Kola Abiola: Jonathan thrice rejected GCFR for MKO
News & Trends •
read more in7 former president goodluck jonathan thrice rebuffed suggestions he bestow the grand commander of the order of the federal republic honour onchief mko abiola1 he said jonathan rejected the suggestion for political reasons1 according to mkos son he first approached the then attorney-general of the federation mohammed adoke san to honour his father during the centenary celebration in january 2014 but a gold award was given to the deceased which was rejected by the family1 kola said during his second attempt he wrote a letter to jonathan through the serving overseer of the latter rain assembly pastor tunde bakare during the build-up to the 2015 elections but nothing was done1 he said even after jonathan had lost and was preparing to leave office he made another attempt to get him to honour mko but it failed again1 kola abiola said 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 elections1 i really didnt mind how he got it done. but we couldnt get president jonathan to get it done so we left that1 mr. kola abiola the eldest son of the winner of the june 12 1993 presidential election chief mko abiola made the revelation in a channels tv interview broadcast on thursday night1 abiolas son said after president muhammadu buhari took office he sent a letter through pastor bakare again to take to the president who was in kaduna at the time1 he said buhari bought into the idea and exceeded the expectations of the abiola family as he did not only honour the deceased with the highest title in the land but also issued an apology to his family on behalf of the federal government1 kola noted that 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 obvious1 he however said he approached the late president umaru yaradua who promised to address the issue but died in office1 when asked his view on jonathans naming of the university of lagos as moshood abiola university lagos kola said that was a mistake. they were trying to regionalise mko. he was beyond that. this man was voted across nigeria irrespective of religion1 i went back to them and told them if they had consulted me i would have told them what to do1 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 couldnt get it to happen1