MKO ABIOLA - An Exceptional Leader of The People
Banji Ayiloge
1937-1998
AARE ONA KAKANFO OF YORUBALAND
PRESIDENT--ELECT OF NIGERIA
A TRIBUTE DELIVERED AT THE MEMORIAL SERVICE IN WASHINGTON,DC ON SATURDAY
AUGUST 15, 1998
BY SEGUN GBADEGESIN
The English philosopher, Thomas Hobbes, once said of himself, that the day
he was born, one other being was born with him, fear. For his mother went
into labor on hearing of the approach of the Spanish Armada. That fear
dominated Hobbes life, motivated his political views and social conscience.
The day our MKO was born Hope was the other being born along with him. Hope
of survival; hope of prosperity, hope of life. It was this Hope that
dominated his life.
He was born as the hope of the family that had gone through the mystery of
children "born to die", and had lost twenty-two children before his own
birth. Hence his given name, "Kasimawo", meaning "let's watch him". Chief
Moshood Kasimawo Olawale Abiola, born on August 24 1937, did not disappoint
his parents. He gave them reason to rejoice by fulfilling their hopes and
dream. He thus became the beacon of Hope, not only for his parents, but for
all around him, including those who believed in HOPE '93, and those who
carried the struggle for the four years of his incarceration. He was the
hope of every one, excluding the Nigerian junta and their collaborators,
domestic and
international. They quashed our Hope in broad daylight on July 7, 1998.
He was destined to be great; his detracted can never fathom it; they did not
know his
choice of destiny. Nwon o mo bi olori yanri o, nwon I ba lo yan tawon, nwon
o mobi Kashi yanri e, nwon ba lo yan tawon. But in ignorance they did the
most devilish thing. They obstructed the destiny of us all. They quashed our
hope.
Chief Abiola was many things to many people. He was a businessman of
immense
connections and network, both local and international, all of which cut
across several barriers: racial, ethnic, religious and of course language.
He was a generous philanthropist who became, out of doing things for
others, a folk-hero for many in the beleaguered country called Nigeria. As
a Muslim, he was a beacon of how that faith could be practiced without
making it seem what it is not. By and large, he was a rounded modern
figure, complicated in his own ways, yet very friendly at the same time. He
sought to make everyone he came across his personal friend and indeed, he
won not just a few to his sides. Until June 12th 1993 when he won election
to the highest office of the Nigerian State, no one disputed his many
identities. Chief Abiola died exactly five years after he won that
election. Remarkably, he died a prisoner
of the Nigerian State he had sought to head through an election-the only
civilized and open means of securing leadership of peoples bound in one
country. Chief Abiola died as a prisoner, the prisoner of the same people
who had organized the election he convincingly won.
It has always been speculated that the ways of the Nigerian military is
inscrutable. This is a blatant lie. Since July 1966, the Nigerian military
has been nothing more than the rapid deployment force of the Hausa-Fulani
hegemony. It was and still is through the so-called Nigerian military that
that hegemony has reconstituted every segment of the Nigerian State in its
own image and fashion. Naturally, its political sophistication is founded
solely and absolutely on guile and duplicity. The Yoruba are, more than
most
national groups in the Nigerian federation, the target of the hegemonists'
guile and duplicity because it is the reward inherent in the sort of idea
of society that the Yoruba have embraced for so long that the hegemonists
seek.
They are seeking that reward in its absolute form, and without wanting to
work for it. They dare not create the basis for working for it because it
will lead to a disastrous disruption of their own society and inescapable
overthrow of their own privileges and status. Between the late Obafemi
Awolowo and Moshood Abiola, we have seen the
futility of either trying to understand, be sympathetic or even
collaborating with these hegemonists. It was not only that the Nigerian
State finally slipped into its worst crisis of legitimacy when the June 12,
1993 election was annulled, but that the annulment brought the various
contradictions on which hegemonic politics in Nigeria had hitherto rested
to their final exhaustion. If anybody had told Moshood Abiola on June 5,
1993 that he would be inheriting, five days later, the intolerance and the
hatred with which the late Obafemi Awolowo was regarded by the Northern
political establishment
throughout his political career, MKO would have said never. He would have
said
that 'never' with certitude born out of conviction. He was a man of many
identities, who also went out of his ways to cultivate everybody and
everyone in Nigeria, high and low. Yet, to those who annulled the
election won by Chief Abiola and threw him into jail a year later, when he
rightfully pressed his claims, none of his many identities mattered. What
they began to see and loathe from that moment it became apparent that he
was going to become the president of Nigeria was the possibility of a Yoruba
occupying that office. It was Abiola's Yoruba identity that made all the
other identities insignificant at that crucial moment. From that moment,
intolerance turned into hatred. Containment turned into desperation.
