1993 Presidential Election: Same Set Of Politicians Collected Money From Abiola And Tofa, Nigerians Shouldn’t Allow Politicians To Deceive Them-Retired General Abdulsalam Abubakar

Ahead of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, same set of politicians collected money from the then NRC presidential candidate, Alhaji Bashir Tofa and the SDP presidential candidate, Chief MKO Abiola, a former military Head of State, retired General Abdulsalam Abubakar, has submitted.

Some politicians, who publicly supported actualization of the June 12 election after its annulment also according to him secretly worked for the then military government.

Team@orientactualmags.com learned that the former Head of State made the disclosures in his autobiography titled ‘Call of Duty’.

‘The late Alhaji Bashir Tofa told me a story to illustrate this. He said some politicians had visited him, requesting some money for the mobilization of supporters.

They assured him that they would deliver the votes in their respective wards to him. He gave them what they demanded. Tofa later visited the state chairman of Abiola’s party, the SDP, and was dumbfounded to see the same set of people there.

He eventually lost Kano and even his own ward to Abiola. Such is the way of politicians’ he said.

The former Head of State also said politicians engage in public spat in the daytime only to meet in the night catching fun and he cited a personal experience in the 1980s.

He noted that while serving as Chief Instructor at the Nigerian Defence Academy and there were two factions in PRP with one loyal to Mallam Aminu Kano and the second faction loyal to Alhaji Abubakar Rimi which had resulted in the impeachment of Governor Balarabe Musa of Kaduna State in 1981, he had visited a friend’s guest house only to find politicians from both warring camps chatting, laughing and dining together.

‘I was shocked. These were politicians who, in public, were pretending not to have any point of connection, and the masses were fighting each other because of them. Here, they were hobnobbing, away from public view’ he wrote.

‘A politician who was very active in the First Republic told me that regardless of the parties, most politicians of the North belonged to back then, they all used to visit the Premier, Sir Ahmadu Bello.

Occasionally, they would meet, eat and drink, and the Premier would give them some token while urging them to work for the welfare of their people.

 But this camaraderie did not stop them from going on radio, television or the newspapers to hurl insults and abuses at one another.

I saw a similar drama during the June 12 crisis. Ordinary Nigerians did not know what was going on behind the scenes.

Some of those they thought were for Abiola were actually with the government’ he said.

The retired General also noted that he could not play any role in the annulment of the June 12 election or the fight for its actualization because he was serving as Chief of Policy and Plans at Army Headquarters and was not a member of the Armed Forces Ruling Council.

 ‘I was not even a member of the transition programme, Council (AFRC), the highest ruling body in the Armed Forces.

I was close to General Babangida from our childhood days because I was in the know of everything going on in his government’ he said.

He has also advised Nigerians not to allow themselves to be used or deceived by the politicians.

 ‘I believe Nigerians must no longer allow politicians to fool them and cause division along ethnic and religious lines.

Nigerians must know that even when politicians disagree among themselves in the open, they still meet somewhere to wine and dine.

The truth, irrespective of the divisiveness which the politicians promote today, is that they are together.

From my experience of the Nigerian political environment, my conclusion has always been that it is the people, the masses, who really do not understand that they are only pawns in the hands of politicians’ he submitted-Team@orientactualmags.com  Do you have any information you wish to share with us? Do you want us to cover your event or programme? Kindly send SMS to 08035023079,  08059100286, 09094171980 or get in touch via orientactualmag@gmail.com.  Thank you