Kudirat Abiola

Celebrating Kudirat Abiola.

Since Kudirat Abiola’s right to life was brutally terminated by an assailant fifteen years ago, so much has changed for better in Nigeria except, of course, the culture of impunity.
There have been two consecutive civilian transitions and the country is now lead by a minority President, yet impunity seems to possess strong adaptation to survive the changes that have taken place.
Many high profile assassination cases remain unresolved, including that of Kudirat which happened on June 4, 1996 on Mobolaji Johnson road, Ikeja.
Fifteen years ago, she drove out of this compound to attend to several important meetings.
Eyewitnesses accounts say she stopped outside the gates to chat with someone before driving off.
Executive Director of the Kudirat Initiative for Democracy, an NGO setup in 1997 by Hafsat Abiola-Costello, in memorial of her late mother, Amy Oyekunle said sadly, that was the last time she was seen alive.
Her history has just one theme: she died because she wanted her country to be democratically ruled.
This aim has long been achieved and many political officers now reap the dividend of a fight, for which she paid the supreme price.
As Nigeria transited from military to democratic ruler, impunity, somehow, was part of that transition and till date, Kudirat and many other victims of politically-linked assassinations have not gotten the deserved justice.
Doctor Joe Okey-Odumakin said Impunity has been on for a very long time in Nigeria and the inability to apprehend the perpetrators of dastardly acts has served to embolden them the more.
Okey-Odumakin said as much as possible, we must curb impunity in Nigeria because people die brutishly as a result of people having no regard for the laws of the land.
Kudirat’s first son, Abdul, who is now a member of KIND, said his mother’s life proved that “every woman can be a strong defender of the right cause if rightly empowered”.