While the general Nigerian political community is still weighing the pros and cons of President Buhari’s decision to change the national democracy day in honour of the late MKO Abiola, and in honour of the survival of democracy in Nigeria after the June 12 1993 scandal, the children of the late billionaire have poured encomium on Buhari for honoring their late father.
Mrs. Hafsat Abiola-Costello, the daughter of late chief MKO Abiola, told the press of how the recent recognition of her father by President Buhari has shamed his enemies.
She said: “I am elated. I don’t think words can describe enough how I feel. I feel like I’m in a different world. I was beginning to wonder what was going on, how so much wrong can be perpetrated over a long period of time. My hope in humanity is restored. MKO loved this country and trusted Nigerian people; that was why he was willing to give his life for them. He was always looking for ways to make others bigger. He could never have imagined the efforts to make him look small. I am happy for my father because he has been vindicated. Buhari’s action smacks of nobility, integrity. Nobody can take what he has done away from him.”
Mr. Lekan Abiola, the son of late chief MKO Abiola, told the press that Buhari’s actions was a big shame to Former President Obasanjo.
He said: “I think that what President Muhammadu Buhari has done is a move long overdue. The democracy we have in Nigeria today was watered by the blood of a lot of people, including my father, MKO Abiola, and mother, Kudirat. For President Buhari to finally recognise June 12 as Democracy Day is wonderful and we are happy about it. Obasanjo is from the same hometown with my father and they even went to the same school. For him not to have given my father that honour is a shame on him. Nigeria belongs to every one of us. Since Obasanjo refused to do what was right, God had raised somebody to do it. Now, the whole thing is a shame on him knowing that he is from the same town with my father and he had the chance to honour him as well“.
Photo credit: Getty
