Journalists are chronic name droppers. A man of God will brag about hearing the voice of God from the burning bush. A pen peddling journalist will go a step in the surreal. They were in the burning bush with God. Telling you a shocking reality is an occupational hazard.
I was close to Alhaja Kudirat Abiola during the 12 June days. I went from an extra on a movie set to a major character in a major production. I became so close that I was the liaison between Dr. Ore Falomo and the Alhaja. The evil junta General Sanni Abacha wanted Kudi (Kudirat) incommunicado, as far as anything Moshood (MKO) Abiola news was concerned. It was his method to kill her silently.
I became the necessary harbinger and turned her living room into my beat where I religiously reported every day. Till the day she was assassinated. It was not a coincidence that I was there during the burial of Alhaja Simbiat Abiola, MKO’s first wife; followed the body from the local wing of the Murtala Muhammed Airport to the Abiola residence in Ikeja. I sat amongst relatives of the late business mogul. They eulogised the dead by how much they hated her, especially in death.
Remember God and the burning bush. I was also present during the burial of Alhaja Kudirat. From seeing her bloodied lace material, to the final Muslim rites, to the journalistic instinct to seat close to Kola Abiola and his group of friends, and being privy to listening to him eulogise his stepmother. He hated her with passion, blamed her for the 12 June imbroglio; an impasse that he believed her stubbornness breathe life into. He was not sad about the horrible way she died. He was more concerned about the inconvenience her political stance meant to his hitherto opulent way of life.
The loquaciousness of Kola’s stepbrother, Abdulmumuni reminds you of his great father. When you have on a white flowing _agbada_ , you should be wary of the woman selling palm oil. It is way too late to correct the recklessness and overindulgence of a randy father. You do not tell a man not to grow big teeth, as long as he has lips to cover them. Abiola has enough money to take care of the needs of the children he left behind. He does not have enough for the greed of one child bent on vengeance. With love, we can feed fat from eating out of a groundnut shell. The comfort of the bird is dependent on the comfort of the tree.
Kola should do the needful. Remember why your father’s relatives hated your mother.
MKO must not suffer bereavement… in death!
