Presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), Omoyele Sowore has revealed the reason why he rejected whooping sum of ₦800,000 offered to him by the winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, late Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola (M.K.O), despite he was a nobody then.
He, shared a video, Stating why integrity culminates relevancy for those who stood their grounds. Sowore who was 22 years old as the student leader fighting for Abiola’s mandate was enticed with money worth more than 800,000 dollars today by the late MKO which he rejected.
According to him, “ I don’t have to be a minister to fight for a better country, when I was fighting for Abiola in 1993, was I the minister of defense? No. I was just 22 years old then, he said.
We were inside Abiola’s big living room one day with other guests, after introducing me to them as the student leader fighting for his mandate, I told him that most of the people in the room that day will betray him, I mentioned their names and I was right, some of them later became ministers under Abacha, today they are irrelevant.
Abiola gave me money (800,000 naira) that day and I rejected it, 800,000 naira that time is more than 800,000 dollars today, you know how many houses and cars that money will buy? he was surprised, noting that no one has ever rejected money from him before and he remarked “This boy is different” I have no big clothes on and I was just putting on a bathroom slippers that day, when I was leaving, he decided to escort me out because of that.
Most of them who betrayed Abiola then by becoming ministers under Abacha are forgotten today if you mentioned their names nobody recognizes them, Babatope and the likes, some are dead, and like one Yoruba adage says “the comfort of the tree is the comfort of the bird”, if the country is not good you won’t enjoy your money no matter how wealthy you are, this is why when you go to parties you will see them telling the MCs to announce their name because nobody remembers them because they have no impact.
Look at Awolowo for instance, hardly will you see anyone who doesn’t know him, even a baby, Nigerians even know Nelson Mandela and his wife better than they know most of the leaders here, Ask people in Nigeria if they know Babangida’s wife today, they don’t. It is solely because they failed in their responsibilities as leaders.”
Abiola died in detention on July 7, 1998.
