The Woman Who Saw Her Death, Kudirat Abiola, wife of MKO Abiola

Transcript

So vivacious and lively before she was cut down in her prime while fighting ajust and worthy cause The Woman Who Saw Her Death

Late Kudirat Abiola, wife of MKO Abiola, the detained winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, who was cruelly assassinated on June 4, 1996 predicted her death and the likely reaction of Nigerians.

At the Muson Centre, Onikan, Lagos, during the Vanguard 2nd Annual Lecture. I asked her a frightening question on what she thought would be Nigerians” reaction if she got killed during her struggle for the validation of the June 12, 1993 presidential election won by her husband.
Her reply was prescient: don’t think they will do any thing. They can only talk for few days and enter their rooms. But I am not bothered. I gave my word that come rain, come sun, I am going to support him (Chief MKO Abiola), even if it is going to take my life.”

Assassins sooner came for her. a week to the commemoration of the third anniversary of June 12 and as she predicted the heavens have not fallen in Nigeria. It has been business as usual for the large majority of her countrymen and women.
Kudi saw her death coming. A few days before she was brutally cut down, she had advertised several threats to her life. Even before then, she had seen in her dream how she was shot by those she recognised to be government agents. Dreams sometimes can be deceptive, but very few people believed government was innocent about her assassination.

Her daughter, Hafsat, was certain about government’s involvement when she said in an VOA interview that “government killed my mother”.

Kudi was certainly shot by paid, hired gunmen Riding in a Mercedes Benz C-Class’, along with her personal assistant, Dr. Adesina, a driver, Atanda Salami, she was on her way to a meeting with the Canadian High Commissioner when she was ambushed around 7-Up Junction, in Lagos a shouting distance from the security post manned by operatives who were armed to the teeth with rifles and walkie-talkies..

The motive of the gunmen was definitely to snuff the life out of her because of her die- hard posture on the June 12 election won by her husband who was detained endlessly at time in in Abuja.

Kudi was murdered in cold blood by some yet-to-be known hired assassins. What has happened? What has been the civil society’s reaction to her assassination and others killed in similar circumstances? Have the state security agents found her killers?

As predicted by Kudi herself shortly after she was murdered, Nigerians only grumbled for a few days and then there was slience. As for tracking down her killers, Nigerians are not expecting much from the security agents , a police force spokesman said: “it will be a difficult task tracking down Kudi’s killers.”

The remains of a fallen heroine widely held suspicions that the state had a hand in her assassination. Definitely, dogs cannot eat dogs.
Those who knew Kudi before her untimely death said that her “most exemplary traits were her simplicity, humility and motherly virtues.”
Resolute in her quest for the de-annulment of the freest and fairest election won by her husband, stubborn and hostile to tyranny, dictatorship and the oppressive regime of General Sani Abacha, she openly stood by her husband and other citizens against the criminal and heartless injustice inflicted on the over 14 million Nigerians, nay the nation, as a result of the annulment of their decision (June 12 mandate).

Even when her life was being threatened because of her unwavering commitment to soldier on over the June 12 struggle, she told press men during one of her interviews: “What do they want me to do? Do they want me to drag myself on the floor for them for what is supposed to be our right? I will not do it. I will rather die than give up the struggle.”

To the courageous woman who had been likened to the biblical heroines like Esther, Deborah and Ruth, struggle was her life as far as June 12 remained unresolved. As Senator Abraham Adesanya, NADECO chieftain put it: “Kudi was the embodiment of the mandate of June 12 to her husband, a symbol of courage, a symbol of dedication, she was dedicated to the course of justice, dedicated to all good things.”
Convinced beyond reasonable doubt that Chief Abiola was victim of blackmail and injustice, Kudi, who so much believed in June 12, fought for it to the last pint of her blood
Kudi’s murder no doubt was one that “shook the whole. world”. A woman of courage, her loss will be felt in many ways: a loss for her goodness and her unpretentious simplicity. A loss for the courage that she personified, a loss for Nige rians especially the women.
She died at the age of 44. She was survived by seven children, among whom is Hafsat who has vowed to continue the struggle her mother was forced by assassins to abandon.

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Credit

Original Story in PM News by Iyobosa Uwugiaren (June 4, 1997)

Adapted for Podcast by: Femi D Amele  femid@fineradio.co / @femidlive 

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