Abdulmumuni Abiola, one of the sons of Nigeria’s hero of democracy, business mogul and philanthropist, Chief M.K.O. Abiola has accused their eldest brother, Kola Abiola of always throwing spanner into the peace of the family. Abdulmumuni made this known as a swift reaction to a recent interview that Mr. Kola Abiola granted Chief Dele Momodu of Ovation Magazine.
Mr. Kola had claimed that their father, the late multimillionaire, was unable to pay his school fees noting that his mom, late Alhaja Simbiat foot his education.
Abdulmumuni said: ‘Again, Kola claimed that his school fees was paid by his mother, what a ridiculous claim! Is Kola Abiola paid to rubbish the memory of his father?’
Late Chief MKO Abiola
‘While it’s customary for a child to ascribe everything his/her daddy does to her mother because of obvious reason that, it’s mummy that usually makes the purchase after collecting the money from daddy, how do we then explain an adult attributing what his father did to his mother? Nobody has ever accused Chief Abiola of dereliction of duty either privately or officially! He paid school fees for millions of poor students all over the world and did lots of philanthropic works, why should his own biological son accused him of not paying his school fees will be left for historians to unravel.’
On the business side of things in the family, Kola Abiola had stated in the interview, ‘Everything I have inherited has come from my mother 100 percent. And I’m still getting it from her till tomorrow. Because my mum was always the entrepreneur in the house. Even I dare say that all the funding of ITT in those days was Simbiat Abiola. We know we had assets that weren’t utilised, and they were acquired by her. But I have a typical way of doing things. You put your husband as Chairman. Despite the fact that the man was polygamous, everything was the same. She didn’t change anything, and she didn’t even leave a will. So automatically, everything goes back to him’.
Abdulmumuni Abiola
To this also, Abdulmumuni roared like the cub in defence of their late dad. ‘Well, since MKO Abiola’s rag to wealth stories is already in public space, I would have ignored the infantile concoction of Kola Abiola, but, for the sake of future generations of Abiolas in particular and the Nigeria’s historical records in general, I will like to debunk Kola’s claims on how his mother was “always the entrepreneur” at home that birthed Abiola’s businesses.’
‘As said, Chief Abiola story is already in public galleries. As a young Chattered Accountant, a first class honours degree graduate in Glasgow, he was recruited directly from Glasgow by Guinness as Commercial Director, a position he eventually rejected over what he called ” lopsided and discriminatory policy “. My dad later moved to become a Senior Accountant in Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) in April 1966. He later joined Pfizer and left in February 1969 as Divisional Controller. How MKO Abiola joined ITT on April 1st, 1969, his confrontation with Murtala Muhammed over unpaid debts that the Army was owing the organisation and how Abiola’s boldness ensured the collection of the huge debts and how he bravely demanded for shares in the company are already in public records ….Eventually ITT acceded to Abiola’s demand of being given a 49% shareholding shares in Nigeria although, Abiola requested for 50% shares. But for control, the parents company must have the largest shares.
Mr. Kola Abiola
Abiola ended up controlling a bulk of the business in Nigeria. Barely nine months after he joined ITT as Controller, he rose to become Managing Director. That year of1969 his salary jumped from £9,400 per annum to £114,380 per annum, a phenomenal rise of over 1,000 per cent! By December 1970, he became Chairman and Chief Executive of ITT (Nigeria) Limited.’
‘Meanwhile, Alhaja Simbiat Abiola, Kola Abiola’s mum studied Textile in School while abroad with my dad. She later joined YABATECH as Textile and Fashion Lecturer, so, I shall leave the public to fix the remaining story!’
One more. the young Abiola accused the elderly Abiola of killing their commonwealth which is the Concord Press, ‘I can tell you that Kola has always been reactionary and often acted in ways that undermined MKO’s cause. I tell you of a real life story pertaining to ‘The Concord’ owned by his father.’
‘I am aware that at some point in 1999 after the restoration of democracy on May 29, and Asiwaju Bola Tinubu had assumed office as Lagos State governor, the Concord management, led by Dr. (Mrs) Doyin Abiola, needed N25 million to fully recapitalise the operations of Concord Press after five years of subversion by the Abacha junta. As governor, I am aware that Tinubu was willing to help Concord back to its feet. He offered to buy a giant generator earlier bought by MKO for Concord Workers Housing Estate and lying idle for N35 million for the Water Corporation of Lagos State. Tinubu was willing to buy this and pass the generator to the Lagos State Water Corporation then. The deal was almost concluded, only for the same Kola to come and place a caveat emptor in the newspapers suddenly against the sale of the generator by Concord management to the Lagos State Government, thereby leaving Concord to continue to suffer in serious financial difficulties. No surprise, it did not take long before Concord finally went under. These are historical facts.’
Abdulmumuni Abiola stood up for the rest of his family, ‘The simple truth is, Kola Abiola is trying hard to justify his cruelty to his siblings. He will continue to fumble until he does the right things. Conscience is an open wound that only truth can heal’.