One of the children of the acclaimed winner of the annulled June 12, 1993 presidential election, late Chief MKO Abiola, Jamiu Abiola, has said that he has overcome his bitterness
about the circumstances that led to the death of his father, as children of the perpetrators
of the killing have now become drug addicts and socially irrelevant.
Jamiu said that all the people who masterminded the annulment of the June 12 and caused his father’s death, had all lost out. He said this at a reading session of a book he wrote about his father, entitled, “The President Who Never Ruled.” “I know that these people are now completely irrelevant and their children have become drug addicts.
I know they have got their own pound of flesh; so I do not feel any kind of resentment
anymore,” Jamiu said.
He added that before the Abiola family could think of forgiving Nigeria, the result of the annulled June 12, 1993 presidential election must be released and their father declared the winner of the poll.
He, however, admitted that it might be hard to achieve that now, because the people who denied the late Abiola the presidency of Nigeria were still alive. Jamiu added that in ntion,
the late business mogul did not have any other option than to insist on realising his mandate, as many Nigerians would have been disappointed if he had done otherwise. He said, “ Everyone went out to vote, election was won and somebody just woke up and cancelled the results. That was an insult and disgrace in front of everyone.
If he had run away, people would think he was a coward or so. “If Jonathan had cancelled
the last election results, Would Buhari have walked away? Would he have said he would fight another day? Another day means another elections and campaign. So, some things are just not possible. The only thing my father could have done was what he did.”
Jamiu also said as much as it would not be a nice idea for him or any of his siblings to become the country’s president, to fulfil the dream of their father, none of them had such intention. “Nobody has really come out, because the people who were against MKO are still
alive, rich and powerful.If they could stop MKO as big as he was, they could stop the children, too,” he added.
Admitting that the family had not been 100 per cent united since their parents died, he maintained that their situation was not as terrible as that of some other families in similar circumstance.
“You know, at the end of the day, this is Africa. But our case is not as bad as those of other people who throw stones at one another in the market place,” he said. His sister, Mrs. Hafisat Abiola-Costello, explained that even if their father had never confronted the
military, he would still have died sooner or later.
“Everybody is going to die. We are in a situation where we are rejoicing for my father and mother daily, because they had done their own and left. MKO gave everything to Nigeria
and he could not have given more. My mother made a promise and she never betrayed
her husband,” she said.
Abiola-Costello, who is also the Special Adviser to the Ogun State governor on Millennium Development Goals, however, stressed that she only had a sense of pity for the people and children her parents left behind.
