Jamiu Abiola, son of the late democracy icon Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (MKO) Abiola, has stated Nigeria would have been much better off economically if his father had been allowed to change into president after the annulled 1993 election.
“Nigeria would have been higher as a result of, at the moment, it was a really particular time in world instances; that 1993 interval was a time when the world itself was having a world {economic} increase,” Jamiu stated on Thursday throughout Channels Tv’s June 12 Particular Discussion board to mark 26 years of uninterrupted civilian rule in Nigeria.
“So, we may have tapped into that. However what did we get in return? We received a kleptomaniac as head of state. I’m not going to speak about (Sani) Abacha as a result of he has his issues wherever he has discovered himself,” he added.
Jamiu, who serves as Senior Particular Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Linguistics and International Affairs, expressed concern that some forces had tried to erase his father’s legacy from Nigerian historical past.
“I wrote a ebook in 2015 as a result of I got here to grasp that my father’s identify was turning into like a reminiscence that was turning into distant and folks had been hellbent on rewriting the historical past of Nigeria with out him,” he stated.
“Folks would come from overseas, overseas presidents, they’d point out Yar’Adua and others and they might not point out Chief MKO Abiola.
“Some folks needed to bury his identify. Like my father would say: they needed to shave his head in his absence.
“So, I now wrote a ebook in 2015, The President Who By no means Dominated, in order that his identify can’t be forgotten.”
In 2018, then President Muhammadu Buhari posthumously awarded MKO the GCFR title, Nigeria’s highest honour, and declared June 12 as Democracy Day.
Jamiu’s mom, Kudirat Abiola, was additionally honoured posthumously on Thursday by President Tinubu, who conferred on her the title of Commander of the Federal Republic. Kudirat, a vocal pro-democracy campaigner, was assassinated in 1996 throughout Abacha’s army regime.
READ ALSO: June 12: MKO Denied Presidency As a result of Rule of Regulation Failed — Fashola
“One of the loyal individuals to him (MKO Abiola) at the moment, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is now the president of Nigeria. Might God bless him for honouring my mom immediately,” Jamiu stated.
The 1993 election, broadly thought to be Nigeria’s freest and fairest, was annulled by then Head of State, Basic Ibrahim Babangida.
In his 2025 memoir, A Journey in Service, Babangida admitted for the primary time that Abiola gained the ballot and blamed Basic Abacha for the annulment.
Nonetheless, Jamiu dismissed Babangida’s declare as revisionist.
“He (IBB) talked about that the election was annulled by Basic Abacha however all of that’s tales by moonlight,” he stated.
“If that was the case, nothing stopped him from citing that when Basic Abacha died to Basic Abdulsalami who can be from Niger State and an excellent buddy of his, to say: ‘I used to be compelled to annul this election as a result of Basic Abacha needed to kill MKO Abiola. Now, MKO Abiola is in jail. Why don’t you launch him to get a medical checkup versus him ultimately dying in jail?’
“Even when he didn’t inform Abdulsalami to de-annul the election, a minimum of let him go to have a medical checkup and Abacha was lifeless.
“If Abacha was the issue, they may have give you the consequence.
“This consequence that was introduced in his ebook may have been introduced when Basic Abdulsalami got here into energy they usually may have allowed him to get a medical checkup. Perhaps he would have survived,” Jamiu stated.
MKO Abiola died in detention in 1998 whereas nonetheless preventing to reclaim his presidential mandate.
