June 12: Abiola’s family demands apology

Chief Moshood Abiola

The family of the presumed winner of June 12 1993 presidential election, Bashorun MKO Abiola, has demanded an apology from military dictator, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida (retd).

Speaking in a telephone interview with our correspondent, on Wednesday, the son of the late MKO, Abdulmumuni Abiola, said that those that annulled the historic election should apologise to Nigeria.

He said, “It is not only Abiola’s mandate that they stole, they stole the people’s mandate; they stole the people’s hope. They should not only apologise to Abiola, they should apologise to the country and the masses.

“If Abiola got the mandate, I strongly believe that Nigeria would have become a better country because he was the best man for the job.

“He had a passion for the development of the country. He would have helped solve the problems besetting the country. He understood the challenges the country was facing and he was resolute in his decision to offer himself to service.”

Commenting on the lessons learnt from the June 12 saga, Abdulmumuni said Nigeria needed to come together and evolve better ways at sustaining democracy.

He said, Things could have been done much better. What we can do now is to check the worsening trend in our democracy; we must look at what we need to change because democracy is about the people.

“We must evolve changes in critical areas of our lives like education, employment and truly give power back to the masses.”

Also, the personal physician of late Moshood Abiola, who was the winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, Dr. Ore Falomo, on Wednesday said politicians have not learnt anything from the annulled election.

Falomo, who was one of Abiola’s closest confidants, declined to speak on the death of Abiola, who was allegedly killed with poison.

He said the celebration of June 12 should be left for the politicians, adding that the country was in a state of war and should not be distracted by revelations about Abiola’s death.

He said, “I don’t think the country is even in a position to be considering Abiola now. The country is in a state of war, the government seems not to know it. They are handling it like something that will easily go away. I don’t want to start any other thing and divert the attention of the country.

“Nobody among the politicians has learnt anything from June 12. I think we should let the politicians do their thing; because they are going to have their parade; they are going to declare public holiday in some states.”

Meanwhile, the Citinet Group, a non-governmental organisation, has lamented that Nigeria’s huge resources were being used wrongly. It said corruption, greed, wickedness and selfishness were very much in the country.

Speaking at a news conference organised by the group to commemorate its annual June 12 Peace Lecture, sponsor of the group, Chief Abimbola Aboderin, said the insurgency by the terrorist group, Boko Haram, was a consequence of “our corruption, wickedness and meanness.”

He said, “The international community cannot give us any respect, if we continue this way; respect is earned, not forced on people. I’m sure God is not happy with us at all. Our case is similar to the prodigal son in the Bible but God is very merciful; He will forgive us if we repent and change our ways.”

Aboderin stated that the elite would not enjoy life if the majority of the people was suffering.

“Today, I heard that about 500 Nigerians own private jets. I would like to know how many Nigerians are employed by the so-called jet owners,” he said.

According to him, the wealth of a man is not measured by his luxurious lifestyle but the number of people that benefit from the wealth.

He said there were both bad and good people in the country, adding that the good ones should rise up and challenge the bad ones intelligently without shedding blood.

Aboderin said, “People today want to get rich fast without working hard. So, they steal government funds; some sell drugs, some rob with arms and 419 (fraud), we hear of ritual killings everywhere now. This is very sad. People have to realise that this life is vanity upon vanity.”

(PUNCH)