Post 1 A
WHY MKO ABIOLA WON THE 1993 ELECTION

I am amazed that some people doubt Chief MKO Abiola’s victory in the June 12, 1993 election. That election was not a contest at all. It was obvious that Chief Abiola would win.

There are two main reasons why Chief Abiola won that election and I’m going to outline them.


1) Popularity

You cannot imagine how popular Chief Abiola was if you did not live in the 1980s. I’m going to try and explain it, but the truth is that you simply cannot fully comprehend how popular he was. There is no one alive in Nigeria today that you can accurately use as an example to illustrate how popular Chief Abiola was.


Discussing Chief Abiola is not easy, because he touched so many people on a personal level (you will not believe the number of angry tweets and Facebook posts that I’ve seen in the past two weeks because people tried to denigrate Chief Abiola). He wasn’t just someone that people saw on TV or read about in the newspapers. To very many people, Chief Abiola was like a relative (there’s no Nigerian alive today that has touched people in this way). And so it was no surprise that he won the election. There are very many examples of this and I will highlight some below.

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Henry Amike

Henry Amike was Nigeria’s champion in the 400 metres hurdles in the 1980s and early 1990s. He was based in the United States, but he came back to Lagos in 1989 to take part in the African Athletics Championships which was hosted by Nigeria. The 1989 African Athletics Championships was used to select the team that would represent Africa at the 1989 IAAF World Cup in Barcelona.

Henry Amike won the 400 metres hurdles at the African championships, but he contracted malaria while he was in Lagos. He lost a lot of weight because of the illness and it was decided that he should be dropped from the African team to the World Cup in Barcelona.

So he caught a flight to London on his way back to the United States. Coincidentally, Chief MKO Abiola was on the same flight. Chief Abiola asked Henry Amike why he was not in Barcelona. Amike told MKO that he had been ill. MKO said, “It is better for you to compete and come last, than for you not to compete at all”. Chief Abiola called Lamine Diack (the president of the African Athletics Confederation) as soon as they got to London and said, “I have an athlete here that was the champion at the African Championships, yet he is not in Barcelona. Why?” and that’s how Henry Amike made it back into the team.

Henry Amike said that Chief Abiola’s words really touched him and he trained very hard for the World Cup.

The IAAF World Cup was a team tournament that was contested by continents (Africa, Asia, Oceania, The Americas and Europe), the United States and the winner of the previous year’s European Championships.

Henry Amike ran in the 400 metres hurdles at Barcelona ’89 and came second. He was actually in the lead, but he “ran out of gas” just before the tape and the United States athlete, David Patrick, overtook him and won gold.

Chief MKO Abiola flew to Barcelona to watch the race. Henry Amike said that he told Chief Abiola that his words had an effect on him and he thanked him profusely, but Chief Abiola said, “No, thank God” and gave him some money.

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John Fashanu

Many Nigerians have accused John Fashanu of abandoning Nigeria and playing for England instead, but they are wrong. John Fashanu did not “abandon” Nigeria.

John Fashanu was born in London to a Nigerian father and a Guyanese mother. He and his brother, Justin, were adopted by a British family after his parents split up. His brother was also a famous footballer.

John Fashanu scored a lot of goals in the English League in the 1980s and he said that Chief MKO Abiola appeared at his house one day and said, “You, what are you still doing here? This is not your home. You need to come back to Nigeria and play for the Eagles”, and that was the incident that made him come to Nigeria to play for the Green Eagles (now the Super Eagles).

Despite what a lot of people often say, John Fashanu actually came to Nigeria to play for the Eagles. I have seen a picture of him on the Eagles’ substitute bench.

He came to Nigeria to play for the Eagles on three occasions. He was an unused substitute in a friendly match against China. However, Otto Gloria (the Green Eagles coach) told him that his English style of playing did not suit the Nigerian style of play and that’s why he did not put him in the first team. Fashanu eventually played for England in 1989.

John Fashanu said that he is also eternally grateful to Chief Abiola for bailing him out when he was broke in London in the 1980s.

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”Ordinary people”

The two examples I gave above involved stars, because it’s very easy to get the accounts of stars, but MKO touched the lives of so many “ordinary people”. He was not someone that you only saw on TV, rather, he got very involved in the lives of very many people. He attended many social events and gave life changing advice (using his famous proverbs) to so many people, including employees and people that he had not met before.

I have been searching for a very emotional tweet that I saw last week, but I can’t find it. The Twitter user said that his father was in tears when it was announced that June 12 is the new Democracy Day. He said that his father said that MKO sponsored him (the father) and all his brothers to school up to university level and that MKO is the reason why he is a chartered accountant.

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Scholarships, educational institutions built, donations to schools and students, Yabatech, etc

Chief Abiola endowed many scholarships in foreign universities and polytechnics. For example, there is the MKO Abiola scholarship for students at the Ohio University College of Engineering and Technology. Preference is given to (1) Nigerians (2) other Africans and then (3) others. The idea was that he wanted to provide an opportunity for Nigerians to go abroad, learn new skills and then return to Nigeria and use those skills to develop the country. There are many such scholarship programmes that he endowed at higher institutions around the world and the people that benefitted from these scholarship programmes will always be grateful to him.

In March 1990 Chief Abiola gave 1 million naira to each state university, 50,000 naira to each federal university (for the welfare of students), 20,000 naira to the libraries of each state university and 25,000 naira each to polytechnics and colleges of education (these were huge amounts of money at that time. A million naira at that time should be roughly around 60 million naira today). He also built 63 secondary schools and 41 libraries. He awarded more than a thousand scholarships and also awarded bursary to students from Ogun State (he gave them 250 naira for each 500 naira that they received from the government).

There was a massive earthquake in Cairo in 1992 and it damaged a primary school. Simbiat Abiola donated $100,000 towards the reconstruction of the school, even though she was on her deathbed at the time.

I can still remember my friend’s reaction when Chief Abiola visited his school (Yabatech) in 1991. He donated a facility to the school (I think it was library, but I can’t remember for sure). My friend was amazed that Chief Abiola arrived in “an ordinary 505” and that he came without any security guards. Chief Abiola had an interactive session with the students (he answered their questions) and he gave them words of advice. The only thing that my friend said about that visit that confused me was that he said that both Admiral Aikhomu and Chief Abiola attended Yabatech. I have since confirmed that Admiral Aikhomu actually attended Yabatech, but, to the best of my knowledge, Chief Abiola did not attend Yabatech. He attended Glasgow University.

Chief Abiola also gave money to the African Studies Association (ASA) in the United States to establish the M.K.O. Abiola Lecture Award, an award that sponsors a distinguished scholar based in Africa to travel to the annual conference of the ASA in the United States to deliver a lecture of great significance about Africa.

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Baptist Convention, churches, mosques, Government of Nigeria, etc.

Chief Abiola often stated that he was eternally grateful to two institutions that made him into the man that he became. These institutions are the Nigerian Baptist Convention and the Government of Nigeria.

Religious and ethnic bigotry is at its height in Nigeria today and some Nigerians are trying very hard to fit Chief MKO Abiola into the current silly war between ethnicities and religions, but if you knew Chief Abiola in the 1980s, you would easily know that there is something seriously wrong with these people.

M.K.O Abiola was from a very poor family. He started his first business at the age of 9. He would go into the bush and cut firewood which he sold in order to support himself and his family. He was so poor that he had to wear the same uniform over and over, even though it looked like a rag. He wore that uniform to Simbiat’s house (which shocked her mother) and Simbiat’s mother took pity on him and bought him a new uniform. Simbiat’s parents did not want her to marry MKO, but she insisted that she would marry him.

Chief MKO Abiola said that he would not have amounted to anything if he had not gotten a scholarship from the Nigerian Baptist Convention that enabled him to attend Baptist Boys High School, Abeokuta. He said, “If not for the Nigeria Baptist Church scholarship, I would have been a poor vulcanizer labouring under the sun”. Because of this, Chief Abiola donated enormous sums of money to churches across Nigeria. He was a regular feature at the fundraising activities at many churches, He often prayed in both the Christian and Muslim way at public events and he was known for singing Christian hymns (which he learnt at Baptist Boys High School) at public events. He funded the construction of over a hundred churches and mosques across Nigeria and worshipers at these churches and mosques will never forget him.

I had often heard that Chief Abiola read both the Quran and the Bible every day and this was confirmed by both Major Hamza Al-Mustapha and Zadok. Zadok was the head of Chief Abiola’s police guard while he was in detention and Major Hmaza Al-Mustapha was Abacha’s chief security officer,

Zadok said that Chief Abiola requested for a Bible, a Quran and newspapers while he was in detention and he informed Al-Mustapha of these requests. Al-Mustapha gave Zadok money to buy a Bible and a Quran and he also gave him money every week to buy newspapers for Abiola. Abiola read the Bible and the Quran every day, which means that he continued the practice (which he had done throughout most of his life) while he was in detention. (See the testimonies of Assistant Superintendent of Police Theodore Zadok and Major Hamza Al-Mustapha at the Oputa Panel).

I learnt a long time ago that people will manufacture all kinds of ridiculous stories about you if you are a public figure in Nigeria and that it would be much worse if you are dead and can’t defend yourself. This explains why people keep circulating that ridiculous rumour that Chief Abiola sank a ship load of bibles.

By the way, this kind of practice is not totally strange to me. I know a prominent politician in Lagos who was a Muslim, yet he rebuilt the church in his former school because, he said, the church helped to shape him and make him the man that he became.

Chief Abiola also said that he was grateful to Nigeria, because the government gave him a scholarship that enabled him to study at Glasgow University. He said, "Nigeria patronised me as a little school boy, gave me scholarship to study, even abroad, to whom much is given, much is expected, on my watch, no child will go to bed hungry".

I read an interview with a woman that attended school with MKO. She said that she was the best student in English in the school, while MKO was the best mathematics student in the school. She said that MKO called her Oyinbo, because she was good in English. She said that she acted the part of Juliet, while MKO played the part of Romeo in the school play.

MKO Abiola had one of the best results in the Western Region and he was offered admission to study accounting, economics and law in various foreign universities. The Western Region Government gave him a scholarship to Glasgow University where he got a first class degree and one of the best results at the university.

This is the reason that he was always trying to advance the interest of Nigeria. He wanted Nigerian sporting teams to conquer the world, he supported Nigerian athletes, assisted Nigerian musicians, actors and entertainers, awarded scholarships to Nigerians to study abroad and return to Nigeria and use the knowledge they gained to develop the country, etc. because he wanted Nigerians to excel and conquer the world.

https://naijachronicles./2018/07/27/why-mko-abiola-won-the-1993-election/

Post 1 B

Donation circuit

The donation circuit was not a formal organisation, but it’s the way that I refer to a phenomenon that occurred in the late 1980s and early 1990s (the Babangida era).

Some of Nigeria’s wealthiest men were often invited to specific events in which they donated large sums of money. These events included fund raising in churches and mosques, university convocations, book launching and fund raising activities by universities, secondary schools, community development associations and charities.

It was usually the same set of people that were invited to these events. The president was usually the special guest of honour (when he was invited), the governor was usually the chief host, the head of the institution was usually the host, Chief Abiola was usually the chief launcher and other members of the donation circuit were usually special guests.

There was a day that I watched the 9 o’clock news and there was an advert for one of these events and the invited guests were listed. There was another advert immediately after and the list of invited guests was almost exactly the same as the list in the previous advert.

The members of the donation circuit included Chief MKO Abiola, Alhaji Aminu Dantata, Chief Sunny Odogwu, Chief Gabriel Igbinedion, Chief Molade Okoya-Thomas, Chief Razak Okoya, Prince Adedapo Tejuosho, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, Alhaji Ibrahim Dasuki, Prince Adekunle Ojora, Chief Onwuka Kalu (Onwuka Inter-Biz), Alhaji Ahmed Mai Deribe, Chief Michael Ibru, Dr Alex Ibru, Chief Sunny Okogwu, Chief Wahab Iyanda Folawiyo, Alhaji Grema Mohammed, Chief Francis Arthur Nzeribe, Alhaji Isyaku Rabiu, Dr Olusola Saraki, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, etc.

Members of the original committee that was set up by President Babangida to build a new national stadium in Abuja were drawn from members of the donation circuit. Chief MKO Abiola was the chairman and chiefs Sunny Odogwu, Gabriel Igbinedion, etc. were members of the committee (I can still remember the news item about the inauguration of the committee on the Network News). The committee was charged with raising funds for the stadium, selecting a location for the stadium, etc.

The president, who was the visitor to the federal universities, often attended convocations and fund raising events at these universities and he usually donated some money (usually millions of naira) on behalf of the Federal Government and he usually made a second donation (usually thousands of naira) on behalf of himself and his family. The president also sometimes donated money to groups like PMAN and the Nigerian Bar Association.

Chief Gani Fawehinmi sued President Babangida because of these donations. He said that the other members of the donation circuit were private people who were donating their own money, but the president was donating government money. “Were the funds that were donated in the budget? What gave the president the right to spend money that was not in the budget?”

Sometimes, when the event was a book launch, one of the members of the donation circuit would buy a large number of the books and donate them to the libraries of all universities in Nigeria (or the libraries of all secondary schools in Nigeria).

Chief MKO Abiola attended a lot of these events. Quite often in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, the first item on the 9 o’clock news was about President Babangida, while the second item was often about Chief Abiola. I remember a particular day that they showed him attending an event in one city and then the next news item was about another event that he attended in another town on that same day and we were wondering how he went from one event to the other. Well, they showed him getting into a helicopter at the end of the second news item, so he flew by helicopter from one event to the other. Chief Abiola donated to schools, churches, mosques, charities, etc. He donated to causes and institutions across the whole of Nigeria, from Lagos to Maiduguri, from Calabar to Sokoto, from Kano to Port Harcourt and everywhere in between.

