Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola (August 24, 1937 – July 7,
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.
EARLY LIFE
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, in order 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
head-quartered 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
CHIEF M K O ABIOLA
Chief MKO
Abiola's memory is celebrated in Nigeria and internationally. June 12
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 tribe’s people. 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 in order 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 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 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 Babanginda 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 June 12th 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
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.[18] During preparations for the 2011 Nigerian
Presidential elections there were calls from several quarters to remember MKO
Abiola.
The famed
Nigerian Pastor Tunde Bakare 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 impoverished Nigerians. 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 renounces 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 recognize 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 July 7,
1998. While the official autopsy state 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 is still being detained by the
Nigerian government, 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.
(Culled
from Wikipedia.com)
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