By Toby Prince
When the British colonial officers declined to grant permits for demonstrations in Nigeria, activist Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti mobilized local market women for what she called “picnics” and festivals.
One of few women in the early 1920s to receive post-primary education, Ransome-Kuti used her privilege to coordinate the resistance against colonialism that not only targeted the British but also the local traditional figureheads they used to enforce their rules.
The Abeokuta Women’s Union, which she founded, protested unjust taxes, corruption and the lack of women’s representation in decision-making corridors.
While she is probably better known now as the mother of the Afrobeat pioneer, Fela Kuti (an activist in his own right), Ransome-Kuti’s role and years as the mother of anti-colonial activism in Nigeria are rarely celebrated outside of early primary school texts. To those born in the 21st century, she is simply the first woman to own a car.
In many ways, the muted legacy of Ransome-Kuti in Nigeria’s independence movement still plays out. The stories of women in the liberation struggle are yet to be told and celebrated, unlike their male counterparts who wasted no time in having universities, airports and major highways named after them, affixing their faces on national currencies.
That ugly trend rolled into the post-independence era. The Nigerian Civil War between 1967 and 1970 as well as the 1993 presidential elections are the most critical events that shaped the country’s landscape afterwards. And on both occasions, women were on the frontlines but relegated to the rare when it came to adulation.
June 12 carries huge significance, being the first presidential elections since the 1983 military coup. It is still viewed as the freest, fairest and most peaceful election ever held in Nigeria.
On the day, an estimated 14 million Nigerians – irrespective of ethnic, religious, class, and regional affiliations, (in a period when religious acrimony and tension had reached its zenith) – defied bad weather to elect their president with the hope of ending eight years of military dictatorships.
The euphoria was short-lived, though. The results were never announced. However, unofficial findings gathered through the various polling stations by civil society groups across the country, indicated broad national support for the presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party, Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola.
The then military head of state, General Ibrahim Babangida annulled the results on the grounds that it was necessary to save the nation. He alleged that political activities preceding the election were inimical to peace and stability in Nigeria. Observers, however, believe that the military underrated Abiola’s popularity. It also did not envisage the level of crisis after the annulment of the election result.
This marked the beginning of a decade-long struggle. Civil violence in the South Western states provoked by electoral fraud and political exclusion, previously contributed to the breakdown of the first and second republics. These ran from 1993 to 1999 when Nigeria had its return to democratic rule.
Abiola’s rebuff threatened to create fissures within the military. This in turn raised the spectre of wider civil conflicts and state collapse. In his official reaction to the annulment, Abiola was quoted as saying:
“I might embark on the programme of civil disobedience in the country. If those who make the law disobey the law, why (should) I obey it? There is a limit to the authenticity one could expect from a military ruler who is obviously anxious to hang on to power.”
Abiola’s statement threw the country into unprecedented crisis. Never before, except during the murderous confrontation of 1966 to 1970, had the survival of Nigeria as one political entity been in more grave danger. The impasse created was certainly unequalled in the country’s history.
Democrats, progressives and civil society organisations would soon vehemently resist the military’s leadership. The international community was equally miffed.
Crisis erupted in various parts of the country. Groups, particularly National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) and the Campaign for Democracy (CD) took up the fight. As much as there were causalities among them, they held on to their demand that Abiola must be sworn-in as the democratically elected president.
Hundreds of people died in riots before Babangida handed over power to the Interim National Government on August 27, 1993. The Head of the ING, Chief Ernest Shonekan, had barely served three months in office when he was forced to resign on November 17, 1993 by Defense Minister, late General Sani Abacha.
Spurred by NADECO and other agitators, Abiola declared himself president on June 11, 1994. He was arrested on June 23. Demanding for his unconditional release, petroleum workers and several other unions embarked on strikes that crippled the nation’s economy. Lagos and the South-west were worst hit.
While Abacha died of heart failure under questionable circumstance on June 8, 1998. Abiola passed away under suspicious circumstance the day that he was to be released, July 7, 1998. Although, the official autopsy stated that MKO died of natural causes, Nigerians were never convinced. That sustained the agitation to honour his memory.
A roll call of actors partook in the entire struggle and have been duly recognised. Most notably, the late Pa Anthony Enahoro, the late Pa Adekunle Ajasin, the late Senator Abraham Adesanya, Lieutenant Alani Akinrinade (rtd), Chief Olu Falae, irrepressible Lagos lawyer, the late Chief Gani Fawehinmi, the founder of the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC), the late Dr Fredrick Fasehun and Frank Kokori, formerly of the National Union of Petroleum and Gas Workers of Nigeria (NUPENG) who was able to tighten the noose on the military through a paralyzing strike in the oil sector. The sacrifices made by Chukwuemeka Ezeife, Olisa Agbakoba, Ayo Obe, Chidi Odinkalu, Abdul Oroh, Joe Okei Odumakin, the late Pa Alfred Rewane, the late Air Commodore Dan Suleiman, Wole Soyinka and many others have also been acknowledged.
Women were active too. Chiefly among them, the late Alhaja Kudirat Abiola. Kudirat was one of the numerous wives of the SDP presidential flag bearer, forced into the pro-democracy movement by the annulment. She developed a steely determination that dared military bullets.
When her husband was in solitary confinement for claiming his presidential mandate, Kudirat confronted the military dictators. Her leadership motivated other pro-democracy groups to spring up and seek the actualisation of the election. In 1994, when the struggle got to a head, Kudirat was actively involved in sustaining the oil workers’ strike, which succeeded in crippling the nation’s economy and weakened the military government.
Kudirat had frictions with courts over her stance before her eventual release on bail. Despite this harassment, she continued her campaign. She and the late Chief Alfred Rewane funded the pro-democracy activities, which unsettled the military. When protesters were detained, she would promptly visit police stations to secure their release.
Kudirat knew that she was operating in an atmosphere of danger. She was planning to process her visa to leave the shores of Nigeria before she was killed on June 4, 1996 a few days to the third anniversary of the June 12 election. Kudirat was shot dead by assassins in Oregun, Lagos State.
Alhaja Suliat Adedeji was another woman on the frontlines. The Ibadan-based business tycoon used her influence to demand justice. The political amazon, however, was killed in her residence in Ibadan on November 14, 1996. Five men drove into her Kobomoje, Iyaganku, Ibadan residence and pumped hot lead into her.
The pair were assassinated five months apart. They paid the ultimate prize for the country’s democracy with their lives. Twenty-seven years later, justice is yet to be served.
Regardless of the perceived neglect, Ransome-Kuti received the national honour of membership in the Order of Nigeria in 1965. The University of Ibadan bestowed upon her the honorary doctorate of law in 1968. She also held a seat in the Western House of Chiefs of Nigeria as an oloye of the Yoruba people.
For Kudirat and Adedeji, however, the wait continues.
