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Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola: 21 Years After

Published

5 years ago

July 7, 2019

Eric

By Eric Elezuo

If and when bookmakers decide to write a comprehensive book on the person of Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola, popularly as MKO, the book will make the best read, considering the fact that the man who is reputed to have won the June 12, 1993 Presidential Election, amassed so much personality in his 60 brief years.

On July 7, 1998, five years after his electoral victory, and four years after he was arrested and incarcerated by the General Abacha Sani junta, Chief Abiola died in prison, bringing to a partial end of the demand for the actualisation of the June 12 mandate. Many people believe that he was murdered. He had declared himself the lawful in 1994 at the Epetedo area of Lagos State, drawing the angst of the military government.

Born on August 24, 1937, Abiola was a splendid businessman, who touched the lives of almost everyone he came across. Not only was he a businessman, he was also an accomplished GCFR publisher, politician and aristocrat of the Yoruba Egba clan, coupled with the prestigious of the Aare Ona Kankafo of the Yoruba land.

Abiola, from day one, has been a survivor. He was the first of his father’s children to survive infancy in as much as he was born after 22 of his father’s children.

He attended African Central School, Abeokuta for his primary education. As a young boy, he assisted his father in the cocoa trade.

At the age of nine he started his first business selling firewood gathered in the forest at dawn before school, to support his father and siblings. In search of the greener pastures, Abiola founded a band at the age of fifteen and would perform at various ceremonies in exchange for food. Abiola was eventually able to require payment for his performances, and used the money to support his family and his secondary education at the Baptist Boys High School Abeokuta. He was very hardworking.

At the age of 19 he joined the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons ostensibly because of its stronger pan-Nigerian origin compared with the Obafemi Awolowo-led Action Group.

In 1960, he obtained a government scholarship to study at University of Glasgow where he later earned a degree in accountancy and qualified as a chartered accountant. He was also a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN).

MKO Abiola, whose sense of reaching out to the general Nigerian public, contested for the presidency in 1993, an office he believed will help him distribute equitable wealth. Unfortunately, the election results were annulled by the then military president, Ibrahim Babangida because of allegations that they were corrupt and unfair.

A prolific investor in both Nigeria, Africa and the Middle East, sub-region, he set up Abiola Farms, Abiola Bookshops, Radio Communications Nigeria, Wonder Bakeries, Concord Press, Concord Airlines, Summit Oil International Ltd, Africa Ocean Lines, Habib Bank, Decca W.A. Ltd, and Abiola football club. He was also Chairman of the G15 business council, President of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, Patron of the Kwame Nkrumah Foundation, Patron of the WEB Du Bois foundation, trustee of the Martin Luther King Foundation, and director of the International Press Institute. The list is endless. The beauty of all his investments is that he used the proceeds to see to the wellbeing of the ordinary people.

Many years after the agitation for the recognition of Abiola as the authentic winner of the June 12 election, President Muhammadu Buhari on June 6, 2018 awarded Abiola the Grand Commander of the Federal Republic, GCFR, posthumously and changed Nigeria’s democracy day to June 12.

Abiola’s friendship and humane disposition cut across all religion, tribe, geographical zones and even societal strata, and these explain the support he got in the June 1993 presidential election. By the time of his death, he had become an unexpected symbol of democracy.

As Nigeria celebrated the first democracy day on June 12, 2019, Buhari renamed the Abuja National Stadium in his honour. It would be recalled that in 2012, the government of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan had renamed the University of Lagos after him. This was however, rejected by the generality of the Nigerian public, and the idea was dropped.

In recognition of Abiola’s exploits in the field of politics, business, sports and many other fields of human endeavours, various institutions have be named after such as Moshood Abiola Polytechnic in Ogun State, MKO Stadium among others.

Moshood Abiola married many wives and fathered many children. In fact, he took care of everyone of them handsomely. Some of his well known wives were Simibiat Atinuke Shoaga, who he married in 1960; Kudirat Olayinka Adeyemi (1973), who was brutally murdered in 1996 after publicly declaring support for the June 12 cause; Adebisi Olawunmi Oshin (1974), Doyinsola (Doyin) Abiola Aboaba in 1981, Modupe Onitiri-Abiola and Remi Abiola.

Two great things have happened to Abiola since his death on July 7, 1998. They include the posthumous award of GCFR, which is only reserved for presidents and the recognition of June 12 as the authentic Democracy Day for Nigeria. One, and the ultimate, is left, and that is recognising him as a former president with all benefits and entitlements.

Whether that will ever happen, the watchword is ‘kashimawo’ – let’s wait and see.

