THE Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has revealed why President Muhammadu Buhari intents to confer a national honour on late Chief MKO Abiola, an acclaim winner of the 1993 annuled presidential poll.
The PDP said Mr Buhari merely sought to use the name and person of Chief Abiola to gain a political capital and not out of genuine reverence and recognition for him.
THE Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has revealed why President Muhammadu Buhari intents to confer a national honour on late Chief MKO Abiola, an acclaim winner of the 1993 annuled presidential poll.
The PDP said Mr Buhari merely sought to use the name and person of Chief Abiola to gain a political capital and not out of genuine reverence and recognition for him.
It therefore described the president’s action as a desperation to win the 2019 election.
Mr Abiola is to be honoured with the Grand Commander of the Federal Republic (GCFR).
Others to be accorded similar regards are: Baba Gana Kingibe, Abiola’s running mate during the election, and Gani Fawehinmi, one of Nigeria’s foremost rights activist, now late, the duo to be conferred with Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON).
President Buhari stated this while adopting a new date, June 12, that will henceforth be celebrated as the country’s democracy day discarding the May 29 for which it has always be celebrated. His action has attracted mixed reactions with some commending him and others reading political undertune to it.
In a statement by its spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, the opposition party said it recalls that President Buhari, who was serving in the military administration of General Sani Abacha during the travails of Chief MKO Abiola, did not associate either by words or actions with the late winner of June 12 election.
The party further stated that history did not record President Buhari as sympathetic to the Abiola’s family when his wife, Kudirat, was gruesomely murdered by the agents of a government which President Buhari served.
“It is therefore a sign of political desperation for President Buhari to seek to use Chief Abiola’s name as a tool to sway Nigerians in less than twelve months to an election where he, (President Buhari) is seeking a second term.
“It is also shocking that the respectable grave of Abiola can be dishonoured by granting a posthumous award on him along with someone who denounced the June 12 mandate and preferred the company of his (Abiola’s) traducers.
“Even those who now masquerade as change agents were opposed to the naming of University of Lagos after Chief Abiola.
If President Buhari genuinely wants to honour Chief Abiola, he should do so by ending all anti-democratic proclivities of his administration and allow for the rule of law and respect for our constitution,” it said.
The PDP therefore urged President Buhari to shed his desperate actions in his quest to win the 2019 presidential election as Nigerians can no longer be deceived by such antics.
