Ose Anenih, son of former National Chairman of the defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP), Chief Tony Anenih, has accused presidential spokesperson, Bayo Onanuga , of attempt to rewrite the account of the annulled June 12, 1993 presidential election.
The election was won by Chief Moshood Abiola, who was the presidential candidate of the SDP.
Onanuga had in a statement on Sunday, accused Anenih and Alhaji Sule Lamido, who was SDP National Secretary, of failure to protect the mandate given to the party by Nigerians.
“The SDP leadership, including Mr. Lamido and Chairman Tony Anenih, wrote their names in the book of infamy by surrendering the people’s mandate without resistance.
“To their eternal shame, Messrs Lamido and Anenih teamed up with the defeated National Republican Convention to deny Abiola his mandate,” Onanuga had stated, while defending Lamido’s allegation that President Bola Tinubu supported the annulment.
Anenih died in October 2018, but his son, Ose, said Onanuga was uncharitable with the dead.
He stated that Onanuga’s account of his “father’s involvement in June 12 is, to put it politely, untrue.
“It is disappointing that you chose to use uncouth language to describe Chief Tony Anenih, and in an official communication from ‘the Presidency,’ no less.”
The young Anenih explained that his father documented, before his death, his role in the June 12, 1993 saga that was annulled by former Military President Ibrahim Babangida.
According to him, the late elder statesman said he confronted Abiola, when eventually returned to Nigeria after initially fleeing the country, of abandoning the party and its supporters in the immediate aftermath of the annulment.
But Abiola told him that “A bird does not tell his friends that the stone is coming.”
Ose said he was further told that while both the SDP and the National Republican Convention (NRC) had negotiated for an Interim National Government with the understanding that it would eventually hand over power to Abiola, “MKO walked in step-lock with this arrangement, in fact strategically ring-fencing a few sensitive ministerial portfolios for himself.”
He added that the winner of the election grew impatient of waiting; and decided to pursue a different path.
“My father also told me of another conversation, one in which he warned Abiola that his increasingly close dealings with Gen. Abacha would ultimately destroy his chances of reclaiming his mandate,” he added.
But instead, Abiola regarded the Interim National Government (ING) put in place by Babangida government after annulling the election, as a road trip while the Sani Abacha’s military coup, as a private jet.
“Indeed, Abiola was one of the first to visit and congratulate Abacha after he overthrew the ING and seized power,” he recalled.
Anenih said he was not aware of any animosity that existed between his father and President Tinubu, but said his father acknowledged that Tinubu had initially spoken against the delay in announcing the results of the June 12 election.
“I have no personal knowledge of what role your principal played after that, though I find it curious that you consider his early visit to Abacha, immediately after a coup to remove the ING he (MKO) helped birth, a mark of honour.
“It is however unfortunate that I have had to defend my father’s name against a lie, and doubly unfortunate that that lie was issued in the name of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” he regretted.
He expressed surprise at Ononuga’s choice of words, and wished he had used such energy “to issue condolences to the victims of the suicide bombings in Kano and Borno, rather than rewriting history and smearing the dead.”
