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15 Years After: Remembering MKO Abiola By Abdulrazaq Kilani abdulrazaq.kilani@uniport.edu.ng Fifteen years after the death of the winner of June 12, 1993 presidential election, Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola, the cause of his death is yet to be known by people of Nigeria. Many Nigerians still remember the hope and confidence the 1993 election promised them. The hope was dashed by the Nigeria overlords with no explanation, no apology and no reprimand for those who committed the crime against the people of Nigeria. July 7, 1998, M.K.O Abiola died in the hands of those who arrested him for daring to actualize his mandate. There is no doubt that ‘every soul shall taste death’ (Q 3:185). A great number of youths of Nigeria do not know who was Abiola, what he represented, his contributions to Nigeria development. The reaction of many youths to the naming of UNILAG after MKO indicates the lack of adequate knowledge of the man to education and Nigeria in general. As a modest contribution to honouring him, we document his life and his philanthropic activities to his faith and education in this tribute. The possession of wealth and readiness to part with the wealth are major determinants in philanthropism. Wealth is a bounty from Allah and it is not to be seen as evil (Q4:32). In Islam, there is no virtue necessarily in being poor and there is no sin in being wealthy and being wealthy can be a much virtuous position. Islam emphasizes that wealth must be used for the benefit and satisfaction of human wants. However, wealth must not be idolized or serve as obstacle between man and his creator (Q28:77). It is good for Muslims to make lawful money so that they can support themselves, their families and give excess in charity for the sake of Allah. It is in this respect that the life and philanthropic activities of Moshood Abiola (1937-1998) is important in the history of Islam in Nigeria.
HIS BIOGRAHY Moshood (Mas’ud) Kasimawo Olawale Abiola was born on the 24th of August,1937 at Soleye compound, Oja- Agbo, Gbagura in Abeokuta to Salau Abiola (d1979). His mother was Zulikha Wuraola Abiola(d1956). His father was a farmer and later a produce buyer who had twenty two children before Moshood was born and all the children died before reaching six months. It was the mystery surrounding the death of the earlier children that made Salau to name Moshood with the Yoruba name of Kasimawo ( let us wait and watch over this also). The jinx was broken with the birth of Moshood for not a single child of Salau died after his birth as he later had eight brothers and two sisters. He started his Islamic education at the age of three when he began his Quranic studies under Alfa Nda Takpa who taught him the recitation of the Qur’an and did his Quranic graduation on the 2nd of November, 1946. For his formal education, he started at Nawair ud deen School, Isale Ijeun, Abeokuta in 1944, African Central School, Ita Iyalode between 1945-1949 and later moved to Owu Baptist Day School which was thought at that time to be the easier way to gain admission to the Baptist Boys High school, Abeokuta. He came from a poor family and used to fetch firewood around Olumo rock for sale in order to finance his education. Abiola started from humble beginning by setting up local musical group called Agidigbo music from money given to him by his grandmother when he was seventeen years old. He passed the entrance examination to Government College, Ibadan with Scholarship from the Western Region Government and also passed entrance examination to Baptist Boys High School, Abeokuta. His father did not allow him to go to Ibadan due to the distance in view of the scholarship. He entered Baptist Boys High School, Oke Saje, Abeokuta in 1951 and left in 1956 with outstanding result of Grade one. After graduation, he joined Barclays bank Ibadan (now Union Bank) as a clerk on a salary of one hundred and five pounds per annum. He proceeded to Glasgow University to study accountancy in 1961 with Scholarship from federal Government of Nigeria. At Glasgow, he distinguished himself as a brilliant student by attaining the first prizes in Business Law, Political Economy and General Management Accounting. He began his professional training in the firm of Stewart and McNair in the first two years of his apprenticeship before transferring to the larger firm of Turner, Hutton and Lanson for the final stage of his training. He acquired a wide variety of professional practice and very detailed exposure to accounting and financial problems especially in ship building, heavy engineering industry and local government audits. The training in these companies turned out to be invaluable to his future career. In 1965, Abiola qualified as an accountant, he passed the Chartered Institute of secretariat Examination with King George V medal in 1964, the Institute of Marketing Examination also in late 1964 with Distinction. On his return to Nigeria after training in Glasgow, he joined the Lagos University Teaching Hospital where he served as deputy Chief accountant between 1965-67. He left the service of the Teaching