Jamiu Abiola, son of the late democracy icon Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (MKO) Abiola, has said that Nigeria’s economic fortunes would have significantly improved if his father had been allowed to assume office following his victory in the 1993 presidential election.
Speaking in reflection on the legacy of his father, Jamiu argued that MKO Abiola’s leadership would have set Nigeria on a path of sustained economic growth and stability, had the military not annulled the election results.
“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 on Thursday during Channels Television’s June 12 Special Forum to celebrate Nigeria’s 26 years of unbroken democratic rule.
“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.
The special event was tagged ‘Nigeria’s Democratic Journey: An Inter-Generational Conversation On Building A Better Nation’.
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Thirty-two years after the election was annulled and 25 years after MKO’s death, Jamiu, who is Senior Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Linguistics and Foreign Affairs, believes 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.
“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.”
Three years later, in 2018, Abiola was posthumously awarded Grand Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic (GCFR) by then President Muhammadu Buhari, who also declared June 12 Democracy Day, a move considered by many as long overdue.
But it wasn’t just Jamiu’s father that paid a huge price for his fight for democracy, his mother, Kudirat, a pro-democracy campaigner was assassinated in 1996.
She was one of the June 12 icons and prominent Nigerians to be recognised by President Tinubu with national merit awards on Thursday. He posthumously awarded her the title Commander of the Federal Republic.
Jamiu, who described the killing of his mother as a terrible experience, appreciated President Tinubu for the recognition bestowed on her as a democracy hero.
“One of the most loyal persons to him (MKO Abiola) at that time, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is now the president of Nigeria. May God bless him for honouring my mother today.”
 Abiola, has said that Nigeria’s economic fortunes would have significantly improved if his father had been allowed to assume office following his victory in the 1993 presidential election.){kind=link}