By OSA AMADI, Arts Editor

Former Army General, Chief (Dr) Olusegun Obasanjo, is probably the greatest beneficiary of the June 12 political tragedy. Before June 8, 1998, the death date of General Sani Abacha, the most dangerous predatory dictator ever to have risen to power in Nigeria, Obasanjo was still in Abacha’s prison about to be murdered like Musa Yar’ Adua and others pin- pointed as obstacles that must be removed to pave way for Abacha’s transmutation from military dictator to civilian president.

Jamiu Abiola

Abacha’s feudalist kith and kin, co-conspirators and co-ethno-political and military hegemonists who watched from the sidelines decided that Abacha’s drive of “the agenda” bordered on carelessness. They also put one plus one together to arrive at the truth the North faces the danger of the Yorubas pulling out of Nigeria and teaming up with the rest of the South with whom they share socio-cultural, political and intellectual affinities – the unity which the Northern oligarchy has since the amalgamation of Northern and Southern Protectorates in 1914 worked relentlessly to thwart – a strategy called divide-and-rule, and which has unfortunately kept Nigeria from making any form of progress.

It was when the cabals realised this that Abacha mysteriously dropped dead. To balance the equation, MKO Abiola also dropped dead. Narrating this treachery and murder of his father, Jamiu Abiola writes in his book, The Stolen Presidency:

“My father was badly treated. In a leaked letter he described himself as a man who had been abandoned in an open grave. General Abdulsalami further proved his wickedness by exposing my father to an emotionally rigorous political exercise as if his health problems were not bad enough. (He) invited the then Secretary-General of UN, Kofi Anan and Secretary-General of Commonwealth, Emeka Anyaoku to have a meeting with my father before even allowing his own family members to see him.

“I am sure those top diplomats were not aware of (what they were planning) for such principled men would never have allowed something like that to happen under their watch. The poor man (MKO) must have been overwhelmed by these encounters portrayed by the military government as a means of finding a way out of the political logjam triggered by the annulment….But the government was not sincere…. (They) refused to make any concession (and) my father held unto his presidential mandate; I strongly suspect that was why the new military ruler decided to eliminate him.

“Few hours after the historic meeting, my father was summoned to another one to meet the US Undersecretary of State, Thomas Pickering, Susan Rice, and other American diplomats. My father was normal on the way to the meeting according to the testimony of the police officer named Theodore Bethel Zadok (Abiola’s keeper). When they arrived at the government defense house, Aguda House, venue of the meeting, Zadok received a call on his radio instructing him to proceed to the office of the 2nd-in-command of Nigeria’s military government. He left my father with the Chief Security Officer (CSO) of the military President….

“After Zadok returned, within less than an hour, he was informed by the CSO that my father had drunk a cup of tea and had fallen down. He (Zadok) rushed inside and saw my father lying on the floor. That was when he and two white men carried my father to a car and took him to the hospital of the military president where doctors battled in vain to save his life until he died after 90 minutes.

“The then US President, Bill Clinton, said there was no foul play, but many people had doubts and said that my father had drunk a cup of tea that contained poison given to him by the Americans…(But) I believe they were sponsored by the military government to divert attention from General Abdulsalami Abubakar.”

After Abacha and Abiola were eliminated, the cabals released Obasanjo, the most trustworthy Yoruba ally of the Northern ethno-military hegemonists. They later came to him at his Otta farm and offered him the crown, both to compensate and pacify him for Abacha’s sins against MKO and the Yoruba people. Once Obasanjo accepted the offer, PDP, the then strongest political party on ground founded by Chief Alex Ekwueme, was hijacked by the cabal as a vehicle to convey OBJ to the throne at Aso Rock Villa.

The Yorubas also accepted the living sacrifice – Obasanjo’s presidency. This writer vehemently opposed the Obasanjo presidency on the grounds of his military background, preferring Olu Falae. But Alhaji Kola Animasaun said to him:

“In today’s Nigerian politics, the Yoruba is the beautiful bride. He has replaced the Zikist one. This bride is solid, and may not be looking for suitors. She is enjoying herself immensely. For the Yoruba, the presidency is not a do-or-die thing.” ( see Sunday Vanguard February 21, 1999, page 5) He also told The Story of Two Olus:

“This Olu (Olusegun Obasanjo) is an ex-military Head of State, and this Olu (Olu Falae) is an ex-secretary to a military government and an ex-minister for Finance under a military government. May the best military man win!” (See Sunday Vanguard of February 28, 1999, page 4). Then  the Yoruba parapo, formed at that time to promote the social, economic and political interest of the Yorubas “expressed happiness that (Nigerian) politicians are putting their acts together by nominating two Yoruba candidates from South-West to contest the presidential election. It is unimaginatively fortuitous that the parties having decided that the south should produce the next president, the two emerging candidates come from the west and are Yoruba (see THISDAY of February 19, 1999, page 3).

Now in retrospect, how has Nigeria fared after 19 years of the deceit called power shift to the South generally and to the West particularly?

Honestly, Nigerians should fight to end all these political shenanigans and grandiose Mafioso because it will not take the country anywhere meaningful, nor the Yoruba, Igbo, or even the Hausa and Fulani or any other ethnic nationality or individual. Today, all Nigerians have become criminals (see Falz’s This is Nigeria).

From June 12, 1993 up till 1998, the phrase, “June 12” was a synonym for “419.” “Don’t do me June 12 meant “don’t defraud me.” Nigerians need to be watchful. Many discerning Nigerians and I, believe that Buhari’s move in posthumously honouring MKO and institutionalising June 12 as Nigeria’s new Democracy Day is another June 12 from the Northern ethno-military/political hegemonists. It would be foolish for us to go basking in the euphoria of this empty gift and get distracted from retrieving this country from these cabals.

