Kudirat Abiola In Accord Concordia, Fighting For Nigeria’s Elusive Unity (Part 27) By Mike Ozekhome

INTRODUCTION

 Little attention has always been accorded
the contributions of women in the Nigerian society. From time
immemorial, Nigerian women have always striven hard to play a
significant role in the evolution and development of our society.
Indeed, the modern Nigerian state cannot be discussed without the
contributions of Nigerian women. Apart from their reproductive
function in ensuring the continuity of the human race and their
contributions to Nigeria’s social, political and economic
development, some notable women have also exercised prime
leadership within their different communities. On this note, we
shall x-ray the life and times of two Nigerian women prodigies,
Kudirat Abiola and Dr Ameyo Adadevoh. Remember, we have already
discussed the unforgettable contributions of Margaret Ekpo,
Funmilayo Ransom-Kuti, Hajia Sawaba Gambo, Queen Idia, Queen Amina,
Ladi Kwali, etc. I will never allow the “labours of our heroes (and
heroines) past to be in vain”. Now, read on.

ALHAJA KUDIRAT ABIOLA (1951 – 1996)

EARLY LIFE

Kudirat was born in Zaria^[1], Kaduna state, Nigeria.
She was a notable politician. She attended Muslims Girls High
School, Ijebu Ode, Ogun State, where she was made the Head prefect
of her school in her final year. Sources have it that Kudirat did
not attend University. She was the second of four wives of her
husband, the martyr of our democracy, Moshood Kashimawo Olawale
Abiola. She had six (6) children. Their names are Yusau Olalekan,
Hafsat Olaronke^[2], Abdul Muman, Hadi,
Moriam and Khafila. Her husband had several other children. Abiola
was a total family man.

KUDIRAT’S LEGENDARY EXPLOITS AND ARRIVAL ON THE NATIONAL
SCENE

Kudirat came to limelight as one who fought for the emergence of
a just, humane and democratic society and the end of tyrannical
rule by the military. It was this same military that mindlessly
annulled the freest, fairest and most transparent and credible
election which her husband won on June 12, 1993. As a result of
this cancellation, Kudirat valiantly protested against violation of
human rights of citizens, especially against the illegality of the
incarceration of her husband. Kudirat’s participation and energy
soon inspired new level activism in Nigeria’s pro-democracy
movement. She seized leadership of the struggle, not because of any
ambition to be First Lady, as some people had wrongly suggested,
but mainly to save her husband from being illegally killed in
detention by Abacha; and then much later, to redeem Nigeria out of
the grip of one of the most dangerous military dictatorships and
rotten governments ever known to man. I was on the streets with her
and other genuine Pro-democracy Activists, not turn-coat-bread and
butter Activists that vacillate from one government to another.

Alhaja Kudirat mobilized market women, students, Activists,
civil society and other human rights communities to fight for the
struggle for democracy and human rights. Despite her vulnerability,
Kudirat provided clear leadership in the period of general
confusion, fear, suspense and misperception, following the
annulment of the 1993 general election. She fought on, went ahead,
with the conviction of a wounded lioness, that the military’s
treasonable action amounted to violation of fundamental rights of
Nigerians to freely elect their government. Her participation led
to a new level of awareness and activism in Nigeria, while her
husband was still in jail on charges of treason.

EXIT OF A LEGEND

On 4^th June, 1996, at about
3:05pm, one of the most criminal, brutral, absurd
and despicable murders in Nigeria was carried out. A sparkling
white Mercedes Benz V-Boot was cruising along the streets of Lagos.
As the car slowed down around 7-Up Depot/Bus Stop in Ikeja, Kudirat
and her aids were attacked by six men who suddenly opened fire on
the German machine. Mrs. Abiola, her Assistant, Alhaji Lateef
Shofolahan (who had just been released by the Police) and driver
were in the car.

The assassins approached her car and brazenly opened gunfire.
The vehicle came to a screeching halt as the driver was hit. A
bullet flying from nowhere lodged itself in Kudirat’s forehead,
penetrating her skull and smashing her brains. She was said to have
lost consciousness and was rushed in that state to the Eko Hospital
for urgent medical attention. All efforts made by the medical team
to save her life failed. Kudirat Abiola died, with a gaping bullet
wound on her forehead. She was only 44. Her driver
too did not survive the attack. Both were shot at close range.
Before the killing, Kudirat Abiola had complained of threats to her
life and that she was being trailed by unknown men. No one in
authority cared. Because they were the ones doing just that.

That was how the life of this young amazon, this pathfinder of
women liberation, this fearless, dogged, courageous and daring
rights Activist was murdered in cold blood. She died. But, she is
not forgotten. God grant her aljannah Firdaus. Amin.

AMEYO ADADEVOH

EARLY LIFE

As David was a savior to Israel, so was Ameyo Adadevoh was a
savior in Nigeria, to many Nigerians.

