Jamiu Abiola Says Nigeria Missed Economic Boom by Denying MKO Presidency

Jamiu Abiola, son of the late Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (MKO) Abiola, has stated that Nigeria lost a historic opportunity for economic transformation by preventing his father from assuming office after winning the 1993 presidential election.

Speaking during Channels Television’s June 12 Special Forum on Thursday, held in commemoration of 26 uninterrupted years of democracy in Nigeria, Jamiu expressed deep regret over what he described as a missed national opportunity.

“Nigeria would have been better because, at that time, it was a very special time in global terms,” Jamiu said. “That 1993 period was when the world itself was having an international economic boom. So, we could have tapped into that.”

He didn’t shy away from blaming the regime that followed the annulment of the June 12 election. “But what did we get in return? We got a kleptomaniac as head of state. I am not going to talk about Sani Abacha because he has his problems wherever he has found himself,” he said.

Jamiu, who now serves as Senior Special Adviser to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Linguistics and Foreign Affairs, also used the platform to highlight attempts to erase his father’s contributions from the country’s democratic history.

“I wrote a book in 2015 because I realised my father’s name was becoming like a fading memory,” he said. “People were trying to rewrite the history of Nigeria without him. Foreign presidents would visit, mention Yar’Adua and others, but not Chief MKO Abiola.”

He likened the effort to suppress MKO’s legacy to “trying to shave a man’s head in his absence.”

Jamiu emphasized that the motivation behind his book, The President Who Never Ruled, was to ensure that MKO Abiola’s role in shaping Nigeria’s democracy would not be forgotten. The book remains a critical piece of documentation for younger generations who may not have lived through the June 12 movement.

His remarks come at a time when the legacy of MKO Abiola continues to be a subject of national conversation. It was in 2018 that former President Muhammadu Buhari posthumously honored Abiola with Nigeria’s highest national title, Grand Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic (GCFR), and declared June 12 as Democracy Day — a move widely seen as a long-overdue recognition of Abiola’s sacrifice.

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