Exit Of Doyin, Doyenne Of Nigerian Media

Dr. Doyinsola Hami­dat Abiola

There have been only a handful of formidable Nigerian females that successfully climbed Nigeria’s corporate media ladder, from editor to Edi­tor-in-Chief, Managing Direc­tor and Chief Executive Offi­cer, among equally competent journalists in Nigeria.

Dr. Doyinsola Abiola rose to become the Managing Direc­tor of the famous but now rested Concord Newspapers.

Dr. Abiola, who died aged 82, started her journey in journalism with a brief so­journ in the Daily Sketch newspaper that was founded by Western Nigerian Premier, Samuel Ladoke Akintola, to counter the propaganda of a rival newspaper that was owned by his predecessor in office, Obafemi Awolowo, to whom he became a political opponent in the dark days of wild Western Nigerian poli­tics of the First Republic.

She joined Daily Sketch al­most straight after she grad­uated in English and Drama from University of Ibadan, in what looked like a time to find her bearing and to decide what she wanted to do with her life. She left for America to obtain a Master’s degree in Journalism, after which she returned to Nigeria to pick up a job as a Staff Writer with Daily Times, the flagship of newspapers in Nigeria at that time.

She travelled to America again for a doctorate degree in Communication and Polit­ical Science, and once again returned as a member of the nearly all-male Editorial Board of Daily Times under debonair Dr. Patrick Dele Cole.

She was in the midst of brilliant writers like Amma Ogan, first female editor of The Guardian on Sunday, Stanley Macebuh, who be­came pioneer Managing Di­rector of The Guardian News­papers group, and Dele Giwa, with whom she left to work with the Concord Newspapers group founded by Bashorun MKO Abiola, who later be­came her husband. While she was pioneer editor of the Daily National Concord, Giwa was the founding editor of Sunday Concord.

One of her junior colleagues at Concord Newspapers, Dele Alake, who was Editor of Sunday Concord when she was Managing Director, and is cur­rently Nigeria’s Minister of Solid Minerals Development, paid glowing tribute to her memory. He extolled her vi­sion, industry and calm poise as an editor and Chief Execu­tive Officer. He remembers her as a colossus in the Nigerian journalism firmament.

Alake recalls her steadfast­ness in the face of assaults and skullduggery on the Con­cord Newspapers group and its staff by successive military governments after Bashorun MKO Abiola was incarcerated instead of being sworn in as President of Nigeria after he won the June 12, 1993 presi­dential election.

The Minister bears witness to her “motherly disposition in the provision of good work­ing conditions and (demon­strated) personal interest in staff welfare and professional development.”

Owing to the dwindling fortunes of the nation’s econ­omy, the conditions of service of journalists, in general, are somewhat below par. She strove to make a positive dif­ference in the remuneration, welfare and training of jour­nalists who worked with her.

Her daughter, and name­sake, Doyinsola Abiola-To­bun, who described her as “a principled woman, with firm integrity,” also gave testimo­ny about her sterling role as a mother. She recounted that the media icon served her as a mother, teacher, mentor and two-in-one parent after her father, Bashorun MKO Abiola, died in the gulag of General Sani Abacha.

Dr. Abiola’s brave disposi­tion in the face of the threats and attacks on the Concord Newspapers group by the mili­tary government is probably derived from being a descen­dant of the legendary Aboaba, her grandfather who was Ba­logun of the Egba that settled in Abeokuta after leaving their homestead in the Oyo Empire due to the devastating Kurunmi Wars of the early 19th Century.

Although Dr. Abiola was not known to be a feminist or women liberation activist, the Nigeria Press Organization, the umbrella body of Nigerian Union of Journalists, Nigeria Guild of Editors and Newspa­per Proprietors’ Association of Nigeria, could establish a worthy award for female jour­nalists in her honour.

This should immortalise and etch her name in the Nigerian media industry and encourage women in Nigeria to show more interest in join­ing the turbulent, but excit­ing journalism profession, to which she dedicated her en­tire professional career.

Adieu Dr. Doyinsola Hami­dat Abiola!