Ameyo popularly referred to as “Dr Adadevoh”, was the first of
four children born to Professor Babatunde Kwaku Adadevoh (deceased)
of the renowned Adadevoh family of Anyako Royal House, Ghana and
the Crowther/Macaulay family of Lagos, Nigeria and Deborah Regina
McIntosh of the Nnmadi Azikiwe (President of Nigeria 1963-1966) and
Smith/Wilkey families of Lagos, Nigeria, on 27^th
October, 1956, in Lagos, Nigeria.

She began her academic career at Mainland Preparatory Primary
School in Yaba, Lagos in 1961. In 1962, Ameyo’s parents temporarily
relocated to Boston, Massachusetts in the United States of America
where Ameyo spent two years in school.

Upon the family’s return to Nigeria in 1964, she continued her
education at Corona School, Yaba, Lagos, Nigeria, until 1968, and
then began secondary school at Queens School, Ibadan, Nigeria,
where she finished in 1974, with a distinction of honours in her
West African Examinations Council (WAEC) Exams. In 1980, at the age
of just 24, Ameyo qualified as a medical doctor with a Bachelor of
Medicine/ Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) degree from the University Of
Lagos College Of Medicine. Upon graduation, she finished a one year
mandatory Houseman-ship at Lagos University Teaching Hospital and
subsequently completed her National Youth Service Corps assignment
in 1982, at the Eti-Osa Health Centre in Lagos, Nigeria.

Adadevoh later married Afolabi Emmanuel Cardoso on
26^th April, 1986, and their union was
blessed with a son, Bankole Cardoso, on 17^th
August, 1988.

ADADEVOH’S UNFORGETTABLE EXPLOITS AND ARRIVAL ON
EMERGENCE ON NIGERIA’S CONSCIOUSNESS

In 2012, H1N1 (swine flu) had spread to Lagos, Nigeria and Dr.
Adadevoh was the first doctor to diagnose and alert the Ministry of
Health. Less than 2 years later, she was again the first doctor to
identify another most contagious virus – Ebola.
Ebola ravaged the world, even America.

On July 20, 2014, one Mr Patrick Sawyer,
Nigeria’s first Ebola patient, left quarantine in Liberia, and flew
to Lagos, Nigeria, to attend a meeting of the Economic Community of
West African States (ECOWAS). He collapsed at the airport in Lagos
and was immediately rushed to First Consultants Medical Centre
(FCMC), the private hospital where Dr. Adadevoh then worked. Under
normal circumstances as an ECOWAS official, he should have been
taken to a government hospital, but the doctors at all government
health facilities were then on an indefinite strike so he was taken
to FCMC. This was God’s hand to save Nigerians.

The first doctor at FCMC who saw Mr. Sawyer diagnosed him with
malaria. When Dr. Adadevoh saw him during her ward round the
following day, she suspected Ebola, despite the initial malaria
diagnosis and the fact that neither she, nor any other doctor in
Nigeria, had ever seen Ebola patient before. Dr. Adadevoh
questioned Mr. Sawyer about having contact with anyone with Ebola,
which he denied. Being the thorough Clinician she was, she
immediately contacted the Lagos State and Federal Ministries of
Health and got him tested for Ebola.

NOW THIS

While waiting for the test results, the patient and other
Liberian government officials began insisting that Dr. Adadevoh
discharge Mr. Sawyer so he could attend the ECOWAS conference. She
bluntly refused. They threatened to sue her for kidnapping and
violating his human rights (holding him against his will because
she did not have a confirmed diagnosis), but this amazon of a
liberator continued to resist their relentless pressure. She
 insisted that “for the greater public good”,
she would not release him. Adadevoh immediately created an isolation^[3] area, despite the lack
of protective equipment^[4], by carving out a wooden
barricade^[5]
outside Patrick Sawyer’s door. Her heroic efforts saved the nation
from widespread infection. Neither Nigeria, nor Lagos state were
ready for Mr Sawyer. Dr Adadevoh and her team did what they could
do with the limited resources and supplies they had in the hospital
to treat Mr. Sawyer. Eventually, Sawyer’s Ebola diagnosis was later
confirmed, and he died at FCMC.

AND THIS HER PAINFUL PREMATURE
EXIT

Dr Adadevoh herself surrendered to the Ebola Virus Disease
whilst in quarantine and passed away on 19^th
August, 2014, in Lagos, Nigeria. Her body was
decontaminated and cremated by the government in response to the
curtailment of the spread of the Ebola Virus Disease. Her family
obtained her ashes and held a private interment ceremony in Lagos
on 12^th September, 2014. Dr Adadevoh,
Nigerians will never forget you. You died for her. You paid the
supreme price. God bless your soul. Amen.

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK

“Leadership is a mindset in action. So don’t wait for the title.
Leadership isn’t something that anyone can give you – you have to
earn it and claim it for yourself”. (Travis
Bradberry).

LAST LINE

Hope Nigerians are reading, digesting and awaiting the next
explosive discourse of Sunday Sermon on the Mount of the Nigerian
Project by Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN, OFR, FCIArb., LL.D, PhD.