An Ogun High Chief and international businessman, Otunba Adejare Adegbenro has called on all lovers of democracy in Nigeria and beyond to accord his maternal grandfather, the late Chief Alfred Rewane and other symbols of democracy, both alive and dead constant recognition through honour and immortalisation.
The Ogun High Chief, who is also a grandson to former Premier of the defunct western region, the late Chief Dauda S. Adegbenro made the call in Lagos at the weekend where he said Pa Rewane and others like him deserve prayers for their roles and sacrifices that led to the entrenchment of a civil rule in Nigeria.
It was during the process of attempts to actualise the unjustly annulled June 12, 1993 Presidential election by retired General Ibrahim Babangida that a lot of pro-democracy activists were either eliminated, detained or haunted into exile. The election was believed to have been won by the late Bashorun MKO Abiola of the defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP).
The younger Adegbenro, who reminded that his maternal grandfather, Rewane and others like him paid supreme prizes for their love for a self-rule, asserted that, “nothing can be too much to be done for their remembrance as heroes and martyrs of democracy in this country,” expressing the delight that, their memories, luckily still remains ever green in the peoples mind.
Recall that, the late Pa Alfred Rewane was the financier of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), that fought the military to a stand but was later assassinated by unknown gunmen suspected to be agents of the state.
The international business from two political families said while the martyrs deserve immortalisation, the living heroes/heroine also deserve honour, respect and recognition, warning however that the tree of democracy nurtured with sweat and blood should not be allowed to derail through undemocratic conducts.
Other martyrs and heroes of democracy asides from Pa Rewane were Bashorun MKO Abiola, his wife, Kudirat Abiola, Pa Abraham Adesanya, Alhaja Suliat Adedeji, Pa Solanke Onasanya, Lam Adesina and Pa Adekule Ajasin among others.
And the living ones are, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Dan Sulaeman, Ndubuisi Kanu (rtd), Pa Ayo Adebanjo, Mr. Ayo Opadokun, Professor Wole Soyinka, Gen. Alani Akinrinade (Rtd), the Mr. Yinka Odumakin, his wife Dr. Joe, Alhaji Balarabe Musa Hon Wale Oshun, Col Umar Dangiwa and Senator Sheu Sani among others.
