Kudirat Abiola, left, and Hafsat Abiola-Costello

  By Nehru Odeh

Today marks exactly 22 years that the military dictator, Sani Abacha died. However on 4 June 2020, Hafsat Abiola- Costello, rights activist and  daughter of the acclaimed winner of 12 June 1993 Presidential election, Bashorun  M.K.O Abiola, took to Facebook to celebrate her mother, Kudirat who was assassinated by Abacha’s killer-squad on 4 June 1996.

Kudirat remains a symbol of Nigeria’s struggle for democracy.

According to Hafsat, though her mother is dead, her spirit lives on. “The message of your life lives on. In your name, we will continue the quest for a better country, for a better continent, and for a better world,” she said in the emotion-laden tribute.

Here is Hafsat tribute:

“24 years ago on this day, a team of soldiers were sent out on a mission to kill my mother. They succeeded.

The Akan people of Cote d’Ivoire believe that a person is made up of three parts – the body, the spirit and the life’s purpose. The body can die but the spirit does not and the purpose need not.

So today, I celebrate Kudirat Olayinka Omo  Adeyemi Aya Abiola on a life well lived. And to her spirit, I say:

The message of your life lives on.

In your name, we will continue the quest for a better country, for a better continent, and for a better world.

An amazon lived. An amazon died yet the spirit of courage and the purpose of service has been passed on. Asé°!” she said.