Lagos ex-deputy gov urges Tinubu to honour Abiola as past president

Former Lagos State deputy governor, Alhaja Sinatu Ojikutu, has urged President Bola Tinubu to officially recognise the late Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola as a former President of Nigeria.

Ojikutu, who served under the late Governor Michael Otedola before the 1993 coup, said Tinubu’s pro-democracy reputation would mean little if he continued to sidestep the issue.

“What is he doing that he has not recognised Abiola as a former President after all the paparazzi? I thought he said he is one of the strong supporters of Abiola and the June 12 struggle?” she asked.

Abiola, widely regarded as the winner of the annulled 1993 presidential election, was posthumously honoured in 2018 by then-President Muhammadu Buhari with the GCFR a title reserved for presidents and June 12 was declared Democracy Day. But his name remains missing from the official roll call of Nigerian leaders at the Presidential Villa.

Calls for Tinubu to change that have been growing louder, with Senator Orji Uzor Kalu and former Lagos lawmaker Jude Idimogu also pushing for Abiola’s portrait to hang among those of past presidents.

Ojikutu said such recognition should have been one of Tinubu’s first moves on assuming office.

“He should acknowledge him because he is touting himself as being in the forefront of the fight for democracy and as someone who suffered for democracy MKO Abiola. What is he waiting for?” she said.

She went further, challenging Tinubu for not renaming Lagos State University after its founder, the late Alhaji Lateef Jakande.

“Even the day he said ‘subsidy is over,’ he could have said, ‘And now, I declare MKO our former president.’ Those two things could have softened the hearts of the people, especially considering how he emerged as President,” she added.