Kola Abiola’s painful truth: a legacy denied, a wound reopened, by Olugbenga Ojo

In a recent reflection that has stirred both empathy and controversy, Kola Abiola, first son of the late Chief MKO Abiola, laid bare his frustrations with Nigeria’s political history and the refusal of former President Goodluck Jonathan to honour a man many Nigerians still regard as the symbol of their democracy.

“I hold no grudge against IBB,” Kola said, referring to General Ibrahim Babangida, the man who annulled the historic June 12, 1993, election. It is a statement heavy with emotional maturity. To forgive a man whose actions truncated your father’s destiny, and by extension, Nigeria’s democratic future, is no small feat. In Kola’s words is a man choosing peace, even if history itself still wrestles with justice.

But the tone changes when the subject turns to Goodluck Jonathan. According to Kola, despite repeated personal appeals, even after Jonathan lost re-election, the former president refused to bestow a posthumous GCFR honour on MKO Abiola. Kola did not mince words, saying: “Goodluck Jonathan really hated the Yoruba people.”

This is a severe accusation, one that risks deepening ethnic suspicions in an already fragile federation. Yet, beneath the sting lies a deeper truth: the pain of being ignored, not just as a family, but as a people. Abiola’s sacrifice was not a Yoruba struggle, it was a Nigerian one. His win transcended ethnicity and party lines. That he died in detention without ever being recognised until decades later was a national shame.

That President Jonathan, himself a product of Nigeria’s democratic aspirations, could not rise above politics to do what was morally and historically right, left an indelible scar. In contrast, President Muhammadu Buhari, once seen as an unlikely source of such national healing, did what his predecessors failed to do, he recognised Abiola as the true victor of June 12 and conferred the GCFR on him.

This isn’t about political points. It’s about honour, truth, and legacy.

As a nation, we often treat our heroes with indifference until others validate them. Kola Abiola’s outburst, raw as it is, speaks to a deeper need: the need for Nigeria to stop playing politics with pain, to honour those who gave their lives for freedom, and to start closing old wounds with honesty, not delay.

June 12 will forever remind us that the price of democracy was paid in full. The least we can do is never forget.

• Ojo is an ICT expert, social commentator, and advocate for institutional integrity. He writes from Abuja, Nigeria.