‘Why kano voted for Abiola though Tofa is from there’

WHERE WERE YOU ON JUNE 12 1993?
I was in Bauchi to cover the June 12 1993 Presidential election for the then influential Guardian newspaper. The election was to usher in democractic rule after 10 years of military regime by barely literate soldiers!
It was there I met Victor Ifijeh, who had also come for the same purpose. Victor worked for M. K. O Abiola’s Concord newspaper.
In Bauchi, the political juggernauts, like Alhaji Bello Kirufi and Ibrahim Tahir assured me that Abiola, the candidate of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, would not only score 30% in the state but would also win the election.
If Conservative Bauchi voted MKO, I recall telling Ifijeh, then MKO “is our man o!”
One of the party men eager to convince me of an MKO victory told me a story reportedly told by the Emir of Kano, on the eve of the election.
One of the Emir’s citizen, Bashir Tofa was the other candidate on the ballot against Abiola.
The Emir reminded his people of how much Abiola pledged towards the construction of an ultra modern mosque in Kano. Abiola, he told them had not only fulfilled his pledge but had in fact, exceeded it.
He told his people that he would have to ask the treasurer of the Fund Raising Committee whether Tofa had remembered to fulfil his pledge.
Needless to say that M. K. O defeated Tofa in Kano and got the required percentage in Bauchi.
As soon as as news filtered that the billionaire publisher and philanthropist extaordinare had won the election, my colleagues and I and some well-wishers gathered at a joint to preside over the demolishing of assorted foods, with criminally cold drinks on standby!
Were we happy?
Shouts of Abiola rent the air in Bauchi.
I shed tears of joy because Nigerians had elected a Muslim President and a Muslim Vice President!
It was unprecedented!
But days after, the joy turned into ashes when the self-styled military President, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida wrote his name into infamy by annulling the most free and fair election in our country’s history.