Jamiu Abiola, son of late Chief MKO Abiola, has stated that Nigeria would have experienced massive economic growth if his father had been allowed to assume office after winning the 1993 presidential election.
Speaking on Thursday during Channels Television’s June 12 Special Forum, which marked 26 years of uninterrupted democratic rule in Nigeria, Jamiu expressed regret over the lost opportunity.
“Nigeria would have been better because, at that time, it was a very special time in global times; that 1993 period was a time when the world itself was having an international economic boom,” he said. “So, we could have tapped into that. But what did we get in return? We got a kleptomaniac as head of state. I am not going to talk about (Sani) Abacha because he has his problems wherever he has found himself.”
Jamiu, who currently serves as Senior Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Linguistics and Foreign Affairs, also lamented attempts to erase his father’s legacy from Nigeria’s history, even decades after his death.
“I wrote a book in 2015 because I came to realise that my father’s name was becoming like a memory that was becoming distant and people were hellbent on rewriting the history of Nigeria without him,” he said.
“People would come from abroad, foreign presidents, they would mention Yar’Adua and others and they would not mention Chief MKO Abiola. Some people wanted to bury his name. Like my father would say: they wanted to shave his head in his absence.”
To preserve his father’s legacy, Jamiu authored the book “The President Who Never Ruled” in 2015, ensuring that MKO Abiola’s contributions to Nigeria’s democracy would not be forgotten.
In 2018, the late Chief MKO Abiola was posthumously awarded the Grand Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic (GCFR) by former President Muhammadu Buhari, who also declared June 12 as Democracy Day—a recognition many believe was long overdue.
