Today, exactly ten years ago, Alhaja Kudirat Abiola, wife of Chief MKO Abiola, the undeclared winner of the 1993 Presidential elections was murdered in cold blood on her way from her Ikeja home to Victoria Island to keep an appointment. Mrs Abiola was one of the major revelations of the struggle for democracy in Nigeria: she epitomized how the imposition of injustice on a people can release revolutionary zeal even among ordinary people and create unusual heroes and heroines.

She was a dutiful wife and business woman, mother of seven, who in the face of the injustice of military rule, the abortion of the people's sovereignty by the Babangida government and anguish in the land, joined on her own volition, the pro-democracy coalition and became a principal contributor to the struggle for liberation. On June 4, 1996, General Abacha's agents aided by the treachery of an aide gunned her down. She had become too vocal, too prominent, too determined in the eyes of Abacha's goons who had prepared a long hit list of those they labelled enemies of the government.

It was a murderous season. Abacha and his men had blood on their minds, they would not brook any opposition and so all over the country, they pumped bullets into anyone who dared to defend democracy or express an alternative view. Alhaja Kudirat was one of their victims. They killed her because she was a friend of the Nigerian people and a critic of military dictatorship.

On the tenth anniversary of her murder, we ought to remember, and pay tribute to her courage and sacrifice. This is important because this is a country that forgets too easily and too soon. Our collective memory is tied to the present. We love heroes as a people, but we lack the capacity to iconise and preserve our heroes. The average Nigerian is driven by the conviction that "life is for the living", and so the dead are soon forgotten except by their close relations. Four days ago, the Kudirat Initiative for Democracy (KIND), the civil society institution set up by the Kudirat Abiola children in their mother's honour, held a memorial symposium and an awards ceremony at MUSON in Lagos and at the City Mall across the road.

Attendance was modest. But the emphasis on Kudirat's heroism was well-placed. Most of the politicians in the county today who are gallivanting all over the land, chasing people off the roads with noisy sirens, all those men and women who collected N50 million and attempted to mortgage the people's sovereignty, all the big men in high places now parading themselves as the hope of the country for the future, they have all forgotten or rather they cannot be bothered; they have failed to realise that to reach where they are, other lives were sacrificed, and that this democracy was not won on a platter of gold, but with the blood of innocent people.

In remembering Kudirat Abiola, we necessarily remember others like her, the prominent and not-so-prominent who paid the supreme price: Ken Saro Wiwa and the Ogoni 8, the Ogoni 4, Pa Alfred Rewane, Bagauda Kaltho...and the ordinary, undocumented victims who were gunned down during pro-democracy rallies, and the living who have many scars to show for daring to confront the dictator. Ten years later, the issues thrown up by the failings of that period have not yet been addressed. The murderers of Kudirat, of Rewane and the architect of all the other murders have not been identified and brought to justice.

The Oputa Panel which was supposed to defend Human Rights and ensure reconciliation eventually came to nothing because government has neither released the report nor acted on any known recommendations. It is true that there is a reconciliation committee currently going round Ogoni villages but what kind of reconciliation can anyone bring to the Ogoni and all the peoples of the Niger Delta without addressing the issues of federalism, resource allocation, and equity? Ken Saro Wiwa's son has been made a Special Adviser to the President on Conflict Resolution. How ironic. Is it an appointment that Ken Wiwa needs, or an official proclamation that his father and others were not enemies of the Nigerian state and so did not deserve to be hanged?

Kudirat's place in history has been recorded in such memorials as Kudirat's Corner in New York, Radio Kudirat which became the voice of the pro-democracy movement in exile, Kudirat Way in Oregun Lagos, KIND, and statues of Kudirat in Lagos and elsewhere. These are useful but the very phenomenon that produced Kudirat, the June 12 struggle and its principal martyr Chief MKO Abiola have been deliberately ignored, not by the states in the South West, but by the Federal Government in the last seven years. By ignoring MKO Abiola, the people in Abuja have more or less endorsed Babangida's mistake and Abacha's evil. By treating June 12 as a Yoruba affair, other states of the federation have also missed the point. June 12 is something we cannot run away from, sooner or later, we must all return to it and its significance, in order to have a complete sense of Nigeria's recent history. It is as much at the root of the national question as the Ogoni rebellion, MASSOB and the crisis in the Niger Delta.

