MKO Abiola documentary to reach Nigerian cinemas in October

A documentary revisiting Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola, the annulled June 12, 1993 presidential election and the crisis that followed will open in cinemas across Nigeria on October 2.

Titled MKO, the film was directed by Ose Oyamendan and produced by American filmmaker Mark Jonathan Harris. It examines the disputed election, which Abiola was widely regarded as having won, as well as his subsequent detention and death in 1998.

Oyamendan described the project as an investigative documentary built around testimony from people who witnessed the events. “This is an investigative documentary about a man, an election, and the global conspiracy that robbed Africa’s largest democracy of her elected leader,” he said.

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This is an investigative documentary about a man, an election, and the global conspiracy that robbed Africa’s largest democracy of her elected leader.

The documentary includes interviews with former military leader Ibrahim Babangida, who annulled the election, and former head of state Abdulsalami Abubakar, who was in power when Abiola died. It also features American diplomat Thomas Pickering, Abiola’s prison guard Theodore Zadok and former US ambassador to Nigeria Walter Carrington.

Pro-democracy activist and Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka, Amnesty International managing director Adotei Akwei, Abiola’s family members and journalists who covered the crisis also contributed. “It is a story told by those who lived it, presidents, diplomats, politicians, activists, family members, and journalists. It is not just Nigerian history. It is a warning to the world,” Oyamendan said. Abiola was arrested after declaring his mandate and spent years in detention before dying in July 1998, shortly after military ruler Sani Abacha’s death.

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It is a story told by those who lived it, presidents, diplomats, politicians, activists, family members, and journalists. It is not just Nigerian history. It is a warning to the world.