Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola GCFR, also known as M. K. O. Abiola was a Nigerian businessman, publisher, and politician.
M. K. O. Abiola was born on 24th August 1937 in Abeokuta, Ogun State to the family of Salawu and Suliat Wuraola Abiola. His father was a produce trader who primarily traded cocoa, and his mother traded in kola nuts.His name, Kashimawo, means “Let us wait and see”.Moshood Abiola was his father’s twenty-third child, but the first of them to survive infancy, hence the name ‘Kashimawo’.
It was not until he was fifteen that he was properly named Moshood by his parents.
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 state 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’s political message was an optimistic future for Nigeria with slogans such as “Farewell to poverty”, ” At last! Our rays of Hope” and the “Burden of Schooling”.
For the 12 June 1993 presidential elections, Abiola’s running mate was his primary opponent Baba Gana Kingibe.He defeated his rival, Bashir Tofa of the National Republican Convention. The election was declared Nigeria’s freeest and fairest presidential election by national and international observers, with Abiola even winning in his Northern opponent’s home state of Kano. Abiola won at the national capital, Abuja, the military polling stations, and over two-thirds of Nigerian states. Men of Northern descent had largely dominated Nigeria’s political landscape since independence; Moshood Abiola, a Western Muslim, was able to secure a national mandate freely and fairly, unprecedented in Nigeria’s history. However, the election was annulled by Ibrahim Babangida, causing a political crisis which led to General Sani Abacha seizing power later that year.
In 1994 Moshood Abiola, M.K.O. 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.
His second wife Alhaja Kudirat Abiola was assassinated in Lagos in 1996 after declaring public support for her husband.
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.
Moshood Abiola died unexpectedly, shortly after the death of General Abacha, on the day that he was due to be released.[48] While meeting group of American diplomats including Thomas Pickering and Susan Rice at a government guesthouse in Abuja, Abiola fell ill and died.
Rice had served tea to Abiola shortly before his collapse, and later wrote of an enduring belief in Nigera that she had poisoned Abiola.
Independent autopsy carried out and witnessed by physicians and pathologists from the Nigerian government, Nigerian Medical Association, Canada, UK and the US found substantial evidence of longstanding heart disease.
General Abacha’s Chief Security Officer, al-Mustapha has alleged that Moshood Abiola was in fact beaten to death.
Chief M.K.O. Abiola’s memory is celebrated in Nigeria and internationally.
Since his death, the Lagos State Government declares June 12 as a public holiday.
In 2018, other states including Ogun, Oyo and Osun, announced June 12 as a public holiday to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the annulled 1993 presidential election.
June 12 remains a public holiday in Nigeria beginning June 12, 2019, it will be celebrated as democracy day, replacing May 29.
Remembrance events are arranged across Nigeria.
MKO Abiola Stadium and Moshood Abiola Polytechnic were named in his honour, and there were calls for posthumous presidential recognition.
A statue, MKO Abiola Statue was erected in his honour.
Abiola’s support in the June 1993 presidential election cut across geo-political zones and religious divisions, among a few politicians to accomplish such a spread during his time.
By the time of his death, he had become an unexpected symbol of democracy.
CULLED FROM WIKIPEDIA
