Dictatorland by Paul Kenyon

Author:Paul Kenyon [Kenyon, Paul]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781784972158
Publisher: Head of Zeus

ELECTION DAY, 12 JUNE 1993

They hung from balconies and shinned up telegraph poles. The business tycoon MKO Abiola had won the candidacy for the SDP and was now in a two-horse race to be president of Nigeria. When he stepped from his limousine in Lagos, the crowd wheeled around him, singing and dancing. As he left the polling booth after casting his vote, it was all the police could do to stop him being hoisted into the air and passed across uplifted hands all the way to the presidential villa.

The day began less promisingly for his opponent, and the presumed winner, Alhaji Bashir Tofa. The election was so poorly organized the authorities had failed to register him to vote. It hardly mattered. Military intelligence reassured the leaders that Tofa would be a shoo-in.

In Lagos and Abuja, television crews filed their reports from makeshift edit suites in the smartest hotels. On the rooftop of the Sheraton, TV anchormen stood among a forest of satellite dishes, welcoming the world to what international observers described as Nigeria’s first free and fair elections.

In Ogoniland, Ken Saro-Wiwa had recommended that his people should boycott the election altogether. It wasn’t a move universally supported by MOSOP. Saro-Wiwa’s stance had prised open divisions among the leadership. Nevertheless, many still followed his advice, staying away from the polls. Whoever won the election would change little in Ogoniland.

And even on this historic day, there was a reminder of the impact of oil on Nigeria. In the tiny community of Bunu-Tai in Rivers State, a high-pressure pipeline close to a Shell flow-station ruptured. Hundreds of barrels of crude poured onto farmland and into neighbouring villages. It continued for forty days. Shell wouldn’t fix it because the company feared its engineers would be attacked by the community.

Late that night, the ballot boxes were flown, under heavy armed escort, to Abuja for counting. Unofficial results began leaking out thirty-six hours later. A sensation was brewing. The underdog, MKO Abiola, had a strong lead in ten of thirteen states counted.

Then silence.

No one understood the ominous pause. Hours passed. Journalists gathered around the presidential compound at Aso Rock waiting for news. Had General Babangida already left? Were the military returning to their barracks?

The silence continued for several days. In Abuja, it emerged that a legal challenge was under way from a shadowy pressure group called the ABN, the Association for a Better Nigeria. The organization had been active throughout the campaign, putting up posters pleading for ‘four more years’ of military rule. Now it had secured a High Court order preventing the results from being released. The reasons were sketchy, to do with alleged conflicts of interests and money owed by the government to Abiola. It didn’t really matter; it was all a charade anyway, and every savvy Nigerian knew it. The ABN was just a front for the military junta.

Violence broke out on the streets. General Babangida’s closest military confidants convened an urgent secret meeting in his home town of Minna to decide their next move.

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