If Buhari is serious about his repentance over the June 12 sin against Nigerians and Abiola’s family, he should institute a full inquiry into the circumstances surrounding Kudirat and MKO’s death, and then discontinue from contesting the 2019 presidential election and nominate in his stead, Jamiu Abiola, MKO’s and Kudirat’s son, the prolific author who wrote The Stolen Presidency. Just as they went to Otta farm to anoint OBJ in 1998, Buhari should lead others to Jamiu and anoint him to run for presidency in 2019. No doubt, the Nigerian electorate will repeat for Jamiu Abiola what it did on June 12, 1993 for MKO Abiola.                        In The Stolen Presidency, Jamiu talks about MKO’s stolen presidency, the murder of Jamiu’s mother Kudirat for the same cause, and the poisoning of MKO himself to permanently put an end to his struggle to reclaim the mandate given to him by the Nigerian people to be president. Jamiu Abiola, who was about 17 when his father and mother were deceived, robbed, and murdered, is courageous to have returned from United States to live in Nigeria, a country which many of her important persons of means has abandoned and vowed never to return.

Jamiu writes of his mother on page 6: “Her dream was to become an industrialist and, for that purpose, she planned building a state-of-the-art pharmaceutical factory a year before my father’s election. She was now gone, thanks to politics in a barbaric country, along with her dreams.”

Fearing for her safety, Jamiu had warned his mother several times about how dangerous her ‘skirmishes’ with the barbaric Nigerian military was, but Kudirat had decided to stand by her husband and fight for him after MKO was incarcerated. “Why did my mother stand in front of a moving train? Why had she not thought about the fate of her seven children in her absence? Why are Nigerians not revolting against the military ruler who arrested their president after stealing his presidency?” Jamiu asks on page 96.

On July 11, 1994, MKO Abiola had clambered through the back wall of his house, foiling over 600 security agents which Abacha had posted in front of his house to keep him under house arrest. His destination was Epetedo, and his mission was to declare himself President of Nigeria!

Jamiu was not in Nigeria when his father declared himself president. When he returned after his father’s death, one of his aunties gave him a copy of his father’s written daring speech which MKO had read that day to his audience. After reading the copy of the speech, Jamiu said “I was terrified…No wonder my mother had said my father had told her that the speech would either lead to his presidency or to his assassination….

“In that speech, my father completely condemned all the years of military rule, an act for which I was certain that Nigeria’s autocratic rulers would never forgive him….My father, for instance, described Nigeria’s army generals to his audience as ‘thieves of your mandate….’ He accused the military of being responsible for all Nigeria’s woes, citing the drug trade, Civil War, and credit card scams as major outcomes of military misrule and ended his speech with the slogan ‘enough is enough’ before a retired judge swore him in as the Nigerian president.”

The stolen presidency documents both local and international conspiracy against MKO Abiola and his mandate to rule Nigeria. “The West will never allow a man with such a revolutionary idea to assume the helms of affairs in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country and, of course, the custodian of the world’s sixth largest oil reserve,” someone had told Jamiu in USA…. “General Abacha, according to him, was not my father’s only enemy….The West had also turned against him and would never want him to rule.”

The author recalls some of the absurd, repulsive things that happened in those days, which we all knew about, but which are still repulsive to us as we hear them afresh from Jamiu. On page 103, he documents the debasing position taken by many of Nigeria’s traditional rulers and so-called royal fathers:

“…Over 60 kings from all over the country paid him (Abacha) a royal visit and begged him to contest the presidential election. They literally begged him, claiming that they were representing their subjects. Then (they) issued a joint statement in which they declared that no other Nigerian has the general’s credentials. I have not even mentioned prominent politicians from all parts of the country who had adopted the ‘No Abacha No Nigeria’ slogan.”

But on June 8, 1998, four days after the anniversary of Kudirat’s death and four days before the anniversary of MKO Abiola’s presidential election, Abacha dropped dead! On July 7, 1998, MKO Abiola followed suit, believed to have been poisoned by the Nigerian military in connivance with some international governments.

It is sad that almost 50 years after the Civil War and 25 years after the annulment of June 12 election and death of Kudirat and MKO because of it, not much has changed in Nigeria. In fact, condition in the country now is worse under a former military dictator and coupist who served under Abacha and his gang of robbers called government.

The Stolen Presidency is a grievous tale of treachery, murder, and barbaric conduct of a shameless and power-drunk military junta told by one of the closest victims. It is part of the story of a failed country, a story of disillusionment with fatherland which re-enforces the conviction of many of us that “We have no country.”

As an event, The Stolen Presidency takes its place alongside other tragic events like the January 15, 1966 Coup and its corollary pogrom against the Igbos in Northern Nigeria; the Nigerian-Biafran Civil War of 1967-1970; and the Asaba Massacre of October 5, 6, and 7, 1967 – all   committed by the same and one Nigerian Army.

Abacha is dead, but many people – soldiers and civilians – who colluded with him to rape Nigeria and exterminate MKO Abiola, his wife, Kudirat and many others, are still alive today, prowling, enjoying their filthy lucre, receiving public accolades, and stealing more money from the system. Some have aspired to high public offices since then and succeeded and are still scheming to return. No justice. What a filthy and horrible country!

One valid question of which everyone knows the answer is this: If Tofa, MKO Abiola’s opponent had won the June 12, 1993 Presidential election, would the Northern political and military hegemony have annulled the election and murdered Tofa and wife?

Other books by Jamiu Abiola are Realistic Hopes, The Prisoner of Conscience, and The President Who Never Ruled.  

On the other hand, The President Who Never Ruled chronicles Chief MKO Abiola’s life from the beginning to the end of his life.