Jamiu Abiola, a son of MKO Abiola, says Nigeria would have become far better economically had democracy hero, his father been allowed to become president in 1993.
Jamiu stated this on Thursday during Channels Television’s June 12 Special Forum to celebrate Nigeria’s 26 years of unbroken democratic rule.
“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.
“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,” he said.
DAILY POST reports that the special event was tagged ‘Nigeria’s Democratic Journey: An Inter-Generational Conversation On Building A Better Nation’.
Jamiu, who is Senior Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Linguistics and Foreign Affairs, expressed the belief that some people were hellbent on erasing his father’s name from Nigeria’s history.
He said, “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.”
According to him, 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.
“So, I now wrote a book in 2015, ‘The President Who Never Ruled’, so that his name cannot be forgotten,” he added.
Recall that in 2018, former President Muhammadu Buhari posthumously conferred on Abiola the Grand Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic, GCFR, award and also declared June 12 Democracy Day, a move considered by many as long overdue.
