MOOSHOD ABIOLA CASTS HIS VOTE IN 1993
IBB PLAYS HIS TRICKS ON ABIOLA'S MANDATE AND ANNULS THE MANDATE
ABIOLA FIGHTS FOR HIS MANDATE.........
THE REST IS HISTORY .......................
Daughters of the late Chief Abiola, Mrs Lola Abiola-Edewor and Mrs Hasfat Abiola-Costello, has commended the Federal Government for remaning UNILAG after their late father. Abiola-Edewor lauded the Jonathan-led government for honouring his late father, many years after his demise, saying his contribution to the return of
democracy in Nigeria had been justified.
President Goodluck Jonathan announced Tuesday in his Democracy Day broadcast on National television that the University of Lagos would be renamed M.K.O. Abiola University in honor of the presidential hopeful’s “martyrdom.”
Abiola was a businessman widely believed to be the winner of a 1993 presidential poll annulled by Gen. Ibrahim Babangida. Babangida’s military successor, Gen. Sani Abacha, then jailed Abiola who died in detention in 1998.
Abiola-Edewor, a former federal lawmaker, speaking through her media assistant, Mr Akin Alade, in Abeokuta, Ogun State, condemned the protest by some students of the institution shortly after the announcement, adding that her late father had been denied his rightful place in the annals of democracy in Nigeria.
In her reaction, Abiola-Costello, a special assistant to Governor Ibikunle Amosun on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), said the honour was long overdue, adding that it was a right step in the right direction.
Also reacting, a former member of the National Assembly, Mrs Iyabo Anisu-lowo, described the development as “a fulfilment to the rule of law.”
In his reaction, the Ondo State governor, Dr Olusegun Mimiko, described the gesture as better late than never.
Also, the leader of Afenifere, Pa Reuben Fasoranti, on Tuesday, described the renaming of the University of Lagos after the late Chief MKO Abiola as a decision coming late.
The Afenifere leader said the decision to immortalise the late Abiola, 14 years after his death in detention, was belated.
According to him, what would have been most acceptable to the people of Yorubaland was the restoration of Abiola’s mandate, freely given to him on June 12, 1993 by Nigerians.
But Mimiko, who spoke through the Ondo State Commissioner for Information, Mr Kayode Akinmade, said the contribution of the late Abiola to the enthronement of democracy in Nigeria could not be underestimated, adding that any honour coming to him this time was enough to compensate him for the injustice he suffered in the hands of the military.
“The late Abiola remains a hero of democracy. He is a martyr, who laid his life for Nigerians to enjoy democracy. Political office holders in the country would only make the late martyr proud in his death if they make sacrifices and work hard to make those who voted them to power enjoy real dividends of democracy,” Mimiko said.
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