The murder of Kudirat and all the others also raised questions about the safety of human life in this society. It is a notorious fact that in the last decade, not a single case of assassination has been resolved. Police investigations always end in a cul de sac. Promises by official authorities that justice will be done cannot be relied upon. The people have heard so many of those promises, they no longer believe them. It is in part why we have a crisis with the rule of law in Nigeria. Faced with a system that cannot guarantee justice, the people have been emboldened to take the laws into their own hands; creating patterns of anarchy that tug at the stability of the state.

Perhaps the most scandalous failure of the system was recorded with the murder of Chief Bola Ige, a serving Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation. He was murdered in cold blood in his own home in Ibadan. His killers have not been found yet. The government that he served is still in power but nobody in Abuja is still talking about what happened to Bola Ige. When privileged persons are killed and their killers cannot be found, then ordinary people have no hope whatsoever. This explains the emergence in many of our communities of vigilante security groups.

Confronted with a state that continues to betray them, the people are forced to make their own security arrangements, and resort to self-help. In the meantime, criminals have become very bold. These days, political figures are kidnapped from their homes and asked to pay ransom. Kidnapping has suddenly become a popular mode of communication. When oil workers are not being abducted by aggrieved militants in the Niger Delta, it is politicians who are taken away, interrogated and returned to their homes, and the police and all the other security agencies have so far functioned as spectators.

Kudirat's death is also about power relations between the state and the individual. Under the military, the state and its resources were used to intimidate the average citizen. Persons in the corridors of power considered themselves superior to the people, and whenever they were challenged, they responded with the unleashing of the instruments of violence. The likes of Kudirat resisted this abuse of power, and insisted on respect for due process. Ten years later, sadly, even with a civilian government in power for seven years, this misappropriation of power has not changed. The state has remained a fortress and its managers are as power drunk as ever. The power of government continues to choke the people. The methods may have changed but the spirit of domination, the intolerance of reason, and the conversion of office into royalty have remained. The Nigerian state still needs to be reinvented and restructured for performance and effici ency in the interest of the people.

Kudirat's province was in civil society, and the catalyst for the renaissance of civil society at the time was the abuse of the electoral process by the powers-that-be. In the last ten years, we have witnessed the importance and limitations of elections: how the electoral process can be used to steal advantages, discount the electorate and create social imbalance. The best tribute that can be paid in remembering Kudirat is to sustain the value of civil society as a countervailing force against the excesses of power mongers. Another election is on the way. It is as important as the elections of 1993, for it represents change in a formal and definite sense from one civilian government to the other. The vigilance of civil society will be required. It is time again to stand at the barricades and keep watch. Kudirat and all the other martyrs in Heaven must have been glad with the resolution of the Third Term debacle. Standing up for electoral integrity will further preserve their legacy.

Finally, Kudirat's emergence as a major icon for the women's movement in Nigeria is remarkable. Women were in the frontlines of the battle for democracy as participants, and victims. In fairness to President Obasanjo, his government in the last seven years has been the most women-friendly in Nigerian history in terms of the promotion of women causes, and the recognition of women in public life. But this is nothing compared to the kind of voice that women acquired between 1993 and 1999 when every Nigerian was required to choose between tyranny and progress. Indeed, in the run up to the 1999 elections, women groups prepared their own political manifesto, they even sought to register a political party. They wanted power as participants not as members of a so-called women's wing or as recipients of political appointments which amount to sheer tokenism.

