HAPPY JUNE 12 , 1993 ELECTION 20TH ANNIVERSARY Numerous Nigerians, including many unknown and unsung persons, have made enormous sacrifices in the process of the democratisation struggle. In the written history of Nigeria, no other woman had made the supreme sacrifice for a noble and selfless cause like Kudirat Abiola. She occupies an unprecedented and unique position in Nigeria’s history. Similarly, with the assassination of Kudirat Abiola by the Abacha regime and the murder of Chief M.K.O.Abiola by the Abdulsalami regime, no other family has suffered more for the cause of democracy and the fundamental right of the Nigerian people to freely choose their leaders than the Abiola family. Kudirat Abiola might not have, early in life, consciously prepared herself to be a heroine of Nigeria’s democratic struggle. But she ‘took up’ the challenge, which history forced and foisted on her, without allowing the thought of possibly loosing her wealth or even life, to make her waver in the cause of defending a democratic and fundamental right of the people to determine who rules them. The crisis, which brought to the fore the democratic essence and activist’s courage of Kudirat Abiola, began when the military regime of Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida illegally and unreasonably scuttled the electoral wish of the Nigerian people by annulling the results of the June 12,1993 Presidential elections which Chief M.K.O.Abiola had clearly won. Babangida did not want to hand over power to the winner of that election. The people resisted. On the 5th , 6th and 7th of July,1993, hundreds of thousands of Nigerians trooped out to demonstrate their revulsion against the annulment of the election. The cries of ‘MKO is our President’ rented the air. Many leading pro-democracy and human rights activists and their organisations including unionists and their unions had joined the call for the realisation of June 12 as an opportunity to terminate military rule. It was not just an affair dominated by the conventional politicians. Babangida ordered General Abacha, as the then Chief of Army Staff, to roll out Military tanks. The regime turned out military arsenal against the people. And like the Tiananmen Square in China in 1989, the Babangida government, through General Abacha moved down more than 400 (four hundred) people nation-wide. Many streets in Lagos were littered with dead bodies and the blood of both dead and the injured. Earlier, Chief M.K.O Abiola, the winner of the June 12 Election, had left the country on a tip off of a military inspired assassination. Kudirat Abiola, the surviving eldest wife of M.K.O. Abiola, stayed behind in the country to rally support from all nooks and crannies in the country for the cause of democracy, insisting that June 12 must not and could not die and that the military must hand over to her husband. She was totally underterred by the military might. She granted interviews freely, in virtually all the media and courageously attacked the military and its nefarious decision to annul the June 12 mandate. She was attending various political meetings on how to give effect to the realization of the June 12 mandate of the people. Her personal security became a secondary consideration. Her primary objective was the actualization of June 12 and the triumph of the electoral will of the people. Three or four events have enabled me to assess the attributes of this rare woman of legendary valour and virtue. The first event- It was September 1993. I went with my son Mohammed Fawehinmi, to see Chief M.K.O. Abiola at his prestigious Chester Terrace House in the heart of London. We engaged in very serious discussions on the political goings-on in Nigeria. We reviewed the prevailing political situation. About forty minutes into our discussion, I told him pointedly ‘You cannot lead the struggle with his wife, Kudirat Abiola. He pressed the speaker button so everyone present could follow their discussion. “Mama Lekan, Gani wa nibio o. Nwon ni ko ye kin ma duro nibi o. Pe o daa kin ma bo nile”. (Mummy Lekan, gain is right here with me. He advises me to go back home to lead the struggle for June 12). “Se mo so fun yin. Mo ti so tele pe ki e ma bo. Ohun letun gbo lenu Gani yen”. (I had earlier given you similar advice that Gani has repeated). Later, we had lunch of rice, green peas and fresh fish. Thereafter, his political associates came up to see him. I could recognize and remember Prof. Femi Agbalajobi (now deceased), Chief Olu Falae and I think Chief Lul Briggs and four others. When we parted, and I came down to the ground floor, I saw the man I met when I arrived – Dlele Alake, now Lagos State Commisioner for Information and Strategy who was then one of the editors of Concord newspapers owned by Chief MKO Abiola. The second event was connected to the public launching of the National Conscience party (NCP), in defiance of military decrees, on Saturday, 1st October, 1994. I read the formation “Declaration Speech” as Chairman of the party at an open space in Anthony Village. I was later arrested and clamped into detention at CID Alagbon, Lagos, accused of forming and launching an illegal party. The Party had two objectives-abolition of poverty and actualization of June12. It was when I was at CID Alagbon, Ikoyi that I heard the sorry story of how Kudirate Abiola had been brutalized after Chief MKO Abiola was arrested on 23 June, 1994 following the ‘Epetedo Declaration’ when he publicly declared that he had become the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, consequent upon his mandate (At Alagbon, According to the senior police officer, when the police were about removing MKO Abiola from Alagbon, Kudirat was taken into a room, pushed to the floor spread-eagle, faced down flat on the ground and two hefty policemen each forcefully stood on each of her hands while others blindfolded her, all in an effort to intimidate her and to prevent