These events were not without their controversies and strange incidents.

The protocol back in the day was that the doors were locked whenever either President Babangida or Admiral Aikhomu arrived at the venue of an event and nobody is allowed in or out until either the president or the CGS is ready to leave. There was an event at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) on Kofo Abayomi Street, Victoria Island, a regular venue for these fund raising events back in the day. Both Admiral Aikhomu and President Babangida were already in the hall. Chief MKO Abiola arrived late and the SSS guards at the door refused to allow him into the hall. He identified himself, showed them his invitation card and did everything that he could to get in, but they would not allow anyone in, no matter who the person was. There was commotion at the door. He was eventually able to give a message to someone that was already in the hall and the person got the message to Admiral Aikhomu. The CGS sent his ADC to tell the guards at the door to let Chief Abiola in.

(This is one of two incidents that Chief Abiola had with security agencies c1992. The other was the incident that involved Deji Abiola and an Air Force officer in Ikeja).

There was a funny incident that occurred at one of these events. Alhaji Aminu Dantata was often invited to these events, but he was not a regular member of the donation circuit. He only attended the events occasionally. I remember what happened at an occasion that he attended.

Chief Abiola had already announced his donation before Dantata was invited to make his donation. Alhaji Dantata’s donation was slightly higher than Chief Abiola’s. Sometime later Chief Abiola came back to the microphone and announced that he was going to pledge more money later.

This particular incident is not connected to Chief Abiola in any way, but it was probably the most bizarre incident to happen on the donation circuit.

I was ill and a lot of people came to check up on me. It was a Saturday and the TV was on and the NTA News came on while we were watching it. There was a report about one of these fund raising events. It was a small event, only one of the members of the donation circuit was present and that was Chief Sunny Okogwu (not to be confused with Chief Sunny Odogwu).

They announced the amount of money that he donated and one of the women that came to see me screamed. It was a crazy amount of money. “Where did he get that kind of money?” she shouted.

That incident dominated the headlines the next day and then came an explanation from Chief Okogwu. (I can’t remember the exact amounts, so the figures here are just for illustration purposes). He said that the organisers of the event wanted to raise 50 million naira for a project. The organisers probably did not expect him to actually attend the event. When they saw him at the event, they jacked up the figure to 200 million naira and tried to cajole him to donate a lot of money. This angered him and he decided to punish the organisers. He announced that he was donating 1 billion naira, but, in actual fact, he did not intent to give them a kobo.

Chief Abiola’s donations resulted in the construction of at least 63 secondary schools, 121 mosques and churches, 41 libraries and 24 water projects in states across Nigeria. He was the grand patron of 149 societies and associations and he was conferred with 197 chieftaincy titles from 68 communities across Nigeria. He was also conferred with honorary degrees by many universities around the world.

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PMAN, musicians, entertainers, etc.
Chief Abiola came from a very poor family. He sold firewood when he was in primary school in order to fend for himself. He was awarded a scholarship in secondary school, but he still needed funds to take care of his needs, so he started a music band at the age of fifteen.

M.K.O Abiola’s band played at events around Abeokuta and he was sometimes paid in food, rather than money.

Therefore Chief Abiola was very close to Nigerian musicians. He assisted and funded lots of Nigerian musicians and he was also a patron of the Performing Musicians Association of Nigeria (PMAN). I’ve already written about the special he did in which he performed on stage with Sir Shina Peters. He also had many other encounters with prominent musicians in Nigeria.

For example, Fuji legend Adewale Ayuba had planned to go on tour in the UK. The event venues had been booked, the hotels had been booked, all the arrangements had been made, but the British High Commission refused to give him a visa.

Simbiat Abiola, MKO’s first wife, was a patron of his band, so he went to her to tell her about his problem. Simbiat asked him if he had told his father about the problem. Ayuba was initially confused. He thought that Simbiat was referring to his biological father. He realised that Simbiat was referring to MKO and he said that he had not informed him. Simbiat picked up the phone and called MKO. She told him that his “son” was downstairs and that he had a problem to discuss with him. MKO replied that he was busy upstairs and so couldn’t come down, but that she should tell him to come upstairs.

Ayuba was apprehensive. He had never met MKO one on one before. He went upstairs and saw MKO and MKO asked him, “My child, what is the problem?” and Ayuba told him about the problem. Abiola asked him if he had all the necessary documents and Ayuba replied that he had all his papers and he didn’t know why he was denied a visa. Chief Abiola told him to come back at 7am the next day so that they’ll resolve the issue.

Ayuba was at Abiola’s house at 6:30am and he met Abiola already dressed and waiting. They went to the High Commission and Abiola went in to see the high commissioner.

Abiola emerged a few minutes later and told Ayuba, “Don’t worry. They are not giving you this time around, but they will give you next year” and Abiola gave him something to take care of the expenses he had already incurred. And sure enough, he got his visa when he went to the High Commission the next year.

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John Chukwu

John Chukwu was Nigeria’s most famous comedian in the 1980s. He was a stand-up comedian, had a radio comedy show (Band Wagon Comedy Hour), a TV comedy show (Laff Mattaz), and a night club. He compered many major events in Nigeria, like the first Nigerian Music Awards, which he hosted with Julie Coker. In 1985 President Babangida had to send the presidential jet to pick him up from his home state so that he could MC the Command Performance to mark Nigeria’s 25th anniversary.

John Chukwu fell ill in 1990 and his family reached out to Chief MKO Abiola and President Babangida. MKO contacted a hospital in the UK and arranged for John Chukwu to be treated there. President Babangida also pledged some money towards his treatment. Unfortunately John Chukwu died before he could be flown out of the country.

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SWAN
Chief Abiola was a patron of many organisations and he also funded quite a lot of those organisations.

For example, Chief Abiola was the grand patron of the Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN). He almost singlehandedly funded the association.

I have previously written about that epic game against Ivory Coast. Nigeria only needed a draw against Ivory Coast in Abidjan to qualify for USA ’94. There were 4 private jets that left Lagos for Abidjan for the match. The Super Eagles went on a chartered plane. The presidential delegation went in the presidential jet. The supporters club (which was also partly funded by Chief Abiola) went in a chartered plane. Some journalists were able to travel with the Supporters Club, but some journalists that wanted to travel with either the presidential jet or the plane that took the Eagles to Abidjan were denied entry into those planes. They appealed to Chief Abiola and he took them to Abidjan in his private jet.

SWAN had a leadership crisis in the early 1990s. The leadership crisis was resolved with an election in Kaduna in December 1991 in which Fan Ndubuoke was elected as the new president of SWAN. Ndubuoke led the new executive to pay their respects to Chief Abiola at his house in Ikeja in January 1992.

Chief Abiola said that, judging by the eminent sports journalists in the team, he believed that the leadership crisis was over. He asked for the name of the new president of the association and he was told that it was Fan Ndubuoke. He asked, “Can this fan rotate?”

He gave the new executive a take-off grant and donated a brand new car to the president of the association. He also ensured that Ndubuoke was a part of his delegation to major sporting events outside the country.

https://naijachronicles./2018/07/28/why-mko-abiola-won-the-1993-election-part-2/

POST 1 C

Sports

You might have noticed a pattern here. Quite a few of my previous examples have revolved around sports.
Chief Abiola was like a parallel government in sports. Nigerian sports teams usually went to visit Chief Abiola before travelling to major competitions and victorious teams usually went to visit him when they returned from major tournaments (this was quite similar to the way they usually visited the president after tournaments) and Chief Abiola usually gave them some money.

For example, the Golden Eaglets won the World Cup in 1993 (this was the team that had Kanu, Babayaro, Oruma, Oparaku, etc. in its ranks) and Chief Abiola received the team at his house in Ikeja. He said , “You see, all of us cannot be possessed by the Holy Spirit at the same time. Some will be possessed; others will be chorusing Hallelujah. We are here today to sing Hallelujah on your behalf”

Chief Abiola donated huge sums of money to the Supreme Council for Sports in Africa (the body that organised the All Africa Games), the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and the African Sports Journalists Union and these three bodies gave him the title of “Pillar of Sports in Africa”.

Chief Abiola owned the Abiola Babes football club (one of the two exciting millionaire teams of the 1980s), Concord Football Club of Abeokuta and Simbiat Abiola owned Kakanfo Queens (a female football club). He sponsored many developmental sports competitions across the country, while Simbiat sponsored the first female football cup competition in Nigeria (in Kano in 1988).

At an event organized by SWAN in Lagos in 1993, he expressed his views on the way forward for Nigerian football.

He was saddened that organisation of football in Nigeria was and is still not devoted to long term development planning, even when it is known as the only secret for success. According to him, even the best armies in the world cannot win battles without proper organisation.

He was also worried about the lack of continuity in football administration and he advised that we should discontinue with the shameful practice of pointing accusing fingers every time we lose a game.

MKO recalled that our painful defeats at hands of African countries especially North Africans and Cameroon was due to what he called lack of ‘football Intelligence’. He explained that ‘football intelligence’ had to do with information gathering about opponents, playing pitch, mental attitude, crowd behaviour, diet and weather conditions. He regretted that all these were not taken into account when Nigeria played Cameroon in the last 1990 World Cup qualifier and that led to Nigeria’s shocking loss.

Chief Abiola alleged that two days before the game against Cameroon, the field was watered, being in the dry season, to give the hosts added advantage of playing with hard studs on a wet pitch, while the Eagles unaware of this, wore short studs. He said Cameroon had structures that ensured continuity and transition of players, coupled with the fact that the football authorities in Cameroon funded scouts to go in search of players including those who had dual nationality, just to ensure they assembled their best at all times.

The pillar of sports in Africa advised that Nigeria should make a choice of which formation suits the crop of players we have at any given time; is it the Brazilian 4-2-4 which won them the World Cup in 1970 or total football which made the Dutch dominant from the early ‘70s. He observed that Cameroon at every given time, adopts a system that frustrates their opponents’ strengths and advised that to beat them to their own game is to analyse their strengths and weaknesses. He warned against giving out too much information about the team’s preparation, strengths and weaknesses.

He disagreed that any coach would deliberately undermine his team for the simple reason that it must be assumed that every coach would like to have a good CV, which means good results to enhance his career and bargaining power. He frowned at constant change of invited players to the national team, noting that from Senegal ‘92 qualifiers to 1993, about 60 new faces had been invited to the national team. He said this should only be done when the technical crew is building a new team and not at the time of preparing for a crucial international engagement.

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Etim Esin
I consider Etim Esin, Jay Jay Okocha and Tarila Okorowanta to be the three most skilful Nigerian players ever. Etim Esin is short and stocky and he has a low centre of gravity that enables him to maintain his balance while performing his crazy tricks on the football field.

However, unfortunately, Etim Esin was also one of the most undisciplined players in the Nigerian national team.

Esin played for Flash Flamingos of Benin and he was their highest goal scorer. He put up a good performance when Flash Flamingos played against Iwuanyanwu Nationale (he scored two goals) and lots of teams wanted to sign him. The two millionaire clubs, Abiola Babes and Leventis United approached him and made lots of promises, but Iwuanyanwu Nationale gave him a Peugeot 505 Evolution and he joined Iwuanyanwu. He had a 505 Evolution at the age of 18! (He later bought a BMW 3 Series).

The Belgian club Genk came to Nigeria on a playing tour and they played against the Flying Eagles. Etim Esin scored three goals for the Flying Eagles in that game and Genk were so impressed by his performance that they signed him up. Etim Esin had become one of the “professionals”. The Nigerian media also nicknamed him the “Nigerian Maradonna”.

All this attention got to Etim’s head. He escaped from camp the night before Nigeria was to play a major game and went to a nightclub. Armed robbers attacked him in Surulere on his way back to camp, shot him in the thigh and stole his BMW.

Etim Esin played for Nigerian in several Nations Cup and World Cup qualifiers, but he never played for the Super Eagles in any major competition partly because he didn’t get on well with the coaches. He played for the Flying Eagles at the 1987 World Youth Championship in Chile, but the team crashed out of the competition at the group stage (despite the fact that we had one of our best teams ever) because the players did not get along with each other. Etim Esin has admitted that his teammates at Chile ’87 did not like him. He said that he feels that his presence was a distraction and that it affected the team.

He did very well at Lokeren in Belgium and scored a lot of goals for them, but his time in Belgium came to an abrupt end when he was accused of raping a girl. Many Nigerians immediately believed the accusation because of Esin’s past behavioural problems, but Esin insisted that he was innocent.

Etim Esin said that the girl that he was accused of raping was his girlfriend. He said that he didn’t have any problems with her, but problems arose when her father found out that they were dating. He said that her father did not want her to date a black man and he did everything possible to separate them. He also said that he thought that his girlfriend’s father was sleeping with her. He said that he did not know that the girl was 16 because she looked like she was 20 years old.

Anyway, Etim Esin was accused of raping the girl and he was detained by the police. The Nigerian authorities were concerned about Etim Esin’s situation. Admiral Aikhomu asked Clemens Wseterhof to assist in the matter (Westerhof is from the Netherlands and the Netherlands and Belgium are members of the BeNeLux group). Aikhomu gave Westerhof $10,000 to take care of the issue. Chief MKO Abiola spent $50,000 to ensure that Etim Esin had a lawyer and he was eventually cleared of all charges and released. He said that he saw Chief Abiola as his mentor and that he was very grateful to Chief Abiola for what he did for him.

Etim Esin is now a motivational speaker and he goes to schools and football academies to advise the kids so that they don’t make the kind of mistakes that he made.

https://naijachronicles./2018/07/28/why-mko-abiola-won-the-1993-election-part-3/

POST 1D

Diplomacy

Chief MKO Abiola was involved in many diplomatic engagements, both in aid of Nigeria’s foreign policy and also for his own causes and beliefs.

