ONE of my concerns during the controversy over the June 12-related national awards by President Tinubu was why a person like Dr. Doyin Abiola was overlooked. On the grounds of being a woman who stood for the validation of the June 12 1993 elections won by her husband and her relentless defence of press freedom during the period and at other times, I opined that she should have been somewhere atop the list.
Dr. Abiola (nee Aboaba) was actually atop the tower of journalism – good journalism that is – in Nigeria. Although she had been a journalist at the respective defunct Daily Sketch and Daily Times, rising to the position of Editorial Board member in the latter, it was her appointment as the first woman Editor of a national newspaper in Nigeria – the National Concord – that threw her into greater limelight. By the time I joined the newspaper group in 1991 she had become the Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief presiding over thriving titles including the National Concord edited by Nsikak Essien, Weekend Concord, edited by Mike Awoyinfa and Sunday Concord, edited by Dele Alake. Her deputy was Stanley Egbochukwu. In managing all the men and the larger community of journalists and other media workers they led, Dr. Abiola certainly broke the gender barrier…..and excellently so.
More remarkable was how she didn’t allow spousal affairs to becloud editorial judgment when her husband, Bashorun MKO Abiola, decided to give the presidency a shot on the platform of the Social Democratic Party, ultimately defeating Bashir Tofa of the National Republican Convention. She supported the Editors in ensuring that Concord titles were largely fair and balanced in their political reporting. The death of MKO in detention and the shooting down of Concord were two fatalities she suffered in the hands of the Babangida, Abacha and Abdusalami military juntas.
Yet, she remained an iron woman on whose lips those pleasant smiles were ever present. Excitement was always written over her at media functions, even as she was never the one to desperately grab the limelight. She was both lively and reserved.
Nigerian journalism has lost one of its finest forebears. Rest in peace Dr. Doyin Abiola. You deserve your peace.