her from knowing what was happening to her husband. According to the senior police officer, Kudirat Abiola continued to scream in protest even while being brutalized. “Where are you taking my husband? I want to go with my husband. Where are you taking my husband? I want to go with my husband. Arrest me along with my husband. Afterwards, her husband was whisked off from Alagbon and she was not in a position to follow them. I could hardly believe my ears that such heinous brutality could be meted out to a woman. Little did I know that would be a child’s play to the assassination, which the same regime inhumanly meted out to her two years later. The third event occurred in December 1995. That was shortly before I served another round detention, which started in January 1996. Kudirat Abiola came to my house with some of her confidants. We discussed and analysed the political situation in the country. She had no time even to look at the refreshment I put on the table. She was engrossed, body, heart and soul in the discussions and analysis. As she was about to leave, she said: “This country will for ever be grateful to you for your support. I’ll continue to fight the military until the will of the people is restored and June 12 becomes a reality, even with my life, if necessary. We parted. Little did I Know that was the last I would see this unusual and deeply committed defender of the political rights of the Nigerian people. Now the fourth event – the time was 3.00am on June 1, 1996. Some people broke into the Bauchi prison where I was the only political detainee. They slaughtered some prison warders but miraculously. I was spared. That event was still in my memory and on my lips when on June 4, 1996, at about 5.00pm , a warder rushed into my cell and said to me in low – tone and in confidence Kudirat Abiola had been assassinated in Lagos”. I screamed, What? What? What? At 58, I wept like a baby, tears were freely rolling down my cheeks. I then pleaded with the warder to continue to monitor events and to up date me on reactions in the country. The following day, he came to my call, looking sad and dejected. He unformed me in a low but cracking voice. ‘I listened to the radio. I did not hear a report of any mass reaction against the murder of Kudirat Abiola . I was stunned and downcast . There was no mass protest against the murder of Kudirat Abiola because at that time, several leading pro- democracy activist and journalists had been clamped into detention. I had gathered that after I had been arrested and detained in Bauchi prison in January 1996, Femi Aborisade and Femi Falana were later arrested in february 1996 and sent to Gumel Central Prison and Dutse Prison respectively. Others like Dr. Beko Ransome Kuti had been roped into a phantom coup. Several others had fled into exile. A culture of fear has descended and a cloud of trepidation had enveloped the land. That no major street demonstration took place protesting the assassination of Kudirat Abiola showed the climate of fear that dominated the land! That the military decided to snuff life out of Kudirat Abiola showed her extra – ordinariness that she was one of the few who refused to compromise or surrender even when many Abiola’s political associates (unknown to MKO Abiola) had decided to ditch him and to collaborate with the military. The foregoing constitutes the context that has created a larger than life image for kudirat Abiola. When others chose to hide under their beds or were more preoccupied with personal, career and business survival, she fought like a lioness for democracy, prepared to lose everything. She was therefore an avowed democrat, a committed crusader for social justice, an extremely committed defender of the political will- electoral will of the people. She was fanatically loyal to the cause of her husband – the cause of rejecting political enslavement. She was dreaded and feared by brutal military dictatorships but loved and adored by the masses of our country. It is rare to see or hear of women who are so fanatically committed to the cause of their husbands and fiercely devoted to the cause the people even in the face of life- threatening dangers like Kudirat Abiola. Kudirat Abiola is comparable only to the likes of Evita. Evita was the wife of Juan Peron, former president of Argentina. She became a legend in the pursuit of her husband’s cause- the people’s cause in Argentina. No lady in Argentina had displayed such stoicism and no woman in the history of Argentina had identified with the cause of the people as Evita did. Without doubt, Kudirat Abiola is the Evita of Nigeria’s political history. I commend the courageous and selfless life of Kudirat Abiola to young generations of Nigerians, both male and female, who are yearning for a better life. Victory for democracy can only come when the majority decides to show an unwavering, unflinching and stubborn commitment to the cause of democracy and the fight for fundamental rights. The will to win is the will to practically demonstrate preparedness to die for a cause. Lip-service commitment will only serve the end of perpetuating misrule and monstrous governments. Kudirat Abiola committed her life to the cause of democracy, in spite of her wealth. She was rich because she had a successful business. Not only that, she was married to a successful business magnate. All these however are irrelevant to the people. Her Legendary lies in her dogged and uncompromising adherence to democratic ideals and insistence on the triumph of the will of the people. In other words, her relevance, which is going to be everlasting, is that her life has impacted positively on Nigeria and Nigerians. Late Chief Gani fawehinmi was perhaps the most perspective and untiring Public interest litigant in the country today. He is also a notable human rights defender, and a Senior Advocate (SAN) of the Nigerian Supreme Court.
Posted on: Tue, 11 Jun 2013 18:06:04 +0000