By Sam Omatseye

Since this page is about democracy, I shout out to one of Abiola’s confidantes, Chief Olu Akerele, who turns 70 August 29th. He was one of the lieutenants who saw him in jail and may not be alive today if Major Al Mustapha had made good his wish to eliminate him. As Akerele told me, the former Abacha point man said he had “me in his gunsight one night while I was trying to penetrate and reach Chief Abiola in detention house. But something just held him from pulling the trigger to waste me.” This same Akerele alerted me to two cars, a Jetta and 505 Peugeot, trailing me in those heady days in the nation’s capital when I was Abiola’s newspaper, the Concord, managing editor for Abuja. Akerele’s last conversation with Abiola was an instruction ahead of the fatal visit of the Americans led by Susan Rice, that he should “go get in touch with Kola and our friends to organize the biggest reception in Lagos for my return.”

There was a reception all right, but the celebrity was, as Akerele put it, in a casket with ice blocks. The hero had a big crowd waiting, but a lugubrious shadow fell over the faithful and upended a dialogue for a future that did not come. He recalled a phone call from now President Tinubu insisting that a proper inquest into his death, including an autopsy, must follow the tragedy and he put his weight and resources towards that struggle. The matter of his death is still wrapped in mystery undermined by a controversy today. Abiola had only a Bible and Koran for reading, but Akerele smuggled in newspapers. “I played this dangerous role until I was arrested,” he said.

A curious revelation: Mustapha detained him at the Aso Villa gate to put an eye on him.

But Akerele wondered, why were many a southwest politician and cultural figure going in and out of the villa? The story of those last days and the politics of NADECO and apologists during that awful time has yet to be fully told.

Akerele and Abiola’s son Kola were family emissaries to the current president to give national honour and June 12 holiday for the democracy icon. And Tinubu took over the struggle until the spirit of that quest became flesh and blood under Buhari. Meanwhile, Akerele must be thankful that, in spite of his health struggles in recent times, he is a living, breathing man at 70.

Culled from The Nation