ABIOLA'S GHOST

BLOGGER'S NOTE:

THIS POST AIN'T SO MUCH OF THE TRADITIONAL RHYTHMIC POETRY 

WITH ALL THE USUAL NUANCES OF POETRY, BUT IT DOES TELL A STORY. 

A POIGNANT ONE ARISING FROM ELECTORAL INJUSTICE AND IT IS PARTICULARLY

RELEVANT TO OUR TIMES.

ORIGINALLY POSTED ON FACE BOOK on Monday, September 20, 2010 at 7:39pm.

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=159959670683283&comments

‘…I have trudged this path since that day. That fateful but faithless day when the sun played truant and darkness descended in the political firmaments of the most populous black nation yonder there on earth.

I have trudged this path grudgingly for a little over seventeen long years. I have trudged this path at first accompanied by the fervent buzz of a mammoth crowd of betrayed citizens wailing their injustice. I have trudged with the motley chant of a feeble few echoing the tragedy of the twelfth day of the sixth month. I have trudged as the vestiges of once fiery angst- impotent! Accompanies me.

I have trudged this path, the cunning of a Maradonic grin etched firmly in my soul.

Yonder there where you are-I Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola the Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland and holder of 196 other traditional titles conferred by 68 different communities in Nigeria stood for that election whose induced still birth demise heralded the beginning of mine.

In recognition of my contribution to nation building from my own personal resources that resulted in the construction of 63 secondary schools, 121 mosques and churches, 41 libraries, 21 water projects in 24 states of Nigeria, and my grand patronage to 149 societies or associations in Nigeria, and your fervent believe that if I take over the reins of state I will do even more, over 14 million of you voted and freely gave me your mandate on June 12, 1993.

That election was declared Nigeria's freest and fairest presidential election by national and international observers. Your voices were heard loud and clear, far and wide. It was heard in Bashir Tofa my gallant Northern opponent’s home state Kano, where I won. Your voices resonated right in the national capital, Abuja. Your voices sent overwhelming tremors through the military polling stations scattered all over the country where I won.  In over two-thirds of Nigerian states, you the people spoke and voted for Hope.

The results kept pouring in and with a clear lead established, with your voice so clear and the message so poignant. He annulled it. Without cause, without justification. The voice of over 14 million voting Nigerians and the sensibilities of a nation of then 90 million people were silenced. Their hopes were dashed. There right to vote extinguished. In the resultant agitations to actualize the mandate, many innocent souls died. Many went into exile.

In 1994, I your President-Elect declared myself the lawful president of Nigeria in the Epetedo area of Lagos Island. I was declared wanted and was accused of treason and arrested on the orders of military President General Sani Abacha, who sent 200 police vehicles to bring me into custody.

I was detained for four years, largely in solitary confinement with a Bible, Qur'an, and fourteen guards as companions. During that time, Pope John Paul II, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and human rights activists from all over the world lobbied the Nigerian government for my release. The sole condition attached to my release was that I renounce my mandate, the mandate a majority of you freely gave me. Since the mandate was not mine but yours I refused to surrender it.

I held steadfastly to the trust you reposed to me but which He so blatantly betrayed. I held on to your mandate even when Kofi Annan and Emeka Anyoku reported to the world that I had agreed to renounce your mandate after they met with me to proffer the fallacy that the world would not recognize a five year old election. And so my fate and yours were sealed. Never would the forces of darkness see the light of your legitimate desires for genuine change come to fruition. I was summoned for a tete a tete over a tea party. I drank their tea and died.

I died a frustrated man and found myself trudging this path. Since then my democratic ghost has failed to rest in peace. Various cleansing exercise has been carried out in form of sham elections to lay my ghost to rest but the men who knew or should know of the greatest electoral injustice in modern history continues to pour dirty ash into the clear stream of your electoral wishes. Thus I continue to wander in these heavenly pathways to this day.

I have trudged alone yet in the company of others. Others who suffered the dagger of a professed friend. Others of similar fate. I have trudged and I now know what ye mere mortals know not for I keep the company of gods.

I met Fraus the Greek goddess of treachery applauding the sheer genius of the gap-toothed military tortoise that strangled your voices and stifled your mandate.

I met Sango the great god of thunder seething in rage accentuated by fire and brimstone that Olodumare the God of all creations will allow such an injustice thrive.

In my extra terrestrial sojourn I ran into Nemesis. Yes, Nemesis also calledRhamnousia that vindictive goddess of Rhamnous whose address where you are but before you were born was a sanctuary at Rhamnous, north of Marathon. Nemesis that recalcitrant spirit of divine retribution that visits those who succumb to hubris (Extreme haughtiness or arrogance).

I met Clementia the Greek goddess of forgiveness and enjoyed her dainty companionship. Yes I know about forgiveness. I remember the climes I come from the same climes you still are and your predilection for forgiveness. That honorable virtue not lacking in you the people I left behind that ill-fated morn of 7th July, 1998.

Those days when my silhouette had a substance; when I was yet in your midst I did align myself with the healing powers of forgiveness. Even as I trudge this path I still do. I have forgiven my enemies.  I have forgiven your enemies. I have forgiven our enemies-the enemies of democracy. So YOU ALL SHOULD. I beg of you. Yes forgive all including the one who truncated your wishes and who presided over one of the most inglorious regimes ever in Nigeria.

Yes forgive him. BUT DO NOT FORGET.

I have not forgotten. Never will forget.

I have not forgotten the indignity of my afflictions; the loneliness of my travails; the dejection of my spirit as I was alone right there in my cell mandate withheld.

I have not forgotten the crippling of the industries and Business Empire I built with the sweat of my exertions and the strength of my youth.

I have not forgotten the hopeless lines of worry etched in the ocular crevices of the old, the young, the vulnerable and the short changed masses that comprise your class as I was bungled into prison obscurity.

I have not forgotten the courage of a resilient few who insisted on my mandate. I have not forgotten the betrayals either of men who professed their love.

I have not forgotten and I am still in shock when the messenger of death Iku orOnwu as the Easterners call him announces the premature arrival on another path of this extra terrestrial sojourn  of the likes of my own dear Kudirat, Pa Alfred Ogbeyiwa Rewane; Abayomi Ogundeji; Alabi Okoju; Aminosari Dikibo; Andrew Agom; Ayo Daramola; Bagauda Kalto; Bayo Ohu; Bola Ige; Charles Nsiegbe; Dipo Dina; Funsho Williams; Godwin Agbroko; Igwe Barnabas; Marshal Harry; Obi Wali; Odunayo Olagbaju; Ogbonnaya Uche to mention but a few.

I have often remonstrated with Oludumare and have been told countless times that there is a wall that divides here from there where you are. That your destiny is in your hands and that as long as you continue to suffer fools gladly this will continually be your lots.

I have not forgotten the poverty of 1993 and the suppression of the masses. I have not forgotten that for the very first time in that clime you could have had your way but for one man.

And as another national exorcising exercise of the ghost of the injustice of June 12, 1993 in the form of the 2011 general elections saunters ever closely by, I the deceived, dejected, demoralized, dehumanized, destitute and departed ghost of Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola of the premature heavenly pathways urge you NEVER to forget.

NEVER EVER FORGET. For the future of those yet unborn in your climes depends on your ability to remember and avoid the guile of the tortoise and his cohorts.

Vote wisely so that the clear stream of your voices will uphold justice. Defend your votes and let the enemies of justice be put to shame. Intone in grave voices ‘NEVER AGAIN shall one man take us to the precipice of disaster!’

Then and only then will my Ghost and the violated ideals of democracy finally Rest in Peace!’