Episode notes
It was June 15 1993, three days after the June 12 election and the National Electoral Commission had released results from 14 states, including the Federal Capital Territory. From the results, MKO Abiola was in the clear lead. It seemed like MKO had won the election. All around Nigeria, people were hopeful and eager for a democratic future with a leader they had chosen. But on June 16, the Abuja High Court called for the suspension of the remaining results. Shock rippled through Nigeria. To many Nigerians, the election had been fair and unproblematic, so the suspension immediately raised…
Podcast
The Republic
The Republic · History · English
The Republic is a narrative podcast series exploring pivotal Nigerian and broader African historical events and figures. In the second season, host Wale Lawal traces the life and legacy of writer and activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa. For much of the 90s, Saro-Wiwa led a non-violent movement against oil pollu
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S2 · E3 · 11 Jan 2025 · 52 min
The Political Rise of Ken Saro-Wiwa: Part II
1973 began with Ken Saro-Wiwa being more publicly critical than ever of the Nigerian government he was a part of. Increasingly, he served two masters: he was a government commissioner and he was also advocating for the autonomy of the Ogoni people over their political and economic affairs. Fresh out of a civil war, Nigeria’s authorities were intolerant of any form of agitation or activism, especially for ethnic autonomy. But Saro-Wiwa persisted. He wrote petitions against Shell, and published articles like ‘Genocide in Nigeria: the Ogoni Tragedy’. Through these acts, Saro-Wiwa effectively…
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S2 · E2 · 29 Dec 2024 · 51 min
The Political Rise of Ken Saro-Wiwa: Part I
In photos of the January 4 1993 Ogoni rally, Ken Saro-Wiwa stands out. You can sense his passion, his energy but more curiously his pull. These are very dangerous times to be protesting. Only days before, the Babangida military regime had placed a ban on public gatherings. So what was it about the Ogoni movement that made it (to borrow from the American writer, Toni Cade Bambara ) ‘irresistible’ to Saro-Wiwa? Saro-Wiwa was pretty well off and could have lived a much more convenient, non-political life. At the same time, Nigeria is a highly unequal society where the wealthy are often out of…
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S2 · E1 · 22 Dec 2024 · 48 min
Abacha’s Offer
You’re probably wondering why we chose to start this season talking about General Sani Abacha, the despot who ruled Nigeria from 1993 until his mysterious death in 1998. The short answer is this: if we really want to understand what Ken Saro-Wiwa, the protagonist of our story this season, was up against, we have to understand Abacha. What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object? During much of Abacha’s regime, this was the dynamic between Abacha and Saro-Wiwa. But at one point Abacha seemed to give way, to extend an olive branch. In 1994, around two months into his rule,…
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S2 · 10 Oct 2024 · 7 min
Looking for Ken Saro-Wiwa
African history is not yet mainstream and we're on a mission to change this. The Republic is a miniseries covering key events and figures in African history. Our second season focuses on the life and legacy of Ken Saro-Wiwa, a writer and one of nine non-violent Ogoni activists the General Sani Abacha military government brutally executed in 1995. The Ogoni are an ethnic group situated in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. For years, they have suffered pollution and environmental degradation stemming from crude oil extraction on their land. Saro-Wiwa’s protests against oil companies such as…
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S1 · E6 · 26 Nov 2023 · 51 min
June 12: The Rest Is History
IBB had just stepped down from the presidential seat and handed the responsibility over to the technocrat, Ernest Shonekan. Despite being unpopular (at least compared to MKO Abiola), Shonekan promised to serve Nigeria with all his heart and to be faithful, loyal and honest. Unfortunately for him, he was handed a country in turmoil. The Shonekan administration might have been ineffectual, but it gave way to the Sani Abacha regime, one of Nigeria’s most oppressive military administrations. Buckle up as we enter the final stretch of MKO Abiola’s presidential campaign. What do we call this…
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S1 · E4 · 11 Nov 2023 · 31 min
June 12: Freest and Fairest of Them All
After eight years of anticipation, and eight years of promises from General Ibrahim Babangida’s junta, Nigerians were finally about to have their say at the ballot box. In this week’s episode, we head to the polls! What tilted the scales in favour of SDP’s MKO Abiola over NRC’s Bashir Tofa? How did local and international observers feel the June 12 election went? Was June 12 truly free and fair? Most importantly, how did this highly anticipated event turn into such a controversy? In this episode, Wale Lawal finds some answers. Learn more at republic.com.ng/podcasts/ .
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S1 · E3 · 11 Nov 2023 · 35 min
SDP and NRC: Two Sides of the Same Coin
Ahead of the June 12 1993 election, the Babangida regime created a two-party system, in which only the National Republican Convention party (NRC) and Social Democratic Party (SDP) were allowed to run for office. NRC was meant to represent right-wing views while SDP was meant to represent left-wing views. However, critics have argued that both parties were actually similar, lacked ideological difference and consistency, and were a ploy the Babangida regime engineered to maintain control over Nigeria’s democratic transition. Notably, the lawyer and politician, Bola Ige, once remarked that NRC…
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S1 · E2 · 28 Oct 2023 · 46 min
MKO: The Man Nigeria Waited to See
During the June 12 1993 election, Moshood Kashimawo Olawale ‘MKO’ Abiola was the widely preferred presidential candidate. Until then, he had been perhaps the most popular of IBB’s private-sector associates. MKO’s legacy in Nigeria is a complex one: it is a tapestry of luck, hope, discipline, betrayal and destiny but underneath that tapestry lies a number of questions. Starting with how did a poor, ‘nameless’ son of a cocoa trader born in the old Yoruba city of Abeokuta go on to become the almost-president of Nigeria? In this episode, Wale Lawal finds some answers. Learn more at…
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S1 · E1 · 22 Oct 2023 · 44 min
IBB: The ‘Evil Genius’
General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida or ‘IBB’ became the military president of Nigeria in 1985, after overthrowing General Muhammadu Buhari (yes, we know what you’re thinking and you’re right) in a military coup. On becoming president, IBB sold himself as the military leader who would usher in Nigeria’s democracy; but what continues to puzzle historians is why he repeatedly delayed the democratic transition until 1993. In this episode, Wale Lawal finds some answers. Learn more at republic.com.ng/podcasts/ .
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S1 · 11 Jun 2023 · 5 min
Introducing ‘The Republic’
African history is not yet mainstream and we're on a mission to change this. The Republic is a miniseries covering key events and figures in African history. Our first season focuses on 'June 12', the most controversial election in Nigeria's history. In June 1993, after a keenly contested election, presidential candidate, Moshood Kashimawo Olawale ‘M. K. O.’ Abiola, secured popular votes enough to become Nigeria's next president. In the weeks that followed, the military government under General Ibrahim Babangida (IBB) announced that the election had been annulled. This decision, which…
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