Prominent Nigerian Presidential candidate, Bashir Tofa, is dead

By Jacob Kubeka (ABUJA) –

Bashir Tofa, the man who contested the infamous June 12, 1993 presidential election in Nigeria against late Chief Mashood Abiola, died early this morning after a protracted illness, according to family sources.

The popular Kano businessman was the candidate of the defunct National Republican Convention (NRC), while Chief Abiola, contested the election, considered to be the freest and fairest since Nigeria’s independence in 1960, on the platform of the defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP).

The military regime of General Ibrahim Babangida, however, annulled the 1993 election, won by Chief Abiola, who would later die while in detention for declaring himself winner of the poll.

According to Wikipedia, the late Tofa was born in Kano to a Kanuri family on June 20, 1947 and had his primary education at Shahuci Junior Primary, Kano and then continued studies at City Senior Primary School in Kano. From 1962 to 1966, he attended Provincial College, Kano.

After completing his studies at the Provincial school, he worked for Royal Exchange Insurance company from 1967 to 1968 before attending City of London College from 1970 to 1973.

Tofa’s sojourn into politics started in 1976 when he was a councilor of Dawakin Tofa Local Government Council. In 1977, he was elected a member into the Constituent Assembly. During the second Republic, Tofa was at various times the secretary of the Kano branch of  National Party of Nigeria (NPN). He later became the party’s national financial secretary and was a national member of the Green Revolution National Committee.

During the botched Third Republic that was being midwifed by the military junta, Tofa was part of the Liberal Movement which metamorphosed to Liberal Convention when it was not registered as a political party, he joined NRC in 1990. In 1993, when the Babangida administration introduced the Option A4 system, Tofa was elected the presidential candidate representing Kano. During the party primaries, he defeated Pere Ajunwa, Joe Nwodo and Dalhatu Tafida to clinch the NRC ticket. He was an ally of Halilu Akilu, the security chief at the time. His running mate in the election was Sylvester Ugoh, an Igbo and a former governor of the now defunct central bank of Biafra. Both were members of the defunct National Party of Nigeria.

Tofa was apparently defeated in the presidential election by his rival Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola, a personal friend of Babangida and a Yoruba from southwest Nigeria, but the official results were never released by Babangida’s government. Babangida was forced to step down in August 1993 after protests calling for the results of the election.

Tofa was also a businessman, an oil trader and industrialist. He was chairman of International Petro-Energy Company (IPEC) and Abba Othman and Sons ltd. He was also involved as a board member in Impex Ventures, Century Merchant Bank and General Metal Products Ltd.