Abiola undertook a diplomatic trip to South Africa to mediate between Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi’s Inkatha Freedom Party and Dr Nelson Mandela’s African National Congress in the early 1990s. It was part of Nigeria’s efforts to help in ending the black on black violence that was rampant in South Africa in the early 1990s.

Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi is the president of the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) and a major chief of the Zulu Nation. Nelson Mandela was (at that time) the vice president of the ANC (he later became the president) and a member of the Xhosa Nation.

There was serious violence between supporters of the IFP and supporters of the ANC and between Zulus and Xhosas in the early 1990s (c1990-1993) after the collapse of Apartheid. Lots of people died in the clashes.

Nigeria, which had invested a lot into the anti-Apartheid struggle, was very concerned about these black on black clashes and President Babangida sent Professor Wole Soyinka and later Chief M.K.O Abiola to make peace between both parties.

Chief Buthelezi’s IFP later joined the ANC in a Government of National Unity and Chief Buthelezi was made a minister in Mandela’s government. I strongly suspect that this is one of the reasons that Mandela invited Abiola to his inauguration (Abiola’s presence angered Abacha).

I strongly suspect that the “sworn enemy” that Mandela was referring to in this piece was Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi.

Former South African President, Dr. Nelson Mandela, on Saturday night in Abuja dedicated his Pan African Broadcast Heritage Award (PABHA) to the memory of the acclaimed winner of the annulled June 12, 1993 Presidential election Chief M.K.O. Abiola, whom he described as a great Nigerian.

Mandela, who was represented by the South African President, Mr. Thabo Mbeki, currently on a visit to Nigeria, described how he first came into contact with the Abiola.

He said President Ibrahim Babangida sent Abiola to mediate and talk to Mandela to reconcile with a sworn enemy of the African National Congress (ANC), who then was working against the interest of the party’s success at the poll.

Mbeki did not name the “sworn enemy” of the ANC, but said the late politician had since become their friend. He said when Abiola arrived, he (Mbeki) tried to get the message from Babangida, but refused, insisting that he must deliver the message to Mandela personally. Mbeki said he then took Abiola to Mandela to personally deliver Babangida’s message.

Mbeki said Abiola later told a story of the black ant to describe how dangerous the “sworn enemy” was to the ANC.

He said though the black ant was small, it could wreak much havoc if it had access to one’s clothing. He quoted Abiola as saying that it was easier to take care of the black ant than to allow it to wreak havoc.

The South African President explained that the message from Abiola made the ANC reconcile with the “sworn enemy”.

https://allafrica.com/stories/200010030073.html


That was not Chief Abiola’s only international foray. He was involved in many causes around the world and he donated to many institutions around the world, especially in Africa and the Caribbean.


Reparations

Nazi Germany killed approximately 6 million Jews during the holocaust. Many other Jews were forced to work in labour camps and were persecuted during the Second World War. Consequently, Germany and many German companies have had to pay reparations to Israel and Jewish organisations in order to assist the Government of Israel to cope with Jewish refugees that had to flee Europe to Israel and as compensation to Jews that were forced to work in labour camps.

Chief M.K.O Abiola argued that Europe/the West should pay compensation to Africans for colonialism and the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. He said that compensation should not only be paid to Africans in Africa, but also to black people in the Americas and Europe. He contended that European nations illegally exploited African resources, stole African artworks, enslaved and took away many Africans and stripped the continent of its human and natural resources.

He believed that since Germany rightfully paid compensation to the Jews for the Holocaust that occurred between 1931-1945 (14 years), then the West should also compensate Africans for the slave trade that occurred from the 16th to the 19th century (300 years) and led to the death, torture, rape and enslavement of many more Africans.

In December 1990, Abiola convened and sponsored the first world conference on reparations at the Nigeria Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), Lagos, where he formally inaugurated the reparations campaign. The campaign moved to the continental level in June 1991 when the Heads of State and Government of the Organization of African Unity (now the African Union) as well as the 55th Council of Ministers of the Union passed a resolution recognizing the injustice of slavery in Africa and affirmed the continent’s right to reparations.

The Eminent Persons Group set up to steer the reparations campaign convened the first Pan-African conference on Reparations in Abuja in April 1993 with participants drawn from Africa, Asia, America and Europe. The conference issued a communiqué reiterating the imperative of paying reparations to Africa for the physical and psychological brutality, socio-cultural dislocation and economic dysfunction caused by slavery, colonialism and imperialism in general; acts of injustice without parallel in human history. All of these efforts were personally funded by Chief MKO Abiola even though the Babangida regime later donated the sum of $500,000 to the cause.


Given a rationale for his crusade in a speech in London in 1992, Abiola declared “Our demand for reparations is based on the tripod of moral, historic and legal arguments. Who knows what path Africa’s social development would have taken if our great centres of civilisation had not been razed in search of human cargo? Who knows how our economies would have developed…?”

The Eminent Persons Group, which was set up by the Organisation of African Unity (OAU, now known as the African Union [AU]) in response to Chief Abiola’s agitation, had the following members (there were 12 members, but these are the ones that I can remember) :

Chief M.K.O Abiola (chairman)
Professor Ahmadou-Mahter M’bow of Senegal (co-chair)
Ambassador Dudley Thompson of Jamaica (rapporteur general)
Professor Ali Mazrui of Kenya (the great Kenyan historian)
Professor Jacob Ade Ajayi of Nigeria (the great Nigerian historian)

Chief Abiola travelled round the world to lobby people to support the call for reparations to be paid to Africa. He lobbied members of the Congressional Black Caucus in the United States (most of whom were already his friends), met with politicians in the Caribbean and campaigned for reparations at events across Africa.

Chief Abiola also supported causes and institutions across Africa. He was twice voted worldwide businessman of the year, and gained various honorary doctorates from universities all over the world. He was the patron of the Kwame Nkrumah Foundation, a patron of the WEB Dubois Foundation and he was also a trustee of the Martin Luther King Foundation. In 1987 he was given the golden key to the city of Washington D.C., and he was bestowed with an award from the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) and the King Centre in the USA, and also the International Committee on Education for Teaching in Paris, among numerous others.

The Congressional Black Caucus of the United States of America issued the following tribute to him.

“Because of this man, there is both cause for hope and certainty that the agony and protests of those who suffer injustice shall give way to peace and human dignity. The children of the world shall know the great work of this extraordinary leader and his fervent mission to right wrong, to do justice, and to serve mankind. The enemies which imperil the future of generations to come: poverty, ignorance, disease, hunger, and racism have each seen effects of the valiant work of Chief Abiola. Through him and others like him, never again will freedom rest in the domain of the few. We, the members of the Congressional Black Caucus salute him this day as a hero in the global pursuit to preserve the history and the legacy of the African diaspora”

Personality

Chief Abiola was an affable person who made friends easily. He was quite approachable and he forgave easily.

For example, ASP Zadok was basically Chief Abiola’s jailer, yet he said that Chief Abiola treated him like a son and actually called him, “My son”. (see Zadok’s testimony at the Oputa Panel).

Similarly, Abiola was jailed by the Abacha Administration, yet Chief Abiola wrote a condolence letter to Mariam Abacha when General Sani Abacha died (see Zadok’s testimony at the Oputa Panel). Both Major Hamza Al-Mustapha and ASP Zadok testified that Chief Abiola requested for a Bible, a Quran and newspapers while he was in detention. Major Al-Mustapha gave money to Zadok to purchase these items for Chief Abiola. Chief Abiola also occasionally requested for writing materials and these were given to him. He wrote letters to several people and this included the condolence letter he wrote to Mariam Abacha after the death of General Sani Abacha.

Chief MKO Abiola and Major General Shehu Musa Yar'Adua owned a shipping line called O.T. Africa Line. It was the biggest privately owned Nigerian shipping line. The managing director (CEO) of the company from 1984-1988 was Dr Raymond Dokpesi (remember that Dokpesi is a marine engineer).

There were two special ships in the Africa Line fleet. One was called Binta Yar'Adua and the other was called Atinuke Abiola. Dr Dokpesi sold the Atinuke Abiola without Chief Abiola's permission.

Chief Abiola was furious and he asked Dr Dokpesi to explain (1) Why he sold his ship without his permission and (2) having sold the ship, why he did not remit the funds to the company or to him.

Dokpesi then raised an alarm that Chief Abiola and General Yar'Adua were trying to kill him.

Chief Abiola sued Dokpesi and Dokpesi wrote the most amazing apology letter that I've ever seen. It was the humblest apology that I've ever seen. Dokpesi was basically grovelling in the letter and he appealed to Abiola to accept his apology. The apology was published every day in major national newspapers for more than week.

Chief Abiola accepted Dokpesi’s apology and the matter was settled out of court. Chief Abiola later forgave Dr Dokpesi and they reconciled.

The owner of Sujimoto has written about his life changing encounter with Chief MKO Abiola in 1993 and he has offered 5 million naira to anyone who can give him the picture of that meeting.

In 1993 I met MKO just before the election. He shook my hand and encouraged me. After enquiring about my name, a photographer at the event took a picture of us. Unfortunately I don’t have the picture.

Anyone who can dig up this picture will get a 5 million naira cash reward.

MKO: “What’s is your name young man?”
12 Year old me: “Olasijibomi sir.”
MKO: “Oluwa aashiiji bo e.” (God will overshadow you with blessings).

I was only 12, but this 5min encounter shaped my future.

The people you meet will either break you or make you. The 5min encounter with MKO somehow transformed my thought process and helped me reposition my imagination. I just started thinking BIG.

Who have you met or who are you planning to meet that you believe will reshape your future? Comment below

1+1 is still 11, failure is no more an option

An inspiration, a rare gem and a gift to our continent. MKO was our TRUMP card; he was the solution to our nation.
A true entrepreneur, an icon who understood that success knows no boundaries - tribe, colour or religion -

What have we learnt from MKOs life and how do we intend to apply this to our businesses? Comment below.

Failure is no more an option,

Our MD @sujimoto1, an ardent follower of Chief MKO Abiola is ready to give a Whooping 5Million naira to anyone that can dig up an old picture of him and the hero of democracy taken 25yrs ago. The picture of this event has sentimental value. What are you waiting for? Get Digging!

“This was our TRUMP card. The solution to our country. The Almighty God will JUDGE all those who partook in the death of MKO. Their generation will answer to the Almighty”.

---

Employees

Chief Abiola had a lot of companies and a lot of his employees have gone on to become influential people in society (e.g. Dele Momodu [Concord], Raymond Dokpesi [Africa Lines]. Etc). Chief Abiola was like a father to many of them and his relationship with them went beyond the normal relationship between an employer and an employee.

For example, the late Chief Isaac Durojaiye (popularly known as Otunba Gaddafi) had worked in the security department of American Express in the US. He returned to Nigeria and became the head of Chief Abiola’s security detail. Kola Abiola got married to Victoria Ossom (Arafat) in 1992 and Otunba Gaddafi was in the planning committee for the wedding.

The wedding reception was scheduled to hold at the Tafawa Balewa Square and Otunba Gaddafi surveyed the venue and discovered that there were only two toilets there. In an interview that he granted before he died in 2011 (I’m still searching for that interview. I read it in 2011, but I can’t find it now), Otunba Gaddafi said that he realised that the two toilets were inadequate because they expected a lot of people, including presidents of several African countries and most of Nigeria’s elite to attend the wedding reception. He said that he remembered the mobile toilets that he used in America and realised that they were the solution to the problem.

He said that he told Chief Abiola about the problem and the solution. Chief Abiola asked if it was possible to import the toilets and Otunba Gaddafi confirmed that they could be imported. Most of the toilets that were used at the occasion were imported mobile toilets (the marquee that was used at the event was also imported and it was probably the first time that that kind of marquee was used in Nigeria).

That was the moment that Otunba Gaddafi realised that there was money to be made in importing mobile toilets to Nigeria. He told Chief Abiola about the idea and told him that he wanted to resign his position in order to start a company that would import the toilets. Chief Abiola prayed for him, gave him some financial assistance, but he also advised him that it would be better if he could produce the toilets in Nigeria, rather than importing them. That was how DMT Mobile Toilets ( “Sh.it business is serious business” ) was born.

Otunba Gaddafi said that he was eternally grateful to Chief Abiola for his support when he was starting the business. He started out importing the toilets, but he later began producing the toilets in Nigeria.

Innocent Oparadike wrote this about Chief Abiola.

The story actually started in 1982. Chief MKO Abiola, Publisher of the Concord Newspaper, had directed that all political stories had to be cleared with me. Some of the editors of the individual titles resented this directive. One of them told the publisher that I was using the position to enrich myself. Chief MKO Abiola ordered an investigation. Unknown to me, my lifestyle and banking relationships were thoroughly investigated. The outcome reinforced his faith in me. He promoted me from Chief Political Correspondent to Group Political Editor.

When I got to know of the investigation, I felt like a victim. My joy at being promoted was dampened by the thought of being surreptitiously investigated. I used this as an excuse to accept an offer to be the pioneer editor of a new newspaper to be based in Kaduna, known as the Democrat.

Courtesy demanded that I informed a publisher who had treated me as his kid brother not only that I was moving, but also why I was moving. He apologised for doubting my integrity but asked me to see the brighter side, the outcome reinforced his faith in me. He advised me against taking up the Democrat job. He said it was a ploy to get me out of the system. He revealed that the northern establishment had asked him to fire me but he refused. He warned that by taking the appointment, I was making myself vulnerable. They would use me and fire me.