Bashorun Abiola began his formal education at Nawaru-Ud-Deen School,
Abeokuta
in 1944. Between 1945 and 1950, he moved to African Central school,
Abeokuta,
where he received the Primary School Leaving Certificate. In 1951, he was
admitted to the Baptist Boys High School, Abeokuta, and in 1956, he
completed his secondary education. All through his education, he had to fend
for himself, through thick and thin. Indeed, as he worked himself through
school, by fetching firewood for sale, he also helped some of his
classmates, organizing fundraising activities such as Agidigbo musical
displays to help them pay for their final examinations. Some of them
attained positions of authority, only to forget their benefactor. But
Olawale never worried. He was doing it for his God. Having a first hand
experience of what it was to suffer
poverty, he dedicated himself to the cause of the poor and downtrodden. This
was what motivated him to the unpredictable vocation of politics. He went in
there to actualize the Hope of the helpless.
Chief Abiola began his work experience as a clerk with Barclays Bank in
Ibadan, before joining the Western Region Finance Corporation as an
Executive Officer. By February 1961 when he left for Glasgow University in
Scotland, he was a Higher Executive Officer. At Glasgow, he excelled in his
studies, earning First Prizes in Political Economy, Commercial Law and
Chartered Accountancy. He became a member of the Institute of Chartered
Accountants of Scotland and was certified as a Chartered Accountant in
February, 1966. As a visionary who had great ideas for contributing to his
country's development, Chief Abiola left the shores of Great Britain for
Nigeria as soon as he was qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1966, to
join the Lagos University Teaching Hospital as its Deputy Chief Accountant.
Though he went
back to Nigeria on the ticket of Guiness Ltd. He realized, as soon as he got
back, that the company offered no Hope for him, nor for any Nigerian because
of its discriminatory policies. And this was why MKO moved to Lagos
University
Teaching hospital, even when doing so cost him #4,000 in earnings. In 1967,
he
moved to Pfizer Products as Divisional Comptroller (Agriculture). In 1968 he
became the Comptroller, International Telephone and Telegraph (ITT). He
later became the Managing Director of the company, and as such the first
Nigerian to head such a multinational corporation. In 1970, at a youthful
age of 33, Chief Abiola's brilliance and industry earned him the position of
the Vice President for Africa and Middle East of ITT. A business tycoon of
immense capabilities, Chief Abiola founded Radio Communications (Nig) Ltd in
February 1974, in conjunction with Harris Communication of USA. In 1979, he
was Chairman of Decca (WA)Ltd, later renamed Afrodisia (Nig) Ltd., and in
1980, he established Wonder Bakeries Ltd. In the same year, he ventured into
one of his life-long ambitions to own a publishing industry by starting the
Concord Group of Newspapers and Magazines, publishers of National Concord,
Weekend Concord, Sunday Concord and Midweek Concord. These papers
immediately took a pride of place as authoritative sources of news and
information on politics, business and culture. Basorun Abiola's business
interests, including banking, shipping, publishing, aviation, fisheries,
and farming, are spread over sixty countries and five
continents.
Aare Abiola was wealthy; however, he used his wealth to benefit others, and
to keep their Hopes alive. He was the foremost philanthropist in the whole
of Africa. He gave generously to worthy causes across the continent and
around the world. He made donations to development projects in remote
villages, to schools and libraries, for water projects and sports, to
universities and trade unions, and for mass education and health facilities.
He gave generously to religious causes, building mosques and endowing
churches. He endowed chairs in institutions of higher learning and made
provisions for students welfare across the country. For instance, in 1990,
Chief Abiola gave NI,000,000 to each state university for improvement of
students welfare; N500,000 to each Federal University for students welfare,
and N25,000 to each Nigerian polytechnic for students welfare. His Zulikha
Abiola Islamic Center in
Abeokuta provided free Islamic education to more than 500,000 students
across
Nigeria, and in 1990, he donated N30,000,000 to the Oyo State Educational
Development Fund. It would appear that his background of poverty motivated
Chief Abiola to recognize the inherent worth of each person and to see
himself
as an instrument to further the good of others.
