June 12: My Father Paid The Greatest Price For Democracy – Rinsola Abiola

Mko, Abiola. (Photo credit: File photo).

I Always Hoped My Father Would Return – Rinsola

A daughter of the late MKO Abiola, Rinsola Abiola, says  that she believes the death of her father was not as a result of his personal interest but because he was convinced that it was necessary for Nigeria’s democracy.

Rinsola said this in reaction to the declaration of June 12 as Democracy Day and the posthumous award conferred on her father by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Rinsola, who appeared on Channels Television’s Politics Today, noted that the struggle for Democracy came at a huge cost to their family.

“My father was someone who put national comfort above his comfort, above his safety because when he did what he did – when he made that declaration, he knew what the consequences would probably be.

“But he was brave, and he did the honourable thing, irrespective of what the cost might be. So, he paid the price that he believed was necessary,” she said.

She stressed further that the nation now enjoys democracy as Nigerians are free to vote the leaders of their choice and express themselves freely.

On her experience growing up without her father, Rinsola admitted that it was difficult for her as she kept hoping her father would return someday.

“We were hoping he (Abiola) would come back and he never did. I don’t think that there is anything that would actually fully compensate for that.”

She disclosed that she chose Rinsola, as opposed to Karimat which is her Arabic name, as a way of paying tribute to my father who calls her by the name during his lifetime. Rinsola insisted that as far as she was concerned, her father remained a wonderful, brave, and awesome man, even till death.

Naija News reports that Abiola was the presumed winner of the 1993 presidential election which was adjudged as the freest and most transparent poll conducted in the nation’s democratic history.

Although the election was annulled by the then military regime of General Ibrahim Babangida (Rtd), Abiola had reportedly declared himself the winner of the poll.