Nigeria’s Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, has launched a scathing rebuttal of former Jigawa State Governor Sule Lamido’s claims about President Bola Tinubu’s role in the struggle for the actualisation of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, describing Lamido’s assertions as “revisionist,” “false,” and “an attempt to rewrite history.”
In a wide-ranging interview with ARISE News, Alake, a former journalist and close associate of late Chief M.K.O. Abiola, described Lamido’s comments as “entertainment at best,” and attributed them to either “selective amnesia” or “impairment of the medulla oblongata due to atrophy of age.”
“Contrary to his own entertainment perspective, I feel very appalled at his submissions,” Alake said. “Sule Lamido himself was complicit in the sustenance of the annulment of that June 12 election.”
Alake, who was the editor of Sunday Concord, a publication owned by Abiola, said he was at the centre of the pro-democracy movement from the very beginning.
“What most people didn’t know, including Sule Lamido, was that the very first public statement of M.K.O. Abiola’s intention to run in January 1993 was written by me. I advertised it across all Nigerian media platforms. I was in the vortex of the June 12 saga from beginning to end.”
Alake accused Lamido, then Secretary of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), of being part of a faction that traded away Abiola’s mandate. He recounted how Tinubu, as a key player in the party’s internal structure, was instrumental in persuading Atiku Abubakar to step down for Abiola during the Jos primaries.
“Tinubu was one of the principal figures who negotiated with Atiku to drop his ambition and align with MKO. That’s how MKO coasted to victory at the second ballot in Jos,” he said.
In response to Lamido’s claim that Tinubu supported the annulment, Alake said:
“That is patently false. It is a hagiography and an attempt at revisionism to cover Lamido’s own pernicious role. On June 16, when the results were suspended, I was in MKO’s sitting room in Ikeja with Tunji Bello. By June 23, the results were annulled. Tinubu immediately joined the resistance.”
He recalled that Tinubu coordinated air clearance logistics for Abiola’s trip to Katsina following a bereavement in the Yar’Adua family and was called upon by Abiola as soon as he landed back in Lagos to begin the fight against the annulment.
“Tinubu was deeply involved from the outset. He was one of the funders and organisers of the initial wave of protests in June and July 1993. Where was Sule Lamido during this time?”
Alake dismissed Lamido’s insinuation that Tinubu supported General Sani Abacha, citing the President’s persecution by the Abacha regime.
“If Tinubu was working for Abacha, why would his house in Victoria Island be firebombed? Why would he be hounded into exile? Abacha even issued a directive for him to be found dead or alive.”
“Tinubu, along with others like Ameh Ebute and Senator Abu Ibrahim, issued a public statement demanding the restoration of democratic structures after Abacha dissolved them. That’s why they were jailed in Alagbon.”
According to Alake, Tinubu was smuggled out of the country disguised as a sick patient and later regrouped in London with other exiled pro-democracy leaders such as Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, General Alani Akinrinade, and Tokunbo Afikuyomi to form the nucleus of the NADECO movement abroad.
“We met every Tuesday at General Akinrinade’s flat in London. Tinubu was funding the movement from detention. I was relaying messages between him and the outside. That’s how committed he was,” Alake said.
He dismissed Lamido’s claim that NADECO was created to support Abacha as a “lie from the pit of hell.”
Alake also debunked the narrative that Tinubu mobilised market women in support of the military regime, clarifying that prominent Lagos market leader Alhaja Abibat Mogaji actually travelled to Abuja to plead with IBB to reverse the annulment.
“She wept before IBB. She was not mobilised to support the annulment. That’s a complete distortion of facts.”
He further stated that Lamido, along with late Chief Tony Anenih, as leaders of the SDP, endorsed the Interim National Government arrangement proposed by Babangida—effectively trading away Abiola’s mandate.
“They signed off the sacred mandate. Meanwhile, Tinubu and other pro-democracy figures rejected the interim arrangement and continued the struggle.”
On a final note regarding his current portfolio, Alake highlighted the federal government’s recent approval of a \$400 million rare earth and critical minerals plant—the largest in Africa—with the potential to create over 10,000 jobs.
“Since we came into office, we’ve attracted over $800 million in foreign investment, thanks to our local value addition policy which mandates local processing of extracted minerals. This policy was adopted continentally, and I was appointed chairman of the African Minerals Strategy Group.”
“Nigeria is now leading the solid minerals sector in Africa. This $400 million project is just the beginning. There’s more to come.”
Alake concluded by saying all of Lamido’s claims were “tendentious, obnoxious, and pugnacious,” adding that they were designed to distort history and hide the real truth about those who genuinely fought for democracy.
Boluwatife Enome
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