Chief Abiola was a pan-Africanist to the core. A life time member of the
African National Congress, he was involved actively and financially in the
struggle against apartheid since the early 70's. He had always insisted on
justice through reparation for the Black victims of enslavement, and to
match his words with action, in 1991, he established the Abiola Foundation
for Reparation with $500,000. In 1988, Chief Abiola gave $40,000 to Howard
University for research in African Studies and there are several Abiola
scholars presently studying in the University. In memory of the foremost
pan- Africanist, W.E.B. Du Bois, Chief Abiola donated a huge amount of money
to the
W.E.B. Du Bois Center in Accra. In 1990, he gave $50,000 for the
construction
of an Islamic Center in New York City, and $100,000 to the 19th anniversary
of
Africare, which was dedicated to Nelson Mandela. Fondly referred to as the
pillar of sports in Africa, Chief Abiola gave generously to sports clubs
throughout the continent, and he took active interest in sports. He founded
the Abiola Babes Football Club which won several challenge club
competitions. Out of his interest, he volunteered to
chair the fund-raising committee for the Nigerian National Olympic
Committee.
He also encouraged university competitions by donating cups and trophies. It
is an open secret that his incarceration cost the nation the opportunity to
host the FIFA world cup competitions four years ago.
Among the public and private positions and offices Basorun Abiola held were
Member of the Constituent Assembly (1978); Chairman, G.15 Business
Development Council; Chancellor, Ladoke Akintola State University of
Technology, Ogbomoso (1991); President, Nigerian Stock Exchange (1991);
President, Newspapers Proprietors Association of Nigeria (1991); Board
Member, International Press Institute (1992).
Basorun Abiola served the people and the world, and the people appreciated
him
with a variety of professional, honorary awards and traditional titles. In
1992, he was honored with the American Black Heritage Award of the NAACP. In
the same year, he received the Golden Key to Washington, DC. In 1986, he was
named Patron of the W.E.B. Du Bois Foundation in Accra, and in 1986 and
1989, in recognition of his support for the Black struggle across the world,
he was named Patron of Congressional Black Caucus in the United States and
of Black Parliamentary Caucus in Great Britain respectively. In 1991, Chief
Abiola was elected Chairman of the OAU Group of Eminent Persons on
Reparation, and in 1992, he won the Humanitarian Award of the Southern
Leadership Conference.
Other awards received by Chief Abiola included honorary degrees from various
universities. Thus he received the LL.D (Hon) from Tuskeegee University in
1989; D.LITT (Hon) from the University of Ilorin in 1990; D.Litt. (Hon) from
University of Jos in February 1991; D.Sc.(Hon) Usman dan Fodio University,
Sokoto in Jan 1992; LL.D. (Hon) University of Port Harcourt in February
1992;
LL.D (Hon) Ogun State University in November 1992; and in December 1992, he
received an Honorary Doctorate degree from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-
Ife.
Abiola's fervor for spirituality and for being at peace with God was
remarkable. He had a strong faith in his God, declaring once that "I believe
in Allah, and I've vouched to live my life as laid down in the Holy Quoran,
Hadith and its jurisprudence and not ruled by any allusion." Yet he was not
fanatical, and he was at home in both Islamic and Christian scriptures,
especially during the last years of his life, when all he was left with in
captivity were the Holy Quoran and the Holy Bible. Abiola was the Baba Adini
of Yorubaland, the Vice President of the Jamat-al-Nasrul Islam and the Vice
President of the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs. As a true believer, he
spread the Hope of peaceful coexistence between the religions. Hence the
active involvement of Christian clerics in his cause. They saw him as the
Hope of a peaceful and prosperous Nigeria.
A humble respecter of traditions, Chief Abiola won the heart of traditional
rulers and the masses throughout Nigeria and Africa, and they appreciated
his philanthropy with numerous traditional titles. He was given the
traditional chieftaincy title of Bobagunwa of Egbaland in 1972; the Oganla
of Ojoo Gbagura in 1973; the Bobajiro of Ode-Remo in 1978; the Balogun of
Ojoo, Gbagura in 1983; Itevuegbe of Weppa Wano, Agenebode in 1986; Basorun
of Ibadan in 1986; Aare Onakakanfo of Yorubaland in 1987, and Jagunmolu of
Lagos in 1989. He was also the Shettima of Borno, the Magayaki of Katsina,
the Ozemoya of Auchi and the Magayakin Zazzau of Suleja, among over two
hundred other titles he held.
At ease in traditional and modern circles, Chief Abiola was a wordsmith. His
profound knowledge of Yoruba proverbs testifies to his having been an "omo
odo
Agba" in his youthful days. For him proverbs are the vehicles for bringing
back thoughts lost on an audience. It was only MKO who knew that "the bigger
the head, the bigger the headache; or that you cannot shave a head in the
absence of its owner and that any such attempt is an exercise in futility.
