REBUTTAL: IN DEFENCEOF HISTORY AND MY FATHER
Dear Bayo,
Your account of my father’s involvement in June 12 is, to put it politely, untrue. It is disappointing that you chose to use uncouth language to describe Chief Tony Anenih, and in an official communication from “the Presidency,” no less.
I will rise above the emotional baiting that this conversation has clearly sparked and will speak only to the truth. I will also assume that your mischaracterisation of historical events stems from ignorance, not malice.
To the facts:
Chief Abiola initially fled the country after the annulment of the June 12 presidential elections by Gen. Babangida. You mentioned that MKO eventually returned. When he did, one of his first visits was to my father, then National Chairman of the SDP, in Benin City.
True to form, my father confronted Abiola. He accused him, to his face, of abandoning the party and its supporters in the immediate aftermath of the annulment while they risked life and limb defending his mandate.
Abiola’s public response?
“A bird does not tell his friends that the stone is coming.”
My father also told me of another conversation, one in which he warned Abiola that his increasingly close dealings with Gen. Abacha would ultimately destroy his chances of reclaiming his mandate.
At that time, both parties (SDP and NRC) had negotiated for an Interim National Government with the understanding that it would eventually hand over power to Abiola. MKO walked in step-lock with this arrangement, in fact strategically ring-fencing a few sensitive ministerial portfolios for himself. But Abiola perhaps grew impatient of waiting; and decided to pursue a different path.
According to Anenih, when he warned Abiola of the folly in trusting the military, Abiola told him:
“Whether you go by plane or by car, what matters is that you get to Kano.”
The ING, to Abiola, was a road trip.
Abacha’s military coup, which Abiola publicly encouraged, he regarded as a private jet.
Indeed, Abiola was one of the first to visit and congratulate Abacha after he overthrew the ING and seized power.
Now, I am not aware of any animosity that ever existed between my father and President Tinubu. In fact, my father acknowledged that Tinubu had initially spoken out against the delay in announcing the results of the June 12 election.
It was the only time he mentioned Tinubu in his 260 page book.
I have no personal knowledge of what role your principal played after that, though I find it curious that you consider his early visit to Abacha, immediately after a coup to remove the ING he (MKO) helped birth, a mark of honour.
Like Lamido said, many of the key players in that chapter of our history like IBB, Abdulsalami, Oyegun, Ikimi, Mark, Ayu, Dele Momodu, and others – including Kola, MKO’s son – are still alive. We are also fortunate that my father wrote his own version of events before he passed.
It is however unfortunate that I have had to defend my father’s name against a lie, and doubly unfortunate that that lie was issued in the name of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
I had hoped that this level of toxicity left with the former occupant of your office.
I am happy to send you a copy of my father’s memoir, My Life and Nigerian Politics, to help you avoid this sort of ahistorical misadventure in future.
I’m just surprised, and slightly disappointed, that so much energy is going into the re-telling of a tale that is more than 30 years old. Of what relevance to the average Nigerian is any of this, today?
I truly wish you had used your pen today to issue condolences to the victims of the suicide bombings in Kano and Borno, rather than rewriting history and smearing the dead.
Love and light,
Ose Anenih
