The people never could have juxtaposed their jailed hero with
death. Yet, it was the fate the military rulers decreed for him. So
inevitably, inexorably, Chief Moshood Kashimawo Abiola’s life was snuffed out
by the same hands that held the key to his freedom.
In his soul he never died a prisoner. For him death was a point on that
long, imperative lane of selfless sacrifice. Untold wealth could not separate
him from the mass heap of compatriots on which he clawed. He apparently saw
clearly the dangers of circumscribed wealth in a land of widespread poverty
and made it a habit of banishing sorrow around him- which in his stupendous
sense of space, went beyond the limitation of geography, race and creed. But
money making got the man romancing the pillars of the system too. His
constituency almost gave up on him if not for the invincible device in his
soul that continually beeped his inextricable affinity with people.
His beginning, more than anything else, prepared him for the eventual end.
A child that stopped the trail of death in family, Abiola’s entry into
politics dated back to the second republic when he joined the ultra-
conservative wing of the Nigerian political class in the NPN. He desperately
wanted to serve and realised quiet early that power was a vehicle of service.
He sought the presidency but was frustrated by his party men. And, of course,
a great titan that had used power to uplift the people was still dealing the
cards. Abiola got finally shot out of second republic politics.
In the intervening years, his commitment to assorted charities across the
globe, especially giving to the disadvantaged, became a passion. So, when the
black race sought reparation for hundreds of years of slavery and
colonialism, the task found no shoulder big enough than those of Abiola. His
campaign for reparation shook the West but not enough to force it to pay what
it owed. Perhaps, a fitting memento to the reparation campaign and the wider
struggle for democracy in Nigeria was the picture of an Abiola dorning a
slave necklace in Badagry near Lagos. The message was unconsolatorily clear:
The people are still in chains.
The reparation war at the global level was actually a skirmish to the real
war that he led the people to wage against their condition at home. Gen.
Ibrahim Babangida, a friend of his, had cleared off a whole battery of
presidential aspirants and Abiola saw the moment as an opportunity to serve.
He launched a campaign on the one theme that had bothered him all his life-
poverty. His mantra was “farewell to poverty.”
His opponents, both active and inactive in the National Republican
Convention (NRC), never gave him a chance. So, too, were his party men who
never understood the rubrics of his politics but were lumped into the horse-
emblazoned banner of the Social Democratic Party (SDP).
The contradictions were to weaken a united stand against the bigger forces
of darkness when the military and its civilian rump moved in to undermine the
mandate Abiola got from the electorate in the June 12, 1993 presidential
elections. The annulment brought to the fore the worst political instincts in
many Nigerian politicians but a few stood firm. The people would not withdraw
the mandate they freely gave.
The billionaire politician read the lips of the people correctly. He
declared himself president and was at the barricade in the struggle to
retrieve the People’s mandate. Sani Abacha, the general in power arrested him
and detained him in brutish conditions.
Meanwhile, the struggle thundered through the hills of Ibadan and rumbled
across the streets of Lagos. People were butchered in a manner that defied
gender and status. His eldest wife, Kudirat Abiola, who had teamed up with
other apostles of democracy, was wickedly murdered on 4 June 1996. By then,
Abiola had spent over two years in detention. He was to spend more.
Yet, the fires of resistance burnt on. In fact, the heavily depleted and
bruised pro-democracy band displayed awesome tenacity that further infuriated
Abacha. Manufactured coup plots, long stretches of detention and
assassination erupted. Neither would Abiola negotiate away his mandate nor
would his supporters countenance such thought.
Through the rubble and smoke of tear gas, the voice of democracy grew more
strident. Meanwhile, Abiola was being systematically wasted in detention.
Denied medical attention and subjected to indignities by the security forces,
Abiola’s health began to ebb.
1998 rolled in and Abacha self-perpetuation chorus hit the rooftops. But
with all the military might he flaunted and mindlessly unleashed, Abacha knew
that the real boulder on his way was his prisoner in Abuja. Death solved the
problem for Abacha by relieving him of working out a final solution to what
was to the rulers the Abiola problem.
