On IBB and Abiola

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IBB was Abiola’s Best Friend in those days. His son was also in love with with IBB’s daughter, they were going to get married! Abiola sponsored, financially, the Coup that brought in IBB and removed Buhari because IBB fooled everyone including Awolowo family and friends that Buhari was a wicked man………IBB was the 3rd Most Powerful man in GMB Government…. He was the Chief of Army Staff, he was the one who ordered the military to ransack Awolowo’s Home and told Awolowo that GMB gave the directive, Taciturn GMB failed woefully to defend himself, like he has always been, GMB does not talk….. Unfortunately for everyone, IBB was a death warrant for everyone including the Journalists and Human Right Activists who wrote and talked GMB out of power… And IBB came on board!!!!

IBB destroyed the Press. It was his tenure that introduced Bomb Letter to Nigeria Politics, and the Target was the Press. Dele Giwa a foremost Journalist was killed in his dining while he was eating with Kayode Soyinka who narrowly escaped death!!! Corruption was institutionalized and many people disappeared without a trace… Yet, IBB always appeared on TV with a glowing smile as if all was well.

And Abiola became a critic of his friend, all of a sudden. Abiola was mad when IBB closed down UNILAG for 1 year, he described IBB government as ridiculous and dictatorial….

Abiola, despite several warnings from his late wife and Sheik Adams in Agege (of blessed memory), decided to go into full politics instead of sponsoring people to power who turned out to be a disaster. He said under his government no Nigerian would go to bed on empty stomach!!!! FAREWELL TO POVERTY he called his Manifesto.

Abiola ran a fantastic campaign, he went to all parts of Nigeria, met with all groups, all organizations. Nigerians responded by voting overwhelmingly for him. Remove the SW votes from the entire votes, Abiola won, remove the entire Southern votes and count only the North Votes or Vice versa , Abiola won. On June 12 1993, rain didn’t fall at any part of Nigeria. It was the freest, fairest and most peaceful, most credible election in African Continent!!!

Sikiru Ayinde Barrister sang “Hausa cast his vote for Abiola, Igbo cast his vote for Abiola, Yoruba cast his vote for Abiola but instead of giving Moshood his Mandate to fix Nigeria for us, it is the grammar of Annulment that came to the world…”

IBB, Buhari’s Chief of Army Staff and Abiola’s Bossom Friend and Would be in-law who Abiola helped to oust Buhari, made a National Broadcast on June 23, 1993 where he said the Armed Forces Ruling Council under him has annulled June 12 Election and MKO Abiola has been banned from politics!!!!

Abiola struggled to retrieve his mandate until he was killed in a custody inside Aso Rock under the Government of Abdulsalami Abubakar in 1998!!! 17 years after, the same PMB came to power in what looks like a Divine Destiny that God has determined not allow anyone truncate… That is why Yoruba said “The World cannot Change Destiny but they can only delay it…”!!!!

20 years after Abiola’s death, President Muhammadu Buhari conferred the Highest Honor in the land(GCFR) reserved for Presidents on MKO Abiola, he didn’t stop there, he proclaimed June 12 as Democracy Day in Nigeria!!! Unprecedented in our history especially in a country where Vindictiveness is a way of life. I’ve never seen any African leader, apart from Nelson Mandela, who forgive his enemies at a time when the power of revenge is in his kitty!!! I was at that event, I wept. Soyinka was fighting tears….. Hafsat Abiola stood up on behalf of MKO Family to openly apologize for whatever sin his dad must have committed against Buhari. At that time, PMB was beginning to fight tears too!!!

President Muhammadu Buhari, GOD that sees your heart and gave you victory over the monsters and evil men who think Nigeria is their personal property, that same GOD will be with you until you take Nigeria to the promised land!!!

Welcome back from Umrah!

By Aiyekoto Akindele

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