June 12: Nigeria would’ve been better if my father was president – MKO’s son, Jamiu Abiola

Jamiu Abiola, son of the late democracy icon MKO Abiola, has stated that Nigeria would be in a much better economic position today if his father had been allowed to assume the presidency in 1993.

Speaking during Channels Television’s June 12 Special Forum titled “Nigeria’s Democratic Journey: An Inter-Generational Conversation On Building A Better Nation,” Jamiu emphasized that 1993 was a globally prosperous period which Nigeria could have leveraged under MKO Abiola’s leadership.

“Nigeria would have been better because, at that time, it was a very special time in global times; that 1993 period was a time when the world itself was having an international economic boom, he said

Instead, he lamented, the country ended up with a kleptocratic regime, indirectly referencing the late General Sani Abacha.

Jamiu, who currently serves as Senior Special Adviser to President Tinubu on Linguistics and Foreign Affairs, also alleged that there are deliberate attempts by certain individuals to erase his father’s legacy from Nigeria’s democratic history.

He said, “I wrote a book in 2015 because I came to realise that my father’s name was becoming like a memory that was becoming distant and people were hellbent on rewriting the history of Nigeria without him.”

According to him, people would come from abroad, foreign presidents, they would mention Yar’Adua and others and they would not mention Chief MKO Abiola.

“Some people wanted to bury his name. Like my father would say: they wanted to shave his head in his absence.

“So, I now wrote a book in 2015, ‘The President Who Never Ruled’, so that his name cannot be forgotten,” he added.