You can’t honour MKO and admire his tormentor – Soyinka

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President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday, on behalf of the Federal Government, tendered "the nation’s apology to the family of Late MKO Abiola, who got the highest votes and to those that lost their loved ones in the cause of June 12 struggle."
The president called for one-minute silence in honour of the memory of Abiola and Fawehinmi "and indeed all those who lost their lives in the struggle of June 12 1993."

Buhari was speaking at the old Banquet Hall of the Aso Rock Presidential Villa in Abuja at the commemoration and investiture honouring the heroes of the election annulled by the military government of General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida.
Buhari honoured the presumed winner of the 1993 presidential election, the late Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola, with the posthumous award of the Grand Commander of the Federal Republic (GCFR).
Abiola’s running mate, Baba Gana Kingibe and the late human rights lawyer, Gani Fawehinmi, were also honoured with the Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON).
The president said he was very happy to be present and to preside over the event organised to mark the Federal Government’s formal and official recognition of June 12 as National Democracy Day.
“Nigerians of their own free will voted for Late Chief MKO Abiola and Amb. Baba Gana Kingibe, the Presidential flag bearer and running mate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the 1993 elections. The government of the day inexplicably cancelled the elections when it was clear who were going to be the winners.
“We cannot rewind the past but we can at least assuage our feelings; recognize that a wrong has been committed and resolve to stand firm now and in the future for the sanctity of free elections. Nigerians would no longer tolerate such perversion of justice,” he said.
Buhari said the retrospective and posthumous recognition was only a symbolic token of redress and recompense for the grievous injury done to the peace and unity of the country.
He noted that his administration’s decision to recognize and honour June 12 and its actors was in the national interest “aimed at setting national healing process and reconciliation of the 25 year festering wound caused by the annulment of the June 12 elections. I earnestly invite all Nigerians across all our national divide to accept it in good faith.

You can’t honour MKO and admire his tormentor
Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, in his goodwill message, asked Buhari to stop confusing Nigerians, saying it is not possible for the president to honour Abiola in one breath and admire his tormentor in another.
The literary guru was making a veiled reference to Buhari’s recent statement that he had no regret serving under the late head of state, General Sani Abacha, who incarcerated Abiola.
Soyinka said: “Most of what I wanted to say have been actually knocked off my mouth by one singular gesture, the presidential apology. It’s a dimension which I did not expect from today’s ceremony. And I had a lot to say, but unfortunately, the words have been taken off my mouth.

- Soyinka

“However, I’ll like to make a request. Mr. President, since we’re honouring heroes of democracy today, I’ll like to request that you manage to stop creating confusion in the minds of Nigerians. It’s not possible to honour MKO Abiola in one breath and admire his tormentor in another breath. Loyalty is all very well, but loyalty can become perverse if that loyalty is retained to an individual who, if he were alive today, would be before the International Court of Crimes against humanity, the one who broke the laws of Nigeria, International laws, pauperized this nation. It’s confusing if professional loyalty is carried so far as to be accorded such an individual.”

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