Word: abiola
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Only in a country that has been as thoroughly brutalized by its rapacious leaders as Nigeria could a shady character like Moshood Abiola be transmuted into a symbol of frustrated democracy. By the time of his mysterious death in the new capital city of Abuja last week, he had been elevated into something he never was, the figurehead of the political freedom Nigeria never had. No matter that for years Abiola was thick as thieves with the military strongmen who were stealing millions from their country; no matter that he pocketed money from sweetheart deals he had cut with...
...many Nigerians--especially those in the Yoruba-dominated southwest, where Abiola hailed from--memories go back only five years, to Nigeria's last ill-fated attempt to elect a civilian regime. Abiola appeared to win that election, even if he did it by dumping money on the electorate. But Nigeria's military bosses refused to accept the result and annulled the election. A year later, after Abiola proclaimed himself President anyway, a new strongman, General Sani Abacha, charged him with treason and clapped him in prison. After four years of mostly solitary confinement, Abiola's spirit appeared to be broken...
...Mandela. But in a country where everything but misery is in short supply, people have learned to make do with whatever is at hand. Daily life in Nigeria deteriorated disastrously under Abacha's dictatorship as the economy and infrastructure crumbled. Unemployment and corruption inflamed ethnic animosity. The facts about Abiola became far less important to people than the image they could build around him of a democratic future they yearned to have...
...Abiola, once close to the military rulers, had bridged the gulf between the northern Hausa group (which dominates the military) and the Ibo and Yoruba groups that populate the wealthier southern regions. His loss leaves a void of candidates that could unite the fractious electorate of Africa's most populous nation in October's scheduled poll...
...Moshood Abiola's death has caused more problems for his military jailers than any it might have solved. As if to underline the point, there were riots across southern Nigeria Wednesday and Thursday, in which 45 people were reported killed, and General Abdulsalam Abubakar dissolved his cabinet. "The military needs to arbitrate Nigeria's massive tribal and regional tensions by promoting national unity," says TIME reporter Clive Mutiso. "They desperately needed Abiola to renounce his immediate claim on the presidency, but also to start talking national unity and endorsing new elections...