Many Nigerian elite families are full of siblings who do not relate to one another as if they are members of the same family. There are many instances where blood brothers or people of the same parentage have related to one another as if they were actually sworn enemies. On Thursday last week, we looked into the cases of Ikoku and son (Alvan and Sam) and the Enahoro brothers (Anthony and Peter who appear mutually opposed, while Mike seems aloof to the antics of the duo). There are also the cases of the Ransome-Kuti clan of Abeokuta, the Ani brothers of Calabar and now the unfolding case of the Abiola brothers of Abeokuta.
I am not saying that Nigerian elite families are full of nothing but feuding members. We have few exceptions. The most outstanding are the Ibrus of Ughelli. The Ibrus are the models of what brothers and sisters or members of the same family should be. We are not just talking about the fact that the family is wealthy and appears united. We are talking about a family where each and every member is encouraged to rise to the highest level of successful personal accomplishment. The family is famous for the business and entrepreneurial acumen of its members. The Ibrus are not reputed to have made their fabulous wealth through the looting of public funds or growing their businesses on the manure of political corruption. They are seen as business empire builders. It is difficult to hear of an Ibru layabout or ruffian or black sheep.
I am not saying there aren’t any. “Madness”, my people say, “is like an umbilicus to every belly. Every family has its own share of it”. The Ibrus may have their own black sheep and crazy moments. But the family has managed to give the impression that these do not exist in their fold. That is why I said the Ibrus are models. Another family that comes close to the Ibrus are the Graham-Douglases of Kalabari in Rivers State. It is another family of accomplished professionals, a feat they seem able to transfer successfully from one generation to the other.
The three Ransome-Kuti brothers - Olikoye, Fela and Beko - each of them renowned worldwide in their respective fields - also struck a posture similar to that of the Enahoros, politically. While Fela and Beko were active anti-establishmentarians, the unsmiling Olikoye felt at home as General Ibrahim Babangida’s Health Minister for the whole eight years the regime lasted. In fact, Olikoye was named one of Babangida’s “untouchables” for enjoying an unusual job security in a regime noted for the whimsical proclivity of its leader to hire and fire. As far as the Kutis went, brothers couldn’t be more similar in disposition and yet sharply differentiated in their attitudes to the Babangida military regime.
Before his reported decision to join Babangida’s political camp towards the return of the Minna-born General in 2007, Alhaji Mubashiru, as Moshood Abiola’s brother, was nothing more than the typical rich man’s poor relative hovering in the background. He was not in the same distinguished class as the Enahoro, Ibru, Ani, the Graham-Douglas and the Kuti brothers, each of whom was pre-eminent and contributed to the fame their families enjoyed. The Abiola family consisted, in the eyes of the public, the late billionaire, his numerous wives and concubines, children and alleged children. People even tended to be surprised that Abiola had a brother. But, take it or leave it, Abiola did have a brother. That much is obvious from the fact that the political fishermen of Moshood’s ultimate friend and nemesis, Babangida, have identified him as an easy means of re-infiltrating the Abiola family.
The report of Mubashiru’s joining-up with Babangida’s emissaries left many mouths agape across the country. What manner of brother was Mubashiru to Abiola? Did he know the meaning of what Babangida did to his brother and the family, let alone the nation? Those who knew it only too well, such as the Yoruba group, Afenifere, the leading platform for the struggle for Abiola’s freedom and re-validation of his annulled mandate, have long waved aside Mubashiru’s move. They know that if Babangida had not annulled the Abiola mandate, Moshood would have finished his possible two terms in 2001. He would be alive, and the Abiola family would have gone into the books as one of Nigeria’s presidential families. Mubashiru and his children would have, by extension, evolved into national somebodies. The country as a whole would probably have consolidated on the gains of democracy by now and be miles away from where we are now.
However, it may be useful to try and put oneself in the shoes of a person like Mubashiru. For instance, what does he have to lose in a “powerful” and wealthy individual like Babangida taking a personal interest in him? We may also ask ourselves what a destitute Abiola brother would do when Abiola’s first son, Kola, continued to relate in intimate terms with the Babangidas and other known supporters of the annulment and imprisonment of his father. Apart from Hafsat, the late Kudirat’s first daughter, none of Abiola's children has shown the slightest open concern for their father’s legacies. None has mooted the need to immortalise MKO. There is not even the slightest hint on an MKO Foundation or the usual lecture series or whatever. They simply folded their tents and went behind the scenes to become friends again with the same group of people that authored and finished their father. If you were in Mubashiru’s shoes and watching this dance of shame and you have the same moral fibre nudging at you, could you afford to be more “Catholic than the Pope”?
Let’s take it even closer home. If you were Mubashiru won’t you remember how Moshood himself crawled by night to solicit Babangida's renewed favour? That was in April, 1994. Tempo magazine leaked a letter Abiola had written to Babangida entitled: “Let’s be friends again.” In the said letter (which Abiola never denied having written) he begged Babangida to join him to wrest his mandate from Abacha. Abiola said “enemies” were behind the quarrel between him and Babangida. Observers believed that the Babangida camp caused the letter to be leaked to the media. The purpose of the leakage, it seemed, was to avoid getting into trouble with an Abacha who was in no mood to brook subterfuge. Secondly, it was daft of Abiola to have believed that after annulling the election while in power Babangida will have any reason or the capacity to turn around to fight against it in retirement.
Before he finally got pulled in for good by the Abacha regime, Abiola was often reported to have made several moves that seemed to his supporters a tendency towards sabotaging or dumping the struggle. In fact, there were sections of the Abiola family, which believed that he was cajoled into fighting the annulment. These people felt Abiola was incited “against his friends” and would be alive today and enjoying his stupendous wealth and doling out goodies to his hangers-on if he were left strictly to his own personal counsel and devices. Mubashiru may be one of those who hold this view, and so would be rather flattered if “MKO’s friends” come to him for political partnership.
It may be a disservice to MKO Abiola for his image to be lowered to the grave as a person who would rather have dumped his mandate if given the opportunity. The fact on record, despite any other insinuation to the contrary, was that Abiola died because of the mandate and without dumping it, even if he was often tempted to. He died like a hero, even if he would have preferred to avoid being “a dead hero”. And his death eventually stimulated the shift of power to the South, even if power was maliciously shifted into the hands of a foe of Abiola’s mandate, fellow Abeokuta man, General Olusegun Obasanjo. Without Abiola’s struggle, ably and effectively supported by his people and other Nigerians, effective power would have eluded the South and Yoruba in particular. If Abiola had been allowed to dump his mandate, the Yoruba would be a laughing stock in Nigeria today, and so would Nigeria. For that, it is totally unfounded to say Abiola’s struggle and demise were for nothing.
Beyond Abiola himself, we must also consider the role his illustrious wife, Kudirat, played in the struggle, along with the supreme price she paid. Mubashiru’s move is therefore not only an offence on Abiola’s memory, but it was an utter outrage against Kudirat’s martyrdom. The Afenifere has, therefore, given it the proper treat by waving it off. The next phase is to make Mubashiru the “beautiful bride” and his seducers never to benefit from their abominable infatuation. Babangida and his emissaries need to know that June 12 goes beyond “settlement” with individual nonentity wild hairs of the Abiola family. It is not a family affair, and it goes beyond the things that families do.
