June 12: Labour Party Laments Exclusion Of Kudirat Abiola From Honour List

The National Publicity Secretary, Labour Party, Ms Ebere Ifendu has expressed sadness over the exclusion of late Kudirat Abiola from award conferred on late Moshood Abiola, and other June 12 key figures by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Ifendu disclosed this in an interview with newsmen on Tuesday in Abuja.

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Buhari had conferred national honours on June 12 key figures for the fight to enthroned democracy in the country.

He also declared June 12 as the nation’s Democracy Day and a public holiday with effect from 2019 in honour of the late democrat and philanthropist.

Ifendu said the declaration and the honour done to Abiola was long overdue, but women had nothing to celebrate as Kudirat Abiola, was left out of the whole thing.

“Late Kudirat (wife of Abiola) paid the ultimate price in the struggle and nobody is mentioning her name so what are we going to celebrate as women? That our efforts, as women, are not recognised?

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“This was a woman who struggled and fought to achieve the mandate of her husband and nobody is talking about her.

“Nobody is talking about the qualities she brought into play; when Abiola was incarcerated, it was Kudirat who continued the struggle and was assassinated in the process.

“If they had put Kudirat on that list, we would have celebrated; in everything they do in this country, they try to make us irrelevant and this is what they have succeeded in doing,” she said.

She said that government should wake up and recognise the efforts of women in politics as theirs were also very important.

Ifendu, however, commended President Muhammadu Buhari for signing the Fourth Alteration Bill that grants financial autonomy to State Judiciaries and State Houses of Assembly into law.

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The publicity secretary recalled that when the bill first came up, the State Houses of Assembly voted against it.

Ifendu said that the States Houses of Assembly have now seen the importance to vote for the all-important bill this time around.

In a separate interview, a member of the Nigerian Youth Parliament, Miss Edewede Henrietta described the declaration of June 12 as Democracy Day in honour of the late Abiola as “a good thing.”

She also said the late Abiola’s wife, who paid the ultimate price, should be recognised and celebrated.

Edewede said the honour should not be politicised, adding that as a country, Nigeria has reached a stage “where we do not need to politicised everything.”

She said that the signing of the Fourth Alteration Bill that grants financial autonomy to State Judiciaries and State Houses of Assembly into law was a welcome development.

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