A former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Olisa Agbakoba has revealed how the wife of MKO Abiola and former Head of State, Ibrahim Babangida’s wife fought in Aso Rock.
Agbakoba, who said this in an interview with Punch, blamed Abiola for being too ambitious to become President.
His words: “Abiola was a bit too ambitious in wanting to become president. He went to Aso Rock to meet with Babangida in the course of which Babangida’s wife and Kudirat started fighting. It led to a fight. Babangida and other people had to rush out to separate them.”
Abiola was too desperate
Agbakoba also said that late chief Abiola missed some fundamental points because of his desperation to become President.
He said the late politician refused to listen to members of the pro-democracy community.
According to him, Abiola chose to listen to politicians who were only interested in becoming ministers.
“If he had listened to us, he would have been the president.
“But Abiola is also at fault because he was so driven to become president that he lost sight of some very fundamental points. Then, he made a mistake of not following the advice of the pro-democracy community, Rather, he was listening to the politicians who wanted to be ministers.
“That was all they wanted. So having failed to follow advice, he very quickly fell into many errors, the first being that he now kowtowed to Abacha.
“There was a very nasty picture of him stretching across the chair to Abacha when Abacha was talking to him. It was very-very degrading to the point where he was not able to see that the northern emirs would not support him. He kept saying oh, they are my friends, I know them very well. And in my presence, he phoned Babangida, they put him on hold. He was shocked. He didn’t get to speak to Babangida.”
The former NBA chairman also referred to Baba Gana Kingibe as a traitor, adding that he does not deserve a national honour.
Kingibe, who was MKO Abiola’s running mate during the June 12, 1993 elections, was honoured with the national award of the Grand Commander of the Niger (GCON) by President Buhari on June 12, 2018.
Agbakoba also revealed that he told Abiola that they were not convinced about kingibe’s loyalty.
“He is a traitor; he is a big time traitor. I warned Abiola. Abiola didn’t listen to us, that was the problem. If he had listened to us, he would have been the president. We said this guy, we were not sure about him o.
“I had meetings with Kingibe to say ‘don’t you think that being appointed foreign minister under Abacha’s government when the mandate was still alive and being pushed for, betrayed the mandate?’
“He tried to justify it by saying it was Abiola who caused it. He said Abiola was not communicating with him, strategy, what to do, blah blah blah. So (he) said okay, ‘if Abiola himself has virtually rubbished the mandate, then why would he be fighting for it?’
“Those are the circumstances under which he took the appointment. I said ‘I don’t think anything justifies it, I think you should have stood by the mandate notwithstanding what Abiola did. But you see, the irony today is that he is benefitting from something he did not fight for even for one day. That is the irony of life. He didn’t fight for it for one day, but well, he is entitled since he was Abiola’s running mate.”
When asked what he would have done about the national honour given to Kingibe if he had his way, Agbakoba said “I would say he should not have been given because he didn’t believe in June 12 and why would I give somebody who didn’t believe in June 12 an honour? For me, it is an irony. He is hypocritical.”
Meanwhile, Kola Abiola, the eldest son of late chief MKO Abiola, while speaking on Channels Television on the honour done to his father, said Buhari exceeded the expectations of the Abiola family.
