By Ikenna Asomba
IT was Theordore Roosevelt, statesman and writer who served as the 26th President of the United States from 1901 to 1909, who famously said, “the more you know about the past, the better prepared you are for the future.”
So, Yours Truly, do not expect anything less to come from Jamiu Abiola, one of the many sons of the winner of the annulled June 12, 1993 presidential election, late Chief Moshood Kashimawo Abiola.
REASON: Jamiu, is a member of President Muhammadu Buhari’s campaign train- he is a member of the Directorate of Contact and Mobilisation of the Women and Youth.
Jamiu, yesterday (Saturday) was quoted in the media to have urged the cerebral and sophisticated Yoruba nation to vote massively for Buhari during the forthcoming Presidential election on February 16, 2019, for honouring his father, the late MKO Abiola.
Yes, Buhari honoured the late MKO Abiola with a PHANTOM posthumous GCFR award in June 2017. I stand to be corrected.
On June 8, 2018, Yours Truly, wrote a piece entitled, “2019: AGAIN, YORUBA RONU! (YORUBAS THINK).
In that piece, I summarily warned the Great and Good people of the Yoruba Nation to beware of the Greek gift that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration (already hijacked by some cabals known in Nigeria’s political firmament as the KADUNA MAFIANS), was dangling before them by that PHANTOM posthumous award of the Grand Commander of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (GCFR) conferred on the late Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (MKO) Abiola.
Abiola was the winner of the 1993 Presidential election.
The phantom posthumous GCFR award by Buhari, came 20 years after Abiola’s death.
Recall that Abiola, a Yoruba son, died in a mysterious circumstances in 1998, at a time he was about to be released from the Gen. Sanni Abacha’s illegal incarceration.
In that piece, I warned the Yoruba nation that the Buhari Presidency that I have come to know is one that totally operates (Chicago’s old MACHINE POLITICS) of Nepotism and Cronyism, stating that that award was never done in good faith, but just to score cheap political points, particularly as the 2019 elections were underway.
I pointed out that for the fact that Buhari’s support had over the last three and half years waned drastically across the South West region, that PHANTOM GCFR award became necessary to massage the ego of our Yoruba compatriots, as well as play their usual DIVIDE AND RULE politics down South.
In that piece, I warned the Yoruba nation that, that Buhari conferred that posthumous award on Abiola was not a yardstick to tag him a Democrat, like Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and now Jamiu Abiola wanted them to believe.
THE FAILED TEST
Amid the musings that greeted that posthumous GCFR award conferred on Abiola, as well as the proposal to change Nigeria’s Democracy Day from May 29, to June 12, in that piece I told the Yoruba nation that aligning with the Senate, I challenge President Buhari that if he was so sincere about honouring MKO Abiola, he should:
1. Ensure the release and declaration of the annulled results of the 1993 Presidential poll by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
2. Pay Abiola family reparations and all the entitlements due to him as a former President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Same with Amb. Babagana Kingibe who is to be recognised henceforth as former Vice President and be paid his accompanying entitlements.
3. Back up the GCFR Award by sending to the National Assembly, an Executive Bill for constitutional amendment to that effect.
SEVEN (7) months after, NOTHING, I mean NOTHING whatsoever has been heard of Abiola again. So, what HONOUR is Jamiu Abiola talking about?
CHALLENGING JAMIU ABIOLA’S POSITION
Elders and those who know the history of Nigeria, dating back 1993, should enlighten Jamiu Abiola to know that:
1. Atiku Abubakar stepped down for his late father MKO Abiola as one of the three Presidential aspirants of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), when its 1993 Presidential Primaries headed into a run-off among the late Abiola, Babagana Kingibe (who later became Abiola’s Vice Presidential candidate) and Atiku Abubakar himself.
2. Atiku’s mentor, the late Musa Yar’Adua (senior) was the one who beckoned on Atiku to step down for Abiola following pleas from Abiola’s camp. That Atiku stepped down for Abiola was the major reason Abiola muscled the needed delegates votes to beat Babagana Kingibe in that SDP 1993 primaries.
The Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubus of this world running down Atiku, today, is aware of this history, as he was one of Abiola’s loyal boys as at 1993.
3. Atiku and other progressives Nigerians fought the military juntas of former Military President, Ibrahim Badamasi Babaginda (IBB) and late Head of State, Sanni Abacha, to declare Abiola winner of that ANNULLED 1993 Presidential Election.
4. Atiku Abubakar and other progressives fought the late Dictator Sanni Abacha when he ARRESTED and ILLEGALLY INCARCERATED Abiola in his gulag from 1993 to 1998.
5. The Muhammadu Buhari, Jamiu calls on Yorubas to vote massively, to honour his late father Abiola, SERVED as the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) Board Chairman under his father’s JAILER, Sanni Abacha.
6. Jamiu must be reminded that Buhari said NOTHING whatsoever, CONDEMNING Abiola’s ILLEGAL INCARCERATION, the GRAVE INJUSTICES, the Feudal Lords of the North meted against him. No where in history books did Buhari condemn the killing of Abiola’s wife Kudirat by the military mafians.
7. While Northern Progressives and Liberal Democrats like Atiku Abubakar CONDEMNED Abiola’s incarceration, Buhari, that Jamiu trumps support for, today, WINED and DINED with Abacha, without resigning his position.
CONCLUSION
Against the backdrop of the abovementioned facts, it is imperative to advise people like Jamiu Abiola, to stop turning history on its head, just because of today’s EPHEMERAL GAINS.
Jamiu Abiola must be reminded that 7 MONTHS AFTER, the Buhari administration is yet to backup that PHANTOM posthumous GCFR Award accorded his late father, by at least sending to the National Assembly, an Executive Bill for constitutional amendment to fully and legally HONOUR the late MKO Abiola.#
Ikenna Asomba is a Journalist and Social Commentator.
