For the first time, Lekan Abiola, one of the sons of late Chief MKO Abiola, the acclaimed winner of the free and fair June 12, 1993, revealed certain facts that his dad told him about the election, the dirty politics in Nigeria and what he told him the last day they met in his detention cell before his death.
The interview is indeed an interesting read. Except:
What do you think about the annulment of the outcome of the 1993 presidential election which your father was believed to have won?Of course, I was very disappointed and I felt a sense of betrayal because IBB was someone we knew very well. This was somebody who assured the nation that he was leaving, how can he do that? If all along, he knew that he had no intention to leave, why did he allow my dad to go all the way, do all the campaigns and spend all that he spent? He could have told my father. But as a family, we have forgiven him; we have taken it as act of God.
Have you had an opportunity to speak with IBB since then and what transpired?
Yes, I met him (IBB) about three years ago and we discussed. But he could not explain much but that he himself regretted what happened and that the whole situation was out of his hands. He said that his hands were tied and that there were many things that he could not discuss. He said we should let bygones be bygones and to bury the hatchet.
Wednesday will make it 20 years since the historic June 12 presidential election was held. Where were you when you heard about your father’s death?I was in the United States when I heard the news. We were preparing to watch a World Cup game between Brazil and Holland. I had expected my father to have been released. I was expecting a call. I went to pray and when I came back, I saw all my friends who had gathered together to watch the game but they were all looking gloomy. Instead of the television to be tuned to a football channel, I noticed that it was tuned to CNN. I put all of these together and asked ‘is my father dead’? They replied that they were just finding that out. It was really shocking because we were expecting that he would be released. Instead, what we got was the news that he was dead. And remember that my mum had died two years before, so losing both parents on the same issue hurt very much. It was painful for all of us but more painful for some of us who are Kudirat’s children, in particular, because his death meant that we had lost both our parents. So, where do you start from? It was a disaster; the worst case scenario.
Why do you consider yourself luckier than your siblings?
The last time I saw my father alive, he was in detention and there were about 10 of us – all siblings – waiting to see him. It was at the police commissioner’s office in Abuja. This was like four years before his death. We were there waiting and we had waited for like two hours. I remember thinking to myself that when daddy comes out, I would like to be the one that he would see first. Like five minutes after I thought of it, they all left, some to get drinks because we were all thirsty. Almost immediately they all left, they brought my dad out and I had my wish because I was the only one there. It was after like 10 or 15 minutes before others came back. I had an extra 10 minutes with him and you can’t buy that with N1 million. That was the last time all the 10 of us that went saw him. Before they came, my father and I chatted and joked one on one. He had a beard and I said ‘daddy, this beard fits you’. It was totally black and he had always been clean shaven; that’s why I said I was fortunate to have that extra moment with him.
The last time you saw your father, when you had about 10 extra minutes with him, what did he tell you?
He (MKO) told me to be strong and to make sure I pray a lot. He said he would never back down and that we should not be discouraged. He said he was sure that he would win back his mandate and that I should be very prayerful, hold on to God and to tell my younger ones to do the same.
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