ABIOLA, Moshood
One of the wealthiest magnates in African history Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola was born in Abeokuta on 24 August 1937. A scholarship took him to Scotland where he studied accounting at the University of Glasgow and returned to serve as an accountant for ITT Nigeria in 1968. By 1971 he had become its chief executive and chairman and occupied these posts until 1988. During these years he amassed an immense private fortune and was able to purchase, among other things (including 21 wives), an airline, a publishing house and a newspaper syndicate. As he also made enormous contributions for the building of schools and other philanthropic causes, he became very popular and was elected president of Nigeria in 1993 by a huge majority when democratic elections were held in his country for the first time in many years. But the military junta annulled the elections and imprisoned Abiola in 1994. He remained in jail, despite the protests of the international community until his death in very strange circumstances on 7, July 1998.