Economic Losses Nigeria suffered in June 12 annulment – Dele Alake

June 12, 2015 – Former Commissioner for Information and Strategy in Lagos State, Mr. Dele Alake said Nigeria suffered economic losses as a consequence of the annulment of June 12, 1993 election presumed to have been won by the late Chief MKO Abiola.

Alake who was delivering a lecture on sustainability of democratic values, the Nigerian experience, described the election as the defining moments of Nigeria’s history.

According to him, on Sunday June 13 after the elections while the results were pouring in and it became clear that Abiola was coasting to victory, the then President of World Bank he said put a call to Abiola while they were together in his car.

“His phone rang and he had a scorched finger and he asked me to hold the phone to his ear. But I told him that I was sitting in a awkward position, so he asked me to put it on speaker and as they were conversing, it turned out to be the President of World bank. He congratulated Abiola ahead of the formal declaration of the results and told Abiola that he was coming for the inauguration with 90 professionals in his team.

“He also asked Abiola what he should bring along  as present since they were classmates at Glasgow. Abiola told him, you know I don’t need money, but cancel Nigeria’s debt”, he quoted Abiola to have told the World bank president.

Robert Zoellic was World Bank President of World Bank between 1993 and 1997.

Alake who said he was privilege to have strategic selective exposure to the saga of June 12 by virtue of his position as Chairman, Editorial Board of National Concord said that when Zoellic  said it would be impossible for him  to cancel the debt since he is just an individual, Abiola he said requested for debt rescheduling to pave way for inflow of capital for infrastructural development of Nigeria.

Alake also gives an insight into the philanthropic nature of the Abiola, stressing that he used his money to break cultural and ethnic boundaries.

According to him, on a single day, the late Abiola signed 2, 500 cheques and that he personally posted 90 of them to students in universities in Nigeria, Africa and Europe.

Speaking on the rationale for declaring June 12, a public holiday, Alake said there is nothing significant about May 29 which has been named democracy day apart from the change in baton from one government to another.

According to him, while government could change hand every May 29, June 12 must be recognized as democracy day and national holiday.

He argued that democracy day signifies the totality of the aspirations of Nigerians as coming to fruition.

“It signifies the totality of true democracy, true federalism and socio-political and economic aspiration of the people because it is the day that everybody across Nigeria came out with one voice. It was the day that all the myth about Nigeria, religion, ethnicity, class, society status was broken”, he said.

He argued that on that day, the Igbos, Yoruba and Hausas voted massively for MKO Abiola. He noted that the damage the annulment of June 12 did to the psyche and cohesion of Nigeria was irreparable because it was the day that ‘Nigeria became born again’.

“It was Nigeria’s rebirth. All that tendencies that prevented Nigeria from moving forward was dissolved. So it was an irreparable damage.  We are yet to recover but we are moving slowly and steadily but we are yet to recover”, he said.

He argued that since June 12, 1993, no election has been able to combine all the attributes of June 12 including the election that brought in President Muhammadu Buhari.

He posited that if the election of June 12, 1993 was allowed, “there will be no agitations for religious or ethnic  balancing  the way we have it today because on that day, MKO defeated Bashir Tofa in his ward in Kano State.  A Yorubaman defeated Hausa man in his own ward in Kano”, he said, stressing that the election as indeed a defining moment in Nigeria’s history.