It is sad to note that after the women's movement missed the former and was amply rewarded with positions by the Obasanjo government and the PDP in the states, its members lost the momentum. The biggest tragedy that happened to the women was even the treachery of some of their members who got big positions in Abuja and suddenly began to accommodate the same discriminatory values that they used to criticize. Kudirat was not an ideologue; she did not theorise about womanism but her example connected deeply with the larger aspirations of women in politics.

Now is the time for the women's movement to begin to articulate those aspirations afresh. It is instructive that at a time when Governors and political groups are shopping for a Nigerian President for 2007, nobody is looking in the direction of women. No woman has been mentioned as a likely Nigerian Johnson-Sirleaf. The women themselves are leaving the space and the initiative to the men. They are waiting and watching so they may complain later about tokenism and the phallocentrism of Nigerian politics. That won't be good enough, please. The leaders and foot-soldiers of that movement should know.

Kudirat's example is a challenge to all women. She is now justly a member of that illustrious family of Nigerian women who have distinguished themselves through a display of commitment and uncommon courage: Efunsetan Aniwura, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, the women of the Aba riots, Margaret Ekpo. But beyond the larger symbolism of her action, her loyalty to her husband deserves special notice. Here was a woman who fought her husband's fight and by extension Nigeria's fight. She followed her husband to the field of battle at great personal risk. Her faith in her marriage moved her at a private level to fight in the public in pursuit of high principles that held great meaning for the rest of society. How many women these days can stand by their husbands? How many husbands stand by their wives? The story is commonly told about women who abandoned their husbands in moments of trials. One famous Nigerian was jailed for a few months (his name is hereby withheld, although he has told his own story publicly), by the time he returned, his dear wife was already pregnant for another man! Even in the Abiola household, similar incidents occurred while the man was in detention... This is a delicate subject. ...Sleep well, Kudirat

Robot  # 1 | 04.06.2006 01:33

...Read the full article.

I Love Nigeria  # 2 | 04.06.2006 09:50

Dr. Abati article on the late Mrs. Abiola, is socially relevant. Tenacity has its on rewards.... whatever one does. Kudirat's example is a challenge to all women. She is now justly a member of that illustrious family of Nigerian women who have distinguished themselves through a display of commitment and uncommon courage: Efunsetan Aniwura, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, the women of the Aba riots, Margaret Ekpo. But beyond the larger symbolism of her action, her loyalty to her husband deserves special notice. Here was a woman who fought her husband's fight and by extension Nigeria's fight. She followed her husband to the field of battle at great personal risk. Her faith in her marriage moved her at a private level to fight in the public in pursuit of high principles that held great meaning for the rest of society. How many women these days can stand by their husbands? How many husbands stand by their wives? I understand that Dr. Abati's list of women with courage/who stood by their men, was not meant to be exhaustive. The late Mrs. Stella Obasanjo is said to have stood by her man, through the hell and hot water of Abacha's gulag. Women of strong character, stellar integrity and courage abound in Nigeria.... there are those fighting for Nigeria now, even after threats to their person for doing Nigeria's work(Dr. Akunyili)

Auspicious  # 3 | 04.06.2006 12:08

R. Abati's 'Words on the Marble'. * "In remembering Kudirat Abiola, we necessarily remember others like her." * "It is a notorious fact that in the last decade, not a single case of assassination has been resolved...Perhaps the most scandalous failure of the system was recorded with the murder of Chief Bola Ige, a serving Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation." * "Ken Saro Wiwa's son has been made a Special Adviser to the President on Conflict Resolution. How ironic. Is it an appointment that Ken Wiwa needs, or an official proclamation that his father and others were not enemies of the Nigerian state and so did not deserve to be hanged?" * "The power of government continues to choke the people. The methods may have changed but the spirit of domination, the intolerance of reason, and the conversion of office into royalty have remained." * "In fairness to President Obasanjo, his government in the last seven years has been the most women-friendly in Nigerian history in terms of the promotion of women causes, and the recognition of women in public life." * "Another election is on the way. It is as important as the elections of 1993, for it represents change in a formal and definite sense from one civilian government to the other. The vigilance of civil society will be required." * Kudirat's example is a challenge to all women. Thoughts: Is this the same man some folks @ NVS accuse of ethnophobia ("igbophobia?")..the same man some label a "dis-service" to Motherland Nigeria? God bless people like Reuben Abati..he communicates his thoughts well to those who are intelligent enough to appreciate the value of his thoughts/opinion - a knock on the door to our souls..the door to our collective conscience. - And on a not-too-funny note: * "One famous Nigerian was jailed for a few months (his name is hereby withheld, although he has told his own story publicly), by the time he returned, his dear wife was already pregnant for another man!" - I wonder who he is..

