That might Brand Shonekan have been today, had Chief Ernest Shonekan, who just turned 80, not strayed into the quicksands of Nigerian politics, graveyard of too many a reputation?
It perhaps would have been solid and stellar, if state economic control, to which the UACN Plc he managed as executive chairman was central, had not declined. Whatever happened, Brand Shonekan would still have been admired, seldom scorned, as the true giant of the old economic order.
But Shonekan as business brand; and Shonekan as political brand are two extremes: the one is sweet; the other is bitter. When the two come together, the mix would seem extremely sour!
That appears a fair public perception of Chief Shonekan, especially in his not-forgetting, not-forgiving native South West. That, in the dusk of his life, is on account of his abysmal role in helping to sustain the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, which Bashorun Moshood Abiola, his fellow Egba man, won.
At the end of it all, MKO lost everything: his wife, his life and his business empire. But from this rot, of brazen injustice, Chief Shonekan has emerged as “former Head of State” and member of the National Council of State (NCS), though he neither won an election nor staged a successful coup!
Indeed, that was the basis of the judgment of Justice Dolapo Akinsanya, of the Lagos High Court, that sacked Shonekan’s Interim National Government (ING). ING was the perfidious body the retreating Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, who annulled the June 12, 1993 election, put in place to pass power to Gen. Sani Abacha, who was neck-deep in the June 12 conspiracy and treason.
Chief Shonekan’s role was aiding and abetting that crime, for suspect sinecure. And perhaps for his pliancy, after Gen. Abacha sacked the illegitimate ING, the new military strongman, with military fiat, revalidated Shonekan’s ING, which would appear illogical, since its judicial voiding, in the first instance, provided the excuse for Abacha to romp to power.
Yet, Chief Shonekan’s earlier years as a public figure gave little indication as to his unflattering perception today. He was a blazing star in the Nigerian establishment. His UACN, corporate scion of the Royal Niger Company, was the private sector side of the Nigerian coin, as the colonising British would have loved it. In the uncharted channels of Nigerian military-era politics, however, that star would appear irredeemably blighted.
Chief Shonekan celebrated 80 with family and friends. But MKO lost his life, and one of his wives, to the June 12 crisis. The dead, after all, don’t parade families!
Yet, by June 12, MKO did no wrong by winning a free election; and Shonekan did no right by conspiring, with others, to sustain the annulment of Nigeria’s cleanest election to date. Still, Shonekan got all the treats, and MKO all the knocks. So much for the Nigerian sense of justice!
As it stands, history would be harsh to Chief Shonekan, for his June 12 perfidy. But he might mitigate that verdict by a public apology — both to Nigerians as a whole and to the MKO Abiola family. He needs to do that when he still has life.
At the political level, Chief Shonekan’s 80th birthday is a harsh reminder of the grave injustice Nigeria has done to MKO and his family. It is high time the Nigerian state drew a closure by doing what is right to the only Nigerian president never inaugurated.
Besides, he died for this democratic republic to birth and live. That should count for something among the present, past and even future beneficiaries.
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