Onanuga had, in a statement on Sunday, alleged that Chief Tony Anenih and Alhaji Sule Lamido—then Chairman and Secretary of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), respectively—betrayed the mandate of Chief MKO Abiola by surrendering it to the military regime of General Sani Abacha without resistance.
Refuting Lamido’s earlier claim that Tinubu supported the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, Onanuga said both Lamido and Anenih conspired with the defeated National Republican Convention (NRC) to undermine Abiola’s victory.
“It is important to remind Nigerians that Alhaji Lamido, as secretary of the SDP—the party whose candidate, MKO Abiola, won the June 12 election—was among those who failed to oppose the military’s injustice,” Onanuga said.
He added, “The SDP leadership, including 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, Lamido and Anenih teamed up with the defeated NRC to deny Abiola his mandate.”
In a sharp response, Ose Anenih described the statement as “ahistorical” and the claims about his father as “untrue.”
According to him, Chief Abiola was one of the first to visit and congratulate Abacha after he overthrew the Interim National Government (ING) and seized power.
“Chief Abiola initially fled the country after the annulment of the June 12 election by General Babangida. When he returned, one of his first visits was to my father, then National Chairman of the SDP, in Benin City,” he recounted.
He stated, “True to form, my father confronted Abiola. He accused him, to his face, of abandoning the party and its supporters in the immediate aftermath of the annulment, while they risked life and limb defending his mandate.”
According to Ose, Abiola responded proverbially: “A bird does not tell his friends that the stone is coming.”
He also recalled his father’s warning to Abiola about placing too much trust in the military, particularly Abacha.
“At that time, both the SDP and NRC had negotiated for an Interim National Government with the understanding that it would eventually hand over power to Abiola. MKO was on board with this plan, even securing a few sensitive ministerial portfolios,” Ose stated.
He added, “But Abiola grew impatient and began to chart a different course. When my father warned him against trusting the military, Abiola reportedly said, ‘Whether you go by plane or by car, what matters is that you get to Kano.’ To him, the ING was a road trip. Abacha’s coup, which he encouraged, was the private jet.”
Ose further clarified that there was no known animosity between his father and President Tinubu.
“In fact, my father acknowledged that Tinubu initially spoke out against the delay in announcing the June 12 election results. That was the only mention of him in my father’s 260-page book,” he said.
He added, “I have no personal knowledge of the role your principal played after that, though I find it curious that you consider Abiola’s early visit to Abacha after a coup to oust the ING he helped form as a mark of honour.”
Ose concluded by noting that many actors in the June 12 saga—like IBB, Abdulsalami, Oyegun, Ikimi, David Mark, Ayu, Dele Momodu, and even MKO’s son, Kola Abiola—are still alive and can bear witness to the events.
“We are also fortunate that my father documented his own account before he passed. It is, however, unfortunate that I must now defend his name against a lie—worse still, one issued in the name of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” he said..
TheWillNigeria.