WELCOME
ADDRESS AT THE MAIDEN MKO ABIOLA MEMORIAL LECTURE/FILM PREMIERE HELD ON SUNDAY
7TH JULY 2013 AT MULTIPURPOSE HALL LAGOS TELEVISION, LATEEF JAKANDE
ROAD, AGIDINGBI, IKEJA, LAGOS AT 2PM.
15
YEARS AFTER, MOSHOOD KASHIMAWO OLAWALE ABIOLA LIVES ON
 |
| Bashorun MKO Abiola, President Elect Federal Republic of Nigeria |
Mr. Chairman, your Excellencies,
my lords spiritual and temporal, your highness(es), members of the fourth
estate of the realm, distinguished ladies and gentlemen. It gives me great
pleasure and honour to humbly stand here to welcome you all to this great
occasion in honour of a great African per excellence, businessman, publisher,
politician, humanist, philanthropist, democrat, keen sports lover, Chief
Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola of blessed memory.
Exactly 15 years ago on this
day, late chief MKO Abiola died in yet to be explained circumstances in the custody
of the Nigerian government and in the presence of the representative of the
American government. Late chief MKO Abiola incarceration by the military junta
of General Sani Abacha was a fallout of his principled refusal to be
intimidated, cajoled and bullied to surrender the peoples mandate freely given
to him by over 14 million Nigerians on June 12 1993 in an election that was and
is still regarded as the freest and fairest in the political history of Nigeria
but which was treasonably annulled by the Ibrahim Babangida military junta.
Today, Nigeria is at the
crossroad and has become a failed state by virtue of all index of governance.
The country has never had it this bad with a crop of political elites whose
primary preoccupation is the primitive accumulation of wealth at the expense of
ameliorating the peoples living condition. Today, life in Nigeria has become
short, nasty and brutish with the mass of our people living below a dollar per
day. Life has lost its meaning to the average Nigerian, yet our political class
is irresponsibly unconcerned.
Today we remember with
nostalgia how late Chief MKO Abiola in contesting the June 12 1993 Presidential
elections, made the abolition of poverty the cardinal focus of his manifesto
and Nigerians, fed up with misgovernance queued behind him on merit and not
because of some parochial considerations like we all do today.
We are gathered here today
in memory of this great son of Africa not for anything else, but due to what he
represented which made Nigerians irrespective of religion, tribe and primordial
sentiments entrust their destiny into his hands
on June 1993 but which was crudely aborted by the forces of evil.
Chief MKO Abiola represented
different thing to different people but today we remember him and other martyrs
as heroes of our democracy because they unwaveringly paid the supreme price
that we might be free from internal colonialists. But are we truly free? The
answer is a capital No as long as poverty ravages this land flowing with milk
and honey, as long as our children roam the streets without access to quality
and basic education, as long as the mass of the people cannot access basic
infrastructures which makes life meaningful, as long as we allow primordial and
petty sentiments rather than merit and performance to becloud our reasoning in
choosing our political leaders.
Until we are resolved more
than ever now henceforth to jettison parochial considerations in the quest to
claim back our country from vampires, only then will MKO Abiola’s death and
that of other martyrs in our democratic struggle not be in vain.
Without taking any further
of our precious time, I want to crave the permission of Mr. chairman sir, to
pause and not usurp our purpose of being here, because that is an area exclusively
reserved for the Guest Lecturer whom the organizers have painstakingly chosen
and have absolute confidence in to deliver on his mandate. As we all gather in
this hall on this memorable day, it is our joy just like everyone else that we
are about to make history.
Thank you all for coming.
Yours Sincerely,
Nelson Ekujumi, Niyi
Babade
Executive Director, (CRGI) CEO,
(NBGN)
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