By Samuel Adeola
Jamiu Abiola, son of the late Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (MKO), Abiola, has said Nigeria would have experienced significant economic transformation if his father had been allowed to govern after winning the 1993 presidential election.
Speaking during Channels Television’s June 12 Special Forum, Jamiu argued that Nigeria missed a golden opportunity for economic growth at a time when the global economy was booming.
“Nigeria would have been better because, at that time, the world itself was experiencing an international economic boom,” he said. “But what did we get in return? We got a kleptomaniac as head of state. I won’t speak much about (Sani) Abacha, because he has his problems wherever he has found himself.”
Jamiu, who currently serves as Senior Special Assistant to President Bola Tinubu on Linguistics and Foreign Affairs, also accused certain individuals of attempting to erase his father’s name from Nigeria’s political history.
“I wrote a book in 2015 because I came to realise that my father’s name was becoming like a memory,” he said. “Some people wanted to bury his legacy. Like my father would say, they wanted to shave his head in his absence.”
His book, The President Who Never Ruled, was written to preserve MKO Abiola’s legacy for future generations.
It was not until 2018 that former President Muhammadu Buhari posthumously awarded Abiola Nigeria’s highest national honour, the Grand Commander of the Federal Republic (GCFR), and officially declared June 12 as Democracy Day; a move many described as long overdue.
