NADECO Book Reopens June 12 Wounds, Names Alleged Betrayers of Democracy

Wale Igbintade

A new book by veteran pro-democracy activist and former spokesman of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), Ayo Opadokun, has reopened painful national conversations over the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election.

The new work named prominent politicians, military officers and public figures alleged to have backed the cancellation of the historic poll won by late business mogul, Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola.

The 509-page book, The NADECO Story, chronicles the formation, underground operations, betrayals and eventual triumph of the pro-democracy struggle against successive military regimes led by Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida and the late General Sani Abacha.

Published by Bonafidea Nigeria Limited, the book comes 32 years after the formation of National Democratic Coalition and nearly three decades after Nigeria’s return to democratic rule in 1999.

One of the most explosive revelations in the book is the publication of names of influential Nigerians alleged to have signed documents supporting the annulment of the June 12 election, widely regarded as Nigeria’s freest and fairest presidential poll.

Among those listed are former military Vice President, Augustus Aikhomu; former Head of the Interim National Government, Ernest Shonekan; former Senate President, David Mark; former Jigawa State governor, Sule Lamido; former National Security Adviser, Aliyu Mohammed Gusau; former SDP National Chairman, Tony Anenih; and late political figures such as Musa Yar’Adua and Adamu Ciroma.

The book also claimed that former PDP National Chairman, Joe Nwodo, appended his signature “with reservations,” although no explanation was reportedly offered.

One of the most emotionally charged sections of the memoir is Chapter Seven titled “The Day Abiola Wept,” where Opadokun recounts an alleged meeting during which Baba Gana Kingibe, Abiola’s running mate in the 1993 election, reportedly persuaded some leaders of the Social Democratic Party to join the Abacha military government.

The author questioned why Kingibe, who stood to become Vice President under an Abiola presidency, allegedly abandoned the June 12 mandate and later accepted a ministerial appointment under the Abacha regime.

Opadokun also disputed what he described as revisionist attempts to portray the June 12 struggle as an exclusively Yoruba movement, insisting that NADECO was founded as a broad coalition of Nigerians from different ethnic, religious and political backgrounds.

“It was signed by 52 eminent Nigerians from across the country’s basic divides, be it politics, ethnicity, religion, sex and even age,” the author wrote.

The book also contains the names of all 52 signatories who established NADECO as the umbrella platform for resistance against military dictatorship.

In another striking section titled “Hall of Shame,” Opadokun compiled names of individuals he considered enemies of the democratic struggle, while also maintaining a separate roll-call honouring those who risked their lives for the restoration of democracy.

Among those praised in the book is late retired naval officer, Ndubuisi Kanu, whom Opadokun described as one of the unsung heroes of the June 12 movement.

According to the author, Kanu provided financial support, operational facilities and safe hideouts for NADECO activists during the height of military repression under Abacha.

Reviewers described the publication as part memoir, part political history and part eyewitness account of one of Nigeria’s most turbulent democratic struggles.

Opadokun, a former aide to late nationalist leader Obafemi Awolowo and one-time Assistant Organising Secretary of the defunct Unity Party of Nigeria, is regarded as one of the surviving frontline figures of the June 12 struggle.