Unfortunately, I had given my word to the prospective employers, who took me on a facility tour, prior to making me an offer. My stay at the Democrat was brief. The first rescue mission of General Muhammadu Buhari spelt the death of the Democrat, as unknown to me until then, its continued survival was dependent on the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) remaining in power. With that coup and the drying up of the funding the dream of a Daily Democrat fled.

I became a columnist in the weekly paper, received a hefty salary I didn’t earn. I felt obliged to resign and I did. Members of the Board of Directors couldn’t believe that a Nigerian with a young family (I wedded Lady Esther in 1983) would resign for not earning his pay.

http://sunnewsonline.com/babangida-and-my-days-at-new-nigeria-newspaper/

However, although Chief Abiola had this special relationship with most of his employees, it was not the case with all of his employees. I know a particular set of people that had grievance with Chief Abiola when they left his company (I knew one of them personally).

Ok, I’m writing this from memory, so let’s see how much I can remember.

Chief Abiola owned the National Concord, which was one of the big five national newspapers at the time. The National Concord published a story that was critical of the Babangida Government (I think this was during the SAP Riots of 1992) and the government shut down the newspaper.

It was the usual drill. Heavily armed soldiers, SSS operatives and policemen invaded Concord Newspapers headquarters and Concord Press before dawn, arrested some people and chased away the others and sealed off the premises.

Chief Abiola approached President Babangida for a solution to the problem. President Babangida told Chief Abiola that Concord would be reopened if the paper published an apology to the government.

Chief Abiola told the editor and the reporter to write letters of apology and publish them in the newspaper. They refused. They said that their story was accurate and factual and they stood by it. They also felt that Chief Abiola’s interference in the matter threatened the editorial independence of the paper (editorial policy should be set by the editorial board and not by the publisher).

Chief Abiola believed that the crisis threatened the existence of the company and he could not understand why the editor and reporter would not just apologise so that the crisis could end. He went behind the back of the editor and ensured that the paper published an apology. The editor and reporter were furious. They resigned and some other journalists that worked at the National Concord also resigned in solidarity with them.


https://naijachronicles./2018/07/28/why-mko-abiola-won-the-1993-election-part-4/

POST 1E

Chief Abiola was also the popular choice among the middle class for the following reasons:

(A) He knew about every aspect of Nigeria:

Chief Abiola was involved (at the highest levels) in every aspect of Nigerian life. He was a chartered accountant (he had a first class degree in accountancy from Glasgow University) and he was involved in banking (Habib Bank), publishing and the media (Concord Press and Concord Newspaper), telecommunications (RCN), crude oil production (Summit Oil), aviation (Concord Airlines), entertainment (he was a musician [he played the saxophone], owned a record company [Decca] and was a patron of PMAN), sports (he owned Abiola Babes, Concord FC and Kakanfo Queens football clubs, was made the Pillar of Sports in Africa by the African Sports Journalists union and sponsored numerous sports competitions), shipping (OT Africa Lines), manufacturing (Berec Batteries), food processing (Wonder Bakeries), farming (Abiola Farms), trading (Abiola Bookshops), education (Salawu Abiola Comprehensive High School), etc. and he was knowledgeable in all these sectors. He had also served as the president of the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

Any attempt to write about Chief Abiola’s businesses would require a long series of posts, so I’ll only briefly write about three of them that people might not know about today.

Decca/Afrodisia: Decca was a major British recording company. Its Nigerian arm, Decca West Africa, was one of the biggest record companies in Nigeria from the 1940s till the 1980s. It had legends like I.K. Dairo, E.T. Mensah (the Ghanaian legend), Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey, Oriental Brothers International Band/Dr Sir Warrior, Madam Comfort Omoge, Manu Dibango (the Cameroonian legend), The Lijadu Sisters, Segun Bucknor and Haruna Ishola on its roster.

Decca West Africa’s headquarters was in Ghana until the 1970s when Ghana went through an economic crisis while Nigeria had an oil boom. The headquarters was moved from Accra to Lagos and a vinyl record pressing plant was established in Lagos. Decca also jointly owned a pressing plant in Ikeja with EMI.

The company was Nigerianised as a result of the Gowon Administration’s indigenisation policy and Chief M.K.O Abiola became the largest shareholder and chairman of the company, while Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey became the minority shareholder. It changed its name to Afrodisia in the early 1980s. Afrodisia also had an audio cassette manufacturing plant in Lagos.

(Ebenezer Obey became the largest shareholder of the company in the early 2000s).

Berec: How do I explain Berec? If you go to any corner shop in Nigeria today you would find Chinese brand Tiger Head batteries in it. That’s how popular Berec batteries were in Nigeria in the 1970s and ‘80s; except that Berec made more types of batteries than Tiger Head do (I have never seen a 9 volt Tiger Head battery). Berec made D, C, AA, AAA, AAAA cells and 9 volt batteries.


Remember that these types of batteries were more important in the 1970s and ‘80s than they are now. Today your flashlight is most likely powered by a rechargeable battery, but back then your flashlight would most likely have been powered by Berec batteries. If you want to go jogging today and you want to listen to music while jogging, then you would take your iPod or phone with you, but back then you would take your Walkman, which would most likely be powered by Berec batteries. People in the rural areas, especially those in areas that had no electricity and TV signal, got their news and entertainment from transistor radios which were most likely powered by Berec batteries. People (in both the rural and urban areas) who wanted to listen to international radio stations did so by listening to world band radios which would most likely have been powered by Berec batteries. People played handheld computer games (e.g. Donkey Kong) which were powered by Berec batteries and little children played with toys (cars, planes, trains, etc.) that were powered by Berec batteries.

Berec also made button batteries that were used in wristwatches, calculators, handheld computer games, etc. but they did not dominate that market the way they dominated the market for the other types of batteries. They also made flashlights (metal and plastic) and their flashlights shared the market with Chinese made flashlights (those were the most common types of flashlights in the Nigerian market at that time).

Berec was also known for their beautiful souvenirs. I had the giant Berec biro that you could hang around your neck (that was their most popular souvenir).

Berec was the British arm of the Ever Ready company of the United States (Berec stands for British Ever Ready Electrical Company), but it broke free from its American parent in the 1920s. Chief Abiola took over Berec’s Nigerian arm in the 1970s.

National Concord: National Concord was one of the big five national newspapers in Nigeria in the 1980s and early 1990s. The big five national papers were the Daily Times, Guardian, Punch, Vanguard and National Concord. There were several other regional papers (some people will argue that the first two papers in my list were not regional papers) like the Nigerian Tribune (Awolowo family), New Nigerian, Observer (Bendel State Government), Sketch (Odua Investment/Oyo State Government), Lagos Horizon (Lagos State Government), etc. (Lagos Horizon didn’t last long, but I remember it very well, because we got a free copy every day).

The Daily Times, which was started in the 1920s, was the biggest newspaper group in Nigeria in the 1970s. However the Federal Government took over the newspaper in 1975 and gradually destroyed it (the government also took over New Nigerian, which was primarily a northern Nigerian newspaper, in 1975).

The Guardian was started by the Ibru Family in the early 1980s and its focus was mainly on politics and business. It was seen as the flagship of the Nigerian press (a role that it took over from the Daily Times).

However, The Punch, Vanguard and Concord tried to woo younger readers with lots of cartoons, sports and entertainment stories and shorter paragraphs.

C1984 we convinced my dad to stop buying the “obituary paper” (Daily Times) and instead we convinced him to buy Vanguard and Punch each day and to buy National Concord whenever Vanguard or Punch was unavailable. Daily Times had become a truly terrible newspaper. It was filled with boring government propaganda and obituaries.

National Concord introduced many innovations in the Nigerian newspaper industry. In 1990 it began publishing the Weekend Concord and Saturdays became a three newspaper day in my house. How do I describe Weekend Concord?

Thisday Newspaper has a magazine supplement on Sunday called the Glitterati (Glitterati also includes Thisday Style). Weekend Concord was something similar. The first two pages of Saturday Concord had the usual political and business stories, but the rest of the paper (Weekend Concord) was filled with entertainment, gossip, celebrity news, cartoons and sport. There were exciting interviews with celebrities, details of social events, lifestyle columns, etc. It was an indispensable part of everybody’s Saturday.

Chief Abiola was also determined to make the National Concord a truly national newspaper. Back then the big national newspapers usually had two editions each day. There was the “Lagos edition” of the paper, which had all the latest stories, and there was the “states edition” of the newspaper, which was not as current as the Lagos edition. This was due to problems with distribution. The newspaper that was sold in states like Plateau, Borno, Cross River, etc. was quite different from the newspaper that was sold in Lagos.

In fact, the smaller regional newspapers sold old editions of their papers in cities outside their bases. For example, it was not uncommon to find the previous day’s Observer being sold at newsstands outside Benin and Lagos.

However, Chief Abiola ensured that it was the same edition of the National Concord that was sold throughout Nigeria. He used his airline to distribute the paper across the country and c1990 he linked the Concord’s offices in Lagos and Abuja electronically and established another printing press in Abuja in order to ensure that the same edition of the paper was produced in Lagos and Abuja simultaneously.

The Concord Press also published the African Concord, which was a weekly magazine that was sold right across Africa. There were also three other versions of the National Concord that were in Nigerian languages; Isokan in Yoruba, Udoka in Igbo and Amana in Hausa. Chief Abiola spent a lot of money to ensure that the National Concord attracted the best journalists in Nigeria.


(B) He was already wealthy so he won’t loot:

There was a perception that most of the candidates for the presidency were only interested in becoming president so that they could loot the treasury. Many in the middle class felt that Chief Abiola was already incredibly wealthy and therefore he was not trying to become president in order to steal from the country. He didn’t need government money, unlike the other aspirants.

(C) He seemed patriotic and genuinely keen to see Nigeria succeed:

Chief Abiola supported a lot of Nigerian sports people, academics, artists, musicians, etc. and pushed them to conquer the world. He was always eager to see Nigerians and Nigerian institutions succeed on the world stage. Many people believed that he would have done everything he could as president, to ensure that the country Nigeria could compete with the rest of the world in terms of the living standards of its people, its economy, etc.

Furthermore, Chief Abiola’s businesses had been affected by the poor infrastructure in Nigeria (electricity, water, fuel supply, transport, etc.) and it was believed that one of the reasons that he wanted to be president was to solve these problems that had proved to be challenges to his business empire.

(D) He had foreign connections:

Chief Abiola was friends with a lot of foreign heads of state/governments and he was also friends with a lot of foreign businessmen and people believed that he would use these connections to advance the interests of Nigeria.


(E) Hope ’93 booklet:

Both parties had their manifestos, but Chief Abiola's campaign organisation, "Hope '93" published a booklet titled, "Hope '93 - How To Make Nigeria A Better Place For All".

The booklet touched on every aspect of Nigerian life including, food security, unemployment, sports, security, entertainment, etc. and explained what Chief Abiola would do in each of these sectors if he was elected president. I had that booklet until 2006 when I misplaced it while moving house (the loss was very painful).

In response the Tofa campaign organisation published,"My Vision For A Greater Nigeria" by Bashir Tofa.

Chief Abiola went further to demonstrate his points about food security by flooding the market with cheap food from Abiola Farms and some imported food products. This was at a time that there was crippling inflation. There was Abiola Rice, Abiola Milk, etc.

Chief Abiola was very popular and well known, meanwhile, not many people outside of political circles had ever heard of Alhaji Bashir Othman Tofa before the 1993 election campaign (despite the fact that he was active in politics during the Second Republic).

https://naijachronicles./2018/07/28/why-mko-abiola-won-the-1993-election-part-5/

Post 1F

2) Structure

However, as we all know, mere popularity is not enough to win the presidency of Nigeria. Winning the Nigerian presidency is not about intellect, fame or wealth. There are very many famous, wealthy, intelligent or popular people that have attempted to become the president of Nigeria and failed woefully. People like Chief Gani Fawehinmi, Professor Pat Utomi, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, Demas Nwoko, Pastor Chris Okotie, Major General Muhammadu Buhari and even Chief MKO Abiola have tried to win the presidency and failed woefully because they did not have the structure that’s required. (I have to make a confession at this point. I was one of the people that mocked Demas Nwoko when he declared that he was going to contest for the presidency of Nigeria).

For example, Chief MKO Abiola attempted to contest for the presidency during the Second Republic, but he failed woefully.

Chief MKO Abiola was a nationalist (that is, he followed the Nigerian ideology of nationalism). He was a member of the National Council of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC) during the First Republic and it was only natural that he was one of the founding members of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) in the Second Republic.

The NPN had issues with the media. The biggest newspaper houses were based in the South West and the South West was the main support base of the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN). Some NPN members felt that the media was biased in favour of the UPN. The NPN was a nationalist party, but the media made it seem like it was a northern party. There were also statements by NPN members that were misreported by the media.

For example, Alhaji Umaru Dikko (one of the most powerful members of the NPN) was appointed as the chairman of the committee on rice importation (a very sensitive and controversial committee at that time). In one of his speeches as head of the committee he said, “As long as we are in government, we will leave no stone unturned to ensure that there is sufficient food in Nigeria and nobody will eat from the dustbin”. However, the media reported that he said, “There is no hunger in Nigeria because nobody is eating from dustbins” (or something like that). I know people who still vilify Umaru Dikko today for that statement.

Chief Abiola offered to assist his party to counter the negative publicity. He started a very popular national newspaper called the National Concord. The National Concord battled with the rest of the media and balanced the equation in the media. It exposed the Maroko land scandal in which Chief Obafemi Awolowo (the leader of the UPN) was accused of grabbing land from the poorest of Nigerians in Maroko.

