This is the concluding part of this piece which last week  introduced  the narrative of how two youth groups emerged and launched public campaigns in support of  the undeclared presidential ambition of General Sani Abacha, which eventually culminated to his adoption as the presidential candidate of all the five political parties at the time.

Despite claiming to be autonomous, NACYAN and YEAA seemed suspiciously well funded. They had a budget of N500 million for the Two Million Man March; they managed to mobilise significant logistics, and they procured government cooperation at every turn. When a coalition of civil society groups called the United Action for Democracy, UAD, led by the lawyer Olisa Agbakoba, SAN, organised anti-government demonstration in Lagos, the Lagos State Commissioner of Police sternly reminded them that they do not have a permit for the demonstration. When the UAD proceeded with the demonstration anyway, the police fired tear gas at them, hit them with gun butts, broke up the demonstration and arrested Agbakoba. 

When demonstrators objected to the heavy-handed treatment, the police responded by firing more tear gas at them. Yet when NACYAN planned a pro-government rally in Abuja, the police promptly issued them with a permit. The Federal Road Safety Corps also promised to facilitate their rally by keeping the road clear. Civil servants were given time off work to enable them to attend the event. Despite a massive fuel shortage, the Managing Director of the Pipeline and Product Marketing Company, Aminu Suleima, said that petrol stations would open until midnight to ensure free movement of persons during the rally.

Government also made police bomb disposal and helicopter surveillance units available for the events. The rally itself was part political procession, part carnival and featured pro-Abacha balloons and posters. Its organisers claimed that three million people attended, though opposition estimates were only 100,000. Prominent actors, actresses and musicians attended and performed, while the political elite was also present, including the national chairmen of the five political parties, as well as leading political figures like Arisekola Alao, Sam Mbakwe, Uche Chukwumerije, Miatama Sule and Evan Enwerem.

At the rally, Mr. Kanu read from prepared script and described General Abacha as ‘the best head of State’ that this country ever had. “We want you to continue….the children are calling. Please against all odds you must answer us,” he pleaded. Kanu also subsequently appeared in a CNN television interview. In a well-drilled performance, he demonstrated in-depth knowledge of government politics and effortlessly reeled off statistics about the government’s finances and economic achievements. He also took time to criticize Abacha’s opponents such as Professor Wole Soyinka. 

Five political parties were to contest the presidential election on August 1: the Congress for National Consensus, CNC; Democratic Party of Nigeria, DPN; Grassroots Democratic Movement, GDM; National Centre Party of Nigeria, NCPN; and the United Nigeria Congress Party, UNCP. Between April 6 and 9, 1998, the parties held conventions to choose their presidential candidates. Only the GDM allowed nominees other than Abacha, namely the former Inspector-General of Police, Muhammadu Dikko, Alhaji M. D. Yusuf, and Dr. Tunji Braithwaite. The government took an unusual interest in the GDM’s convention. The GDM Chairman, Gambo Lawan, was a close friend of Major Hamza Al-Mustapha. Lawan and Al-Mustapha flew together with members of the GDM’s national executive committee in the presidential jet to the party’s convention in Maiduguri. 

All five parties chose General Abacha as their presidential candidate, even though he was not a member of any of them. Some of the parties amended their Constitutions to make General Abacha eligible. Dr. Braithwaite walked out of the GDM’s convention in protest at the manipulation of the nomination process. A member of the UNCP claimed that the party was ‘being run from the (presidential) Villa. (Lt-General) Jeremiah Useni was the anchor man. NADECO member Chief Bola Ige contemptuously described the parties as ‘five fingers of a leprous hand’ and announced that he had started the “Siddon Look Movement”. Rather than voting in a presidential election, it seemed that Nigerians would instead vote yes or no in a referendum for a General Abacha presidency. In a typical fashion, General Abacha did not confirm or deny whether he would accept any party’s nomination of him. 

In April 1998, a group of 18 Northern politicians calling themselves the ‘G18’ (Group of 18) wrote an open letter to Abacha in which they opposed his self-succession bid. The G18 included eminent Northern leaders such as Alhaji Adamu Ciroma, Chief Solomon Lar, Alhaji Sule Lamido, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, Alhaji Abubakar Rimi and Alhaji Ahmed Joda. Shortly after the G18’s letter, 14 politicians from the South-East under the leadership of former Vice-President, Dr. Alex Ekwueme, also issued a statement opposing Abacha’s candidacy as a civilian president. 

The two groups coalesced to form the ‘G34’ (they also went by the name Institute of Civil Society). Opposition to Abacha from northern and south-eastern wings of the G34 slightly eased the ethno-regional coloration of the crisis, which depicted it as a confrontation between the Muslim north and Yoruba south-west. It also demonstrated that NADECO were not the sole proprietors of the democracy struggle. Then on June 8, 1998, General Sani Abacha died at THE VILLA. 

Nigeria’s political culture inherently resists monolithic control. Our diversity is profound-from Adamawa State with over 70 ethnic groups to relatively homogenous Ekiti. We are a nation of different backgrounds, interests, and contradictions. The constitutional provision for a multi-party system reflects this reality. History shows that whenever a single party or candidate seems inevitable, a “surprise element”-be it military intervention, internal resistance, or unforeseen events-preserves pluralism. Despite current defections, the survival of only one party by 2027 remains doubtful. Our strength and our challenge lie in our differences; no single political party can truly accommodate Nigeria’s contradictory interests.

Concluded

Eric Teniola, a former director at the Presidency wrote from Lagos.