I spent June 12, 2020 at MKO Abiola’s home and resting place. Here’s what I saw

At 8am on Friday, June 12, 2020, calmness reigned outside the ‘White House’ on Moshood Abiola Crescent, off Toyin Street, in Ikeja, Lagos, where Moshood Abiola lived for many years and is now resting. 26 years ago, he was arrested inside the house on June 23, 1994 after declaring himself winner of the June 12, 1993 election.

From one end of the street to the other were dozens of policemen, guests, journalists, Abiola’s supporters. Many of them could be heard discussing the life and times of Abiola, June 12 election and how Nigeria missed the opportunity of having him as president.

Painted all white from the days of Abiola, his residence which sits on an expanse of land in the estate, has separate apartments for Abiola’s four wives – late Simbiat and Kudirat; as well as Bisi and Dr. Doyin, who lived with him during his lifetime. A mosque and telecom mast also sit on the expanse of land. It still maintains its old roof which could only be found in the homes of ‘big men’ in the 1990s before Gerard roofing tiles became the new trend. The expanse of land in the premises can reportedly take about 100 cars at a time. Besides the June 12 celebration that attracted people to the house, it’s obvious it has lost its status as a Mecca of sort where people throng when the businessman was alive.

No one was allowed into the premises except ‘accredited guests’ whose names appeared on a paper the security guards at the gate carefully checked to confirm if they were invited. Besides the name verification, temperature of guests were checked with infrared thermometers. Those whose names were not on the list were denied entry. “The man who gave us the list instructed us not to let anyone whose name is not there to enter,” one of the security guards told me.

His first daughter, Lola Abiola-Edewor, the Executive Director, Corporate Services of the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) was one of the early callers. She drove in, in her SUV, around 9am. Not even the FG on her number plate gave her free passage into the house, she had to wind down the glass on the ‘owner’s corner’ for identification before she was allowed in.

‘What could my pen possibly capture that the world does not already know about Abiola?’ I asked, as I walked from one end of the streets to another in search of old residents of the estate who were around when Abiola was alive, I found none. My curiousity took me to walk through the fence of his house trying to know what lies at the end of an untarred and lonely road that leads to the back of his house. There I found the Abiola International School, its gates were shut (due to COVID-19), and no sign of any human in there, yet the lawns looked green and neat.

The faded designs and the painting reveal the school is trying to catch up with its glorious past. While the walls of Abiola’s residence maintained its neat and shining white colour, same cannot be said about the school. I took some steps further, walked into a compound at the dead end of the road where I found a man cleaning his black Toyota Corolla car beside a bungalow surrounded by bush.

‘Is this building part of Abiola’s compound?’ I asked.

“Does it look like it is?” Marcel as he later identified himself responded.

Pointing at the bush beside his apartment, Marcel said: “His (Abiola) fence ends there and extends to the back (beyond the houses behind it to the next street).” Dr Wale Fashakin, Abiola’s Personal Assistant, in a recent interview said that was the route Abiola took to make his way to Epetedo on June 11, 1994, where he declared himself winner of the election after roads leading to his house were cordoned off by security operatives.

Marcel said he is new in the area. I asked him what it feels like to live close to the house of a man who would have become Nigeria’s President, “no special feeling really,” he said. “He is no more, it shows the vanity of life. Today he is gone.”

I made my way back to Abiola’s street, walked to a security post of a private residence converted to a mini shop, there I got a bottle of my favourite drink – Fanta and engaged the shop owner Ibrahim Aliu, in a conversation.

He told me he didn’t vote in 1993 because he wasn’t eligible, but if the election was held today he would have voted Abiola. Why? He told me it’s based on the many good reports he has heard about him.

Like Marcel, Aliu is also new in the area, he started working as a security guard in 2016, but has heard a lot of testimonies about Abiola’s philanthropism that convinced him that a great man once lived on the street.

“I didn’t know him, but since I started working here, I’ve heard a lot about him, people say he is very generous and whoever went to him for help always smile home,” Aliu said.