General Abdulsalami Abubakar, who mounted the throne after Abacha,
released all political prisoners of all hue except the single most important
political prisoner, Moshood Abiola. Amidst wild rumours of a disavowed
mandate, pressures on Abiola would not move the man an inch. He stuck. Then,
the final solution had to be improvised. Abiola was murdered right before a
delegation of international diplomats. Whether the diplomats were privy to
and indeed encouraged the plan may never truly be ascertained, but Nigerians
knew and they said it: Abiola had to be murdered so that the country could
move forward. Forward, not progress.
Through the loin of these two incredible martyrs of democracy, children
were sired. The eldest is Hafsat Abiola, the Harvard educated daughter of the
pair.
Overcoming the painful loss of her mother few days after her graduation,
and her father three years later, she has dedicated herself to the same cause
for which her parents lived and died. Through the Kudirat Initiative for
Democracy (KIND), Hafsat is spreading the message of democracy and freedom,
that her parents were crucified for, throughout Africa. In this encounter
with Austin Uganwa, she takes humanity through her ordeals and rededication.
Q: What have you been doing in the United States since the demise of your
parents?
A: I have been busy, working with pro-democracy groups in US. Immediately
I finished my university I joined Amnesty International to give talks in high
schools and colleges in the US on the situation in Nigeria. We used the
opportunity to inform them of human rights abuses in Nigeria. I spoke about
the killing of my mother, detention of journalists and other labour union
leaders.
I also set up an organisation called KIND, Kudirat Initiative for
Democracy. This project is geared towards developing programmes for young
women to discover their potentialities in Nigeria society. Besides, I have
also been looking after myself and my younger sisters.
Q: From the figures shown in your proposal, you have a huge budget for the
implementation of your KIND programmes, how do you intend to source the fund?
A: Part of our strategy is to arrange with some existing organisations in
the US that will provide us with office space so that we don’t have to rent
office accommodatidon in US. We are eight people on the KIND team, everybody
has been providing voluntary services to KIND in the past two years. Out of
the eight, we have only one full-time staff and it is me; two part-time staff
and two coordinators. The project involves holding annual conference for 100
young women, publishing of quarterly newsletter and coordinating reports and
database that will help young women to develop their leadership potentials.
We also aim at training the women and empowering them intellectually. Some
foundations in the US are interested in the project while we intend to
involve some companies in Nigeria for financial assistance. KIND also plans
to set up a radio station in Ibadan that will pride the local people
opportunity to participate in radio programming and to bridge the gap between
the government and the governed.
Q: How do you intend to achieve this given the huge financial involvement?
A: What we are planning is to reach out to specific communities regarding
their relevant needs. For instance, if the government wants to send
fertiliser to an agrarian society, the radio station will inform the people
at least, a week ahead and remind them repeatedly where the fertiliser is
coming to and where it is coming from. This will enable the people to know
where to go for the fertiliser. The plan is to enable the local communities
know what is going on by using their local languages to reach out to them.
Essentially, companies, individuals or groups who want to reach the local
communities will have to advertise on the radio station, in this way we will
be able to mobilise money for the station. We will end up making the local
communities socially relevant. This is a long term project; we have to try it
first and see how it works. We only came up with a creative idea and will
later be preoccupied with how we will finance it.
Q: Why the choice of Ibadan for the radio station?
A: It might not be Ibadan but it has to be a town in the West. It could
even be Abeokuta.
Q: Can one safely say that the whole idea of KIND is to continue the
democratic struggle from where your late mother stopped?
A: You can safely say that, the whole idea of KIND came up after the death
of my mother who was killed following her democratic struggles. I have no
doubts in my mind that she was killed because of her appreciable democratic
struggles in Nigeria. It will be a shame to allow her unique efforts to go
like that. This is why we are doing everything we can to immortalise her. I
believe that every human being has distinct potentialities and my mother was
able to demonstrate hers. The question is how do we translate her
potentialities in the women in our country. How do we make sure that the
women are not marginalised in the nation’s politics- these are some of the
goals KIND was set out to achieve. Not only in politics, in all the spheres
of life in Africa.