Chief Abiola’s success with the National Concord made him believe that he could aspire for a key position in the NPN leadership. He contested for the chairmanship of the party, but the key members of the party supported the incumbent, Chief Meredith Adisa Akinloye, who had been a major politician since the 1950s. Chief Akinloye had the necessary political structures, while Chief Abiola did not, so of course he lost the contest.

Then he decided to contest in the 1983 presidential elections. Remember that Chief Abiola’s party, the National Party of Nigeria, controlled the presidency and the National Assembly. In other words, President Shehu Shagari was a member of the NPN and Chief Abiola wanted to contest against him.

Alhaji Umaru Dikko was President Shagari’s chief enforcer. President Shagari was a quiet and gentle man, so Umaru Dikko did all the dirty work for him (He was to President Shagari, what Chief Tony Anenih was to President Obasanjo). Umaru Dikko had been in government and politics since the 1960s and he knew all the tricks. President Shagari had also been in politics since the 1950s and he was a minister in the First Republic. Meanwhile, although Chief Abiola was a wealthy and popular businessman, he had never held any key political position and he didn’t have a political structure.

Umaru Dikko told Chief Abiola that the presidency was not for sale. Chief Abiola lost the primary election, left the party and ceased actively participating in politics.

What does structure mean? I tried to explain the concept of structure to a few Nairalanders years ago, but they could not understand it. I will use an example to explain what structure means.

There was an old man that I knew in the 1970s and 1980s. He was a very nice old man. He was small in stature, but he was very influential. I remember that he had once held a position in government, but I can’t remember what that position was. He was no longer in government by the end of the Second Republic, yet he was more influential than people in government.

You see, this man was one of the de facto leaders of his community. The people went to him whenever there was a problem with electricity or water supply in the community and he intervened and the problem was solved. He helped children get into school, provided scholarships, etc. He took a walk around the community virtually every day, greeting people and enquiring about the welfare of their families. He didn’t have any official government position for most of the 1980s and early 1990s, but he was more respected than most government officials.

The people trusted that man more than they trusted people who showed up a year or two before elections to speak big grammar or offer people money. They might show up at other candidates’ rallies, to satisfy their curiosity and enjoy the excitement that rallies provide, they might collect money from wealthy politicians, but they will only vote for the candidates that this man endorses. They’ve actually seen the man solve their problems and they have a personal connection with him. They suspect that the candidates that come to speak big grammar or throw money around will forget them when they get into office, but they know that they can hold that man to account because he is one of them.

You need to have a group of such people working for you (in addition to whatever talents you have, e.g. popularity, wealth, intellect, etc.) in order to win elections in Nigeria. If you want to win a governorship election, then you must have them spread across the state. They must be prepared to work for you and mobilise voters across the state to vote for you. Nigeria is a big and very diverse country. In order to win the presidency, you must have people like that working for you in states across all the regions of Nigeria and across all the classes of people in Nigeria.

A political structure in Nigeria is a group of associates, followers, loyalists, etc. that can easily mobilise support and votes for the candidate of the group. Political parties have their structures and some individual politicians also have their structure. For example, the political structure of Chief Bola Ahmed Tinubu is the Primrose Group and it has existed since at least 1991. The political structure of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar is the People’s Democratic Movement (PDM) and it is a successor of the People’s Front (PF) which was the political structure of General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua and which was established in 1989. The political structure of Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso is the Kwankwasiyya Movement. There are political structures that are so strong that they can survive the death of the structure’s leader, e.g. the Awoist Movement and the People’s Front.

Some political structures are formal. They have a formal name and structure, but some political structures are ad hoc. They have no formal name or structure, but they are put together to achieve a specific purpose.

This piece is about the amazing political machine that was cobbled together by Chief MKO Abiola in order to win the June 12 1993 election.

https://naijachronicles./2018/07/28/why-mko-abiola-won-the-1993-election-part-6/

naptu2 wetin happen to you? Let's hear it oo

POST 1 G

Major General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua

Major General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua was born into a prominent political and titled family. His father, Mallam Musa Yar’Adua, held the title of Mutawallin Katsina, a title that he inherited from Shehu Yar’Adua’s grandfather. Mallam Musa Yar’Adua was also the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (Lagos) during the First Republic and he was a very well respected politician.

Mallam Yar’Adua and the then Minister of Defence, Alhaji Muhammadu Ribadu, convinced Shehu to enlist in the Nigerian Army in 1962. Shehu Musa Yar’Adua rose to become the Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters (military vice president) from 1976-1979. He retired as part of the return to civil rule in 1979, having attained the rank of major general. Major General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua was the brain behind the coup that is known as the “Murtala Coup” which overthrew General Yakubu Gowon in 1975.

The Babangida Administration announced a transition programme that was supposed to lead to the establishment of a democratically elected government in 1990. Local government elections were held on no party basis in 1987 and 1989 as part of the transition programme.

The government banned politicians that had held political office in the First and Second Republics (known as the “Old Breed” ) from contesting in elections during the transition period. This included former governors, presidents and ministers, e.g. people like Lateef Jakande, Abubakar Rimi, Bola Ige and Umaru Dikko. The government felt that they had created problems during the First and Second Republics and that they would derail the Third Republic if they were allowed to participate in the process. Instead the government encouraged so-called “New Breed” politicians, that is, those that had not been involved in politics in the past, to get involved in the process.

In 1989 the government told politicians to form political associations and to also submit requests for their political associations to be registered as political parties. 13 political associations submitted requests. I can remember the scene at the headquarters of the National Electoral Commission (NEC) in Onikan, Lagos. The political associations submitted truckloads of documents to support their requests for registration. It looked quite funny to me.

One of the associations that submitted a request was the People’s Front, which was led by Major General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua. The People’s Front had an enormous structure and consisted of many powerful politicians and this made General Yar’Adua to become the most powerful politician in Nigeria. The People’s Front had the following members between 1989-1993: Chief Adedapo Sarumi, Alhaji Babagana Kingibe, Chief Yomi Edu, Chief Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Professor Ango Abdullahi, Alhaji Yahaya Kwande, Alhaji Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, Alhaji Ahmadu Rufai, Chief Sunday Afolabi, Prince Ademola Adeniji Adele, Dr Wahab Dosunmu, etc. Chief Francis Arthur Nzeribe was also associated with the People’s Front.

Some of the other associations were the People’s Solidarity Party (PSP), the Liberal Convention (LC), the Nigerian Labour Party (NLP) and the Nigerian National Congress (NNC). My friend’s father started one of those political associations, despite the fact that his wife was totally against it. The wife said that Nigerian politics was dirty and dangerous and that the man was already successful and had everything he wanted, so she couldn’t understand why he was getting involved in politics. The man persisted until they got an anonymous threat by someone on the telephone and the wife put her foot down and the man left politics.

The political associations were still going through the screening process and the number of associations had been pruned down by NEC (I can’t remember how many were remaining) when President Babangida addressed the nation one night in 1989 and cancelled the whole process. He declared that none of the associations was acceptable and postponed the date for the handover of government till October 1st 1992.

The government created two new parties in 1990. They were the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the National Republican Convention (NRC). President Babangida said that one of the parties (SDP) would be a little to the left and the other (NRC) would be a little to the right.

The government said that it had cancelled the previous process of registering political parties because it discovered that the old problem of moneybags and founder-owner of political parties had arisen. It did not want a situation where a single individual was seen as the founder of a political party and that individual’s word was law in the party (this undermined internal democracy). For example, the UPN was seen as Obafemi Awolowo’s party, the NPP was seen as Nnamdi Azikiwe’s party, the PRP was seen as Aminu Kano’s party, etc. Therefore, the fact that the military government created the NRC and SDP meant that everybody was an equal member of the party and nobody was a founder-owner.

Furthermore, the government also didn’t want a situation in which a member became all powerful within a party simply because he was the one funding the party (this is known as the “moneybag syndrome” ). Therefore, the government provided grants to the parties to enabled them to fund their activities.

The People’s Front joined the SDP. The other major block in the SDP was the People’s Solidarity Party (PSP) which was made up of Awoists (the remnants of Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s political structure, i.e. former members of the Action Group and Unity Party of Nigeria) and followers of Aminu Kano (i.e. former members of the People’s Redemption Party and Northern Elements Progressive Union). The Nigerian Labour Party, which was backed by the Nigerian Labour Congress was a minority partner in the SDP. Another minority block in the SDP was the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) which was made up of politicians that had been in Nnamdi Azikiwe’s Nigerian People;s Party (NPP), e.g. Sam Mbakwe and Jim Nwobodo.

The People’s Front (PF) and the People’s Solidarity Party (PSP) went head to head for the chairmanship of the SDP in 1990. Alhaji Babagana Kingibe was the candidate of the PF, while Alhaji Muhammadu Arzika was the candidate of the PSP. Kingibe won and became the first candidate of the SDP.

I clearly remember those SDP and NRC adverts and rallies from 1990 and 1991. Alhaji Babagana Kingibe was the chairman of the SDP, while Chief Tom Ikimi was the chairman of the NRC. Kingibe had an amazing voice and carried himself very well, while Chief Ikimi was always screaming at rallies (someone asked, “Does he know that there’s a microphone in front of him?” ). Kingibe was a very good public speaker (which was one of the things that helped him to win the SDP chairmanship contest) and he sounded like he had done voice training, like one of those Radio Nigeria announcers from the 1980s.

However, crisis between the PF and PSP factions of the SDP cost the party the Lagos and Kano governorship positions in the 1991 elections.

The PSP faction of the SDP in Lagos (the Awoists) led by the former governor, Baba Kekere, Alhaji Lateef Jakande, supported Professor Femi Agbalajobi in the primaries, while the PF faction supported one of General Yar’Adua’s associates, Chief Dapo Sarumi. The battle between Agbalajobi’s supporters and Sarumi’s supporters was intense and bloody and both candidates were eventually disqualified by the national leadership of the party. Another associate of Yar’Adua, Chief Yomi Edu (the son of Chief S.L. Edu) was eventually selected as the candidate of the party.

The PSP faction felt that the PF had used the fact that one of its members was chairman of the party (Kingibe) to impose another PF member as the party’s candidate and so they decided to vote for the NRC to show their displeasure. The NRC candidate, Sir Michael Agbolade Otedola ended up winning the gubernatorial election and he became governor of Lagos despite the fact that the SDP controlled the state house of assembly and the local governments. A very similar situation played out in Kano State between members of the PF and the PSP faction (followers of Aminu Kano). Although the SDP was more popular in Kano than the NRC, many members were not happy with the choice of Alhaji Magaji Abdullahi as the candidate of the party and therefore, the NRC candidate, Kabiru Gaya, won the governorship election in that state.

23 aspirants contested the presidential primaries of both the SDP and NRC in 1992. The primaries were conducted using the Option A4 system. The Option A4 system was designed to curb the influence of “Lagos and Abuja politicians”, i.e. politicians that never visited their hometowns and did not know the problems of the people there (the people at the grassroots), but stayed in Lagos and Abuja while claiming to represent the people at the grassroots.

The Option A4 system meant that the presidential primaries were held in every ward, local government and state and that every card carrying member could vote in the primaries. This was quite different from the situation in which delegates were chosen and those delegates had to travel to Lagos or Abuja to vote in a national convention to select the candidate of the party. The primaries were therefore very much like a general election, but instead of a voter’s card, you needed a party card in order to vote.

The primaries were staggered across August and September 1992. A group of states would have their primaries on a certain day and another group of states would have their primary on another day.

General Yakubu Gowon also contested in the election on the platform of the SDP. Gowon had served as military head of state from 1966-1975 and Lieutenant General Obasanjo asked him if he had forgotten anything in state house (if that’s the reason that he wanted to go back to state house). That quote was used against General Obasanjo when he contested in the presidential elections in 1999.

Gowon was known around the country because he had been a head of state. He returned to school after he was overthrown and got a Ph.D. in political science. However, General Gowon had no political structure and he lost the primaries woefully in his local government and state.

I had a friend who vigorously campaigned for Alhaji Mahmud Waziri, even though it was clear to me that there was absolutely no way that he could win the SDP primaries.

The front runners in the SDP primary were
Major General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua (the candidate of the PF),

Chief Olu Falae (former secretary to the government of the federation and minister of finance in the Babangida government. He was the candidate of the Awoists/PSP),

Chief Francis Arthur Nzeribe (crazy billionaire businessman and a member of the donation circuit),

Dr Olusola Saraki

The front runners in the NRC primaries were

Alhaji Adamu Ciroma (former governor of the Central Bank),

Alhaji Umaru Shinkafi (former spy chief),

Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu (billionaire businessman and member of the donation circuit)



The results were announced after every round of the primaries and General Yar’Adua quickly stormed into the lead. He had a very strong structure all across the country and it was no surprise to me that he was leading.

I can’t remember if all the results were announced or not, but some aspirants petitioned the government and claimed that party members were being bribed to vote for certain aspirants and that the primaries were not free and fair. Eventually General Babangida cancelled the process and banned all the 23 aspirants from taking part in new presidential primaries that would be held for the two parties.

The date for the handover to a new civilian president was moved to October 1st 1993 and the presidential election was fixed for June 12th 1993.

General Yar’Adua’s structure and network was so strong that he actually got very good intelligence before the process was cancelled, but I don’t think he analysed it properly or used it well. My friend told me that all the aspirants in the SDP had a meeting on Victoria Island before the process was cancelled. He said that General Yar’Adua told the other aspirants that he had heard that President Babangida was going to cancel the process and install an interim government with Chief MKO Abiola as the head of the government.

Well, General Yar’Adua’s information was right. President Babangida did cancel the process and he created a “Transitional Council”, but he appointed Chief Ernest Shonekan as the head of the council (not Chief Abiola).