OnlyHuman  # 4 | 04.06.2006 14:09

@ Rueben Abati She followed her husband to the field of battle at great personal risk. Her faith in her marriage moved her at a private level to fight in the public in pursuit of high principles that held great meaning for the rest of society. We want as President, a man or woman who is happily married. Marriage is this sense means conventional marriage, not an ambidextrous kind of marriage. We want a President who will not be tied down by difficulties in the home-front. He must be a man whose home is not a complex government of its own: with wives running into double-digits and children as numerous as the sands of the Sahara with each branch of this unmanageable family tree making claims on the President's time. How on earth do men with multiple wives and concubines manage? How do those women with complex, hyphenated surnames, each belonging to a separate husband, surrounded by children with conflicting surnames, cope? http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/content/view/3171/55/ Kudirat Abiola was happily married, but she was one out of more than ten wives of Abiola. Therefore, if we listen to your contradictory utterances, Kudirat and Abiola would be automatically disqualified to serve Nigeria because Abiola's household was full of "wives running into double-digits and children as numerous as the sands of the Sahara with each branch of this unmanageable family tree making claims on the President's time". @ Rueben Abati How many women these days can stand by their husbands? How many husbands stand by their wives? The second question is more important than the first question because what we know so far is that untrustworthy men populate the political scene in Nigeria. Many of these men are your own heroes, but they failed woefully in standing by their wives and children; they see women and children as properties to be accumulated and discarded for political and "ambidextrous" reasons. If a man does not have enough love in his heart to take care of his own children, he surely will lack the love to take care of other peoples' children (the Nigerian masses). This is the case with your current Messiah OBJ: Mrs. Remi Obasanjo (Obasanjo's ex-wife): Okay, lets take NEPA; haven't they sunk money into NEPA? Why is NEPA not working? Why? Is it that there are wrong people there or that the political will is lacking? The society is rotten. We don't know what is good from what is bad. In the olden days, you dared not be bad, because people would isolate you. When they even looked at you, you would be ashamed of yourself. But now, they will hail you. The situation has turned around; it is abnormal. The evil ones are now the champions that people hail. If you are hard working and you value the truth, you make your mistakes as a human beings, but it will be genuine mistakes. You would not set out to do wicked things knowingly, because you had the power; they would call you a bad person. But the bad ones of those days are the good ones now. People who don't have conscience are the people in power now, they are those who are close to power and direct our country. Soleye's meddling with Obasanjo's life starting from 40 years ago, the lesson is that the younger ones should be vigilant of friends, of people who come close especially if you are moving up. If the army was not involved in the governance of this country, Soleye wouldn't have been close to Obasanjo. He has never had anything of his own except what he gets from Obasanjo. He used him to get positions and yet he barred Obasanjo from taking care of his own children. http://odili.net/news/source/2006/may/13/405.html Real change will ONLY come to Nigeria when we put our warped thinking aside, when we begin to look at issues and events objectively regardless of where the chips fall. Until then, continue to produce your inconsistent utterances and meaningless theories. If your warped mindset could have changed Nigeria in the positive direction, Nigeria would have changed by now after your 8-years of incessant inconsistent/subjective theories and lies. Mrs. Remi Obasanjo would not have had any reason to ask the basic questions about our basic needs like electricity and filial love.