Hospital according to him when he discovered the limited challenges in the job and joined Pfizer in 1967 as divisional Controller of the Agriculture division. While in Pfizer, he pioneered the establishment of the Animal Feed factory of the Organization in Ghana. He left Pfizer in 1969 and moved to International Telephones and Telegraphs (ITT) a corporation that was owed a considerable debt by the Nigerian army. He rose to the position of Managing Director in 1971. After securing the recovery of the debt, Abiola was named the company's chairman in Nigeria and its vice president for Africa and the Middle East. He was also a Director of Habib Bank(Nigeria), a Director of Decca, a phonogram company and established the famous Concord Press in March 1980. He was a baker; he was the Chairman and Chief executive of Wonder Bakery Limited. In order to address the problem of buying cars by commuter operators, he established a car purchasing venture in 1982 which was meant to assist the less endowed Nigerians to improve on their standard of living. He also incorporated a N4.8 million Abiola Farms Limited in order to cushion the effect of high cost of staple food in the country. He also established Radio Communications of Nigeria (RCN) and Abiola bookshop. He was a man of many parts whose business interests spread around sixty countries. He was also the owner of Summit Oil Company and participated in the exploration of the black gold in Nigeria. He was indeed a successful businessman ABIOLA, ISLAM AND PHILANTHROPY Moshood Abiola was a typical symbol of love for the freedom of ordinary wo/man. He was a philanthropist. A philanthropist is regarded as a prosperous person who gives up a large share of his life and property or wealth to the work of improving the lot of the people as a religious service. Philanthropism is akin to charity and may be regarded as an advanced form of charity in that charity concerns itself in the main with the present needs of individuals. Philanthropism looks further not only to the present but also to the future, and seeks to elevate human life on a large scale. It is the disposition or active effort to promote the happiness and well being of fellow human being. Philanthropism comprises of four divisions namely: for the relief of poverty, for the advancement of education, for the advancement of religion and for other purposes beneficial to the community. Abiola played significant roles in all. There is no doubt that philanthropism is a social responsibility, religious obligation, an avenue to gain political prominence or may even be done for publicity or image laundering. The Qur’an in numerous places makes references to benevolent spending (infaq- Q 2:267), doing good (ihsan-Q16:90, 55:60) and charitable spending (sadaqah- Q 2:60, 2:271). Philanthropic activities joins one heart with Allah (Q2:3) on one hand and joins one’s heart with the society on the other. This explains the prophetic statement that, ‘the best of mankind are those that of benefit to mankind.’ A philanthropic person through his effort has overcome stinginess ( Q92: 5-10) and thereby learns that one owns nothing and whatever in his/ her possession belongs to Allah as Lord of the universe (Q1:1). The act of charity done in the cause of Allah does not decrease one’s wealth but the wealth is increased (Q2:261) and the giver is reminded that Allah is not poor to need our wealth but as an investment in a spiritual enterprise that does not suffer depreciation which is rewarded with paradise (Q18:107-8). Muslims are enjoined to aid the cause of Allah through all righteous means and in return attains the help of Allah (Q47:7). Islam encourages the Muslim to do more philanthropic acts toward other people as the Prophet was reported to have said; “righteous work that outlives us are; knowledge that s/he taught and spread among others, a righteous child one leaves behind, a copy of the Qur’an bequeaths to heirs, a mosque that one builds, a rest house for wayfarer, a Well dug for others and a charity given out of property during one’s life time” (Ibn Majah). ABIOLA AND PARTISAN POLITICS Abiola political apprenticeship began as a student in Glasgow (1961-1964) where he was a member of the Labour party and later member of the National Council of Nigeria Citizens during Nigeria first Republic. In 1977, he contested election into the Constituent Assembly and later joined National Party of Nigeria in 1978. He devoted enormous personal resources to the party but left the party on the 15th of July, 1982 due to party intrigues which were meant to frustrate him from getting the party presidential nomination. Abiola worked tirelessly and aggressively hard to propagate the party prospects but yielded no political dividends in electoral in roads in the Abiola Yoruba country of Nigeria. The last decade of the 20th century witnessed the perceived wave of democratization in Africa. A significant number of countries in Africa have either gone through or made attempts to embrace the transition from military to civilian rule. Nigeria was one of such African countries that attempted a transition from military dictatorship to civilian rule. The temptation