…Says Lamido helped bury Abiola’s mandate
…NADECO was built on Tinubu’s shoulders, not Lamido’s lies — SA
…Says history cannot be rewritten by the ‘coalition of the disgruntled’

By Sodiq Adelakun

The Presidency has issued a strong rebuttal to former Jigawa State Governor, Alhaji Sule Lamido, describing his recent claims regarding the annulled June 12, 1993 presidential election as “false, revisionist, and fuelled by envy.”

In a statement on Sunday, Mr Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, criticised Lamido for alleging that Tinubu supported the annulment and that his mother, Alhaja Abibatu Mogaji, backed the military regime that voided the election.

Onanuga labelled the accusations as baseless and a desperate attempt by Lamido to rewrite history in a bid to remain politically relevant.

“While President Tinubu was confronting the junta, risking arrest, and eventually forced into exile, Lamido and his cohorts were negotiating with the very forces that dismantled Nigeria’s democratic process,” the statement read.

The Presidency recalled Tinubu’s unwavering opposition to the military annulment while serving as Senator for Lagos West, including a Senate speech on 19 August 1993 in which he denounced the annulment as “another coup d’état” and criticised the military’s violation of its own decrees.

Onanuga maintained that Tinubu remained consistent in his democratic activism, enduring detention at Alagbon, funding civil protests, and surviving a bomb attack on his Victoria Island residence.

Following the arrest of Chief MKO Abiola in June 1994, Tinubu joined the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) and fled Nigeria under threat. While in exile, he played a prominent role in the international anti-military campaign, supporting groups such as NALICON led by Professor Wole Soyinka.

“He lived in exile for almost five years, continuing the democratic struggle, while Lamido chose political accommodation under the Abacha regime,” Onanuga stated.

The Presidency further accused Lamido, in his role as National Secretary of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), of betraying the party’s presidential mandate. Onanuga also implicated the then SDP National Chairman, Chief Tony Anenih, in alleged collusion with the rival National Republican Convention (NRC) to derail Abiola’s victory.

“These actions placed them firmly on the wrong side of history,” the statement said.

Onanuga suggested that Lamido’s comments were driven by resentment, describing him as part of a “Coalition of the Disgruntled” seeking to diminish Tinubu’s democratic legacy.

“We do not wish to believe that Alhaji Lamido is afflicted with what psychologists describe as tall poppy syndrome, but the evidence is pointing in that direction,” Onanuga added.

He concluded by reaffirming President Tinubu’s role as a committed advocate for democracy, insisting that historical facts cannot be revised for personal or political advantage.