Senator Anthony Adefuye, who was a close associate of the winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, Chief MKO Abiola, speaks on the several events that shaped the Third Republic and the roles he and others played, in this interview with ALLWELL OKPI
The annulment of the June 12 presidential election and the death of MKO Abiola in detention are unforgettable events in Nigeria’s history. As someone who was close to Abiola, can you recount some of those events, especially as they related to why you were attacked in Abiola’s house during his burial?
There are so many things that have not been said about all that happened when the June 12 election was annulled and when Chief MKO Abiola died. There was so much betrayal. For instance, when Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar and Vice Admiral Mike Akhigbe came in, they were confused by the responsibility put on them suddenly. They did not know which group to talk to. They invited National Democratic Coalition, which was about the first group that the Abdulsalami administration invited to Aso Rock to discuss how to move the country forward. They had the opportunity to tell the Head of State to release Abiola and restore his mandate but they didn’t do that. Instead, they suggested that Abubakar should conduct another election. If they were interested in Abiola’s cause, the first thing they would have done would have been to negotiate Abiola’s release. You could not be negotiating when your leader was still locked up in prison.
They betrayed Abiola. And that was why I was attacked at Abiola’s house during his burial. They knew I was going to talk. I was not attacked outside Abiola’s house, it was inside the house. I was knocking on the door where they were meeting when they sent Lateef Shofolahan with four boys, with a gun. They removed all the money on me and pushed me out, thinking that the mob would just take over. The mistake I made was to have gone inside. I would have just stayed outside but the Igbo people that stayed around the house insisted that I must go inside. They were saying, ‘This is the man we see every day here; he must come inside.’ When I got inside, they now brought in their own people, to come and attack me there. But of course, those Igbo people did not allow them. I escaped through the other fence. The young men that saved me that day, I didn’t even know them. They were young men as young as 19, 20 years. One of them, who was a mechanic to MKO, said he knew me very well that I should come, that nothing would happen.
So, there are too many facts that are not out there and many misconceptions. I thought I should let the man rest in peace, that in due time, I’ll properly put them in a book. Most of those people, who were claiming they were fighting for June 12, were making money abroad with MKO’s name. They made big money. They were not with him at all. They didn’t hide that fact that they were using him to make money. They said they were using him as a symbol of democracy. I will never forget that.
But why would NADECO members betray Abiola, considering that most of them were Yoruba and members of the Obafemi Awolowo’s political family?
You know Abiola was never their friend, because Abiola was one of those who made sure that Obafemi Awolowo never became president. He did that in conjunction with Obasanjo. He was never their friend so they can never be his friends. When we went to Owo, they told me I was just wasting my time that Abiola would never become president.
Was this when Abiola was still campaigning?
Yes, I’m telling you the truth. Abiola went to see Bamidele Olomilua, who was the Governor of Ondo State during the Social Democratic Party era. And Olomilua told him that if he (Abiola) wanted his support, he should not stop to see those Babas, that they were not with him. Then Abiola told me to tell them that he had an urgent call from Babangida and he had to leave suddenly. I told them and if you heard the sorts of nonsense they were saying, you would know they were not with him. If you look at it, most of them, who were in that house that day I was attacked, died violent deaths. Look at Bola Ige, how he died. Baba Abraham Adesanya himself; even though he personally apologised to me before he died. He sang and danced and said that now he was sure he would enter heaven; that I was the last person he offended; that he never dreamt that I would come to see him, but I came. Those of them who did not die have gone out of political calculation; they are no more relevant. Shofolahan himself has just been released from prison. He was in prison for almost 15 years, since Abiola died. And they will not escape; he and the other one, Hamza Al-Mustapha, will not escape. Their release is just for them to see more disgrace. They killed so many people. They will not escape.
So, you believe Al-Mustapha actually killed Kudirat Abiola?
