On June 12, 1998
14 million Nigerians voted to elect Mashood Kashimawo Abiola [MKO]
Abiola as president of Nigeria after an eight-year transition program
which reportedly cost -N-50 billion Naira [about $900 million ].
About a week after this historic event, a military committee of
about 10 men gathered in Abuja, headed by General Ibrahim Babangida
[otherwise called IBB] and supported by General Sani Abacha to annul
the results. MKO Abiola initiated a local and international campaign
to deannul the results and gain his mandate. In July 1994 General
Abacha arrested him for that move and put him in jail, subjecting
him to the most intolerable assault and medical neglect. On June
8 1998, Abacha died mysteriously. Several reputable western news
agencies, citing Unites States intelligence sources have suggested
that the death was not an accident. This political deux ex machina
paved the way for incumbent General Abdulsalam Abubakar to become
the new military president who has spoken about the need for a new
political direction in the country. Abubakar did not, however, release
Abiola from jail but initiated what is probably the most dramatic
and high-profile diplomatic negotiations in Nigerian political history
after independence. Between July 1st and 2nd the secretary-general
of the United Nations, Mr. Kofi Annan, and his counterpart at the
Commonwealth Secretariat, Mr. Emeka Anyaoku, converged on Abiola's
cell urging him to trade his presidential mandate for freedom. As
these three letters below reveal, [written between the 3rd and 6th
of July 1998], Abiola rejected the deal stating political and legal
principles why this was improper. Hardly a week after this, the
man died of "heart attack". These letters are reproduced unedited
to convey the twist and turns of the man's mind in those last days.