Many people forget that the transitional council existed before the June 12 election. This created a strange system of government. At that time we had (1) a military president (2) a civilian vice president who was a retired military officer (3) a chairman of a transitional council who was like an unelected prime minister (4) an elected National Assembly (5) a military ruling council (the NSDC) that was superior to the elected National Assembly. It was a crazy system of government.

The banning of politicians that had held office during the First and Second Republics, along with the banning of the 23 aspirants, cleared the way for other people to aspire for the presidency.

Chief MKO Abiola’s first wife died of cancer in November 1992 and President Ibrahim Babangida paid him a condolence visit. MKO asked Babangida if he was serious about handing over on October 1st 1993 and Babangida confirmed that he was going to hand over on that date. MKO subsequently declared his intention to contest the June 12 presidential election on the platform of the SDP.

The government had removed the chairmen of the two political parties from office after the 1992 presidential parties had been cancelled and so Alhaji Babagana Kingibe was now free to contest the presidential election, since he was no longer the chairman of the SDP. (Chief Tony Anenih was elected as the new chairman of the SDP, while Dr Ahmed Kusamotu was elected as the new chairman of the NRC, replacing Chief Tom Ikimi).

Alhaji Atiku Abubakar was the candidate of the People’s Front at the SDP presidential primaries.

The SDP had its presidential primaries at its national convention in Jos in March 1993. (I had a friend who was based in Jos at the time and she told me about all the terrible things that politicians did with Unijos girls during the convention). The NRC convention was held in Port Harcourt, also in March 1993.

The SDP presidential primary was contested by Chief MKO Abiola, Alhaji Babagana Kingibe ( “sai Baba” ) and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, while the NRC presidential primary was contested by Alhaji Bashir Tofa , Dr Joe Nwodo (the elder brother of the Enugu State governor, Okwesileze Nwodo), Dr Dalhatu Tafida (former personal physician to President Shehu Shagari) and Chief Pere Ajunwa.

The result of the first round of voting at the SDP convention saw Chief MKO Abiola leading Alhaji Babagana Kingibe by a slim margin, while Alhaji Atiku Abubakar came third. Chief Abiola and General Yar’Adua then struck a deal. General Yar’Adua ordered Atiku Abubakar to step down for Chief Abiola (with the unwritten understanding that Atiku Abubakar would be Chief Abiola’s running mate when he wins the primaries) and the People’s Front political machine was deployed to support Chief Abiola. Chief Abiola eventually won the primaries.

General Yar’Adua had wanted Alhaji Atiku Abubakar to be Chief Abiola’s running mate, but SDP governors persuaded Chief Abiola to pick Kingibe as his running mate. In fact, the governors stampeded Chief Abiola to publicly announce Kingibe as his running mate, so that he would not be able to change his mind later. General Yar’Adua accepted the arrangement, since Kingibe had also come from the People’s Front family.

Yar’Adua deployed his political machine to work for Chief Abiola’s victory. Due to Yar’Adua’s support (and the support of the PRP faction of the PSP block), Chief Abiola defeated Alhaji Bashir Othman Tofa in his ward, local government and state (Kano State). Chief Abiola won in Kano, Kaduna, Jigawa, Plateau, Yobe and Abuja partly because of the support of General Yar’Adua.

https://naijachronicles./2018/07/28/why-mko-abiola-won-the-1993-election-part-7/

POST 1H


People’s Redemption Party (PRP)

Aminu Kano was known as a friend of the talakawas (i.e. the commoners). His political party, the Northern Elements Progressive Union (NEPU) challenged the more elitist Northern People’s Congress (NPC) in Northern Nigeria during the First Republic (1960-1966). He created the People’s Redemption Party (PRP) and contested for the presidency of Nigeria during the Second Republic (1979-1983). Aminu Kano was very popular because he was seen as a friend of the poor.

The PRP controlled Kano during the Second Republic. Its candidate, Abubakar Rimi, was elected governor of Kano in 1979. Rimi defected to the NPP in 1983 and contested the governorship election on that platform. He lost to the PRP’s Sabo Barkin Zuwo (of the Coke and Fanta fame).

Both Abubakar Rimi and Barkin Zuwo along with the rest of Aminu Kano’s political structure were in the PSP block of the SDP. They campaign vigorously for Chief Abiola and they were part of the reason that Abiola defeated Tofa in Kano (Tofa’s home state).

Chief Chukwuemeka Ezeife

There was a block of Igbo politicians in the SDP. This included Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, Chief Jim Ifeanyichukwu Nwobodo, Chief Sam Mbakwe, Chief Chukwuemeka Ezeife (who was governor of Anambra State at the time) and Chief Francis Arthur Nzeribe (who was associated with Yar’Adua’s People’s Front).

Ojuwku left the SDP after the convention in Jos in which Chief Abiola and Alhaji Kingibe emerged as the flag bearers of the party. He claimed that the Igbo had been marginalised in the SDP and so he defected to the NRC. When he was reminded that the position of secretary to the government of the federation had been reserved for the Igbo he said, “SGF is a glorified tea boy”. The NRC had selected Chief Sylvester Ugoh, who had served as governor of the bank of Biafra, as its vice presidential candidate and therefore it was a more acceptable platform for him. (Note that Chief Ojukwu was a member of the NPN in the 1980s. He was not a member of the NPP).

Chief Francis Arthur Nzeribe has always been a maverick politician and you could never really tell what was going on in his mind.

I remember watching the Network News c1991 and seeing a report about a court case between Chief Nzeribe and another person. Chief Nzeribe lost the case and he was supposed to pay damages to the other person, but he claimed that he was bankrupt and couldn’t pay. How could a billionaire like Nzeribe be bankrupt? Well the other side listed assets that belonged to Chief Nzeribe and contended that he was not bankrupt, but Chief Nzeribe said that those assets belonged to the Arthur Nzeribe Foundation, which was a distinct legal person from Chief Francis Arthur Nzeribe.

There was a rumour that was widely circulated in the 1980s. I don’t believe the rumour, but I’m not surprised that so many people believed it. Chief Francis Arthur Nzeribe was elected into the Nigerian Senate on the platform of the Nigerian People’s Party (NPP) in 1983. The rumour was that Chief Nzeribe hosted a Christmas/New Year party on December 30th 1983 and lots of politicians and businessmen attended the party. While the party was going on, Chief Nzeribe got information that there was going to be a coup. He went back into the party and told his guests to relax and enjoy themselves, then he left, went to the airport and fled the country. Many of the politicians that were at that party were later detained by the new military government.

Chief Nzeribe is also famous for making a lot of money selling arms to both sides of conflicts in Africa and the Middle East in the 1960s.

He had been engaged in a battle with Jim Nwobodo for the soul of the SDP in eastern Nigeria and in my opinion, he lost that battle.

So it was no surprise that Chief Nzeribe, who was one of the 23 aspirants that were banned after 1992 primaries, would lead an organisation that would work to annul an election that his party, the SDP, was winning.

However, the other members of the PPP block remained in the SDP. Chief Jim Nwobodo had been the governor of the old Anambra State from 1979-1983 and Chief Chukwuemeka Ezeife was the incumbent governor of Anambra, so it was no surprise that Chief Abiola won Anambra State.

However, Anambra State was the only state in the South East that was governed by the SDP. Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, who was a member of the donation circuit and who was one of the aspirants in the 1992 NRC presidential primary, campaigned heavily against Chief Abiola. In fact, I remember that he continued to campaign against the June 12 election after it was annulled. Chief Odumegwu Ojukwu also campaigned against the SDP and so it was also no surprise that Chief Abiola lost in Abia, Enugu and Imo states.

Dr Olusola Abubakar Saraki
The Oloye, Dr Olusola Saraki was the most powerful politician from Kwara State in the 1980s and 1990s. His structure was solid and it ensured that anyone he backed always won elections in Kwara State.

He backed Adamu Atta of the NPN for the governorship in 1979 and Atta won the election and served as governor from 1979-1983. He fell out with Adamu Atta and therefore backed Cornelius Adebayo of the UPN in the 1983 governorship election. Adebayo won, but he only served as governor for a few months before the military coup of December 31st 1983.

Saraki backed Mohammed Shaaba Lafiagi in the 1991 elections. Lafiagi won and served as governor until Abacha struck in November 1993. The Oloye supported Retired Admiral Mohammed Lawal in the 1999 election and Mohammed Lawal won. He later differed with Mohammed Lawal and so he backed his own son, Bukola Saraki in the 2003 governorship election and Bukola won.

Saraki had pitched his tent with the SDP and therefore, all elected positions in Kwara State were won by the SDP. He backed the candidate of the SDP, Chief MKO Abiola in the presidential election and, of course, Chief Abiola defeated Tofa in Kwara State.


Chief Lamidi Adedibu
Chief Lamidi Adedibu started out in politics in the 1950s as a member of the Ibadan People’s Party, but he later switched to Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s Action Group. Chief Adedibu’s network controlled most of Ibadan and his candidates in those parts of Ibadan usually win elections. His influence was so great that he was one of the major politicians that the Babangida Administration detained in 1991 ahead of the governorship elections. The government feared that “old breed” politicians would affect the results of the elections, so it detained them so that they won’t be able to influence the elections. However, that did not stop Chief Adedibu from wielding his influence.

Politicians like Chief Bola Ige, Major General Shehu Musa Yar’ Adua, Chief Jim Nwobodo, Dr. Olusola Saraki, Alhaji Lateef Jakande, Alhaji Abubakar Rimi and Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu were detained at Kirikiri Prison. Bola Ige pleaded that Chief Adedibu should be released because he had not been involved in politics at that time. Chief Adedibu refused to be released. He said that he would go home if he was released and that he had nothing to do at home. He said that Nigeria’s first eleven (meaning Nigeria’s top politicians) were in detention and that anytime their names were mentioned his name would also be mentioned and that was good free publicity for him.

The eminent politicians were initially detained at the Kirikiri Maximum Prison, Lagos. When the crowd of sympathisers that thronged the prison became unbearable to the military government, they were transferred to a detention camp at Epe, also in Lagos State. Adedibu shared the same chalet with General Yar’Adua. They were not allowed visitors, as the government controlled their contact with the outside world so that they would not influence the impending governorship election. Their contact with the outside world was at the benevolence of the security operatives detailed to keep watch over the detention camp. Adedibu got a message out to one of his aides. One morning, the aide arrived at the detention camp in the overalls of a medical doctor, a stethoscope and a bag of drugs requesting to see Chief Adedibu. On enquiry, he introduced himself as Adedibu’s personal doctor. He was allowed in. Yar’Adua was surprised when the “visiting doctor” turned out to be Adedibu’s personal assistant. Adedibu had a good laugh. The aide gave Adedibu a detailed account of the political situation at home in Oyo State and received instructions on what should be done in preparation for the election. Adedibu also wrote letters to some politicians on what he wanted them to do. The envelopes were addressed to Adedibu’s wives. Thinking that an obstinate security operative could insist on reading it and knowing that they were not from the South West, he wrote the letters in Yoruba.

Yar’Adua expressed concern that he was cut off from political reports from home because he had no access to the radio, Adedibu’s aide then approached the security aides that Adedibu’s health was deteriorating and he urgently needed some drugs. He returned with a small transistor radio that fit into the package of a drug. From the detention, Yar’Adua and Adedibu monitored political activities across the country.

Chief Adedibu was also instrumental to the emergence of Rashidi Ladoja as a senator in 1992. Chief Adedibu, as a member of the PSP block in the SDP, supported Chief Abiola in the June 12 1993 election and it was no surprise that Chief Abiola won in Oyo State.

Chief Tony Anenih
Chief Tony Anenih became prominent in Nigerian politics when he was elected as the chairman of the NPN in Bendel State. The state was controlled by the UPN government of Ambrose Ali at that time. Chief Anenih helped the NPN candidate, Samuel Ogbemudia (who had been the military governor of the Midwest State during the Gowon era) to defeat Ambrose Ali in the 1983 election.

Chief Anenih joined the SDP as a member of Yar’Adua’s People’s Front and helped the SDP candidate, Chief John Odigie Oyegun to defeat Chief Lucky Igbinedion of the NRC in the 1991 governorship election. Chief Anenih became the chairman of the SDP after the previous executive, led by Alhaji Babagana Kingibe, was removed from office by the government after the failed 1992 presidential primaries.

Chief Anenih campaigned to ensure that Chief Abiola of the SDP won in Edo State during the 1993 presidential election (as did Governor Oyegun).

SDP structure
Most of the south eastern minority states were evenly split between the SDP and the NRC. For example, even though the governor of Cross River State, Obong Akpan Isemin, was from the NRC, the SDP had a majority in the state house of assembly and the speaker was a member of the SDP. This fact, coupled with Chief Abiola’s popularity, ensured that he won in Cross River, Rivers and Akwa Ibom state.

https://naijachronicles./2018/07/28/why-mko-abiola-won-the-1993-election-part-8/

POST 2

International Telephone & Telegraph (ITT).

ITT is an American company that was founded in 1920. The company manufactured telecommunications equipment and had subsidiaries that provided telecommunications services. It still exists today as ITT Inc, but it has undergone massive changes since the 1970s that has seen it divest from the telecoms business.

Allegations against ITT

1) Involvement in the 1964 coup in Brazil: It is alleged that ITT assisted the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to overthrow the government of João Goulart in Brazil in 1964. Goulart had resumed relations with Cuba, nationalised a subsidiary of ITT and his administration had passed a law that limited the amount of profit that multinationals could take out of the country. The US government branded Goulart a communist (even though he was not) and the CIA performed psychological operations (psyops) against him, sponsored anti-Goulart propaganda, enlisted the help of American trade unions and the USAID to work against Goulart and pumped money into military units that were willing to overthrow him. ITT helped the CIA to carry out some of these activities, including the psyops campaign against the government. ITT's president, Harold Geneen, was friends with the Director of Central Intelligence, John McCone and McCone went to work for ITT when he left the CIA.

