Jamiu Abiola, the late Chief MKO Abiola’s son, has stated that if his father had been allowed to assume the presidency during the 1993 presidential election, Nigeria would have seen significantly better economic development.
Speaking at Channels Television’s June 12 Special Forum on Thursday, which commemorated 26 years of uninterrupted democracy, Jamiu reflected on the global economic environment at the time and described the annulment as a missed opportunity for Nigeria to benefit from a period of international economic growth.
“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.
Jamiu, who is President Bola Tinubu’s Senior Special Adviser on Linguistics and Foreign Affairs, has expressed concern over attempts to erase his father’s legacy from Nigerian politics.
“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,” he said.
Jamiu’s book, ‘The President Who Never Ruled’, was created to honour MKO Abiola’s memory and guarantee that future generations remember his historical role.
Former President Muhammadu Buhari posthumously granted MKO Abiola the Grand Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic in 2018, and June 12 was formally named Democracy Day, a gesture largely seen as long overdue.