for partisan politics was daunting for Abiola and subsequently became a member of one of the political parties and emerged as the presidential candidate of his party (Social Democratic Party). On June 12, 1993, Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola won a long-awaited presidential election which has been described as the fairest and freest election in Nigeria, a country that has witnessed a lot of uproars over election rigging in its democratic history. The country's military leader, General Ibrahim Babangida, annulled the election results. The annulment led to protest across the country and a year after Abiola declared himself the country's legitimate leader and was jailed for treason. As a political prisoner, Abiola became the rallying symbol for Nigerians' democratic aspirations. Hopes for his release from prison soared after Sani Abacha died suddenly in June 1998 and his successor, General Abdulsalam Abubakar, announced the release of many other political prisoners. However, Abiola, fell ill on July 7, 1998, while meeting with United States diplomats to discuss the terms of his release. He died several hours later. Abiola's death in detention sparked anger and violence in parts of Nigeria. ABIOLA’S CONTRIBUTIONS TO EDUCATION Abiola provided the necessary infrastructure for Osiele Comprehensive High School, Osiele, Abeokuta. The school was established as a community school in 1979 with little or no infrastructure on ground. He provided the school with the necessary infrastructure and facilities and in appreciation of his gesture the community named the school after him. However, the name of the school was changed to that of his father in March 1983. Among the facilities provided by Abiola include school uniform to all students, textbooks, buses for the transportation of the staff and students and free mid day meal. The school graduated its first set of thirty eight students on June 1984 and recorded a hundred percent in the School certificate, General Certificate of Education. The school also received the state Government Award in 1985 as the best school in the state during the session. Apart from Abiola’s interest in western education, he also showed a great deal of enthusiasm in assisting Islamic education by establishing the Zulikha Abiola Memorial Quranic Centres and Zulikha Abiola college of Arabic and Islamic Studies, the schools he named after his mother. Abiola took over the expenses of these local Quranic schools including the payment of salary to the teachers. He also provided graduation attires to all graduands free of charge. There were about two hundred and sixty four centres located in Abeokuta, Owode, Ifo-Ota, Obafemi and Odeda local Government Areas of Ogun state of Nigeria. The desire of Abiola to provide a follow up training for the graduates of these centres that led to the establishment of Zulikha Abiola School and College of Arabic and Islamic studies. The school was formally established in October 1985 with about one hundred and twenty students. The school curriculum was designed after the 6-3-3-4 National policy on education. The proprietor provides all the facilities including the payment of teachers’ salaries and Abiola did not allow the students to pay any fee throughout the period of their studies. The demand to provide a middle level manpower for Muslims in Nigeria in area of Arabic and Islamic education led to the establishment of Zulikha Abiola College of Arabic and Islamic Studies also in 1985 to run a three year Diploma programme in Arabic and Islamic Studies. The college was able to secure an affiliation with Usman Dan Fodiyo University for its programme which provided graduates of the college to secure direct admission to the University to pursue a wide range of courses ranging from Arabic, Islamic studies, Shari’ah and Common Law. The students in the college just like their counterpart in the sister school also enjoyed free tuition as Abiola provided them the facilities including the payment of salaries of workers. The philanthropic activities of Abiola extended to government owned higher institutions in Nigeria. He built an ultra modern library for Ogun state polytechnic and also stocked the Library with books in 1985 which was named after his father. He stated that when his father died in 1979, he had enough money to organize funeral party as practiced in Nigeria but decided to use such money to build the Library to benefit mankind. His financial contributions to the polytechnic must have informed the authority of Ogun State to rename the polytechnic after him. In 1991, he gave one million Naira to each of the State and Federal Government owned universities to build hostels for the students. Abiola also established a twelve thousand dollars award for academic excellence to Al-Azhar University in Cairo in 1985 for the best Nigeria student graduating in Islamic studies and the best non-Nigeria graduating in the same course. Available records indicated that Abiola contributed to Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, University of Port Harcourt, Federal University of Technology, Owerri, University of Ilorin, Department of