The immediate trigger for this intervention is the recent announcement of the public holiday declared by the Federal Government of Nigeria on Monday, June 12, 2023. It’s in commemoration of Nigeria’s freest election won in 1993 by the inimitable philanthropist and pan-Africanist turned politician, Bashorun MKO Abiola.
The campaign slogan for Bashorun Abiola’s campaign was Hope ’93. Interestingly, when campaigns commenced for party primaries prior to the general elections of 2023, Governor Yahya Bello, a candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the ruling party, pulled what some of us considered an unsettling surprise. His was what emerged as the closest to the Hope 93 slogan adopted by Bashorun MKO Abiola of blessed memory. Governor Bello had expressed a most visible interest in the nation’s presidency. Several others too, including Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who has since been sworn in on May 29, 2023, as the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
No one knew Bello as a politician in 1993. Asiwaju Tinubu had already become a key player in the nation’s polity, indeed in the same political camp as the winner of the June 12, 1993, election. If anyone had been tempted to dismiss Bello’s aspiration, that temptation was promptly diminished by his choice of the director-general of the campaign in the person of Hafsat Abiola-Costello, the daughter of Bashorun Abiola. Not surprisingly, Hafsat spoke confidently about the prospect of the success of her candidate. She expressed so much confidence that she left no one in doubt about her sincerity. Like Bello, Hafsat was a ‘political minor’ in 1993. Interestingly, Hope ’93 finally became Renewed Hope ‘23 after GYB offered to step down for BAT
Abiola’s investment in the media yielded humongous dividends, perhaps not in naira term but far in excess of it, in support of Abiola’s presidential ambition. On the stable of Concord Press initially then were two newspaper titles namely National Concord, Sunday Concord, and much later, Weekend Concord. There were also Isokan, Amana, and Udoka for speakers of Yoruba, Hausa, and Igbo. Joining all of those titles later were Community Concord titles dedicated to grassroots news in all the regions of the country with editors sourced from their respective communities. Concord practically became a household name as Community Concord titles complemented the titles run in indigenous languages. MKO’s influence largely helped to be cultivated by his ceaseless philanthropy had its visibility driven sustainably by the Concord titles that have endeared themselves to the people whose affairs they reported consistently.
