Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola
Nigerian entrepreneur and politician
Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola, born on August 24, 1937, in Abeokuta, Ogun State, was a popular Nigerian Yoruba businessman, publisher, politician and aristocrat of the Egba clan. Moshood was his father’s twenty-third child but the first of his father’s children to survive infancy hence the name “Kashimawo”.MKO showed entrepreneurial talents at a very young age, at the tender age of nine he started his first business selling firewood before going to school, in order to support his old father and his siblings. He established a band at age fifteen where he performed at different functions in return for food and later got perfected enough to begin requesting money for his exhibitions which he utilized to uphold his family and his secondary education at the Baptist Boys High School, Abeokuta. He was the editor of the school magazine The Trumpeter, Olusegun Obasanjo was his deputy editor. At the age of 19 he joined the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons ostensibly because of its strange pan Nigerian origin compared with the Obafemi Awolowo-led Action Group. 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. In Glasgow he received 1st class in political economy, commercial law and management 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. He later went onto Pfizer, before joining the ITT Corporation, where he rose to the position of Vice President, Africa and Middle-East.
Moshood had investments 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. Moshood Abiola sprang to national and global prominence as a consequence of his humanitarian exercises. 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.
Moshood Abiola was twice voted worldwide businessman of the year, and gained various honorary doctorates from universities all over the world. In 1987 he was given the golden key to the city of Washington D.C., and he was bestowed with an award from the NAACP and the King Center in the USA, and also the International Committee on Education for Teaching in Paris, among others too numerous to mention. In Nigeria, the Oloye MKO Abiola was made the Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland. It is the most noteworthy chieftaincy title accessible to everyday citizens around the Yoruba, and has just been given by the tribe 14 times in its history. This basically rendered MKO the ceremonial Viceroy of the greater part of his tribes 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 defense 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.
After nearly a decade of military rule, democratic elections were held in Nigeria on June 12, 1993. Abiola ran as the presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party in a two-party race. Observers declared the election to have been the freest and fairest in Nigerian history. Initial results indicated that Abiola, who had garnered votes across ethnic and religious divides, would be the clear winner of the election. Before the official results were announced, however, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, the military leader, annulled the election. This provoked a political crisis. Abiola rallied domestic and international support in claiming the presidency that he appeared to have won, which led to his 1994 arrest on a charge of treason by the military regime then led by Gen. Sani Abacha.
During his imprisonment Abiola was deprived of outside news and subjected to solitary confinement and abuse that included negligent medical care. His release seemed imminent following the death of General Abacha in June 1998. However, Abiola died suddenly under mysterious circumstances, on July 7, 1998, in Abuja, Nigeria), arousing suspicions of foul play, although a heart attack was officially declared to be the cause of death.
Many areas in southwestern Nigeria have since observed June 12 as a day on which to commemorate Abiola as well as remember the election that was held on that day in 1993 and its significance as a symbol of democracy.
