eighty-two days. While his colleagues have been brutally treated by history either for action or misaction, I am sure history will treat Chief Shonekan lightly because he did not do much. In fact, he was overthrown on November 17, 1993, by General Sani Abacha, GCFR, on the very day he was to move to the villa and take residence. I do not know whether the happiest day of his life was November 17, 1993, but he felt relieved after that day.
The only person appointed into that cabinet by Chief Shonekan was Ambassador Isaac Agboola Aluko-Olokun from Ilesha, Osun state, who died in March 2011 at the age of sixty-six. He was the head of Chief Shonekan’s think-tank group. I and Dr Goke Adegoroye were extremely close to Aluko-Olokun in the last ten years of his life. He confided in us. He told us many stories about Chief Shonekan’s tenure in government.
On July 5, Babangida issued the SDP and NRC with a 48-hour ultimatum to find a common position and accept fresh elections, failing which he would dissolve all democratic structures created during the transition. This raised the spectre of the dissolution of the SDP and NRC, the senate, the house of representatives and the offices of all the elected officials such as the state governors.
Many SDP members who laid the groundwork and campaigned for six years resented the way that Abiola walked into the party at the last moment and used his wealth and high powered contacts to emerge as the party’s presidential candidate, ahead of party members who were there before him. Now Babangida had opened a back door that would give them and Yar’Adua another shot at the presidency. Yar’Adua also had a grievance with Abiola for ignoring his choice of Atiku Abubakar as vice-president.
There does seem to be a consensus that the idea of forming an interim national government originated from a civilian source. Opportunists and pragmatists decided to back the ING proposal for different reasons. Opportunists thought it was their best chance for another attempt at the presidency. Pragmatists knew that the military would never reverse the annulment, so started considering other avenues to force Babangida to stand down.
On July 31, 1993, Babangida inaugurated a tripartite committee headed by Vice President Aikhomu to formulate the ING’s composition, duration and operational details. The tripartite committee comprised representatives from the FMG and the two political parties.
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