REMEMBERING M.K.O.
When we learnt that MKO was going into politics, Tom Ikimi, (chairman of defunct NRC)and I went to him at home.
 |
| Doyin Okupe |
We tried to convince him to join NRC to pursue his obvious political ambition. He politely declined, but asked me to see him later. We were not friends before then but he had great respect for my family because of the relationship he had with my late brothers, Taiwo, kehinde& Idowu while they were students in UK. MKO appologised & explained to me during our private meeting why he could not join the NRC. On the day he was going to meet IBB, he informed me & promised to give me the reports of his meeting. At 4am the next day he knocked at my hotel room & gave me the details of the meeting & that he will thereafter declare his presidential ambition. I wished him well. Politics separated us from then on. As a party we in the NRC fought very hard to clinch the victory. But 2 things worked against us. Abiola’s overwhelming national popularity & acceptability, bcos of his personality &kindness and the slight political advantage the SDP had over us by their having more state governors ,who stood their grounds. Abiola won the elections. Alhaji Adamu Ciroma our national leader then publicly declared that ” Abiola won fair& square” The military thereafter reached out to us the leadership of the NRC to publicly denounce the results and make our state organs to protest against them. Bashir Tofa, our presidential candidate, Ibrahim Mantu & I wt a few other leaders initially agreed to congratulate Abiola. I was made to summon the then NRC publicity Sec, Bar Okey. But somehow the game changed. Against all favorable odds I resigned my membership of NRC and hence was precluded from the subsequent appointments of NRC leadership in the new cabinet despite my high ranking. NADECO was formed under the leadership of late Gen Adebayo. At its inception I was the youngest member of its 33 man leadership. Later Abiola went into exile in the UK. It was a most tedious, stressful& tension soaked period Nigeria ever witnessed. Late Prof Agbalajobi and I were the last 2 persons who saw Abiola every night and obtained instructions on programs for the next day. After several days of debates and discussions on wether MKO should proceed to the Washington and declare himself in the presence of a High court Judge in the premises of the Nigerian embassy or go back to Lagos and do same. The proponents of the Lagos option carried the day. So Abiola returned. I returned much later. After his declaration at Epetedo in Lagos , while on my way to Iperu, I stopped by his Ikeja residence in the evening. Only 4 of us were with him. Late alhaja kudirat, Kola Abiola, myself and a Benin based lawyer and activist, now late. He informed us that he has been informed by the US state dept that he would be arrested that night. At about 10pm Senator Bola Tinubu called him from the US on his phone which I picked because he was eating. I handed the phone to him after announcing the caller. After their discussion Abiola told us that Tinubu has confirmed the time of arrest would be 12mid night. When the soldiers came, Kudirat ran downstairs, barricaded the gate and stood outside the gates with her outstretched arms facing the heavy mortar artillery led onslaught. Mko sent emissaries to her wt pleading that she should leave but she remained adamant. After several hours the soldiers came in and arrested him. We followed them in the dark of the night 1st to alagbon then back to the airport from where he was flown to Abuja. The only contact we could have thereafter was thru his physician Dr seyi Roberts my partner who we recommended to Dr Ore Falomo who passed it on to govt. Dr Roberts took our messages mentally & delivered to MKO & brought back his. IN THE CONTINENT OF AFRICA, ONE MOSHOOD ABIOLA, ONE MKO. RIP BELOVED.
REMEMBERING M.K.O.
When we learnt that MKO was going into politics, Tom Ikimi, (chairman of defunct NRC)and I went to him at home. We tried to convince him to join NRC to pursue his obvious political ambition. He politely declined, but asked me to see him later. We were not…— Doyin (@doyinokupe) July 7, 2024
gro