I was with Aliu when Lagos Deputy Governor, Dr Obafemi Hamzat, arrived at 9:44am. His arrival unsettled the calmness on the street, policemen jostled to clear the street, Abiola’s supporters became agitated they were not allowed in. They claimed they have never been subjected to a security check in all the years they have been visiting the house to celebrate June 12.

“This is rubbish,” they fumed.

Inside the house, Hamzat, who led other top officials of the state, joined Abiola’s children – Lola Abiola-Edewor, Jamiu Abiola who wrote ‘The President who Never Ruled: A True Life Story of an African Self-made Billionaire’ and wives, Dr. Doyin Abiola (Nigeria’s first female newspaper editor) and Bisi Abiola, to lay a wreath on the late politician’s tomb next to the grave of his first wife Simbiat.

While Hamzat was leaving, Hakeem Odumosu, Lagos Police Commissioner arrived, besides the screeching siren that announced his arrival, the shouts of ‘Baba Ibeji’, ‘Baba o’, ‘my CP’, from the ‘good boys’ rented the air. The police boss appears to be more popular among the ‘good boys’ than his officers. Shortly after he left, the number of policemen on the street reduced by more than half. Former Super Eagles player Taribo West, also visited the family later in the afternoon.

Outside the gate, supporters who believe “MKO is not dead,” hoped endlessly to go into the house. Like ‘Hope 93’, it never happened. Their anger and rant didn’t change anything.

Comrade Abiodun Mustapha who lost one of his legs during the June 12 protests on July 7, 1993 told me “June 12 2020 celebration was not how it used to be.”

In the past and up till last year, “it used to be very lively and supporters are given free access into the house,” he added.

Mustapha and others spared some time to rain curses on Abiola’s ‘killers’, they have never believed he died of cardiac arrest on July 7, 1998 as claimed by the government. “My joy is that our struggle over the years has not been in vain and he has been recognised by the government,” Mustapha said.

At 12noon, the supporters remained relentless in their plan to go inside the house, it didn’t look like they care about COVID-19 when one of them tried to explain that the decision to shut people out may be due to the virus, “how many people have you seen killed by the virus?” they asked.

“What’s special about what you plan to do inside that can’t be done here?” I asked Mustapha.

“We go to his grave to sing solidarity songs, if we don’t, we have not celebrated June 12,” he told me. “That is how we have been doing it over the years and Abiola will be happy where he is.”

They boasted “it will not rain this year”, because they were not allowed into the house to perform their usual ‘rite’. “It rains every year, but it has not rained because we’ve not sang solidarity songs beside MKO’s tomb,” some of the supporters told me.

The arrival of Revolution Now members, at some minutes past 12pm, put the police on alert. More personnel were deployed, probably because the group and its leader Omoyele Sowore have a history of violent clashes with security operatives.

By 1pm after the departure of Revolution Now members, the street had returned to being eerily calm with few policemen and supporters, mostly women, still lamenting how they were denied entrance into the house, how the COVID-19 has altered ‘everything’ and government’s ‘insincerity’ in the distribution of palliatives.

As Nigeria remembers Abiola, his supporters are comforted that he lives on and his recognition by the federal government years after his death gives them joy.

June 12 will forever remain a very significant day to Nigerians. It was the day Nigerians had the opportunity to go to the polls in 1993 to elect a president for the first time since the 1983 military coup that ousted a democratic government. The election which was annulled by ex-Head of State, Ibrahim Babangida, has been widely adjudged as the most credible in Nigeria’s history.

The annulment marked the beginning of struggle that claimed the lives of Kudirat Abiola and many other Nigerians. Calls by civil society groups and pro-democracy campaigners on the government to recognize Abiola as winner of the election was finally acknowledged by President Muhammadu Buhari in 2018 when he post-humously honoured Abiola with the nation’s highest award, Grand Commander of the Federal Republic, GCFR conferred on only Presidents. He also declared that June 12 will now be marked as Democracy Day (the day Nigeria transited to democracy) as it was been done by states in the southwest.