Jamiu Abiola, the son of the late Chief MKO Abiola, has stated that Nigeria’s economic development would have been far more advanced if his father had been allowed to take office after the 1993 presidential election, which was controversially annulled.
During a special June 12 forum organized by Channels Television on Thursday to mark 26 years of continuous democracy, Jamiu reflected on the global economic environment of the early 1990s. He described the annulment as a missed opportunity for Nigeria to benefit from a worldwide economic boom.
“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. “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.”
Jamiu, who currently advises President Bola Tinubu on Linguistics and Foreign Affairs, also expressed concern about attempts to erase his father’s contributions from Nigeria’s political narrative.
“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,” he said. “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.”
His 2015 book, The President Who Never Ruled, was intended to safeguard MKO Abiola’s legacy for future generations.
In 2018, former President Muhammadu Buhari honored MKO Abiola posthumously with the Grand Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic and declared June 12 as Democracy Day, recognizing his pivotal role in Nigeria’s democratic history.