sociology, University of Ibadan, Ahmadu Bello University Demonstration School, University of Maiduguri Islamiyya School, University of Nigeria, Alumni Association and Sekinat Adekola Nursery/ Primary School appeal funds or endowment at one time or the other between 1982 and 1986 ABIOLA AND THE QUEST FOR SHARI’AH IN NIGERIA The issue of Shari’ah is not a new development among Muslim scholars especially those of Islamic jurisprudence. Abiola became the first non Islamic scholar in Nigeria to publicly demand for the adoption of Shari’ah in Nigeria. His campaign for the adoption of Shari’ah in Nigeria came into the fore when he joined Muslims from other regions of Nigeria to stage a walkout at the proceedings of the Constituent Assembly in 1977 over the rejection of Shar’iah provisions in the constitution being drafted by the Christian members of the Assembly. Abiola devoted his attention in many public fora to educate the non Muslims on Shari’ah. In operationalizing the scheme to educate the adversaries of Shari’ah, an Association for the establishment of Shari’ah in Southern Nigeria was established in December 1985 under the leadership of Abiola. In furtherance of the objective for the establishment of Shari’ah, his Concord Newspaper donated a free space in the National Concord on every Wednesday to educate Nigerians on the issues of Shari’ah. The column started on the 4th of December, 1985. Abiola recognized the danger pose by the evil of alcoholism and asserted that the malady of alcohol is so great that ‘it is easier in several parts of Nigeria to get a bottle of beer than a glass of clean water’. As a demonstration of his determination to arrest the tide of alcoholism and other social vices, his Concord group of Newspapers banned alcohol advertisement on the 2nd of December, 1984 and pool betting, gambling and lottery advertisements on the 24th January, 1986. He was concerned that the Qur’an is not in the reach of many of those itching to be educated about Islam and hence sponsored the printing of ten thousand copies of the famous translated Arabic –English Qur’an of late Abdullah Yusuf Ali for distribution across the country. The Concord newspapers commenced weekly Friday sermon on the 18th March, 1983. The newspaper also commenced the daily publication of the hijrah calendar side by side with the Gregorian calendar on the 22nd January, 1984 which was equivalent to 19th Rabiul Thanni, 1404. The Newspaper through the assistance of Jamaatu Nasril Islam and the Meteorological services published accurate timings for sahur (early morning meal) and Iftar (meal for breaking fast) for Muslims in every parts of Nigeria during the months of Ramadan. Abiola's philanthropy was famous throughout Nigeria. He supported education, sports, and numerous social and political causes. He was the pillar of Sports in Africa and also established the famous Abiola Babes in Abeokuta. He was a bridge builder as he donated money to Churches and many other socio-cultural groups in Nigeria. There is no gain saying the fact that there were numerous contemporaries of Abiola who had enormous wealth like him but never considered it appropriate to donate any part of their wealth to the society with the same zeal Abiola carried it out during his life. Abiola was nicknamed “father Christmas” and “Chief launcher” due to his readiness to give out in charity or participate in any public launching to contribute his widow mite. He called for reparations from the West to compensate African peoples for the transatlantic slave trade. At his death, Abiola's business interests spanned 60 countries and included firms engaged in banking, shipping, oil prospecting, agriculture, publishing, air transportation, and entertainment. His Nigerian companies alone employed close to 20,000 workers. He was able through his industrial establishments created a harmony between the material and moral well being of a number of Nigerians. This gesture placed a great number of people on sound moral and economic foundation thus providing a spiritual orientation to material effort. It is therefore difficult to deny his achievements in changing the standard of living and economic growth of a number of people. His involvement in the establishment of schools, provision of facilities for government owned educational institutions and scholarship for indigent students was meant to provide many children with the tool that would transform their lives into something better than that of their parents. The lesson of the philanthropic life of Abiola stems from the fact that Muslims are encouraged to compete in doing righteous deeds for the sole purpose of attaining the pleasure of Allah ( Q2: 148, 3: 134). Today, we cry for dividends of democracy while Abiola political slogan was farewell to poverty, he promised us hope in 1993 but the hope was dashed and Nigerians still yearn for a leader to lift them up from sub-human status they currently enjoy. He was not a perfect person and he never claimed to be one. May the Lord of the Universe forgive him of his shortcomings. Abdulrazaq Kilani Professor of Islamic Studies, Department of Religious & Cultural Studies, University of Port Harcourt. |