MKO presents an overwhelmingly constructive picture of Abiola, treating him not simply as a political actor but in addition as a central determine within the evolution of Nigeria’s democracy.
By Adedamola Jones Adedayo
It’s unattainable to replicate on Nigeria’s previous with out citing the botched June 12, 1993 elections as one of the crucial vital political incidents within the historical past of the nation. This occurred at a time when the nation was experiencing a succession of coups and navy dictatorships. When the elections came about, Nigeria was underneath the navy management of Basic Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, who had been in cost since August 1985.
The presidential elections got here to be often known as one of many freest and fairest within the nation’s historical past. Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (MKO) Abiola, a enterprise tycoon and philanthropist, gained the elections underneath the umbrella of the Social Democratic Occasion (SDP) towards Bashir Tofa, who represented the Nationwide Republican Conference (NRC). However the outcomes have been annulled, with the navy authorities branding the train as “corrupt”, triggering political turmoil.
Abiola was subsequently arrested and jailed in 1994 after he publicly declared himself the rightful president of the nation underneath the administration of Basic Sani Abacha, successor to Babangida. 4 years later, he died shortly after taking tea with American diplomats who had come to Abuja, the place he was detained to barter his launch.
Nevertheless, the circumstances surrounding his demise, which got here not lengthy after Abacha handed on, stay controversial. This has since provoked questions geared in the direction of unravelling the thriller of his loss of life: Was he assassinated? If that’s the case, who orchestrated it? And to serve what goal?
These questions, and different issues across the legacy of the well-known political determine, are what Nigerian-American journalist-turned-filmmaker Ose Oyamendan displays on within the feature-length documentary, MKO (2026). The documentary makes an attempt to evaluate Abiola’s topsy-turvy and tragic political profession.
Right here, the writer-director investigates the height and decline of the topic’s political ambitions amidst frequent navy interventions in Nigerian politics, presenting the narrative from an incisive perspective that honours info, footage, voice recordings, and witnesses’ accounts whereas acknowledging cheap deductions.
Oyamendan as soon as labored for Weekly Harmony, a serious Nigerian newspaper within the 90s, however he relocated to America, the place he joined Amnesty Worldwide, following the navy’s clampdown on the newspaper. Afterwards, in 2021, he launched his documentary filmmaking profession with the discharge of Aswat Acherim (Different Voices).
Along with his newest documentary, MKO, the filmmaker steers the course of storytelling as narrator, seemingly emboldened by his journalistic instincts and inquisitiveness as he demonstrates an understanding of Nigeria’s fragile sociopolitical texture within the remaining decade of the 20 th century.
MKO, co-produced by Oyamendan, Véronique Bernard, and Pema Dhondup, premiered internationally on twelfth June, 2026 at Sheffield DocFest in the UK. It comes throughout as maybe the primary main, complete modern cinematic documentation of the famed political and social determine, with Joanna Lippa’s The Supreme Value (2014) being the one notable earlier cinematic reflection on the Abiola household throughout the period of navy dictatorship.
The documentary’s depth of protection is clear in its engagement with numerous contributors, both actively on display or behind the scenes. Researchers Toni Bell, Toyin Amusan, Dan Ikpoyi, Toyin Fajuyigbe, Festus Owese, Sam Tukur, Biodun Alabi, Garba Umar and Godwin Dunia contributed to the event of the mission in its pre-production part, an train that explains the diploma of dedication to making sure the presentation of factual info.
Greater than fifty folks related to Abiola are additionally interviewed within the documentary, giving room for a strong illustration of his life and character. The record contains members of the family resembling Kola Abiola, Doyin Abiola, Lola Abiola-Edewor, Wura Abiola and Hafsat Abiola; colleagues and associates resembling Babangida, Baba Gana Kingibe, Iyorchia Ayu, Basic Jeremiah Useni, Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Adams Oshiomole; different noteworthy figures resembling Nobel laureate and political activist Wole Soyinka, college students union chief Omoyele Sowore, pro-democracy activist Kayode Fayemi; and worldwide observers resembling The New York Instances’ journalist Howard French, and Washington Submit reporter Jim Rupert. No matter this lengthy record, the narration is edited and organized in chronological order.
Describing the story as “considered one of Africa’s darkest hours” and the electoral sabotage because the killing of “our largest hope for democracy”, the narrator begins with a short acknowledgement of his place as a younger journalist who witnessed the unfolding of such an occasion that outlined Nigeria’s political trajectory within the days. The documentary additional reveals the background and youth of Abiola, adopted by a backstory of how Nigeria, as a sociopolitical entity and nation, got here into existence.
MKO presents an overwhelmingly constructive picture of Abiola, treating him not simply as a political actor but in addition as a central determine within the evolution of Nigeria’s democracy. It does so whereas permitting the viewers to revisit historical past, serving as archival and educational materials for data seekers.
Watching the documentary, nevertheless, one typically perceives a slight tonal drift in the direction of idealisation and glamorisation, with the documentary projecting Abiola solely as an ideal sufferer and unlucky pawn in Nigeria’s crude politics. There’s a bias in the direction of info that illuminates Abiola’s world in order to invoke sympathy and concern for his political misadventures. It feels as if the filmmaker’s method and selection of interviewees are strictly geared toward emphasising his achievements and his symbolic significance whereas obscuring controversies that outlined his political involvement.
As an example, Abiola was believed to have maintained shut ties with the navy, with some data even claiming that he financed navy officers, significantly these concerned within the adjustments that introduced Basic Muhammadu Buhari to energy. However Oyamendan doesn’t replicate on this. Within the documentary, there may be point out of Abiola’s friendship with Babangida; nevertheless, the intricacies of their friendship, which might be rooted in sturdy political undertones, are left unexplored.
What, as a substitute, the documentary does is absolve Abiola of political guilt, portraying a picture of sainthood. When the featured interviewees do focus on the place he went incorrect in recounting his actions, they achieve this tacitly with out blatantly framing his missteps as such.
This documentary is a rendition of what’s already identified about Abiola, a president-elect who by no means obtained the possibility to rule. It doesn’t reveal something about him that may be a surprising revelation or opposite to the prevailing data. However the presentation type is the place the sense of novelty lies. Oyamendan builds the narrative of the democratic hero round a community of notable figures whose private {and professional} relationships with Abiola yield completely different views on his life. Their recollections give the documentary a way of urgency, permitting people to come across historic occasions by means of the reminiscences of those that witnessed or participated in them.
Launched in Nigerian cinemas since 2nd October, a day after the nation’s annual Independence Day celebrations, MKO could also be perceived as a reminder of the hard-fought battle that precipitated the present dispensation of democracy that the nation at the moment operates. It’s maybe greatest to method the documentary from this attitude whereas overlooking the passive subjectivities that underpin the filmmaker’s therapy of Abiola’s political legacy.
Score – 3/5
Adedamola Jones Adedayo is a movie journalist and critic with particular curiosity in African cinema. By means of writing and audiovisual mediums, he creates conversations round cinema in Africa and the Diaspora. You’ll find him on Instagram @jonesthegoodboy and X on AdedamolaAdeda4.
