Chairman of THISDAY editorial board and former presidential spokesman, Olusegun Adeniyi, will today release his latest book, THE GHOST OF JUNE 12. It is a compilation of four books he wrote between 1992 and 2005 on the transition to civil rule of Generals Ibrahim Babangida and Sani Abacha.

Adeniyi said he decided to make the compilation for “members of a generation that do not know what Nigerians went through under the military or what the whole ‘June 12’ story is all about,” while also stating that there will be no public presentation. “The period between 1992 and 1998 was one of betrayal, resistance, and hope. It was a time when the Nigerian people demanded democracy but were repeatedly denied. It was also a time when individual sacrifices played a crucial role in shaping the future,” Adeniyi wrote in the introduction. “This book is therefore more than a recounting of events. It is a reminder of where we have been and how easily history can repeat itself if we are not vigilant.”

The four books compiled into one are ‘Fortress on Quicksand’, published in 1992 on the 23 presidential aspirants of the defunct and military-created Social Democratic Party (SDP) and National Republican Convention (NRC) who were all disqualified and banned from contesting elections; ‘POLITRICKS: National Assembly under Military Dictatorship’, published in 1994 to detail the intrigues of having a civilian legislature with General Babangida as a military president; ‘Abiola’s Travails’, published in August 1997 to mark the late M.K.O. Abiola’s 60th birthday at a period he was in detention and ‘The Last 100 Days of Abacha’ published in August 2005.

Although written at different moments, these four books capture distinct yet interwoven aspects of the transition process. Combined, they piece together the threads of those turbulent years. The unified volume, according to Adeniyi, presents the story of ‘June 12’ in its full context, revealing how the military’s hold on power shaped the fate of Nigeria’s institutions and people. “The compilation is a story of political manipulation, of courage and betrayal, and of a nation’s determined struggle to reclaim its voice.”

Adeniyi said the book will be available in bookstores as well as on Amazon and Kindle.

[ThisDay]