Let me tell you, two days before Kudirat was killed, I was called to Aso Rock by my friend (Gen. Oladipo Diya). He asked me what I went to do in Abiola’s house every night. I said “Me? No, I don’t go there.” He said, “You go there. On so-so day, this was the number of the car you used; on this other day, this was the number of the car you used.” He said, “Look, those people at the gate are not all journalists, some of them are our men. They give us report every day. You will go there for the last time today, go and tell Kudirat not to come out of that house. As long as she does not leave that house, they won’t get her, and that there is somebody with her, who speaks fluent Hausa and fluent Yoruba that she should not let him know her movement at all.” I asked, “Why should I go there, when your men are there?” He said they would clear the gate for me, but that I should make sure I got there exactly 12 midnight and leave there exactly 1am. I went there, had a meeting with Kudirat, gave her the message and she said it was the second time that such a message was being delivered to her, and that since it had come from me, it must be important and that she would stick to it. She said she was just planning to travel to America the night of the next day for the struggle. I told her, “What you have done for this struggle, Nigerians would never forget you,” and that all that Madam Tinubu and others did that Nigerians were still remembering them, was not up to what she had done. I told her, “Just be calm, one day your husband would be released and you would be alive. It’s better for you to be alive to witness it, than to say you want to go to America and they kill you. They know all your movement.” She said, “Thank you.” I told her I would come prepared, since they said you should not go out, I would come with half a million naira, that was a big money then. I said she should keep it in the house. I left, just to wake up the next morning to hear that they had shot her. Everybody just ran to my house, “They have killed Kudi, they have killed Kudi.” I dressed up and went to Eko Hospital, where they took her to. I looked at her body and I could not stop tears from coming out of my eyes. And that was the only honest and legitimate person that was fighting for the release of Abiola. That day even before I left, she was relaying in Hausa to Shofolahan what I had come to tell her. She was suspecting the secretary, not knowing it was Shofolahan. I think Shofolahan must have convinced her to go and get the visa that morning. Shofolahan was the only person in that car, who was not hit.
Does that mean what Al-Mustapha said about NADECO and Afenifere leaders was true; that they betrayed Abiola and received money when they visited Aso Rock?
Yes, of course. He even has pictures of them, when they were loading their car booths with money. You think it was not true?
But a lot of people, especially Yoruba leaders, refuted it and insulted Al-Mustapha, saying he was just blabbing.
It was not all of them. If I mention the names of the people who did that, you will not believe they are the ones. All these ones talking were not involved and of course they won’t know. I knew because of my friend. I just went to him when he was in prison and he was telling me all these things because he never knew he was going to come out alive. If he knew he was going to come out alive, he wouldn’t have told me some of these things.
Didn’t they attempt to kill you?
When I was to be killed, my friend was the one who arranged for me to go to Abacha to beg him to spare my life. I was so surprised when we got there, Abacha said, “Senator Adefuye, we are not looking for you. The time we were looking for you is gone.” I was going to contest for a seat in the Senate and my name was struck out. If I was their friend, why would they strike out my name? He said we didn’t disqualify you, don’t worry, your name will be restored,” and l left. Three days after that, another attempt was made to kill me. This time, I knew it was not Abacha because there were a lot of atrocities that were committed unknown to Abacha. Maybe information had not reached the hound men that I had been let off the hook. It was so much that I had to go into hiding. I was also taken before the National Security Adviser then. We had a very bitter confrontation that the man ran inside. I thought he was going to take a gun. Instead, he came out with his briefcase and left. I was there with Senator Rashidi Ladoja. The NSA was just talking as if a ghost was speaking. My presence irritated him so much. I then said who are you? Is it because you are the NSA that you are looking at me like that? I’ve been trying to beg you to spare my life. Are you the custodian of life? Will you do more than kill me? Do you think I will die twice? The man became so furious that he ran inside. I think when he ran inside, he changed his mind and decided they should not kill me there. Immediately I left there, it was Ladoja who first told me, “Look you better go into hiding; I don’t think your life is safe.” So, when people talk about June 12 and they talk about themselves, when they were hiding abroad soliciting for funds to combat the military, they don’t know how things went.
What roles did Ernest Shonekan and Gen. Oladipo Diya play in that period, considering that they were two Yoruba people who held top positions during the crisis?
When Shonekan was there, we were still communicating with him, even from London. The British people will arrange for Shonekan and Abiola to speak. It was Shonekan, who arranged that Abiola should come back to Nigeria. I know because I was in London with Abiola and we did discuss and he did tell me that it was a matter of time that he was going to take over his mandate, that the British people were going to broker an agreement between him and Shonekan’s government. It was already arranged that Abiola should return, but before he returned, Shonekan had been overthrown and Abacha had taken over. I know the role myself and the Abiola’s running mate, Babagana Kingibe, and some other people played before he was allowed to land. They were going to prevent him from landing. He came with Air France and landed on the presidential wing and we all welcomed him. On the role Diya played, don’t you know that it was this June 12 issue that put Diya into trouble. It was because he released Abiola on bail. It was those NADECO people that told him to refuse the bail. They told him that if he accepted the bail, people would stone him at the airport. That was why Abiola didn’t take the bail. If Abiola had taken that bail, it would have been a different story. It was that his refusal of the bail that started the problem of Diya. Is it the man who risked his life to grant Abiola bail, who is hero of democracy or is it the people who were talking from abroad, gallivanting about that are heroes of democracy? Let’s forget the past, I just want things to be properly placed on records.