2) 1972 Republican National Convention scandal: ITT became enmeshed in scandal in connection with the 1972 Republican National Convention. In May 1971, ITT president Geneen pledged $400,000 to support a proposal to hold the convention in San Diego; only $100,000 of the contribution was publicly disclosed. The Republican National Committee selected San Diego as the site in July 1971.

However, on February 29, 1972, newspaper columnist Jack Anderson disclosed an interoffice memo from ITT lobbyist Dita Beard to ITT vice president Bill Merriam, dated June 25, 1971. The memo appeared to draw a connection between ITT's contribution to the convention and the favourable settlement of a Justice Department antitrust lawsuit. The resulting scandal, including a Senate investigation and the threat of criminal charges, caused ITT to withdraw its support for the San Diego convention. That combined with a shortage of hotel space and problems with the proposed venue led the RNC to move the convention to Miami. Special prosecutor Leon Jaworski investigated the case but ultimately concluded there was no evidence of criminal conduct by ITT.

3) Involvement in 1973 Pinochet coup in Chile: In 1970, ITT owned 70% of CTC (the Chilean Telephone Company, now Movistar Chile) and funded El Mercurio, a Chilean right-wing newspaper. Declassified documents released by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency in 2000 reveal that the company financially helped opponents of Salvador Allende's government prepare a military coup. On September 28, 1973, an ITT building in New York City, was bombed by the Weather Underground for involvement in the 1973 Chilean coup d'état, which overthrew the government in Chile.



Posts And Telecoms Department (P&T)

The Posts and Telecommunications Department (P&T) was responsible for providing postal and telecommunications services within Nigeria from 1886 till 1985. The Nigerian External Communications Department (NET or NECOM) was responsible for providing telecommunications services between Nigeria and the rest of the world. In 1985 the Postal Service was detached from the P&T and it became Nipost, while the Telecommunications Department was merged with NET to form the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (Nitel).

The P&T provided telecommunications services, but they did not manufacture the equipment that was used in providing these services. Equipment like exchanges, private exchanges (PABX), telephone sets, transmitters, cables, dishes (e.g. Lanlate), etc. were purchased from major European and American companies like Siemens, Ericsson, Nokia and ITT. I have relatives and friends that worked at P&T/Nitel in the 1960s, ‘70s, ‘80s and early 1990s and that’s how I heard about these companies for the first time.

Remember that the P&T and NET were the only organisations that were permitted by law to provide telecommunications services to Nigerians and that Nigeria had very low teledensity and lots of oil money in the 1970s and was trying to increase the number of Nigerians that had access to telecommunications services and so therefore the major European and American telecommunications equipment manufacturers competed fiercely for lucrative P&T contracts.


Allegations against Chief M.K.O Abiola

Most public figures (especially in Nigeria) have lots of allegations against them (whether true or false) and Chief Abiola is no exception. The allegations against Chief Abiola are in 5 main categories. 3 of them are directly linked to ITT and 2 of them are indirectly linked to ITT.

Allegation 1) There were allegations (especially in the 1980s) that Chief Abiola tricked the CEO of ITT Nigeria in order to gain control of the company. The nature of the alleged trick is not clear, some people claimed that he tricked the CEO into signing something, some others claimed that he got the CEO drunk and tricked him into signing something while he was drunk, etc. but the stories were that he tricked the CEO into signing away the company.

Allegation 2a) It was alleged that Chief Abiola used his connection with General Murtala Muhammad to win contracts for ITT. Murtala Muhammad was the commissioner (minister) of communications from 1974-1975 and head of state from 1975-1976.

Allegation 2b) Chief Abiola was a member of the ruling National Party of Nigeria (NPN) during the Second Republic of (1979-1983) and it was alleged that he used his position as a member of the party to distribute bribes to ministers and other government officials so that ITT could win P&T contracts.
The NPN controlled Federal Government of 1979-1983 was one of the most corrupt governments in Nigeria’s history. President Shagari was not corrupt, but his ministers and other members of government were extremely corrupt and he did nothing about it.

I have a friend that was involved in the communications industry in the 1970s and 1980s and he said that it was impossible to win a P&T contract without bribing government officials. The giant German company, Siemens was fined €201 million by a Munich court, $800 million by a Washington DC court and ₦7 billion by the Nigerian Government for bribing Nigerian Government officials in the late 1990s and early 2000s in order to win telecommunications contracts and my friend believed that Siemens had been bribing Nigerian government officials since as far back as the 1970s.

Allegation 3) It was alleged that Chief Abiola’s ITT got a contract to modernise Nigeria’s telephone network but he did not execute it. I heard this allegation quite a few times, but none of the people that talked about the allegation had any details about what the contract actually was. In fact, the allegation changed slightly every time that I heard it. It wasn’t until I read Chief Abiola’s interview that I found out what the contract actually was and what actually happened. (that interview is the fourth post in this series).

The next two allegations are only indirectly linked to ITT (they are similar to allegations about ITT’s practices in other parts of the world)

Allegation 4a) Chief Abiola was a member of the ruling National Party of Nigeria, but the NPN Government was overthrown by the military on December 31st, 1983 and Major General Muhammadu Buhari became head of state. The Buhari Administration waged a war against indiscipline (WAI) which included a war against corruption. Lots of contracts were cancelled and many former government officials (primarily politicians) were detained.

It is alleged that Chief Abiola felt that the Buhari Administration was not good for his businesses and therefore he colluded with the military to overthrow the regime. It is alleged that the National Concord was used to demonise the Buhari Administration in a psyops campaign that was designed to make the people more accepting of a change of government. The National Concord heavily criticised the Buhari Administration in the weeks leading up to the August 27, 1985 coup. The coup took place during the Eid El Kabir (Eid al-Adha) holiday and the Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters (military vice president), Major General Tunde Ididagbon, was in Saudi Arabia on pilgrimage. Chief Abiola was in the Federal Government delegation and some people allege that he was in that delegation to spy on Idiagbon.

Allegation 4b) It was also alleged that Chief Abiola sponsored the armed rebellion of Yoweri Museveni against the governments of Idi Amin Dada, Milton Obote and Tito Okello and that Chief Abiola helped him to become president of Uganda in 1986.

Allegation 4c) Charles Taylor invaded Liberia in 1989 and this led to the first Liberian Civil War. Nigeria led a West African intervention force called Ecomog (Ecowas Monitoring Group) to try and keep/enforce peace in Liberia in 1990. President Babangida said that Ecomog was in Liberia for the following reasons:

• To ensure that the war does not spread to other African countries.
• To stop the killing of innocent Liberians
• To end the problem of the spread of arms and refugees to neighbouring countries.
• It was an opportunity for Africans to solve their own problems without the intervention of the East and the West.


However, many Nigerians were not satisfied with Babangida’s reasons and therefore alternative stories and rumours spread. The rumours alleged that President Babangida was involved in a business deal with President Doe of Liberia and Chief MKO Abiola and that President Doe was in possession of the profits from that business. It was alleged that President Babangida sent Ecomog into Liberia to save President Doe so that the proceeds of his investment would be safe.

Allegation 4d) It was alleged that Chief Abiola conspired with Murtala Muhammad to overthrow General Gowon. (In actual fact, that coup was organised and staged by Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, Joseph Garba, Abdullahi Mohammed, Ibrahim Taiwo, Anthony Ochefu and Ibrahim Babangida. Murtala Muhammad, Olusegun Obasanjo and T.Y. Danjuma were only brought in at the latter stages of the coup).

Allegation 5) It was often alleged that Chief MKO Abiola was a CIA agent.

https://naijachronicles./2018/07/28/mko-abiola-part-9/

POST 3 A

It's time to hear from the horse's mouth. This is from an interview that Chief Abiola granted in 1983 and it was incorporated into a book about Abiola. In this interview Chief Abiola talks about his relationship with ITT.

Excerpts from Ogunbiyi, Yemi, “Legend of our time: The thoughts of M.K.O. Abiola”, Tanus Communications , Lagos, 1993.

Excerpt from Chapter 1: "Behind The Legend of Our Time: The Thoughts of MKO Abiola"

"Glasgow also looms large in his life because there he got married to his first wife, the late Alhaja Simbiat Abiola, and there they had their first two children, Kola and Deji.

Literally, after his final examinations in Glasgow, he returned home in March 1966 to a country torn apart by an imminent Civil War. His first job was with the University of Lagos Teaching Hospital and subsequently he worked for Pfizer.

In August 1968, he joined the International Telephones and Telecommunications (ITT) as its Finance Controller. That decision was to change the course of his life.


Excerpt from Chapter 36 of Book: "A Legend of Our Time: The Thoughts of MKO Abiola"

Now, the International Telephone and Telegraph (ITT) system has dual leadership: that is, the general manager and managing director on one hand and the controller on the other, both of whom have direct reporting channels to headquarters.

We had in Nigeria at the time a general manager who did not quite understand what was going on and if he understood he did not do much about it.

The general manager spent more time in Lagos boat club than in the office. He had no marketing leadership or any form of managerial leadership to give to his team and people under him.


A long-standing debt of UK3.5 million owed by the Army for three and half years had been the subject of more than six volumes of inter-company memoranda between the headquarters in London and New York. A delegation from London consisting of twelve top brass of ITT African and Middle East had been scheduled to meet the Army signals inspector, Lt.-Col. Murtala Muhammed on April 4, 1969.

Naturally, I joined the delegation. Eleven of us waited in the Inspector of Signals waiting room from 7:30 in the morning till 3:30 in the afternoon when he left the office. The Inspector of Signals did not even say hello. We repeated the second and the third day with the same result.

The United Kingdom delegation went back in disarray and frustration. The issue of the debt with the Army became urgent because on April 9, 1969, the first cheque I signed as controller of ITT Nigeria Limited was returned unpaid with the inscription "refer to drawer." It was for UK500. Up till that stage in my life, I had never had to meet a bank manager to ask for overdraft.

I took all the files on the Army transaction home and stayed up all night to get a proper handle of the situation. At 5:30 in the morning, I proceeded to the office of the Inspector of Signals. I arrive at seven o'clock on the dot.

Lt. Col Muhammed met me standing at his office at 7:29 am. He did not respond to my greeting but instead attempted to brush me aside. I refused to be brushed aside. The exchange of hot words ensued and continued for about half an hour during which time the Chief of Army Staff, then titled Chief of Staff, Army, Brigadier Hassan Usman Katsina, arrived at the scene.

He called the two of us into his office to question whether I knew who Lt. Col Muhammed was and I answered by asking whether Lt. Col Muhammed knew who I was.

That really infuriated Lt. Col. Muhammed. But I made it clear to the Chief of Army Staff, that I would like to reserve all statements until the arrival of the then Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Defence, Alhaji Yusuf GObir of blessed memory, who was quickly sent for by Brigadier Katsina.

I then told the Chief of Staff Army that Lt. Col Muhammed had prevented the government from fulfilling government obligations to my company by wrongful refusal to sign the voucher for more than three years.

Lt. Col Muhammed's reply was that my company, ITT Nigeria Limited, made a 20 per cent profit on the transaction, to which I quickly replied that if it were only 20 per cent ITT made on the supply of sophisticated army communication system, the Army still owed 11 per cent of the amount on the invoice because the interest of 31.5 per cent was being taken off the company by bankers. Alhaji Gobir admitted that the vouchers were for settlement for a long time, due to the refusal of the inspector of signals to authorise payment.

After a prolonged argument, it was decided that the money should be paid to us. And I collected the cheque before the close of business that day. But while waiting for the cheque, I had phoned to tell the general manager of the development. On getting back to the office, to my greatest surprise, I found all the staff in a merry-making mood.

https://naijachronicles./2018/07/28/mko-abiola-part-10/

POST 3 B

I proceeded immediately to London with the cheque and to report the affairs in the office and I insisted I could only carry on in the company if I became the managing director and at the same time was given no less than 50 per cent of the shareholding of the business. The managing director aspect of the request was granted immediately, but the shareholding part of it, I was told, required top policy consideration which would be resolved within six months.

I made it clear to ITT that to be able to give my best, I needed to work in an atmosphere and environment in which I would see myself as a landlord and not a tenant. I told them that the economic relationship that should exist between free peoples must not be like that of master and servant, but one based on mutual reliance and confidence. And that I saw no future in any business relationship I may establish with ITT if it did not guarantee the type of sense of belonging I was asking through partnership and control of the enterprise.

To those I spoke with in the headquarters, my sentiments were totally new ideas and, realistically, bearing in mind their own position in the organisation, a position based on master and servant to the organisation, there was great restriction on the amount of support I could expect from them. What I was asking from the corporation was a status that has not been given to anyone else in the half a century history of the organisation.

The issue was of such a fundamental nature, that it did not allow for the usual type of negotiation like the payment of extra bonus, commission and so on. The bottom line, in fact, was that I was requesting that at the determination of the profit for any year, half of that profit should be left behind in recognition of my contributions for making the whole profit. No more, no less.

The whole approach was predicated on the fact that I had such a contribution to make on the success of the business that needed to be specially recognised and rewarded over and above the bread and butter issues of salaries, bonuses and commissions. I gave an example with the difference between my approach to the collection of the UK3.5 million from the Army and those previously adopted by both the headquarters and the Nigerian management of the corporation to the same issue and the degree of success I attained. Anyway, I agreed to leave the matters to them for decision within six months.

While I accepted to be the managing director of the company, I refused to take the big house that came along with it at the low density are of Apapa. Instead, I preferred to stay in my Surulere residence of No. 7, Shofidiya Close.