Auspicious  # 5 | 04.06.2006 18:22

@--> OnlyHuman: So Reuben Abati lists, amongst other things, his preference for a future President of Nigeria to be a one-wife man who won't be distracted by numerous wives and children - all craving one form of attention or the other. And on the 10th anniversary of the untimely death of one of those who fought for democracy, freedom and justice in our land, he writes a piece to commemorate her depature; extoling her virtues as a honorable woman who stood by her husband as he languished unfairly in jail... And (I laugh) the best you can take away from that is an allegation of "contradictory utterances"? How come these few *salient points* were lost on you in an attempt to incriminate that author by all means?: 1> That as products of poligamous marriage or not, Kudi and Moshood Abiola were the public face of the victims of a daylight robbery that was the annulment of the watershed elections of June 12 1993. 2> That Reuben Abati realizes this, and cannot because of his choice/preference for a one-wife President, fail to recognize this woman and her husband for who they are - matrys in our collective struggle for realization of the mandate we freely gave Moshood on 12-6-03. 3> That Mr. Abati stated his preference for a man whose life is not complicated AFTER and not BEFORE the emergence of Moshood Abiola and Olusegun Obasanjo as President-elect and President respectively. Then you go on to highlight Abati's "love for his current messiah" (Your Quote) and going as far as accusing him of "inconsistent utterances and meaningless theories..and lies" and carped it with a diagnosis of a "warped mindset". Wow. If you habor so much revulsion for Mr. Abati and his "theories", one can only hope share the same revulsion for the class of people who wanted to hood-wink the rest of us with "3rd Term" - the same people that Mr. Abati denounced on several occassions through the might of his pen..The Obasanjo Men. Meanwhile, we await for you to share with us what your UNwarped mindset has to offer - apart from critiquing an innocent celebration of the sacrifice of a woman whose life was snuffed out as she fought for our democracy 10 years ago.

Wabulaa  # 6 | 05.06.2006 11:29

Having mutiple wives have its problems. Abai spoke his true mind in his first article about mutiples wives and presidency. The recent article contradicts his original stance. Read on to understand why .... Abiola's wife, others visit IBB By Chinwendu Nnadozie, Minna One of the wives of the acclaimed winner of the annulled 1993 presidential election, Dr Bisi Abiola, has led some women and other interest groups under the auspices of "Campaign Network for IBB," on a solidarity visit to Niger State. The visit was in support of the 2007 presidential ambition of the former Military President, General Ibrahim Babangida. Speaking while playing host to the delegation, Niger State governor, Abdulkhadir Kure, appealed to Nigerians to apply wisdom in casting their votes during the 2007 general elections to ensure that only credible candidates with tested and proven leadership qualities were given the opportunity to serve the country in any capacity. Kure, speaking through his deputy, Dr Shem Zagbayi Nuhu, extolled the virtues of the former military leader, especially his reform programmes which he said had become the basis for other administrations after his handing-over in 1993. Kure, who said he was overwhelmed by the calibre of people representing the network, listed some of the achievements of IBB to include the formulation of a policy that gave rise to the establishment of Peoples Bank and focus on the rural areas that enhanced job creation, such as DFFRI. IBB, according to Kure, is not only a force to reckon with in the history of the country, but world over, as a distinguished ambassador of the country, "I charge all Nigerians, who are of voting age, to come out en masse to vote for Babangida as a democratically elected President come 2007". He challenged the entire Niger State indigenes and numerous other Nigerians, who are supportive to the IBB cause, not to be distracted by those who do not wish the country well, but to remain focused and committed towards actualising the hand-over to IBB on May 29, 2007 as the next democratically elected President. Chairperson, Board of Trustees, Campaign Network for IBB and wife of Late M.K.O. Abiola, Dr. Bisi Abiola, said they were in Niger State to register their support for the 2007 presidential plans of IBB, whom she said had contributed in no small way to the growth and development of the country. Apart from being a committed leader, Dr Abiola told the governor, the IBB supporters' group, with branches in the United Kingdom, United States and Ghana, have benefited in one way or the other from the former Head of State, especially in his rural transformation policies. Meanwhile, Kure has renewed his commitment to a united Nigeria, where every individual has the right to the choice of who governs the country in the next political dispensation from any part of the country, with religion, political and regional differences not being a barrier. Kure, speaking through the Director General, Internal Affairs, Niger State, Mohammed Usman Kagara, however, said he has no final say on who becomes the next President of the country, as it depends on the generality of Nigerians of voting age, who are expected to decide who governs them through their votes. He pointed out that due to the heterogeneous nature of the country, it may not be possible and in the best interest of the country for a candidate from the smallest tribe to govern the country because such a tribe or region may have no national reach to produce the country's President. http://odili.net/news/source/2006/jun/3/605.html

