Jamiu Abiola, son of the late Chief MKO Abiola, has said that Nigeria could have attained far greater economic progress if his father had been allowed to assume the presidency following his victory in the annulled 1993 election.
Speaking on Thursday during Channels Television’s June 12 Special Forum, held in honour of 26 years of uninterrupted democracy, Jamiu described the annulment as a historic setback. He noted that the global economy was experiencing a boom at the time—an opportunity Nigeria missed due to political missteps.
“Nigeria would have been better because that 1993 period was a unique time globally. The world was undergoing an economic boom, and we could have tapped into that,” he said.
“Instead, we got a kleptomaniac as head of state. I won’t say much about Abacha—he has his issues wherever he’s found himself.”
Jamiu, who currently serves as Senior Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Linguistics and Foreign Affairs, also expressed concern over what he called efforts to erase his father’s name from the nation’s democratic history.
“In 2015, I wrote a book because I noticed my father’s name was slowly fading from the national memory. People were trying to rewrite Nigeria’s history without him.
Foreign leaders would visit and mention other figures like Yar’Adua, but not MKO Abiola. It was as if some wanted to bury his legacy. Like my father used to say, they were trying to shave his head in his absence.”
His book, The President Who Never Ruled, was written to preserve MKO Abiola’s legacy and ensure future generations understand his role in Nigeria’s democratic journey.
In 2018, former President Muhammadu Buhari posthumously honoured MKO Abiola with the title of Grand Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic (GCFR) and officially recognized June 12 as Democracy Day, a move many viewed as long overdue.
