The symbol of resistance which formed a major blockade to the junta of General Sani Abacha started in 1995 as Radio Freedom; but was renamed as Radio Kudirat in 1996 after the assassination of Alhaja Kudirat Abiola. As a major critique of the junta and as the first renowned martyr of the assault on oppositional voices by the Abacha administration, Kudirat Abiola was given that deserved precedence of being rightly immortalized for what she stood for.
While it was still operational, Radio Kudirat broadcasted worldwide on short wave frequency and it was heard as far as North America – playing revolutionary music while encouraging Nigerians to resist the military dictatorship in Nigeria. Radio Kudirat was also very inclusive as it aired programs in the major languages of Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo and English.
Lemi Olalemi, assisted by other dare-devil journalists such as Dapo Olorunyomi, and current governor of Ekiti state, Kayode Fayemi, hatched a plan to set up an opposition radio station which remained mysterious to the military for the four years that it existed since its inception in 1995. Reports had it that Olalemi and Olorunyomi literally had to smuggle in the state of the art equipment used at Radio Kudirat through the Nigeria-Benin land border which was heavily guarded by men of the Customs, Immigration, Military and the Police, as of then. The major actors in that risky episode also confessed to having to go through very crude means of freight equipment and humans through the famous ‘NADECO route’ which remained opaque to the government operatives for long.
Also, at some point, when the hunt for the runners of Radio Kudirat was heating up, Olalemi got detained for 6 months by the Department of Military Intelligence (DMI) in Apapa and came just short of being tortured into a confession. The DMI agents, under the leadership of Col. Frank Omenka, not only wanted to know the location of Radio Kudirat, they also wanted to know the whereabouts of the major leaders of a major resistance group which stood against Abacha’s junta – National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) and other Civil Society Organisations (CSOs).
Olalemi offered no information useful to the intelligence officers as that would automatically translate to the cascading deaths of the resistance groups and the voice of the self-styled opposition domiciled in the broadcasts of Radio Kudirat. It was only after the organized assassination on June 4, 1996, of the second wife of the acclaimed winner of the June 12 1993 presidential elections, Chief M.K.O Abiola – Alhaja Kudirat Abiola – that the leaders of NADECO and National Liberation Council of Nigeria (NALICON) called for Radio Freedom manned by Olalemi to be changed to Radio Kudirat.
Having held up a national radio station at gun point during the Nigeria-Biafran War, Wole Soyinka himself provided as much as necessary moral and technical support to the operators and runners of Radio Kudirat. In an essay titled Radio Kudirat Goes Home, after Nigeria’s deserved return to democracy in 1999, Soyinka remarked;
“Apart from a tiny, ill-paid staff, the contributors to Radio Kudirat never earned a penny – there was, in any case, nothing for us to offer. The dedication of our small, overworked staff has been one of the most inspiring aspects of the entire struggle…
“But now, Radio Kudirat goes home, in order to play its role, from within, in the attainment of this long-delayed objective. It only remains for us to pay tribute to all those who gave so much of themselves, often involving risks not only to their own individual selves but to their families, in ensuring that this channel of hope was established, and remained constantly open to the Nigerian people throughout the struggle against internal enslavement by a ruthless dictatorship.”
The place of resistance in 2019 democracy cannot be overruled. Our democracy is still nascent and replete with systemic and sharp practices. This is where a coordinated resistance to ensure that the status quo of mediocre democracy is not perpetrated perpetually. It is with resistance fashioned out in the line of that of the veterans of the mid to late 90’s which holds good promise in making sure that the hold of the political godfathers and the cabal is finally broken into pieces for the sake of our dear country.