JUNE 12, Remembering M.K.O Abiola : Hope 93, 24years After

A lot of Nigerians only heard about him, some were not born yet, so I will do my best to describe him to the best of my knowledge.
Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola, CFR (24 August 1937– 7 July 1998),aged 60, often referred to as M. K. O. Abiola, was a popular Nigerian Yoruba businessman, publisher, politician and aristocrat of the Yoruba Egba clan. 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. He was married with 6wives(Simbiat Atinuke Shoaga, Kudirat Olayinka Adeyemi, Adebisi Olawunmi Oshin, Doyinsola Abiola Aboaba, Modupe Onitiri-Abiola,Remi Abiola), and over 60children. MKO at the age of nine sold firewood. He gathered firewood from the forest,then transport it 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, and used the money to support his family and education.
 At the Baptist Boys High School Abeokuta, where he excelled,he was the editor of the secondary school magazine The Trumpeter , Olusegun Obasanjo was deputy editor. At 19 he joined the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons. A first class accountant from Glasgow university, he also gained a distinction from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland. He was chairman of the corporation's Nigerian subsidiary,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.
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. Abiola won admiration across the multifarious ethnic and religious divides in Nigeria. In addition to his work in Nigeria.

Gen. Sani Abacha with Abiola

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.
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 till date.
He and runningmate Baba Gana Kingibe overwhelmingly defeated 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.
He was 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, a development that ushered in a political crisis that led to General Sani Abacha seizing power later that year.

In 1994, Abiola declared himself the lawful president of Nigeria in the Epetedo area of Lagos island, an area mainly dominated by Lagos Indigenes, after he returned from a trip to solicit 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.

Abiola stepping down from a black Maria vehicle surrounded by heavily armed military men

Moshood Abiola was detained for four years(i.e 2yrs day and night), largely in solitary confinement with a Bible, Qur'an , and fourteen guards as companions.
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
While Kudirat was busy championing the cause
against the military dictatorship in Nigeria, her
husband was in jail on charges of treason. Her action
against the military government made her to become
the biggest foe of the military government of late Sani
Abacha.

Lt. Mrs. Kudirat Abiola

On June 4, 1996, few days to commemorate the
anniversary date when Nigerians resolved to vote out
the military dictatorship, Kudirat’s life ended on earth, extinguished by assailant’s bullets from machine guns(F90 submarine gun made in belgium, a selective fire defence personel weapon) fired killing her and the driver. Alhaja Kudirat was attacked in her car by unknown gunmen, along Lagos-Ibadan expressway, allegedly on the orders of the military government of the late Gen. Sani Abacha. According to accounts, her murder was ordered and then carried out by six men( operation cika aikia: in hausa means finish the job).
Her personal assistant who was later accused of being involved with her assassins was in the car but he was not hurt.
At the time of her death, an anti-military rule "Radio
Democracy" had just been created and it was based in Norway. It was backed by the American, British,
Swedish, Danish and Norwegian governments to help
end military dictatorship in Nigeria. The radio station's name was later changed to Radio Kudirat.
Abiola died under suspicious circumstances shortly after the death of General Abacha on June 8 1998. 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. Irrespective of the exact circumstances of his death, it is clear that Chief Abiola received insufficient medical attention for his existing health conditions.
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.
Chief MKO Abiola's memory is celebrated in Nigeria and internationally. June 12, remains a public holiday in Lagos and Ogun states and other All progressive Congress party states. MKO Abiola Stadium was named in his honour.
June 12 is thus a day to remember chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola as well as other democracy martyrs.