My encounter with IBB at 1992 Inauguration of 3rd NASS – Bola Tinubu

Presidential candidate of the APC, Bola Tinubu in a book scheduled for launch on September 20 gave a vivid account of his encounter with then military maximum ruler, former Military President Ibrahim Babangida.

At the first attempt to inaugurate the National Assembly of the aborted Nigeria’s 3rd Republic in 1992, then Lagos State Senator Ahmed Bola Tinubu, and now a Presidential candidate for the All Progressives Congress, APC, has revealed why former head of state, General Ibrahim Babangida (retired) singled him out for a handshake after the Presidential address to the assembly despite Senator Bola Tinubu’s frontal address that day on why Nigeria must return to democracy.

In the Interview section of the book, “Nigeria’s Aborted 3rd Republic and the June 12 Debacle: Reporters’ Account,’ which will be formally presented to the public on Tuesday, September 20, 2022, at the Radio House in Abuja, then Senator Bola Tinubu narrated his encounter with General Ibrahim Babangida and other key players in the 3rd Republic and the role he played after the annulled June 12, 1993, elections.
“General Babangida did one thing that impressed me. As critical as I was, when the president finished his remarks, nobody talked. He came down from the podium and gave me a handshake, which is uncommon with military personnel, and said, ‘I like your courage and boldness. We will definitely inaugurate you but it’s not today,’” he said.
“Babangida (a General in the military and head of state) was to inaugurate the National Assembly. The media referred to the situation as diarchy. They didn’t want some of us in Social Democratic Party to go to the inauguration. Then I cited one word from late Chief Obafemi Awolowo that, ‘a boycotter is a loser.’ If we didn’t go to respond to Babangida’s inauguration, when the media was calling it diarchy, then we might be the loser to the other party, National Republican Convention, headed by Chief Tom Ikimi.”
He further narrated that “We were interested, so we went. We were in the majority, and I was very vocal that the majority party must have the leadership of the Senate and we must be inaugurated. The military postponed the inauguration. I was chosen to speak for SDP, while another elected senator was picked from the East to represent NRC.”
“I was frontal with the military government, that they have a great opportunity to return Nigeria to democracy. We have been elected and there is nothing you can do about it; you have to find a way to
inaugurate us and then plan your exit. We ended that discussion, but we were not inaugurated.”
Other key players whose stories are told in the book include Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Comrade Frank Kokori and Late Major General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua.

How Alhaji Atiku Abubakar stepped down for Chief MKO Abiola at the SDP primaries in 1993 – Chief Oladosu Oladipo

Five major players and members of the Social Democratic Party, SDP in the Nigeria’s Aborted 3rd Republic, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, who was running for the Presidential ticket of the party’s second ballot primaries, and currently presidential candidate for the People’s Democratic Patty, late Chief MKO Abiola, also in the run for the Presidential ticket, late Major General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, late Lamidi Adedibu, and Chief Oladosu Oladipo converged in a room in Ambassador Yaya Kwande’s house in Jos, Plateau State to persuade Alhaji Atiku Abubakar to step down for Chief MKO Abiola.
Revealing what transpired in the room in the interview section of the book, “Nigeria’s Aborted 3rd Republic and the June 12 Debacle: Reporters’ Account”, one of the five men, Chief Oladosu Oladipo said
Major General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua told Alhaji Atiku Abubakar that “the arrangement in Kaduna should be honoured; that MKO Abiola should be the flagbearer of SDP in the election, and he spoke to Atiku Abubakar, not in Hausa but Fulfulde.”
“Having spoken to him in Fulfulde for about five minutes, tears started coming down from the eyes of Atiku. We don’t know what they discussed that moved the psyche of Atiku to tears.”
“Immediately late MKO Abiola saw him shedding tears, he moved around him, hugged him, and used his agbada, babariga, to wipe tears off his face. They hugged themselves again and Abiola said, ‘this Nigeria, we will run it together.’”
According to Chief Oladosu Oladipu, “Atiku now replied, talking to Yar’Adua, ‘you are my mentor; I couldn’t have been anything, if not for you. I’m an orphan since I was very young; no father, no mother, and God has made you to be my boss. There is nothing that you will tell me to do that I will not do. Therefore, what you have told me, I will do it.’ Then, Chief MKO Abiola and Baba Adedibu also made some remarks and that was how the whole thing went.”
Other key players whose stories are told in the book include Ambassador Baba Gana Kingibe, Chief Olu Falae, Comrade Frank Kokori and Pro. Humphrey Nwosu amongst others.