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By Akib A. Abiola
In those days, we never had difficulties finding Nigerians willing to give interviews, organize press conferences or write endless articles. However, each time we organized demonstrations either at the front of the embassy or anywhere else, only a handful ever showed up. In those days, by the level of Nigerian participation, you will think that the population of Nigerians in the United States was less than 1,000 people and not 500,000 or more. Please don't get me wrong, there are a few Nigerians abroad, especially in the United States who are still committed to ensuring positive changes in the country. However, most Nigerian activists in the United States are opportunists looking for a way to be relevant in the scheme of things. This is why there are so many Nigerian pro-democracy groups with fewer than ten serious members in each organization. It also seems as if Nigerian journalists in the United States have also imported their Nigerian tabloid's style journalism to the U. S, the habits of not fully checking facts before writing stories. From my own investigations, I found that there was no true to the alleged invitations of IBB, Buhari and Shonekan by the University. Even, if these people were invited, are we not been undemocratic to demand that their invitations be revoked? I wish IBB, Buhari and Shonekan had come to Chicago and I wish more Nigerians had gone to the city to demonstrate against them. More importantly, I wish more Nigerians had stood up for the late M.K.O. Abiola and demanded with force for his unconditional release before he was killed. Finally, I wish Nigerian activists both in Nigeria and abroad would stop being Paper Tigers and start putting some actions behind their words.
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was not surprised to read that only a few Nigerians showed up for the
"talk-about" demonstration against the Abdulsalami lecture series at the
Chicago State University. The fact that the Nigerian public demonstration,
action and participation at the events did not meet all the hypes generated
by Laolu Akande and others did not surprised me a bit. In fact, it reminded
me of our past struggles to actualize the June 12 mandate given to the late
Chief M.K.O Abiola.