Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola (24
August 1937 – 7 July 1998), often referred to as M. K. O. Abiola, was a popular Nigerian Yoruba businessman,
publisher, politician and aristocrat of the Yoruba Egba clan. He ran for the
presidency in 1993, and is widely regarded as the presumed winner of the
inconclusive election since no official final results were announced. He died
in 1998, after being denied victory when the entire election results were
dubiously annulled by the preceding
military president Ibrahim Babangida
because of alleged evidence that they were corrupt and unfair.
Moshood
Kashimawo Olawale Abiola was born in Abeokuta, Ogun State. His name, Kashimawo,
means "Let us wait and see".
Moshood Abiola was his father's twenty-third child but the first of his
father's children to survive infancy, hence the name 'Kashimawo'. It was not
until he was 15 years old that he was properly named Moshood, by his parents.
MKO
showed entrepreneurial talents at a very young age, at the age of nine he
started his first business selling firewood. He would wake up at dawn to go to
the forest and gather firewood, which he would then cart back to town and sell
before going to school, to support his old father and his siblings. He later
founded a band at age fifteen where he would perform at various ceremonies in
exchange for food. He eventually became famous enough to start demanding
payment for his performances and used the money to support his family and his
secondary education at the Baptist Boys High School Abeokuta, where he
excelled. He was the editor of the school magazine The Trumpeter, Olusegun Obasanjo was deputy editor. At the age
of 19 he joined the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons ostensibly
because of its stronger pan-Nigerian origin compared with the Obafemi
Awolowo-led Action Group.
Career
In 1956
Moshood Abiola started his professional life as bank clerk with Barclays Bank
plc in Ibadan, South-West Nigeria. After two years he joined the Western Region
Finance Corporation as an executive accounts officer before leaving for
Glasgow, Scotland to pursue his higher education. From Glasgow University he
received a first class degree in accountancy. He also received a distinction
from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland. On his return to
Nigeria, he worked as a senior accountant at the University of Lagos Teaching
Hospital, then went on to Pfizer, before joining the ITT Corporation, where he
later rose to the position of Vice-President, Africa and Middle-East of the
entire corporation, which was headquartered in the United States. As a result,
Moshood Abiola spent a lot of his time and made most of his money in the United
States, whilst retaining the post of chairman of the corporation's Nigerian
subsidiary. In addition to his duties throughout the Middle-East and Africa,
Moshood Abiola invested heavily in Nigeria and West Africa. He set up Abiola
Farms, Abiola bookshops, Radio Communications Nigeria, Wonder bakeries, Concord
Press, Concord Airlines, Summit oil international ltd, Africa Ocean lines,
Habib Bank, Decca W.A. ltd, and Abiola football club. In addition to these, he
also managed to perform his duties as Chairman of the G15 business council,
President of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, Patron of the Kwame Nkrumah
Foundation, Patron of the WEB Du Bois foundation, trustee of the Martin Luther
King foundation and director of the International Press Institute.
Philanthropy
Moshood
Abiola sprang to national and international prominence as a result of his
philanthropic activities. The Congressional Black Caucus of the United States
of America issued the following tribute to Moshood Abiola:
Because of
this man, there is both cause for hope and certainty that the agony and
protests of those who suffer injustice shall give way to peace and human
dignity. The children of the world shall know the great work of this
extraordinary leader and his fervent mission to right wrong, to do justice, and
to serve mankind. The enemies which imperil the future of generations to come:
poverty, ignorance, disease, hunger, and racism have each seen effects of the
valiant work of Chief Abiola. Through him and others like him, never again will
freedom rest in the domain of the few. We, the members of the Congressional
Black Caucus salute him this day as a hero in the global pursuit to preserve
the history and the legacy of the African diaspora.
From 1972
until his death Moshood Abiola had been conferred with 197 traditional titles
by 68 different communities in Nigeria, in response to the fact that his
financial assistance resulted in the construction of 63 secondary schools, 121
mosques and churches, 41 libraries, 21 water projects in 24 states of Nigeria,
and was grand patron to 149 societies or associations in Nigeria. In this way
Abiola reached out and won admiration across the multifarious ethnic and
religious divides in Nigeria. In addition to his work in Nigeria, Moshood
Abiola was a dedicated supporter of the Southern African Liberation movements
from the 1970s and he sponsored the campaign to win reparations for slavery and
colonialism in Africa and the diaspora. Chief Abiola, personally rallied every
African head of state, and every head of state in the black diaspora to ensure
that Africans would speak with one voice on the issues.
Remembrance of M.K.O.
Abiola
Chief MKO
Abiola's memory is celebrated in Nigeria and internationally. 12 June remains a
public holiday in Lagos and Ogun states. There are also remembrance events
arranged across Nigeria. MKO Abiola was known for his charisma and for being a
man of the people. As a prominent social activist, democratic freedom fighter,
and successful business figure, the continuing support for MKO Abiola is part
of his legacy. MKO Abiola Stadium was named in his honour. There were also
calls for posthumous presidential recognition.
Despite
his popularity or because of it, MKO Abiola occasionally attracted criticism
from political activists and detractors. Controversy was caused by a song by
Nigerian musician, Fela Kuti. Kuti was a charismatic multi-instrumentalist
musician, composer and human rights activist – famed for being the pioneer of
Afrobeat music as well as a controversial figure, due to his unusual lifestyle
and apparent drug use. It is believed that Kuti had entered into an acrimonious
dispute relating to a contract with MKO Abiola's record label. He used the
abbreviation of International Telephone & Telegraph (IT&T) in a song
criticising big multinational corporations. The song, ITT accuses such companies of draining Africa's resources and
makes specific reference to MKO Abiola ("they start to steal money Like
Obasanjo and Abiola").
