Moshood Abiola Stadium

•A befitting honour to the ‘Pillar of Sports in Africa’

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari’s announcement that the former National Stadium, Abuja, has been renamed Moshood Abiola Stadium is a commendable act of national contrition, atonement and restoration which will help to rectify an enormous injustice.

The denial of a fairly-won electoral mandate to Bashorun M.K.O. Abiola, the acclaimed winner of the national election of June 12, 1993, and his subsequent arrest, incarceration and eventual death in custody must rank as one of the most searing acts of oppression and injustice in a nation whose history has been tragically characterised by far too many of them.

Declaring that “correcting injustice is a pre-requisite for peace and unity,” President Buhari’s announcement follows up on the momentous steps he first took in June, last year, when he moved Democracy Day from May 29 to June 12, posthumously bestowed the highest national honour (Grand Commander of the Federal Republic, GCFR) upon Abiola, and formally acknowledged the annulled elections as free and fair.

It is easy to forget that June 12 was much more than just an election. The overwhelmingly pan-Nigerian mandate given to a Muslim-Muslim ticket in which virtually no act of electoral malfeasance was reported presented Nigeria at its very finest. Consequently, its annulment represented the triumph of the negative forces that have long conspired to prevent the nation from realising its true potential and attaining the greatness that it is eminently capable of achieving.

These actions have gone a long way to bring closure to a debacle that has poisoned inter-ethnic relations, tainted Nigeria’s democratic credentials, hampered the development of a free and fair electoral process, and substantially weakened faith in national unity.

Despite the somewhat spiteful debate over the propriety of naming the 60,000-seater National Stadium after Abiola, there can be little doubt that it is a fitting tribute to a man who, among many other honours, was hailed as Africa’s first Pillar of Sports.

Abiola strongly believed in the transformative power of sport and was famous for his consistently generous donations to athletes and sports teams. He was proprietor of the high-flying Abiola Babes Football Club, and the first trophy of Africa’s second most-prestigious football competition, the Confederation Cup, was named after him.

However, if the Moshood Abiola Stadium is to truly represent the values of the man after which it has been named, it must be fully rehabilitated. Indeed, the renaming should be only the first step in a thorough rehabilitation of what was once Africa’s most sophisticated sporting facility. Only then will it properly reflect the qualities of the eminent personage whose name it now proudly bears.

Abiola was a quintessentially Nigerian hero. In this regard more must be done to honour one who transcended political ambition to become a symbol of the country’s deepest democratic yearnings. Prior to the Federal Government’s actions, Abiola had been honoured with public holidays in Lagos, Oyo, Ogun and Osun states, along with the renaming of a stadium, a housing estate, a polytechnic and a number of prominent streets.

There is absolutely no reason why there should not be greater commemoration of a person whose personal and business relationships systematically covered the length and breadth of Nigeria as clearly demonstrated in the comprehensive nature of his victory.

Democracy Day could serve to convene seminars and workshops to extensively discuss the meaning of June 12 and explore ways in which its lessons could help to enhance the understanding and practice of participatory democracy. Professorial chairs could be endowed in Abiola’s name and tasked with conducting research into the political, business and cultural phenomenon that was M.K.O. Abiola.

The challenge of putting him on film should inspire a host of Nollywood productions. There are whole libraries to be written on Abiola’s larger-than-life personality, digging into the colourful life of one who was loved by many, feared by some, and acknowledged by all.

The mission of fully rehabilitating Abiola and the values he stood for should ultimately aim at formally recognising his presidency and ensuring that his family receives what it is entitled to in consequence of this. Such restitution would place the final seal on Abiola’s remarkable legacy and heal a national sore that has been left to fester for too long.