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Breaking: Wike Plans to Attend Thursday’s PDP NEC Meeting

Published

1 day ago

April 17, 2024

Eric

By Eric Elezuo

The immediate past Governor of Rivers State, and Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mr Nyesom Wike, may have concluded plans to attend the much advertised National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), billed to hold on Thursday, in Abuja.

Impeccable source, who is in the know, told The Boss that the minister, whose membership of the PDP is yet to be revoked even as he frolicks with the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), and serving in the President Bola Tinubu government as a minister.

The Source told The Boss that Wike’s impending presence at the NECeeting on Thursday is not unconnected with plans, already hatched with some governors, to weaken the opposition PDP.

“Yes, we have on good authority that FCT minister, Wike is planning to attend the NEC meeting tomorrow all in a bid to weaken the fabrics of the PDP, and pave the way for the continuation of the Tinubu administration come 2027, and by extension, relapse Nigeria to a full blown one party state.

“From every indication, Wike and his co-travellers, are bent on unleashing the same crisis ravaging the third force, Labour Party, and Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso’s Nigerian National People’s Party (NNPP) on the PDP for the APC to remain the only political party in the country, and ensure that Tinubu has no challenger, come 2027,” the Source said.

It would be recalled that Wike has boasted over and again that there’s no opposition against Tinubu’s re-emergence in 2027, and that they have made sure of that. He has been compensated with the Ministerial job after he withdrew support for his party, and supported the APC and Tinubu to emerge as national government.

The Source further revealed that in the attempt to actualize the intended one party state, a lot of funding is ongoing to ensure that concerned stakeholders are ‘settled’ handsomely.

Wike, prior, during and after the 2023 general elections, has been floating in between the two major political parties; the APC and the PDP. While he claim to still be a member of the PDP, he is functioning as a minister in an APC government, mocking the inability of his party to discipline him.

Political stakeholders have concluded that the outcome of Thursday’s PDP NEC meeting will determine the path Nigeria’s political trajectory will take, and that it may portend the end of multi-party system and political democracy if Wike succeeds in his plan.

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Bribery, Corruption: APC Suspends National Chairman, Ganduje

Published

3 days ago

April 15, 2024

Eric

The All Progressives Congress ward in Ganduje, Dawakin Tofa Local Government Area, has suspended the party’s National Chairman, Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje.

The party ward legal adviser, Halliru Gwanzo, announced the suspension while addressing newsmen in Kano State on Monday.

Gwanzo cited allegations of bribery against Ganduje levelled by the Kano State Government as the reason for the suspension.

“We decided to suspend Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje from the party due to the seriousness of the allegations against him,” Gwanzo said.

Meanwhile, efforts to contact the Chief Press Secretary to the APC National Chairman, Mr Edwin Olufo, failed as his mobile phone was unreachable.

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Akpabio Commits to Collaboration with Tinubu, Governor Umo Eno

Published

7 days ago

April 12, 2024

Admin

The President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, has stated his commitment to working closely with Nigeria’s President, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and Governor Umo Eno to ensure the delivery of democratic benefits to the people of Akwa Ibom State.

Akpabio stated this in his country home, Ukana, Essien Udim Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom, while briefing his constituents on the journey so far as their representative in the red chamber.

He assured the people of Akwa Ibom North West Senatorial District of his commitment to their welfare in appreciation of their total support for him, President Bola Tinubu and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in last year’s election.

The Highpoint of the constituency briefing was the distribution of over 10,000 bags of rice and other essentials for his constituents from the wards, to the local governments.

A statement by his Special Assistant on Media, Jackson Udom, quoted Akpabio as saying, “I am here once again, to thank you for standing by me, our President and the party, before, during and even after last year’s elections. I have come to say thank you and also bring Renewed Hope to you all.

“As the President is doing his own, the Senate President is also doing his bit and being complemented by the state governor, Akwa Ibom would be the better for it. We have finished elections and politics, we are now into governance. The governor of the state must touch you, because he is the governor of all the people in the state irrespective of political affiliation.

” As I am touching you now from the political angle, I will also touch the state without any political party affiliation. Most of the projects we are putting in place would be used by people resident in the state. Relax, things are getting better.”

The former Governor of the state, assured his constituents that his current position as the Senate President would be used for the development of the state in collaboration with the President and the Akwa Ibom State Governor.

Hear him: This Senate President is not the one that would be fighting the state government. I will collaborate with , I will collaborate with , to make the state better for us all. We cannot be out of government for a long time. You have to go to a government that carries you along”

Akpabio promised to work for his constituents and Nigeria with all his strength, noting that, “as the President of the Senate, I am for the Southern region and the entire country. I may not come here regularly to tell you what I have been doing for you, but you will be feeling the impact on way or the other. Our unemployed youths would be gainfully employed. I will construct a mini stadium in all the local governments in the district, for our youths to develop their sporting potentials. ”