Moshood Abiola

Moshood Abiola

Bashorun Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola (born August 24, 1937 in Abeokuta , † July 7, 1998 in Abuja ) was a Nigerian politician and businessman. He won the 1993 presidential election in Nigeria, Nigeria's first democratic election, but which was canceled by Ibrahim Babangida . A year later, Abiola proclaimed himself the rightful president of Nigeria, whereupon he was accused of high treason by the dictator Sani Abacha and imprisoned. He died of a heart attack in prison shortly before his release.

Life

Moshood Abiola was the son of a poor Yoruba Muslim family in southern Nigeria. His middle name, Kashimawo, is said to be “let's wait and see” , which his mother gave him after she suffered several miscarriages and many babies died after a short time.

He first went to the Islamic Nawar Ud-Deen School and the Christian African Central School . Abiola graduated from Baptist Boys' High School and received a scholarship in early 1961 that enabled him to study accounting in Scotland. He graduated with Honors in 1963 and worked as assistant chief accountant at Lagos University Teaching Hospital . From 1969 to 1988 he finally worked for the American company International Telephone and Telecommunications and even became Managing Director and Chief Executive. This period made him a rich man and he founded several companies such as Radio Communications of Nigeria in 1974. He had business relationships in 60 countries and his own Nigerian companies employed around 20,000 people.

Moshood Abiola didn't begin his political career until 1979 when he joined the National Party . In 1993 he ran as a candidate for the Social Democratic Party in the presidential election.

Abiola was married to several women; among his children are Yomi Abiola and Hafsat Abiola , a well-known human rights activist.

Web links

• Moshood Abiola in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely accessible)