Human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Femi Falana, has pushed back against former military ruler Ibrahim Babangida’s attempt to distance himself from the infamous annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, an election widely regarded as Nigeria’s freest and fairest.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Tuesday night, Falana described the cancellation of the election — won by Moshood Abiola of the Social Democratic Party — as the “final phase of manipulation” orchestrated by Babangida’s regime.
Babangida, in his recently published memoir A Journey in Service, claimed he was not responsible for the annulment, instead pointing fingers at the late General Sani Abacha. But Falana wasn’t buying it.
Falana laid out a timeline that painted a clear picture of Babangida’s involvement. On June 22, 1993, a day before the election’s cancellation was publicly announced, the military leader issued a series of decrees designed to legitimize the annulment. One of those decrees, Falana noted, specifically stripped the courts of their power to challenge the election’s outcome.
“In total, five decrees were signed to justify the annulment,” Falana said. “So when the annulment was announced on June 23, it was anchored on laws Babangida had already put in place the day before. By June 26, he made a nationwide broadcast, alleging corruption in the electoral process despite the fact that the election had been widely praised for being free and fair.”
Falana also recalled how Babangida dismantled legal efforts to challenge the annulment, disbanding the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal led by the late Justice Bola Babalakin on June 22.
“For him to now suggest that forces beyond his control annulled the election is disingenuous,” Falana said. “This was a well-calculated move. Let’s not forget his own words: ‘I am not only in office, I am in power.’”