Awards and honours
Moshood
Abiola was twice voted international businessman of the year, and received
numerous honorary doctorates from universities all over the world. In 1987 he
was bestowed with the golden key to the city of Washington D.C., and he was
bestowed with awards from the NAACP and the King center in the USA, as well as
the International Committee on Education for Teaching in Paris, amongst many
others. In Nigeria, the Oloye Abiola was made the Aare Ona Kakanfo of
Yorubaland. It is the highest chieftaincy title available to commoners amongst
the Yoruba, and has only been conferred by the tribe 14 times in its history.
This in effect rendered Abiola the ceremonial War Viceroy of all of his
tribespeople. According to the folklore of the tribe as recounted by the Yoruba
elders, the Aare Ona Kakanfo is expected to die a warrior in the defence of his
nation to prove himself in the eyes of both the divine and the mortal as having
been worthy of his title.
Involvement in politics
Abiola's involvement in politics
started early on in life when he joined the National Council of Nigeria and the
Cameroons (NCNC) at age 19. In 1979, the military government kept its word and
handed over power to the civilian. As Abiola was already involved in politics,
he joined the ruling National Party of Nigeria (NPN) in 1980 and was elected
the chairman of his party. Re-election was done in 1983 and everything looked
promising since the re-elected president was from Abiola's party and based on
the true transition to power in 1979; Abiola was eligible to go for the post of
presidential candidate after the tenure of the re-elected president. However,
his hope to become the president was shortly dashed away for the first time in
1983 when a military coup d'état swept away the re-elected president of his
party and ended civilian rule in the country. After a decade of military rule,
General Ibrahim Babangida came under pressure to return democratic rule to
Nigeria. After an aborted initial primary, Abiola stood for the presidential
nomination of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and beat Ambassador Baba Gana
Kingibe and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar to secure the presidential nomination of the
SDP ahead of the 12 June 1993 presidential elections. Abiola had managed to
work his way out of poverty through hard work and symbolised the aspirations of
many downtrodden Nigerians. His commitment to the plight of ordinary Nigerians
included establishing Abiola bookshops to provide affordable, locally produced
textbooks in the 1980s when imported textbooks became out of the reach of
ordinary Nigerians as the naira was devalued. He also made available daily
necessities such as rice and soap at affordable prices in the market.
Presidential elections
Moshood Abiola's Hope '93
political manifesto For the 12 June 1993 presidential
elections, Abiola's running mate was Baba Gana Kingibe. He overwhelmingly
defeated his rival, Bashir Tofa of the National Republican Convention. The
election was declared Nigeria's freest and fairest presidential election by
national and international observers, with Abiola even winning in his Northern
opponent's home state. Abiola won at the national capital, Abuja, the military
polling stations, and over two-thirds of Nigerian states. The reason why the
election was so historic, was because men of Northern descent had largely
dominated Nigeria's political landscape since independence. The fact that
Moshood Abiola (a Southern Muslim) was able to secure a national mandate freely
and fairly remains unprecedented in Nigeria's history. However, the election
was annulled by Ibrahim Babangida, a political crisis that ensued which led to
General Sani Abacha seizing power later that year. During preparations for the
2011 Nigerian Presidential elections there were calls from several quarters to
remember MKO Abiola
The famed Nigerian Pastor T.B. Joshua is said to
have predicted the annulment to Abiola and warned him against contesting.
Imprisonment
In 1994 Moshood Abiola declared
himself the lawful president of Nigeria in the Epetedo area of Lagos island, an
area mainly populated by (Yoruba) Lagos Indigenes. He had recently returned
from a trip to win the support of the international community for his mandate.
After declaring himself president he was declared wanted and was accused of
treason and arrested on the orders of military President General Sani Abacha,
who sent 200 police vehicles to bring him into custody. MKO Abiola has been
referred to as Nigeria's greatest statesman.
Moshood Abiola was detained for four years, largely
in solitary confinement with a Bible, Qur'an, and fourteen guards as
companions. During that time, Pope John Paul II, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and
human rights activists from all over the world lobbied the Nigerian government
for his release. The sole condition attached to the release of Chief Abiola was
that he renounce his mandate, something that he refused to do, although the
military government offered to compensate him and refund his extensive election
expenses. For this reason Chief Abiola became extremely troubled when Kofi
Annan and Emeka Anyaoku reported to the world that he had agreed to renounce
his mandate after they met with him to tell him that the world would not
recognise a five-year-old election.
Death
Abiola died under suspicious circumstances shortly
after the death of General Abacha. Moshood Abiola died on the day that he was
due to be released, on 7 July 1998. While the official autopsy stated that
Abiola died of natural causes, Abacha's Chief Security Officer, al-Mustapha has
alleged that Moshood Abiola was in fact beaten to death. al-Mustapha, who was
detained by the Nigerian government, but later released, claims to have video
and audiotapes showing how Abiola was beaten to death. The final autopsy
report, which was produced by a group of international coroners has never been
publicly released. Irrespective of the exact circumstances of his death, it is
clear that Chief Abiola received insufficient medical attention for his
existing health conditions.
As recounted at the time in a BBC interview with
special envoy Thomas R. Pickering, an American delegation, which included Susan
Rice, visited Abiola and during their meeting with him, Abiola fell ill, with
what was presumed to be a heart attack which caused his death.
Reference Wikipedia.
Reference Wikipedia.
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