![](\"http:\/\/arewa.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Nigeria\u2019s-problems-can-be-solved-with-love-Gov.-Obiano.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThis was as he commended Buhari for honoring the presumed winner of the June 12, 1993, presidential vote, Chief Moshood Abiola, with the renaming of the National Stadium in Abuja, after Abiola.<\/p>\n
This was contained in a statement released Saturday in Awka, the Anambra State capital, by C. Don Adinuba, the state Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment.<\/p>\n
Obiano said the renaming of the stadium was \u201cthe icing on the cake in the steps taken so far to immortalize a national figure who won the 1993 presidential vote fair and square but was denied victory and, more painfully, incarcerated solitarily.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have watched with admiration how President Buhari first announced in the first week of June, 2018, his intention to make June 12 a national holiday and bestowed on Chief Abiola Grand Commander of the Federal Republic, Nigeria\u2019s highest national honour given to only heads of state.<\/p>\n
\u201cPresident Buhari followed it up with an appropriate bill in the National Assembly and then assented to it on passage, thus changing Nigeria\u2019s Democracy Day from May 29, in commemoration of the day the military handover the Nigerian national leadership to elected civilians on May 29, 1999, to June 12, in remembrance of the day the historic election between Chief MKO Abiola of the Social Democratic Party and Alhaji Bashir Tofa of the National Republican Convention was held.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one expected the National Stadium to be named after the hero of the struggle for democracy. The renaming must have been the president\u2019s personal idea and initiative.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy the time Chief Abiola joined the presidential contest, there was no person who could rival his support for sport development in the African region, which earned him the honour of Pillar of Sports in Africa from the Association of African Sports Confederations.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor example, he provided tremendous financial resources to his Abiola Babes Football Club based in Abeokuta, Ogun State, which enabled most of the players to escape from abject poverty to lead a comfortable lifestyle. The players understandably became more dedicated.<\/p>\n
\u201cAbiola Babes scored the bull\u2019s eye by winning within a few years of its formation the prestigious National Football Club League Championship.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnknown to most Nigerians, Chief Abiola was a boxer, and was guided and assisted by an indigene of Nnewi, Anambra State, named Dr George Akabogu, who was to become a famous school principal and later an academic.<\/p>\n
\u201cChief Abiola was a true Nigerian. He donated generously to worthy causes and championed quite a number selflessly.<\/p>\n
\u201cApart from employing Nigerians generously in his organizations regardless of their faith, gender or ethnic origin, Chief Abiola established Udoka, an Igbo newspaper;Amana, a Hausa newspaper; and Isokan, a Yoruba newspaper.<\/p>\n
\u201cAbiola never left anyone in doubt that he was greatly inspired by the nationalism, patriotism and sportsman-like spirit of Nigeria\u2019s first president, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, GCFR, PC. He remained an avowed Zikist up to his death.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the occasion of the first anniversary of June 12 as Democracy Day in honour of a great Nigerian patriot, it has become imperative to remind President Buhari of the request I made to him on behalf of the government and people of Anambra State when he visited Onitsha to commission the newly completed Zik Mausoleum last January 24 that he declare Zik\u2019s birthday a national holiday.<\/p>\n
\u201cGhanaians observe the birthday of their first president, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, himself a Zik prot\u00e9g\u00e9. Tanzanians observe a national holiday in memory of their first president, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, as Angolans do in memory of Dr Agustiono Neto, their first president.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Great Zik of Africa was not just Nigeria\u2019s first president or the man who led Nigeria to independence in 1960. He was Nigeria\u2019s first indigenous Governor General and the first Senate President.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was the first Nigerian to build a bank, thus inspiring his colleagues as regional premiers in the 1950s to establish their own banks. He was also the first Nigerian to set up a university, and consequently challenged his peers to follow in his footsteps.<\/p>\n
\u201cA Nigerian nationalist of incomparable status and a man of letters through and through, the Great Zik of Africa had established as early as the 1950s newspapers in Ibadan, Zaria, Kano, Onitsha, Port Harcourt and, of course, Lagos to fight for Nigeria\u2019s liberation from oppressive colonial rule.<\/p>\n
\u201cZik inspired a generation of Africans, including the late President Nkrumah of Ghana, Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Dr Nwafor Orizu, who became Nigeria\u2019s second Senate President.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has, therefore, become a national scandal that a national holiday has yet to be declared in honour of this great African son. The people and government of Anambra State once again call upon President Buhari to end this national blight by declaring November 16 of every year a national holiday in commemoration of Dr Azikiwe\u2019s birthday.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Governor of Anambra State, Willie Obiano, has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to also declare the birthday of Nigeria\u2019s first president, Nnamdi Azikiwe, as public holiday. This was as he commended Buhari for honoring the presumed winner of the June 12, 1993, presidential vote, Chief Moshood Abiola, with the renaming of the National Stadium in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":109259,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-127066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-politics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=127066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127066\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/109259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=127066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=127066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=127066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}