Kola Abiola, son of the late Chief MKO Abiola, winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election (which was annulled by former President Ibrahim Babangida), has revealed the role played by Pastor Tunde Bakare of Latter Rain Assembly in how the new Democracy Day came to be, President Muhammadu Buhari’s apology to Nigerians and the Grand Commander of the Federal Republic (GCFR) honour bestowed on the late politician.
In an interview with Channels TV, Kola narrated:
“I started talking to Jonathan-led administration immediately he came in. I spoke to the then attorney-general and we started the process. Along the way, we had problems from the national merit award.
“Towards the election, I approached them again, this time in writing, and solicited the help of Pastor Tunde Bakare and told them that even if it was for selfish political reasons, this was something you could do to help your chances of winning elections.
“I really didn’t mind how he got it done. But we couldn’t get President Jonathan to get it done so we left that.
“After he lost the election, I approached him a second time with another letter also through the same Pastor Bakare to try to get him to do this as a legacy of his Presidency, something that Nigerians would never forget about him. Last minute, everything went wrong, and it couldn’t happen.”
Kola said in the interview that after the attempts to get President Jonathan to honour his father failed, he sent a letter once again through Pastor Bakare to President Muhammadu Buhari after he assumed office.
He said President Buhari immediately showed interest and exceeded the expectations of the family by bestowing his father with the highest honour in the country.
He said further that the attempt by President Jonathan to name University of Lagos (UNILAG) after Abiola was an attempt to regionalise him. He said, “that was a mistake, they were trying to regionalise MKO, he was more than that.”