How Education minister mobilised resources for NADECO leaders in exile, by Bamidele
City Beats
Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele has said the Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, mobilised resources for chieftains of defunct National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) who fled Nigeria in the heady days of General Sani Abacha’s military government.
Bamidele, who is representing Ekiti Central in the National Assembly, also said Alausa rejected offers to be either Commissioner for Education or Health under Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu when he was the 12th governor of Lagos State.
Bamidele spoke in Abuja about Alausa’s interventions for pro-democracy advocates in Europe and the United States between 1993 and 1999 at the inauguration of the governing council and principal officers of Federal University of Technology and Environmental Sciences at Iyin-Ekiti in Ekiti State.
NADECO, a broad coalition of democrats across Nigeria, was established on May 15, 1994 to protest the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election won by Bashorun M.K.O. Abiola, end the decades of military dictatorship and restore democracy in the country.
Prominent pro-democracy leaders who were forced into exile during Abacha’s era include the late elder statesman, Chief Anthony Enahoro; Africa’s first Nobel Laureate for Literature, Prof. Wole Soyinka; President Bola Ahmed Tinubu; NADECO’s first Secretary General, Chief Ayo Opadokun and former House of Representatives Chief Whip Olawale Oshun.
Recounting Alausa’s assistance for pro-democracy advocates in exile, Bamidele said when most of them fled their fatherland during the Abacha era, they sustained varying degrees of injury that required urgent medical treatment to save them from their health challenges.
The Senate Leader recalled that the education minister, then undergoing residency in Internal Medicine at both Royal Bolton Hospital and University of Newcastle between 1995 and 1997, came to the rescue of most pro-democracy leaders in exile in Europe and the United States by providing health services for them free of charge.
He said Alausa “was one of the few people we relied on for many years when most of us fled our fatherland due to threat to our lives and families under the reign of the late tyrant”.
Bamidele added: “We were forced to different parts of Europe and the United States. Alausa was then a prosperous medical doctor in the United States. He provided hope for us. He provided resources for us. He provided much-needed medical care for us in exile. Some of the beneficiaries are alive. But some have gone home to be with God.”
“Then, many of the pro-democracy leaders had to undergo knee surgery in their countries of political asylums. They had sustained injury while being hounded by the Abacha junta. They suffered teargas canisters fired at them when their meetings were disrupted. But in exile, Alausa mobilised medical professionals and resources to support everyone in need of medical care.”
The Senate Leader recalled that when Tinubu became the Lagos State governor in 1999, he wanted to appoint Alausa either as the Commissioner for Education or Health in recognition of his sacrifice and support for the chieftains of NADECO in exile.
He said the Alausa declined the offer on the ground that he did not do what he did for any political appointment or any patronage but out of passion to guarantee the safety and welfare of the victims of the junta who were exercising their rights to push for democracy and freedom.
Also, Bamidele said the education minister organised medical outreaches across all Southwestern states when democracy was restored on May 29, 1999.
“When some of our leaders had the opportunity to come back to Nigeria at the advent of the Fourth Republic, Alausa did not just watch us from his country of residence. He initiated several medical programmes we implemented across all states of the Southwest.
“Alausa was the brain behind such medical programmes as free medical care, free eyeglasses and different surgery programmes that we implemented across the geo-political zone then. He mobilised medical doctors and experts from the diaspora to Nigeria.
“For weeks, they were in the Southwest holding different medical outreaches free of charge. As a government, we did not pay for their flights, accommodation or the medical care they provided for the beneficiaries of the interventions. He implemented the programmes free of charge behind the scenes.
“I can also testify as a commissioner under Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu in Lagos State that the governor did everything to make Alausa serve in his State Executive Council (Exco). He was supposed to choose between Commissioner for Education or Health. But he told Asiwaju that he did not support the pro-democracy leaders because he wanted to be in government but because he was obliged to support them.
“I am also aware of the pressure exerted on him before he accepted to come and serve in the administration of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the 16th President of Nigeria. The pressure lasted for some weeks. But somehow along the line, God touched his heart and he agreed to come and be part of us,” Bamidele added.
