Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola (24 August 1937 – 7 July 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.[1] His name, Kashimawo, means "Let us wait and see".[2] 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.

IMPRISONMENT: In 1994 Moshood Abiola 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. MKO Abiola
has been referred to as Nigeria's greatest statesman.[20] 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.[21]

Pic 1: One of the campaign pictures of the 1993 Election that was later annulled.

Pic 2: Moshood Abiola coming down from a Black Maria. With him are heavily armed military men.

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.[4] 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 headquartered 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.

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 7 July 1998.[22] While the official autopsy stated 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 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.[23] 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,[24] with what was presumed to be a heart attack which caused his death.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moshood_Abiola

Cc: Seun, Lalasticlala, Ishilove.

In case

RIP, Abiola

I have been expecting something like dis...

RIP to the founder of Nigeria Democracy....

Lalasticlala front page pls...