Abiola's son said he approached Goodluck three times asking him to confer GCFR on his father

CHIEF MKO Abiola's oldest son Kola has revealed that he repeatedly asked former president Dr Goodluck Jonathan to bestow the national award the Grand Commander of the Federal Republic (GCFR) on his late father to no avail.

Earlier this week, President Muhammadu Buhari conferred the honour of GCFR on Chief Abiola, the presumed winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential elections and recognised the date as Democracy Day. It will now be celebrated annually in Nigeria as a public holiday in what it tantamount to a recognition buy the government that Chief Abiola won the elections and should have been sworn in as president.

Kola Abiola, who received the award on behalf of his father,  has revealed, however, that he made three attempts to make Dr Jonathan bestow the honour on his late father. Mr Abiola said he first approached the then attorney-general of the federation Mohammed Adoke, to honour his father during the centenary celebrations in January 2014 but a gold award was given instead, which was rejected by the family.

He said even after Dr Jonathan had lost the 2015 presidential elections and was preparing to leave office, he made another attempt to get him to honour his father but it failed again. He added that he made this attempt through Pastor Tunde Bakare, President Buhari's running mate in the 2011 elections.

Mr Abiola added: “Towards the election, I approached them again, this time in writing and solicited the help of Pastor Bakare and told them that even if it was for selfish political reasons, this was something you could do to help your chances of winning elections. I really didn’t mind how he got it done but we couldn’t get President Jonathan to get it done so we left that.

“After he lost the election, I approached him a second time also through the same Pastor Bakare to try to get him to do this as a legacy of his presidency, something that Nigerians would never forget about him. Last minute, we couldn’t get it to happen.”

According to Mr Abiola,  he did not approach former President Olusegun Obasanjo to honour his father because he felt there was no point doing so as the answer would have been obvious. He, however, said he approached the late President Umaru Yar’Adua, who promised to address the issue but died in office.

When asked his view on Jonathan’s naming of the University of Lagos as Moshood Abiola University, Lagos, Kola said it was a mistake as they were trying to regionalise his father. He added that his late father was beyond that as he was a man who was voted across Nigeria irrespective of religion.