There was a lot of anxiety by ITT that I should move to what they called a "respectable" area in order to facilitate my interaction with, and entertainment of VIPs and to be near the company of those they believed would help the progress of the organisation through membership of elite clubs and so on. Thus, when they though deeply about my objection to the Apapa house, they offered alternatives also at Victoria Island and another at Ikoyi. But as far as I was concerned the answer was the same.

I saw no reason why the performance of a particular office should take me out of the house I had built for myself. The pressure to move was such that I finally had to tell them that my father, having never been to school, would have problems in locating my residence in such low density areas and that in his old age, I should not give additional aggravation to his state especially since he had to see me on a regular basis being his first child. I emphasised that doing that would be frowned upon by the customs of our people and therefore it should never be done.

In further analysis, I concluded, if after six months in considering the issue of partnership I became such a failure in the management of the enterprise, the basis of the increased status would have fallen to pieces automatically.

If living in a particular location would have enhanced my chances of success, I would require no persuasion to jump to it. So, most reluctantly, I was allowed to continue living in my house. My appointment as managing director was subsequently announced.

Within the six months, and by the grace of God, a lot of improvement was recorded in every aspect of the operations of the company. The staff strength went up to 72, and we moved into a bigger office. The finances of the company were very healthy and our competitive position in the telecommunications industry improved beyond recognition.

At a meeting called at the headquarters at the expiration of the six months, every other issue was discussed except the issue of partnership. At the end of it, I offered my resignation as managing director of ITT giving the normal three months’ notice. The whole request I had made was treated as a joke which I did not find very funny.

I returned to plan my exit from ITT and formed the Radio Communications (Nigeria) Limited (RCN). I got an initial contract through the tender process, of course, in the Ministry of Defence and through the encouragement of Col Murtala Muhammed who had become a close friend following the earlier misunderstanding.

It took two and a half months to finalise the first RCN contract which came to about UK 3 million. But, somehow, someone leaked the UK3 million contract to ITT at UK 30 million and with only two days to go to the expiration of my resignation notice, ITT suddenly became interested in my new company and wanted a partnership with it. They radioed at the 11th hour to offer me the partnership I had asked for, provided, they said, I should consider giving them the same kind of partnership in the RCN.

After some negotiation, therefore, ITT sold me 49 per cent of the shares (42 per cent for certain technical and corporate reasons) and retained 51 per cent for purposes of "apparent control."

Shortly after that, the negotiations for their coming into partnership in RCN broke down and for some reasons, the negotiation was never reopened, the RCN remained in 100 per cent ownership of Chief MKO Abiola.

Excerpts from Ogunbiyi, Yemi, “Legend of our time: The thoughts of M.K.O. Abiola”, Tanus Communications , Lagos, 1993.

https://naijachronicles./2018/07/28/mko-abiola-part-11/

POST 3 C

The growth of ITT, however, continued by leaps and bounds. So did the growth of the RCN. We became the only telecommunications company controlled and run by Nigerians in Nigeria. We there had greater access to the customer and greater understanding of his requirements.

My position in the two companies would become meaningless unless I encouraged other Nigerian men and women to join the running of the affairs of the organisation. The value of the shares in the company increased astronomically as progress was made. I had the support of most Nigerians in both the civil service and the government and in the services and I ensured prompt deliveries and an efficient after sales services – the cornerstone of our success.

In early 1975, ITT had a breakthrough in the national telecommunications award to provide telephone exchanges in 38 locations in some parts of Nigeria. The Eastern part of the country was awarded to another company mainly for technical reasons. That was the period of port congestion and to facilitate the entry of equipment, the ministry of communications got us the permission to fly in telecommunications equipment. It involved 120 flights to accomplish the task in the allocated time.

Simultaneously with the telephone exchange contract, was the award of telephone exchange buildings contracts to local contractors. We were exclusively responsible for manufacturing and installing the equipment, but were not party to the construction of telephone buildings. Barring the fact that we made available the size of equipment room required, it was the duty of the architects, structural and electrical consultants of the Posts and Telecommunications and local contractors to make the buildings available. It is sad to say that ten of those buildings are not yet ready for the installation of equipment as at this morning that I am talking to you.

So many reasons have been adduced, depending on whom you talk to. The P & T have different reasons from those given by consultants. And the contractors have an entirely different set of reasons.

As an informed observer what I think has happened is not that the P & T failed to award those contracts to the right calibre of contractors or that it was due to bad consultants. The failure to construct those telephone buildings was due to non-availability of land on which to start the buildings at all.

For example in Sokoto, the contractor was chased out on three occasions by irate landowners or occupiers. The inadequacy of the land space made available in some places to the P & T was another factor as in Akure where the contractor struck a huge pool of water two feet from the surface.

We knew all along that piecemeal awards always lead to delay and waste. Some operational problems encountered by the contractors included, but were not limited to, the irregularity of payments as they fell due. This would have been avoided if a turnkey approach had been adopted "ab initio". A much more responsible company would have been saddled with the responsibility of total performance in each case.

The reason, of course, why that was not done was the fact that the critical importance of contractors involved in the installation of the telephone exchanges was very badly underplayed.

There was also the Nigerian attitude which, unfortunately, is still prevalent, that if you make a contract a turnkey contract, you would end up putting more money in the pockets of a few people. That, of course, is nonsense since the authority to award the turnkey contracts also confers authority to appoint the contractors, leaving the turnkey contractors to run the coordination for which they would naturally be paid. What is now realised too late, is that the system of achieving the same level of coordination through consultants is a lot more costly and very indecisive.

It is costly in the sense that you have to pay a series of expatriate consultants exorbitant fees totally disproportionate to the various works they are "consulting" on. It is indecisive also in the sense that for their own reasons, those contractors disagree among themselves and another set of consultants have to be employed to iron out these differences.

To make matters worse, the turnkey switching contracts of 1976 which followed still excluded construction from the telephone exchange installations, with the result that the buildings which were 60 in number and were supposed to be completed in 1977 are still to commence today, June 12, 1983.

Not only does this lead to colossal increase in the cost of installation (it is inconceivable that the cost of installation in 1973 could be applicable for 1983/84 installation), it exposes the equipment to long storage in circumstances in which deterioration automatically sets in. There was no plan at the beginning to put the equipment in warehouses for seven years, a period for which some of them have been there. The revenue loss caused by the delay in completing the exchanges to the P & T on top of the additional cost of long-term warehouse charges and insurance is more than 200 million naira so far.

The cost to the economy of the loss of project realisation must be a multiple of that sum. I regret to say that as far as the provision of telephone service are concerned, not much progress has been made since 1976.


The issue of oil glut is an all-embracing reason being advanced for most of these things. Relative to our level of development, however, all I can say is that a dialogue with the telecommunications companies would have presented a solution. It is a general saying in our industry that a company has nothing to be proud of until the exchanges are functioning and providing funds for the P & T.

We would wish that more telephone exchanges would be bought and installed to provide service to customers everywhere, and vital social, political, economic links made with every community in the country and the world community as a whole.

These were problems in Nigeria caused by the delay in our telecommunications development which has robbed us of the pride we deserve and are entitled to by efforts we have put in training more than 1,500 Nigerians in the four training schools we set up for that purpose, and the efforts we have made in the establishment of first-class maintenance facilities. It is a great pity indeed. An even greater pity was the fact that what looked like a profitable business at the beginning has turned out into an embarrassing loss because of our inability to complete the job on schedule, even years behind schedule, due to factors beyond our control.

It need not be emphasised that no contractor knows where he stands until he has successfully completed the job and handed it over to the customer. We are suffering the same type of delay, hopefully not to the same extent, on the transmission contract which was negotiated in the last days of the military administration and awarded in the present administration. We expect all impediments to be removed and delays limited to around two years.

Excerpts from Ogunbiyi, Yemi, “Legend of our time: The thoughts of M.K.O. Abiola”, Tanus Communications , Lagos, 1993.

https://naijachronicles./2018/07/28/mko-abiola-part-12/

POST 3D

Enough has been said to indicate that all is not well with ITT, but the gravest disappointment that I have is the fact that having persuaded ITT to establish a factory here as far back as 1978 and having done the feasibility study and having got those studies approved by the Federal Ministry of Information, and having acquired a large plot of land from the Ogun state government on the Lagos-Abeokuta Road, and having committed ITT to 63 million naira initial investment for 2,400 people in two shifts in employment, and having secured the approval of the Minister of Communications that the factory should be built, we were still held up for five years because P & T could not tell us what type of equipment to make, or commit themselves to the volume they would buy over the initial five-year period.

Since the P&T is the sole purchaser of telecommunications equipment by law (others purchase under license from them), it would be foolhardy for anyone to start manufacturing without proper assurance of patronage and acceptance of the products by the P&T.

What pains true Nigerians is that those things we import can be made here in Nigeria in manners that would suit our environment and at the same time generate employment for our technicians, technologists and engineers without the headache of the importation of raw materials we hear so much these days. That would have saved a lot of foreign exchange and provided a profitable avenue for the utilisation of local resources.


On a personal note, it would enable me attain my ultimate objective of forging a partnership through the highly technological factory with the ITT corporation, for I believe that once a factory has started, it makes it difficult for any company to pull out of the country.

With the long, rather interminable, delay in the realisation of the factory project, I had to bring about the second phase of the partnership agreement by which I made sure that ten per cent of the shares of ITT donated by myself were divided to the generality of the staff in a formula that takes account of the length of service and the level of individual personnel. There is a programme to increase the number of shares in the trust fund. But the principle behind it all is the establishment of a sense of belonging among all levels of staff in the company.

At the height of growth of the ITT, we had 3,000 staff, in late 1979. Owing to the long delay in completing buildings and other infrastructure for the commencement of installation and recent problems in the payment of bills by the P&T, we had to cut back severely to about half that number. But the ITT still remains the largest telecommunications company in Nigeria. I am proud to say that my personal shareholding in the company is higher than that of ITT. That aspect is what means so much to people. In the present circumstance, the shares are not worth much but by the grace of God, better times are ahead.

In addition to just giving employment, ITT has provided free medical services since 1974 to all employees and their immediate relations, as well as generous housing and transport allowances long before the government provided same. All this is in addition to accident and retirement insurance. We give study leave with pay without introducing any bond with the staff. We run a virile football club that came second in division one in Lagos state football league. We are involved in various areas, handball, cricket, athletics. We take part in seminars and present papers in our field, and give a lot of advice in the field of telecommunications, much of which is turned down, but which we will continue to give and generally play a leadership role in the telecommunications industry in this part of the world.

In my many years of association with the ITT, within which I grew to become the executive vice-president of the corporation for Africa, Middle East and Asia, the most difficult part of my career was getting ITT to leave South Africa in 1975. Although a most painful decision because the South African market is four times the size of the market of the rest of black Africa, I was able to persuade ITT to abandon the telecommunications market in South Africa.

Most of my colleagues did not feel strongly about the issue of South Africa. So it became my duty to point out the implication of ITT's continued trading with South Africa and my country and I was pleased it was dealt with in only one meeting: the discussion lasted less than two hours within which I was able to get ITT to understand that the future lies not in South Africa. That is the only contribution I claim to have made in the determination of ITT policy in the world.

May I take the opportunity to take on the international interference of ITT in the affairs of other countries. While it is natural for some of our colleagues who have problems to discuss them in their various countries, it has never been my experience to adopt a confrontational attitude to any authority. We put our own point of view usually to the P&T or the ministry of communications. It is only in the most exceptional circumstances that ITT ever sought to bring its relationship with the P&T to powers higher than the Ministry of Communications at any time.

To my knowledge and belief, most of what has been written about ITT has been unduly sensationalised, thereby giving the corporation an incorrect image. I must say here that those of us in the corporation have not seen adverse consequences from the publicity we have received over the last ten years. On the contrary, sales have been going on, and so have incomes despite the pressure. This is due to the fact that ITT operates in so many countries - 93 in all all, and sells 7,013 types of products grouped in many product groups all over the world. Our success is that depression does not affect everything and everyone at the same time and in the same way. So, we end up doing a little better than all the adversities put together.

Excerpts from Ogunbiyi, Yemi, “Legend of our time: The thoughts of M.K.O. Abiola”, Tanus Communications , Lagos, 1993.

https://naijachronicles./2018/07/28/mko-abiola-part-13/

Me

Oga op how u want make i read all this long tori na ahn ahn fear God na.........make person summarize am i go wait

[img]https://media1./images/f3c8d79cfd86128ea637524302e22641/tenor.gif?itemid=3560931[/img]

i see Atiku PDM baba as been on the line for long patiently Atikulating....

Ok

Great Man ! Only the Indomie generation will not know this great man (MKO). But Op you for try summarize am is too lengthy.

FTC Una no dey sleep? Abeg oooo

aw,

Ah ah. Go do novel than stressing your life on this platform. Me , I know read am

kai you expect an average hungry Nigerian to read this

Allow the dead rest

No amount of analysis about him will bring him back to life!

Op, something is wrong with u!
I actually started reading this until I got to the PRP bit and decided to scroll down and saw the long epistle all because of Abiola!
Same Abiola that Fela the great prophet sang about in ITT?
Please save the long epistle and let the man burn in peace in Hell!

Interesting...

Na wa o, too long. But quite interesting

Wow!

I read it all. **standing ovation**. Well done @naptu. God bless you for this. This needsto be documented. Go further and write a book if possible. The life of MKO. Posterity will thank you for it. The Yoruba nation will thank you for it.

We don't acknowledge our true heroes because we don't even know them. A lot of us didn't know all this about MKO. Education about past heroes, is important. This is the reason countries honor their heroes with statues. Philanthropists, geniuses, veterans, activists. It's not just a honor but an avenue to educate future generations on the ideals the society should value, in that person.