the night and engaged the hijackers. A crew member, Mr. Tony Igwe, lost his life in the process while the four hijackers were arrested. They were later tried and sentenced to prison terms where they served nine years before regaining their freedom.
The last straw that broke the Carmel’s back was the November 10 Lagos High Court judgement, which declared the ING illegal. The court presided over by Justice Odolapo Okunsanya, said the Decree 61 of 1993 that gave birth to the ING was null and void, because it was signed by General Babangida when he was not competent to do so.
On November 15, the ING appealed against the judgement. But it was an exercise in futility. Two days after a meeting with Secretary of Defence, General Sani Abacha, in company of Chief of Defense Staff, Lt. General Oladipo Diya, Shonekan resigned as head of the Interim National Government, describing the ING as “child of circumstance, conceived in crises and born in crises to manage a continuing crisis.” Shonekan’s resignation paved the way for Sani Abacha to assume the mantle of leadership.
Culled from the book: Third Republic:
Nigeria’s 15 Years Of Waste, Pains And Blood, by Onyekachi Eze (still in print).