He also was the only one who could warn the corrupted leaders that power is
like a tiger, if you ride a tiger, you must be very careful when you get
down, otherwise you find yourself inside the tiger's belly. He knew that
anyone afraid of death cannot claim his father's tilte, and that once you
have
claimed your father's title, you have become the object of envy of all the
members of the family, many of who will pray for your early demise to
provide
a vacancy for them.
It was not a surprise then that the people believed in him, north, west,
east and south. They believed in the program he enunciated for delivering
the masses from the shackles of poverty and ignorance and they trusted his
ability to deliver. He had vowed that a government presided over by him
would put the people first, even as he did in his own private life. He saw
our people as the hope of the nation and promised to invest in them. They
also saw him as their hope, and gave him the mandate to lead them on June
12, 1993. He would not have disappointed them, just as he did not disappoint
his parents. However, the ethno-military hegemonists imposed their will on
the people, and quashed the people's hope. First on June 23, 1993, and
finally on July 7, 1998. After
four years and fourteen days of keeping him away from the family and the
people he loved and pledged to serve, the ethno-military oligarchy had no
solution to the "Abiola problem" than to eliminate him. And while the people
where waiting for the release of their president-elect, they received the
news of the passing of the Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland at about 5: 05
p.m. Nigerian time.
Abiola once fondly recalled his father's favorite Yoruba song:
"If I look back and I see my people behind me, I feel elated. Human beings
are
the cloth I need around me."
"Eniyan laaso mi, eniyan laso mi,
Bi mo ba boju wehin ti mo reni mi,
Inu mi a dun, ara mi a ya gaga,
Eniyan laaso mi."
In life, the people were behind Chief Moshood Kasimawo Olawale Abiola. In
death they did not desert him. For they know that we will never see his like
again. They know as the Aare Ona Kakanfo, he did not desert them in the
battle for justice. Indeed he internalized the Yoruba philosophy of life,
ikuyajesin, death is preferable to disgrace. He stood up for the cause of
the people. But the agents of despair prevented him. He was not the type
that could compromise with evil to renounce the mandate of Hope given to him
by the people. There is a defiant tradition of Kakanfo exemplified by Kurumi
Balogun Ijaiye. It was a tradition that prided itself in the struggle for
justice, and was not afraid to die in the cause of justice. Aare Abiola
belonged to that tradition, and it is a tradition that must be celebrated.
They thought he would cave in even in
in carceration. He did not. We must be proud of him.
"Nwon yio se bi yoo da ni, nwon se bi yio da ni,
Abiola o dale ri,
Nwon se bi yio dani."
He preferred death to betrayal of the people.
The lesson of Abiola's life for us is to pursue the cause for which he
suffered, and internalize the belief for which he died. As we memorialize
his suffering and death, we remember his loyal and loving wife, the Moremi
of our time, Kudirat Abiola. They both died so that we may live as decent
members of the world community. It behooves us to reciprocate so that they
do not die in vain. We know that they are at peace with their God. For they
have fought the good fight.
"Iku pa abiri, Abiri ku
E ni ko si nkan
Iku pa Abiri, Abiri rorun,
E ni ko si nkan
Ibiti iku ti pa Olawale
Lai eiye o de be je;
E si tun nwipe ko si nkan!
Nwon ni ko si nkan,
Nitoripe Awo ki'ku:
Se Awo ki'run
Nse l'awo ma nlo si Itunla
Itunla, ile awo"
If so, then we must celebrate the life dedicated to the cause of justice, a
life that counted service to the community as intrinsically valuable; a
life that enriched the lives of others with a generosity that was
unsurpassed. We now know that he is beyond the hands of the enemy and that
he is at peace with his God. So let us thank His God for giving us the
opportunity to have him on this plane, in spite of our inadequacies. And let
us commit him to the everlasting presence of his God:
"Baba maa gbe Kashi goke lo
Allah maa gbe Kashi goke lo
Nibiti t'oju oso ko le de
Nibiti t'owo aje ko le le te
Baba maa gbe Kashi goke lo"
"Father, carry Kashi to your heights
Allah carry Kashi to heaven
Where the eyes of the sorcerer cannot penetrate
Where the hands of the witch cannot reach
Father carry Kashi above and beyond."
MAY HIS GENEROUS AND LOVING SOUL REST IN PERFECT PEACE.
Segun Gbadegesin
National President
EGBE OMO YORUBA
USA AND CANADA