Writing the story of my dad and mom was emotional
-Jamiu Abiola

Late MKO Abiola (left)

For over twenty years now, the June 12, 1993 annulment of the presidential election in Nigeria that Late Chief MKO Abiola was purported to have won continues to re-echo in the nation’s political life. And it seems that, to ensure it is never wished away from the nation’s historical memory, Jamiu Abiola the son of Chief MKO Abiola, came up recently with a book titled: The President who never ruled: A true –life story of an African self-made billionaire.

An adviser to the Emir of Borno, a role honourably conferred on him by virtue of his traditional title of Shetima Rasheed of Borno, Abiola’s third child by his second wife Kudirat, has with this new book once again asserted himself in the realms of contemporary young African writers, who are determined to make a mark as a defined author.

The President who never ruled: A true –life story of an African self-made billionaire, is the story of the Late MKO Abiola. According to the young author Jamiu, “the book is about my father from when he was a child. The book talks about how he grew up, choose a career, how he lived in his adult years and then about his political life. It is a kind of summary of his life time and that of my mother's involvement in the political struggle. But it is different in that, it is not written as a biography. Rather, it is written in as a novel. That is because I wanted people to be engaged, now we realise that people are not reading much again. So I needed to engage people to read by writing in a novel-like style, to make it much easier to read and interesting.

Late Kudirat Abiola

Jamiu Abiola’s latest work comes in two forms. First the 224 book, which is written in Arabic and the second which is 197 paged book, written in English language. Why same book in two languages? The author had this to say, “Yes, all my books have been written in at least two languages. That has served as an editing style for me, because I use one language to edit the other. When I write a paragraph in Arabic and write the same paragraph in English, if there is something that doesn't sound right, I detect and correct myself. So it is an editing strategy and it is a multi-purpose tactics of cross-checking and also carrying my readers along. So all my books starting from ‘Realistic Hope’ to ‘Prisoner of conscience’ and then this last one written about my Late father MKO Abiola and my mother Late Chief Mrs Kudirat Abiola, were all written in Arabic and English.”

Jamiu insists that writing in Arabic and other languages, has come to be a deep passion for him. But knowing that Jack of all trade is likely to be a master of none, he decided to focus more on English and Arabic, “Though I am very proficient in more than ten languages.”

With a certification for translating in Arabic, Spanish, Italian, French, and other languages, forty year old Jamiu started learning languages at age nine. “It’s been a 31 year journey in languages. The interest came up when my father sent me to a summer school in England when I was 8. And I found out there that everyone was speaking Arabic because most of the children in that school came from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. So I became interested in Arabic and it grew to be an obsession. After that I learnt Hausa. My mother was born in Zaria, she taught me Hausa when I was about eleven years old. From there, I felt that if I can learn Hausa I could learn French too. So I started that and moved on to Spanish. I bought dictionaries and moved into Italian language after French. I didn't stop as I took up German language and then Japanese. Now I am a member of the American Consultants Association and I am a Translator as well. I do a lot of translating work for many American agencies online, they send work to me and I translate and send it back to them.
Though a translator and an author, Jamiu Abiola is also a businessman in oil and gas business. He actually owns two NNPC petrol stations which he said he has been managing in the last nine years. A happily married, but how does he combine his family life with life as an author and businessman. His response; “marriage is a profession on its own too, that’s because it takes a lot of a man's time. To start with, in marriage, it is likely that one makes initial mistakes here and there but after a while, you learn and master the rope. I thank God that my marriage has been fruitful, it has lasted now for almost seventeen years, we have five children, three boys and two girls, its been a very fruitful marriage.”

Jamiu believes he is in a good position to author his current book that is because he knew his father well enough, “he was someone you could not help knowing. You couldn't ignore him; to start with, he had an imposing personality. I am very proud of having had a father like that. I know that no one is perfect and if I have to describe my father, I know that his good traits outweighed the bad traits. Like ten good things against one bad thing.”

Talking about his recent book in the comfort of his home in the large Abiola family home in Ikeja Lagos, Jamiu relieved the memory of writing the book. “It was emotional to write about my dad and mom and I am happy that the book is getting good response. I have actually gone out to get opinions and it has been very positive. It has got a lot of good reviews and I am very optimistic. It is a revealing book and that is what sets it apart. A lot of people have been talking and writing about MKO Abiola but not many of them knew him that much. So this particular book is from one who knew him. I have been an insider.

The author thinks his latest book will achieve for Africa what “the black race has been failing to achieve, which is writing their history and setting their records straight. We in this part of the world will never get our facts right, which is why we have not been, making much progress because if you do not know your past, there are no way you, will know the present and can’t plan the future. The book is to make it clear to people who didn't know what happened then, to get a good grasp of the knowledge. Normally, after sometime, information could be subjected to distortion and the last thing we as a family will want to see happen, is for people who knew nothing about what happened then, to muddle up the facts or give people the impression that MKO Abiola was what he wasn't.   

Jamiu Abiola

And does he think that Nigeria missed out on not making him father MKO Abiola the president? Jamiu adjusted his sitting position and replied, “Nigeria lost a lot! It was an opportunity that can never come back again. If the country had moved with that pace at that time, the country would have been able to achieve a lot in terms of building democracy in the country. See us now, twenty years after that annulment; we are still struggling to find our feet. If we have started the journey then after June 12, we would certainly have gone far. His presidency may not have been perfect, but definitely the same way he was generous with his fortunes, the same way he would have been with Nigerian's treasury. So people would have felt his impact and people would not have been this bitter as they are right now.

Recalling some of his early memories the author confirmed that growing up for him was interesting, “because I did not grow up in Nigeria alone, I grew up here and in America. Over here, I remember my father usually coming around us. He loved to crack jokes and made people laugh. My mother was so quiet and always teaching us how to handle businesses. But when I went to America, it was challenging, the issue of racism and being a black African was there. I was asked questions such as, ‘do you live in the jungle in Africa?’, though after a while, it became amusing. So a lot of good memories, living in different countries, different weather and meeting different kinds of people. I thank God for the childhood that I had. I live more in Nigeria these days. But I still go to America. I was there a couple of months ago, and I will be there in another couple of months. I go to the Mid-east a lot. I attend the book fair there because I want to identify with my readers there too. I want to diversify around the world.

Jamiu Abiola is indeed enjoying his life as an author. “It is very interesting,” he said, “I get emails and calls from people around the world. I got an email from Iraq recently and the man was telling me that he is in a school there and my book ‘Prisoner of Conscience’ is one of the book that he is studying and writing a paper on. I was very impressed about that. Knowing my book is in Kuwait, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and all these other countries indeed makes me feel good. It is touching to see people recognising me and also those who do not know me reading my book.

“Last year, my wife and children went to the biggest bookshop in Dubai, it’s called Kinokuniya in Dubai Mall and as we were there, I saw my book on display. One of the employees noticed my interest in the book and came around to convince me to buy. I asked him if he knew who wrote the book. He said it’s an Arab that lives in Nigeria. I turned the book around so he could see the picture of the author and then he identified me as the person in the picture. He was impressed and brought out other copies of my two books then with them so i could sign them so when buyers demand for the book, he could tell them that the author actually visited the bookshop. We took photographs together, and chatted for a while.

So what next for the author? “Well, I am going to keep writing, at least write two books every year so that in the next twenty years I might have written like 30 or 40 books. That’s because it’s something that just comes natural to me. It’s not going to be difficult. I have things that I have observed over the years. I am very proud of this last book and it is likely going to be the only non-fiction book that I will ever write. Henceforth, it is going to be fiction.