If the June 12 election was not annulled, what kind of country do you think Nigeria would be now?
Abiola would have been the President that Nigeria would never have forgotten in history. He had so many plans for Nigeria that he would have surprised a lot of people. He had an extraordinary acumen. He had many plans, including forcing Britain and America to pay for enslaving us. He wanted them to pay reparation, for which we were beginning to receive positive response. But all these died with him.
Could that have made the West, especially the US, to want him dead?
No. I don’t think so.
What about the military. Why did they want him dead?
There was a special relationship between Abiola and the military that was personal to them. He was a friend to all of them. In fact, they made him and he believed in them. But they turned round and concluded that they should annul his mandate. Why? I don’t know.
But was the annulment strictly a military affair, weren’t there some civilians who influenced it?
I wouldn’t know. But I know there was this group of people in the military that called themselves the Musketeers. They were the ones who ensured that the election was annulled. And Abiola was the one who knew those who were members of the Musketeers. All I know is that somebody who was one of the Musketeers revealed to us that Abiola should go and appease the Musketeers, if not, they were going to annul the election. This was even before the election. We were in Nicon Hotel, we were checking out, when the man passed this information to us, which I passed to MKO. We asked the man who the Musketeers were and he said MKO would understand the message. And when I told MKO, he understood it, but he never revealed to us who the Musketeers were.
When you said the military made Abiola, what did you mean?
Majority of his businesses were military contracts. Even when he died, the military still owed him a lot of foreign exchange.
Since Afenifere fell apart, Yoruba people seem to have gone in different ways politically. As the Secretary-General of the Yoruba Unity Forum, what do you think is the problem?
I don’t think so. The Yoruba are still united politically. If you hold elections today, they will all still vote the same way. But ideologically, there are a lot of differences. The Yoruba Unity Forum started when we had this problem in Afenifere and every attempt to unite them failed. We then said we could not leave the Yoruba without leadership. We asked Mama HID Awolowo to represent that leadership for now, and then we formed the Yoruba Unity Forum, which encompasses all Yoruba leaders, so that there will be no confusion of who to call when they want to speak to the Yoruba people. When there is an invitation for Yoruba people, we invite all the groups, of course some will not come. We are just an umbrella body and we are also very apolitical. We don’t play politics. No matter what party you belong to, you are welcome.
On a personal level, what have you been doing politically since the end of the Third Republic when you were at the Senate?
I’m still alive and kicking. I know you people say I’m not as active as before. That is not true. I’ve been active in a different way. When I was much younger I was a political activist, but now at 69, I’ve become an adviser. I now take part in organising and I still very much active at that level. I’m a member of the All Progressives Congress.
One would have expected that you would go on to become governor and possibly contest the Presidency.
You can’t be in politics without ambition. But the opportunity must open before you say you want to contest. For example, if a Yoruba man wants to become the President now that people are thinking it should be the turn of the North or the South-East, it would be a difficult thing. Politics also needs a little bit of commonsense. If I want to become president, I have to wait for probably another eight years and in another eight years, I will be 77. What kind of President will I be at that age; when I’m not Mugabe.
What’s you assessment of President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration?
I can only speak for the Yoruba people. We have said a lot of times that we have been marginalised. And we have met him and clearly stated how we’ve been marginalised and he promised to look into it. We are still expecting that promise to be activated. Up till now, he has not done so. From number one to 13 in this country, there is no Yoruba man there.
Now that APC has been registered, do you think it will have the kind of success that people have predicted it will have?
If there is no rigging, I’m sure the two parties — APC and the Peoples Democratic Party — are going to slug it out with each other. If any will win, it is going to be a marginal win and that will be good for democracy. I believe a lot can be done to move Nigeria forward, especially in the provision of energy. We hope that the two parties will ensure that people participate in the nomination of who represents them in any election. That will be the deciding factor for who will win. If the parties continue to impose candidates, then whichever party does that will have itself to blame. People must participate in both the nomination and the election. I only appeal to the people to vote for candidates, who can represent them well, not for those who would give them loaves of bread or N50 to vote.
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