Managing director of TVC Entertainment (TVCe) Morayo Afolabi-Brown has knocked President Bola Tinubu for laughing alongside others at the laugh of the autobiography of former military president Ibrahim Babangida titled A Journey In Service.
Babangida’s book launch on Thursday, stirred conversations after he admitted, for the first time, that late businessman Moshood Abiola won the June 12, 1993, presidential election.
The annulment of the election is widely believed to have led to Abiola’s eventual death.
Reacting to the development in an Instagram post on Saturday, Morayo, who also hosts Your View on TVC, expressed her frustration over how attendees at the book launch made light of Babangida’s account of the annulment of the election often adjudged the freest and fairest in Nigeria’s history.
She accused Babangida of causing immense trauma to her family and the Abiola family, insisting that he should be held accountable.
“The last 48 hours have been quite interesting. Babangida has a lot of questions to answer, and I cannot wait to read that book,” she wrote.
“My father warned Nigerians about this man. My father did everything in his power to get this man to pay for his sins, but nothing happened.”
She recounted how her father, a fierce critic of Babangida’s regime, was imprisoned multiple times and eventually fled Nigeria through Cotonou to seek asylum in the United States.
The stress, she said, led to him suffering a stroke from which he never recovered.
“Men of valor fought with their voices, pen, and influence, yet Babangida reigned like a fearless hurricane, bulldozing all that was in his path.
“Many were murdered. My father was thrown in jail several times by the military led by this man for speaking against him and finally had to go on self-exile,” she said.
Morayo also recalled her close relationship with the Abiola family, particularly the late Kudirat Abiola and her children.
She described how their once joyful home was thrown into mourning after Kudirat was assassinated in 1996.
“I saw how you all laughed at the book launch. I’m sorry, nothing there seemed comical to me,” she wrote.
“As a child, growing up with MKO Abiola, his wife Kudirat, and their children, and seeing how both our families were ripped apart alongside many others in the wake of Babangida’s annulment, is a trauma I can never get past.”
She questioned President Bola Tinubu’s presence at the book launch, expressing disappointment that the event was treated with levity.
“You, Mr. President, supported my father till he died. You know the pains and the struggles, yet you laugh at the table of OUR tormentor?” she asked.
Babangida’s book launch, held at Transcorp Hilton in Abuja, was attended by dignitaries including former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, Muhammadu Buhari, Yakubu Gowon, Abdulsalami Abubakar and Goodluck Jonathan.
