A former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party,
Chief Bode George, has commended Kola Abiola, the son of the late MKO
Abiola, the acclaimed winner of the Jun 12 1993 election, for exposing
former Lagos State Governor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, and other “June 12
opportunists.”
George said this during an interview with a correspondent on the
telephone while reacting to Kola’s allegations that after the annulment of the June 12, 1993 election, Tinubu approached the late military dictator, Gen. Sani Abacha, and begged him for a commissioner appointment in Lagos State.
According to Kola, it was after Tinubu had lost out that he decided
to join hands with the National Democratic Coalition to fight for the
actualisation of the June 12 mandate.
George, who is also a former military administrator, hailed Kola
for stating the facts even as he lamented that many opportunists were
seeking to twist history.
He said, “It is true that Tinubu went to beg for a commissioner
position. He was in the Villa and Gen. Oladipo Diya is a witness. He
(Tinubu) said he wanted to be a deputy to a military administrator and
when all that didn’t work, he went into his activism.”
The PDP chieftain hailed Kola for deciding to make a documentary of the June 12 saga.
George said Kola must not be victimised for saying the truth since, as the first son of MKO, he was an insider.
He said, “Most of what Kola said is true. He spoke from the
heart and he was trying to set the records straight in the face of the
many narratives. He had been looking for who would help to recognise the
June 12 saga so that his father wouldn’t have died in vain.
“In the course of this, he had bottled up so much. He went
through a lot, having lost his mother and family businesses during the
struggle. So, he was setting the records straight so that people would
not rewrite history.”
The PDP chieftain, however, said Nigeria had yet to learn from the June 12 saga.
He said the lessons of June 12 go beyond declaring a holiday or immortalising MKO.
George said, “Now, June 12 has been adopted as a national
holiday but have we learnt any serious lesson from it? Have we done
anything to ensure that the mistakes of the past are not repeated?
“Yes, people are pontificating and trying to use it as a political tool but believe we have not learnt anything.”
The PDP chieftain said Nigerians were more united during the June
12 struggle than today and argued that more emphasis should be placed on
uniting the nation through the legacy of June 12.
Attempts to speak with Tinubu’s media aide, Tunde Rahman, proved
abortive as he neither returned calls nor responded to a text message on
Saturday.
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