More revelations from Chief Tony Anenih's book indicate the death of the Yoruba leader, MKO Abiola has avoidable.
Tony Anenih
Former Chairman, Board of Trustees (BoT), Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP) Chief Tony Anenih, has said the persistent refusal of the
acclaimed winner of the June 12 1993 presidential election, Chief MKO
Abiola, to listen to his advice landed him in jail and ultimately led to
his death.
The June 12, 1993 election annulled by Ibrahim Babangida.
Abiola was arrested and imprisoned after he declared himself
president-elect, but he died in July 1998 on the day he was to be
released on the back of the death of General Sani Abacha, the military
ruler on whose orders he was jailed in the first place.
In his book, ‘My Life and Nigerian Politics,’ Anenih, according to
The Cable, said he advised Abiola against declaring himself president,
but that he refused to listen.
He said the business mogul reached a secret agreement with Abacha,
former head of state, to take over from Ernest Shonekan, interim
president, but he fled the country when things were heating up, leaving
his supporters behind.
He said when Abiola came back to the country, frustration drove him
to declare himself president after his scheming to succeed Shonekan had
failed.
Anenih, who was the national chairman of Abiola’s party, the Social
Democratic Party (SDP), said the late businessman kept the leadership
of the party out of his negotiations with the military.
“It is a pity indeed, that Abiola kept the leadership of the
party away from his arrangement with Abacha to take over from Shonekan.
If he had brought it to the notice of the leadership of the party, he
would have been advised well,” he said.
“In a similar but not exactly identical set of circumstances, I
had advised Abiola against declaring himself the president of this
country when frustration arising from Abacha’s refusal to hand-over to
him drove him into that extreme line of thought. I spoke to him on
telephone pointing out that the army was not there to back him up. He
had no police support, and not even the immigration or customs would
back him.
“It was clear to me that the course of action to which Abiola
was heading was not only going to be self-destructive, but also ruinous.
He was played into the hands of the military and he offered himself as a
sacrificial lamb by delivering himself to those who for various and
obvious reasons, very much wanted him out of the scene.
“Abiola did not listen. The result of his line of action landed him in jail.”
“I wished he had listened to my advice not to declare himself
president of this country. If he did, I believe he would, in all
probability, still be alive today. Frustration arising from the collapse
of his scheming drove him into extreme step which, in the end, set up a
chain of events that ultimately caused him his life.”
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