Moshood Abiola

Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola (24 August 1937 – 7 July 1998), known as M. K. O. Abiola, was a Nigerian businessman, publisher and politician (Wikipedia). He was born and educated in Abeokuta. He stood for president in the election of 12 June 1993, which most observers considered the fairest in Nigeria's history, and early returns showed him winning decisively; his support crossed regional and religious lines. The military president, Ibrahim Babangida, annulled the election on 23 June 1993 (Wikipedia).

In June 1994 Abiola declared himself the lawful president of Nigeria at Epetedo, Lagos, and was imprisoned. He died in detention on 7 July 1998, shortly after the death of General Sani Abacha, on the day he was due to be released (Wikipedia).

He was the son of a cocoa trader and a kola-nut trader in Abeokuta. He was his father's twenty-third child but the first to survive infancy, hence the name Kashimawo, "let us wait and see". At nine he began selling firewood before school to help his family, and at fifteen founded a band whose earnings paid for his schooling at Baptist Boys' High School, Abeokuta, where he edited the school magazine with Olusegun Obasanjo as his deputy. At nineteen he joined the NCNC (Wikipedia).

After working for the Nigerian subsidiary of Pfizer, he joined ITT Corporation as an accountant; his success in recovering debts owed to the company by the military won him a larger role in the firm. He went on to found many companies, among them Abiola Farms, Abiola Bookshops, Concord Press and Concord Airlines. Through his National Concord newspaper he supported Islamic causes in the 1980s, including Nigeria's entry into the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (Wikipedia).

In 2018 he was posthumously awarded Nigeria's highest honour, Grand Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic, and Democracy Day was moved from 29 May to 12 June in his honour (Wikipedia).