Q: Have you been able to carry out any independent investigations to
unravel the actual cause of your mother’s death?
A: You mean the family carrying out private investigation? No, I don’t
think so. I don’t think we need any family investigation, the government has
set up Human Rights Commission to look into such things. However, those who
killed her have confessed. Not that we don’t know those who killed her.
Q: Who killed her?
A: Soldiers acting on the instruction of the late Gen. Sani Abacha killed
my mother. I don’t have any doubts about those who killed my mother. I really
hope that the Human Rights Commission will come out with something.
Q: Why do you think that your mother was killed exactly at that time?
A: For many reasons. One of them was that she was planning to leave the
country within 24 hours to come to the US; they killed her to preempt her
departure. She was actually coming to attend my graduation, not coming to
campaign in the US. Another reason was that she was not scared by threats and
warnings coming to her at that time. Two weeks after her incarceration and
four days after meeting with the Americans, she granted a tough interview
with one of the leading magazines and all these infuriated them to kill her.
Q: Do you have confidence in the Justice Chukwudifu Oputa-led Human Rights
Abuse panel to bring to book the killers of your mother?
A: Let us just watch and see as the panel proceeds in its work. I know
that people have spoken highly about Justice Oputa; I have read Father Hassan
Kukah’s work, I know he is very brilliant. I am really happy that he is a
member of the panel, he is the only member of the panel I know very well. I
read his book in school and I respect him a great deal. I hope they will
embrace their responsibility and will not take it lightly.
Q: Are you people planning to take your case to the panel to assist it in
unravelling the circumstances surrounding your mother’s death?
A: I think we should do that but there are some people in the family who
are concerned that if we do that a similar thing may start happening to the
members of the family and they will find it difficult to walk freely in the
streets. There is another group that is more than ready to put something
together. We will try to hold a family discussion and try to put something
together that every member of the family will be satisfied with.
Q: This is exactly a year your father died; how has his exit affected the
family?
A: My father was the head of the household. When he was killed, it really
affected everybody in the family. It is pretty difficult in any home
especially after losing the mother and the dad. The things we used to take
for granted when they were around we don’t take for granted anymore. We are
now learning how to exist without them and to face the challenges. I am happy
that we have been able to continue without my parents and, the way they would
have wanted. I always feel impressed by the commitment they made to the
country and how much they put in and how much they tried for this country. I
feel that I am one of the luckiest people because my parents could not have
been any better than they were in the manner they cared for me, my siblings
and my family. There is this general belief that people should grow greater
than their parents but in my own case my parents were so great that I am not
sure I will grow greater than they. Not only in terms of greater political
demands but the way they responded to public demands.
Q: Do you have any regrets over your father’s participation in politics
which ultimately led to his untimely death?
A: We would all in the family be happier now had my father not gone into
politics at all, but one he went into politics and another he had the
people’s mandate to become the president so we did not have any choice at
that point in time. If he had not gone into politics we would all be happier
now because we had a father who was very gentle, who was always talking
around with enormous energy, love and laughter. And a mother who found
something funny in everything. We were happier before 1993. But if what
happened did not happen we would not have been wiser in Nigeria, we would not
have had a sense of commitment to our country as we do now, it wouldn’t even
be as clear in what our responsibilities as citizens are. In a lot of ways,
it has come as a price.
Q: What lessons can you draw from your parents experiences?
A: There are numerous lessons, one of them I think is sometimes you pursue
your cause you don’t have to see results, you just have to be aware that
there is happiness in the work you do. People should believe in the rightness
of the work they do and should not care about their gains. If the emphasis is
on gains it betrays the principle they are fighting for. We should live in a
country where anybody from anywhere should win elections and be given the
mandate.
Q: Would you say you are impressed with the manner your father handled the
June 12, 1993 election debacle?
A: I knew my father very well and I would say I am impressed. He did the
best he could do and I think that was good enough.
Q: What preparations are being made for the first anniversary of your
father’s death?
A: Different organisations such as human rights groups, government and
local communities are making various preparations towards the anniversary.
But the family is planning a special ceremony at 10 am on Wednesday, 7 July.
