Senator Orji Uzor Kalu (APC-Abia) has urged President Bola Tinubu to declare the late Chief MKO Abiola as one of Nigeria’s former presidents, posthumously.
Kalu, who chairs the Senate Committee on Privatisation, said Abiola’s portrait should also be hung among that of Nigerian presidents.
He spoke at the National Assembly on Tuesday against the background of the recent admission by former military president, retired Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, that Abiola indeed won the June 12, 1993, presidential election.
The June 12, 1993, presidential election was adjudged to be the freest and fairest conducted in the country at the time.
The News Agency of Nigeria recalls that Babangida, in his memoirs, “A Journey in Service: An Autobiography”, admitted that the late politician and philanthropist, won the election.
Kalu, a former governor of Abia, told journalists that with Babangida’s latest revelations, the controversy over the election had been laid to rest; hence, Tinubu should declare Abiola one of Nigeria’s presidents posthumously.
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“Yes, Abiola won the election, and there’s no doubt about that. I would like them to put Abiola’s picture where other presidents’ pictures are.
“I will appeal to President Tinubu to swear him in posthumously and also allow his picture to be where you have that of former Nigerian presidents.
“We have already given him most of the honours. I’m very thankful to former President Muhammadu Buhari, who gave him a national award.
“This will help bring succour to his family,” Kalu said.
When asked whether he thought Babangida answered all the issues and debates his eight-year military rule generated in his book, Kalu responded that the memoirs were incomplete.
He suggested that the former military president should write the Vol. II of the book, to be devoted largely to unanswered questions around the June 12 election.
“I look forward to the second edition of Babangida’s book because the first did not reveal all the realities.”
The lawmaker also appealed to Nigerians to give Tinubu a chance to return as president in 2027.
“Many presidents in Nigeria who have not done very well have won their second time. We are appealing to Nigerian people.
“We are not going to ruffle ourselves in APC convention. We have only one presidential candidate, which is Bola Tinubu.
“We are not looking for any other person. The problem of Nigeria is some people not wanting to consolidate gains of reform.
“It may be very difficult today, very hard today. People are complaining but the reform is trickling down.”
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