By Elvis Eromosele
August 5, 2025, was the day Nigeria lost a giant in the media, Dr. Doyinsola Hamidat Abiola, at the ripe age of 82. A journalist, an editor, and a champion of democracy, she shattered glass ceilings and etched her name in the history of Nigerian journalism with a legacy that will echo through generations.
When Dr. Doyin Abiola walked into the Daily Sketch newsroom in 1969, fresh from the University of Ibadan with a degree in English and Drama, not many could have foreseen the earthquake impact she would have on Nigerian journalism. Born into the distinguished Aboaba family in 1943, she had an air of unassuming determination about her, which would remain a constant in her life and career. She died on August 5, 2025, at 9:15 p.m., after a brief illness, leaving behind a daughter, Doyinsola, and a nation forever changed by her faith and courage.
Dr. Abiola began with her column “Tiro” (eyebrow pencil) in Daily Sketch, a platform which she turned into a biting commentary on social justice and gender issues. In an age when the voices of women were all too often relegated to the sidelines, her writing was unflinching, tackling the issues of professional single women and social wrongs with a sharp pen and quicker wit. “I wasn’t a crusader,” she once reflected in a 2013 interview, “but I saw the chasms between what was said and what was done, and I wrote to fill them in.” That refusal to let things go and tell the truth to the powers that be became her hallmark.
Her enthusiasm took her to America in 1970, where she earned a master’s degree in journalism and, later, a PhD in Communications and Political Science from New York University in 1979. At home in Nigeria, she worked at the Daily Times, rising through the ranks from Features Writer to Group Features Editor and eventually to the Editorial Board, where she more than held her own against such giants as Stanley Macebuh and Dele Giwa. She famously clashed with the paper’s autocratic chairman, Alhaji Babatunde Jose, and won the nickname “Joan of Arc” for defying unfairness in the workplace. When government intervention began to throttle the independence of the paper after the 1975 coup, Dr. Abiola resigned in principle, which underlined her lifelong commitment to journalistic excellence.
She joined National Concord, which had been founded by her to-be-husband, Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (MKO) Abiola, in 1980. She had, by 1986, become its Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief, the first Nigerian woman to hold either position at a national daily. Concord grew into a media group during her stewardship, with 14 titles, such as Weekend Concord and local editions in Yoruba (Isokan), Hausa (Amana), and Igbo (Udoka), intended to foster inclusiveness as well as local jobs. Her leadership was not without challenges: she navigated the expectations of a non-journalist publisher, resisted political pressures during MKO’s 1993 presidential campaign, and faced relentless military crackdowns, including newsprint seizures and staff detentions under regimes like General Muhammadu Buhari’s. Yet, she remained unbowed. “Journalism must be economically independent so that it doesn’t sell out,” she firmly believed, emulating The Washington Post’s Katharine Graham, whom she had the chance to meet in 1986 as an Eisenhower Fellow.
Dr. Abiola’s own life was inherently linked with Nigeria’s democracy struggle. Married to MKO Abiola, laurelled victor of the June 12, 1993, presidential election, which was subsequently annulled, she was at the eye of one of the nation’s most pivotal moments. When the military junta cancelled the vote and subsequently imprisoned her husband, she did not give up. She leveraged Concord’s resources to cry out for justice, even when the government shut down the paper and bullied its employees. “She was a soldier of democracy in her own right,” President Bola Tinubu said in admiration, recalling her obstinacy in those dark moments. Her courage was most prominent during the period of personal loss: the 1998 death, while under arrest, of MKO, leaving her to be the custodian of his legacy, one that she bore with ease.
She was rewarded for her work with honour awards like the Diamond Awards for Media Excellence (DAME) Lifetime Achievement Award and an Eisenhower Fellowship. She served on the nominating panel of the Nigerian Media Merit Awards and was a consultant to Ogun State University’s Faculty of Social and Management Sciences. Her authority extended beyond any position. She led generations of journalists, particularly women, to show that merit could overcome tokenism. “She wrote her name in gold,” Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu said, “as a role model who mentored thousands of media practitioners.”
Dr. Abiola’s vision for journalism was revolutionary. She believed that the media should not only report but unite people, hence forging national cohesion in a plural society. This was reflected in her multilingual Concord editions, as well as in her feminism and social justice campaigns. She lamented in her 2013 interview the modern media’s shift to sensationalism, urging it to recall its role as a force of truth and advancement. The media must speak truth to power,” she said, “but it must survive in order to do so.”
Her passing has received condolences throughout Nigeria and the world. President Tinubu described her as “an Amazon and an icon,” and Solid Minerals Development Minister Dele Alake as “gentle and genial, soft yet solid,” a woman who “inhaled and exhaled journalism.” The Nigerian Guild of Editors praised her as a trailblazer whose “leadership, commitment to excellence, and dedication to press freedom” left an enduring mark. Ogun State Governor Dapo Abiodun said she was a “remarkable woman” whose support of her husband and work on the art of journalism would “always be remembered.”
Dr. Abiola’s death signals, as Alake penned, “the gradual passing of the beautiful ones who brought sparkle to the lives of many readers.” Yet she is left behind—in the journalists whom she motivated, the challenges that she overcame, and the democratic tenets that she promoted. Nigeria’s media landscape, often battered by political and economic storms, is the better for having been here. As she would remind us, “Journalism is not just a profession; it’s a calling to serve.” Dr. Doyin Abiola answered that call with unmatched dedication, making a nation better for it.
May she rest in peace, and may Nigeria be blessed with women of her quality and courage.