We will host people who will come to the house. Also, Campaign for Democracy
is organising a lecture the same day while National Association of Nigerian
Students (NANS) I think wants to do something.
Q: Shortly after Gen. Abubakar announced his transition programme to civil
rule, leading lights of Afenifere who stood solidly behind your father
suddenly abandoned him to embrace Abubakar’s transition; how did this change
of attitude strike you?
A: What they did was not an ideal thing. It is possible that they did not
have a choice but to do what they did because most of the Afenifere leaders
are men of integrity. It was possible also that all the repression that they
underwent through Abacha years must have weakened them by the time Abubakar
came in which made them to accept Abubakar’s agenda. Even at a point, it took
them quite a long time to come out with a response to Abubakar’s agenda.
Q: When your father was around he had many friends, well-wishers and
associates who used to mill around him. Do such people still come around or
have they deserted his family?
A: The friends that our family have continue to come around. My feeling is
that those who have stopped coming because my father is no more around are no
friends to begin with. So they are no lost to us. Well, it will take sometime
before we will stabilise to continue with my father’s philanthropy.
Q: Comment on your father’s will, has it been implemented?
A: No. We are in the process of implementing it, that is what we are
working on right now. The whole thing is a little complicated because there
are many steps to be adopted in its implementation.
Q: Are you not worried that its implementation might bring about a rift in
the family?
A: I think if it is not implemented it may cause confusion in the family.
If we implement it in the manner that it will be clearly just and fair to all
parties, it will be okay. How it will be done is what people are paying
attention to now.
Q: How have you been able to grapple with the family politics?
A: I don’t know what politics means in a family but I guess it is what is
going on daily. If you ask this question next year I will be in the position
to answer you, right now we are undergoing a process.
Q: Do you think the implementation of the will would be hitch-free?
A: Sure. Nobody wants headache (laughter).
Q: What is happening to your father’s business empire, both in Nigeria and
abroad?
A: Well, the people who are supposed to be looking after them, I am sure,
are doing their job.
Q: There was this cordial relationship between Abacha’s family and your
family before the 1993 political debacle; what is the situation now?
A: I know there is no relationship now. I think there can’t be any
relationship.
Q: Did the relationship break down following the political storm?
A: Yes. Such a development would break any relationship.
Q: What are your future plans?
A: The other day I woke up and it struck me that I should go for a law
degree. Maybe I will go and do a law degree.
Q: Why do you want to go to read law?
A: I don’t know. One day I woke up and something said law and I have not
taken it lightly. Maybe I have to return to school to do it.
Q: What is your relationship with Kola, your half brother?
A: Cordial.
Q: How would you assess Obasanjo’s nascent regime?
A: I think it will be good to have politicians who are credible and
respectful to run the affairs of the state to free the nation from the
nightmare experienced in the past years especially during Abacha’s regime, it
will be good for him to continue to make necessary reforms too. The people
should be the watchdog if the government is not taking the right steps to
take the nation to the promised land.
Q: How would you describe Abacha’s regime?
A: Gen. Abacha filled the country with unimaginable darkness. We have to
look at military rule, Abacha’s government was really the worst military
regime in Nigeria. The regime operated from the extreme. Well, he has been
made the centre of all atrocities committed during his regime but a
government should be a collective responsibility. Abacha’s style of
administration made it possible for even those who served under him to now
blame him for all the faults in government. We should start to hold the
government responsible not an individual.
Q: What is your position regarding Obasanjo’s decision to probe past
administrations?
A: I think it is excellent. We should start to look at the issues of
corruption; the incredible amount of money stolen by the past leaders. How
can this money be recovered? We should be able to calculate how much military
rule has caused Nigeria so that when next we hear martial music we should
resist it.
Q: How would you react to your half-sister, Lola’s election into the
Federal House of Representatives?
A: I am excited about it; she too is excited about it. She has a lot of
ideas. She really wants to work on women issues. This is the best time for
her to make the difference. She has the discipline, the commitment and the
intelligence. I am looking forward to the kind of contribution she will make
in the House for the country.
Publication Date: July 8, 1999
