53 Facts About Moshood Abiola

Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola, known as M K O Abiola was a Nigerian business magnate, publisher, and politician.

Moshood Abiola was the honorary supreme military commander of the Oyo Empire and an aristocrat of the Egba clan.

Moshood Abiola was awarded the National honour Grand Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic, an honour awarded to only Nigerian heads of state, posthumously on 6 June 2018, by President Muhammadu Buhari and Nigeria's democracy day was changed from 29 May to 12 June in his honour.

Moshood Abiola was a personal friend of Ibrahim Babangida and is believed to have supported Babangida's coming to power.

Moshood Abiola was among a few politicians to accomplish such influence during his time.

Moshood Abiola's father was a produce trader who primarily traded cocoa, and his mother traded in kola nuts.

Moshood Abiola was his father's 23rd child, but the first of them to survive infancy, hence the name 'Kashimawo'.

Moshood Abiola attended African Central School, Abeokuta for his primary education.

At the age of nine, Moshood Abiola started his first business, selling firewood gathered in the forest at dawn before school, to support his father and siblings.

Moshood Abiola founded a band at the age of 15, and would perform at various ceremonies in exchange for food.

Moshood Abiola was eventually able to require payment for his performances, and used the money to support his family and his secondary education at the Baptist Boys High School, Abeokuta.

Moshood Abiola was the editor of the school magazine The Trumpeter, Olusegun Obasanjo was deputy editor.

In 1960, Moshood Abiola obtained a government scholarship to study at the University of Glasgow, where he later earned a degree in accountancy and qualified as a chartered accountant.

Moshood Abiola later became a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria.

In 1956, Moshood Abiola started his professional life as a bank clerk with Barclays Bank in Ibadan, South-West Nigeria.

Moshood Abiola received a first-class degree in accountancy from Glasgow University, and he gained a distinction from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland.

On his return to Nigeria, Moshood Abiola worked as a senior accountant at the University of Lagos Teaching Hospital, then went on to the US firm Pfizer, before joining the ITT Corporation, where he later rose to the position of vice-president, Africa and Middle East.

Moshood Abiola spent a lot of his time, and made most of his money, in the United States, while retaining the post of chairman of the corporation's Nigerian subsidiary.

Moshood Abiola then applied to a job listing seeking a trained accountant, and it was during the interview that he found out the firm was ITT Corporation.

Moshood Abiola was employed by the firm and one of his immediate responsibilities was to clear the backlog of debt owed to the firm by the military.

Moshood Abiola used his determination to clear the debts as a bargaining tool for more role in the company; initially he was able to remove the expatriate manager but was unable to get a requested 50 per cent equity in the Nigerian arm of ITT.

Moshood Abiola subsequently established Radio Communication as a side business, new employees were trained in marketing of telecoms equipment and Moshood Abiola targeted the military who were replacing civil war-era equipment as business clients.

Moshood Abiola soon received a contract to supply hardware to the military that got the attention of ITT and he was offered 49 per cent equity ownership of its Nigerian arm.

Moshood Abiola was 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.

Moshood Abiola was a member of Ansar Ud Deen organization in Nigeria.

Moshood Abiola had managed to work his way out of poverty through hard work.

Moshood Abiola established 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.

Moshood Abiola made available daily necessities such as rice and soap at affordable prices in the market.

Moshood Abiola announced his candidacy for president in February 1993, this was after a previous round of presidential primaries had been cancelled by military President Babangida.

Moshood Abiola's party of choice was SDP, though he was an outsider who was new to the partisan politics within the party which at the time was dominated by two major factions, People's Front and PSP.

SDP's primaries was held in Jos and was largely a three-way contest between Moshood Abiola, Kingibe and Atiku even though there were more aspirants.

Moshood Abiola was heavily supported by the People's Solidarity faction within SDP while Atiku was supported by PF faction led by Yar'Adua and Kingibe was supported by a loose coalition of party members.

Moshood Abiola defeated his rival, Bashir Tofa of the National Republican Convention.

Moshood Abiola won at the national capital, Abuja, the military polling stations, and over two-thirds of Nigerian states.

In June 1994, Moshood Abiola declared himself the lawful president of Nigeria in the Epetedo area of Lagos island, an area mainly populated by Lagos Indigenes.

Moshood Abiola had recently returned from a trip to win the support of the international community for his mandate.

Moshood Abiola was detained for four years, largely in solitary confinement with a Bible, Qur'an, and fourteen guards as companions.

The sole condition attached to the release of Chief Moshood 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.

Moshood Abiola died unexpectedly, shortly after the death of General Abacha, on the day that he was due to be released.

General Abacha's Chief Security Officer, Hamza al-Mustapha has alleged that Moshood Abiola was in fact beaten to death and although Al-Mustapha claims to have video and audiotapes showing how Abiola was beaten to death, he has yet to come forward with the release of such tapes or how it was procured in the first place.

Regardless of the exact circumstances of his death, it is clear that Chief Moshood Abiola received insufficient medical attention for his existing health conditions.

Moshood Abiola was certain about the fact that Abiola was poisoned, although information on what entities were behind the poisoning, have yet to come to light.

The Human Rights Violation Investigation Commission of Nigeria, conducted a series of hearings aiming to discover the truth of events leading to the Moshood Abiola's death, concluding that the Abubakar regime probably knew more than it revealed.

MKO Abiola Stadium and Moshood Abiola Polytechnic were named in his honour, and there were calls for posthumous presidential recognition.

On 6 June 2018, Muhammadu Buhari in a public statement changed the Democracy Day to 12 June in honor of the 12 June 1993, presidential election and it's winner, Moshood Abiola, who died in prison.

Moshood Abiola was twice voted international businessman of the year, and received numerous honorary doctorates from universities all over the world.

In Nigeria, the Oloye Moshood Abiola was made the Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland, the highest chieftaincy title available to commoners among the Yoruba.

Moshood Abiola was posthumously awarded the third highest national honour, the Commander of the Federal Republic, in 1998.

Moshood Abiola married many wives; notable among them are Simbiat Atinuke Shoaga in 1960, Kudirat Olayinka Adeyemi in 1973, Adebisi Olawunmi Oshin in 1974, Doyinsola Abiola Aboaba in 1981, Modupe Onitiri-Abiola and Remi Abiola.

In 2024, Modupe Onitiri-Moshood Abiola organized a failed coup attempt in Oyo State; the rest of the Moshood Abiola family denounced her actions.

Moshood Abiola sprang to national and international prominence as a result of his philanthropic activities.

From 1972 until his death, Moshood Abiola was conferred with 197 traditional titles by 68 different communities in Nigeria, in response to his having provided financial assistance in the construction of 63 secondary schools, 121 mosques and churches, 41 libraries, 21 water projects in 24 states of Nigeria, and he was grand patron to 149 societies or associations in Nigeria.

Moshood Abiola personally communicated with 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.