Tony  # 7 | 07.06.2006 20:58

@Mr REUBEN ABATI, if i may ask,why are you writing of the injustice of june 12 and the murder of Kudirat? I thought you loved the Nigerian status quo so much? dont you know that the cancellation of june 12 and the murder of Kudirat is part of Nigeria's status quo? You are one of those educated illiterates,who is more the problem,than the solution to Nigeria's problem. In one of your recent articles you categorically stated that the North is opposed to Igbo presidency,in your stupidity you failed to realise that the North has also been opposed to Yoruba presidency. If not why was the june 12 election won by Abiola cancelled? why was Chief Awolowo prevented from ever getting to power,even when indications are that he won the 1979 elections? We all know how Obasanjo emerged in 1999.The North brought Obasanjo because they saw him as someone they could control.Indeed Obasanjo himself said sometime ago,that the North had asked him to sign certain documents as a precondition for him to come to power.Is that not the height of humiliation? It is unfortunate and indeed a tragedy that people like you who should be fighting against such "internal colonialism" are rather one of those encouraging it. By saying that the North is opposed to Igbo presidency,you automatically endorsed an archaic feudalist and unprogressive system,which Nigerians are struggling to shake off. The question is: Why should the North decide who becomes president? why cant the South decide for once who becomes the president of this traumatised and failing nation?It is becoming obvious that you and your cowardly ilk have accepted the slavery and internal colonialism in Nigeria whereby the North decides who runs the country. The devastating results since the end of the civil war is there for all to see. Are you saying that if an Igbo is the most qualified and capable person to move the country forward,he should not be allowed to, because the unprogressive North says so? Igbo leaders do not need to be united,for the Igbo to produce a president. When Obasanjo became president in 1999,he recieved no backing from the west. Infact he even lost in his local government,yet he still won the election. When you said South-South presidency,are you also excluding Igbos from the South-South like your friend Pat Utomi who is arguably one of the best qualified Nigerians for the presidency in all respects? It is very clear that you are part of the Nigerian conspiracy seeking to deny any Igbo, even if the most qualified the presidency. The civil war is the most stupid and lame excuse, next time you have to do better than that. You and your ilk have refused to move on,and have chosen to remain in the past, because it suits your ethnocentric designs.Truth is: those who chose to remain in the past never make progress. Little wonder Nigeria has remained in the cesspit 46 years after independence. Finally Mr Abati,the reality you have refused to face,is that injustice knows no boundaries,and in life what goes around comes around.You might think you are helping yourself and your ethnic group,by joining your Northern status quo friends in their conspiracy to deny any Igbo an opportunity to get to the presidency.But the reality is once the machine of injustice gets into action it will come round to consume some of those who designed it. The june 12 election and the murder of Kudirat you have written about here is enough indication and example of such a scenario. And ultimately,even this geopraphical expression Nigeria might not even be there for you and your status quo friends in the long run.Your legacy will always be that of a man,who supported injustice and a suffocating status quo.never campaigned for social justice,and remained a cowardly opportunist all through his life. I wonder what kind of a nation you would want to bequeath to your children?