The Governor of Anambra State,
Willie Obiano, has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to also declare the
birthday of Nigeria’s first president, Nnamdi Azikiwe, as public holiday.
This was as he commended Buhari
for honoring the presumed winner of the June 12, 1993, presidential vote, Chief
Moshood Abiola, with the renaming of the National Stadium in Abuja, after
Abiola.
This was contained in a statement
released Saturday in Awka, the Anambra State capital, by C. Don Adinuba, the
state Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment.
Obiano said the renaming of the
stadium was “the icing on the cake in the steps taken so far to immortalize a
national figure who won the 1993 presidential vote fair and square but was
denied victory and, more painfully, incarcerated solitarily.
“We have watched with admiration
how President Buhari first announced in the first week of June, 2018, his
intention to make June 12 a national holiday and bestowed on Chief Abiola Grand
Commander of the Federal Republic, Nigeria’s highest national honour given to
only heads of state.
“President Buhari followed it up
with an appropriate bill in the National Assembly and then assented to it on
passage, thus changing Nigeria’s Democracy Day from May 29, in commemoration of
the day the military handover the Nigerian national leadership to elected
civilians on May 29, 1999, to June 12, in remembrance of the day the historic
election between Chief MKO Abiola of the Social Democratic Party and Alhaji
Bashir Tofa of the National Republican Convention was held.
“No one expected the National
Stadium to be named after the hero of the struggle for democracy. The renaming
must have been the president’s personal idea and initiative.
“By the time Chief Abiola joined
the presidential contest, there was no person who could rival his support for
sport development in the African region, which earned him the honour of Pillar
of Sports in Africa from the Association of African Sports Confederations.
“For example, he provided
tremendous financial resources to his Abiola Babes Football Club based in
Abeokuta, Ogun State, which enabled most of the players to escape from abject
poverty to lead a comfortable lifestyle. The players understandably became more
dedicated.
“Abiola Babes scored the bull’s
eye by winning within a few years of its formation the prestigious National
Football Club League Championship.
“Unknown to most Nigerians, Chief
Abiola was a boxer, and was guided and assisted by an indigene of Nnewi,
Anambra State, named Dr George Akabogu, who was to become a famous school
principal and later an academic.
“Chief Abiola was a true
Nigerian. He donated generously to worthy causes and championed quite a number
selflessly.
“Apart from employing Nigerians
generously in his organizations regardless of their faith, gender or ethnic
origin, Chief Abiola established Udoka, an Igbo newspaper;Amana, a Hausa
newspaper; and Isokan, a Yoruba newspaper.
“Abiola never left anyone in
doubt that he was greatly inspired by the nationalism, patriotism and
sportsman-like spirit of Nigeria’s first president, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, GCFR,
PC. He remained an avowed Zikist up to his death.
“On the occasion of the first
anniversary of June 12 as Democracy Day in honour of a great Nigerian patriot,
it has become imperative to remind President Buhari of the request I made to
him on behalf of the government and people of Anambra State when he visited
Onitsha to commission the newly completed Zik Mausoleum last January 24 that he
declare Zik’s birthday a national holiday.
“Ghanaians observe the birthday
of their first president, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, himself a Zik protégé. Tanzanians
observe a national holiday in memory of their first president, Mwalimu Julius
Nyerere, as Angolans do in memory of Dr Agustiono Neto, their first president.
“The Great Zik of Africa was not
just Nigeria’s first president or the man who led Nigeria to independence in
1960. He was Nigeria’s first indigenous Governor General and the first Senate
President.
“He was the first Nigerian to
build a bank, thus inspiring his colleagues as regional premiers in the 1950s
to establish their own banks. He was also the first Nigerian to set up a
university, and consequently challenged his peers to follow in his footsteps.
“A Nigerian nationalist of
incomparable status and a man of letters through and through, the Great Zik of
Africa had established as early as the 1950s newspapers in Ibadan, Zaria, Kano,
Onitsha, Port Harcourt and, of course, Lagos to fight for Nigeria’s liberation
from oppressive colonial rule.
“Zik inspired a generation of
Africans, including the late President Nkrumah of Ghana, Chief Obafemi Awolowo
and Dr Nwafor Orizu, who became Nigeria’s second Senate President.
“It has, therefore, become a
national scandal that a national holiday has yet to be declared in honour of
this great African son. The people and government of Anambra State once again
call upon President Buhari to end this national blight by declaring November 16
of every year a national holiday in commemoration of Dr Azikiwe’s birthday.”
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