Moshood Abiola, a prominent Nigerian politician, died of a heart attack, according to a government statement. (Reuters)

By James Rupert
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, July 8, 1998; Page A1

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast, July 7 – Nigeria's imprisoned political leader, Moshood Abiola, died today of an apparent heart attack as he talked with Nigerian officials and senior U.S. diplomats about how to resolve the country's five-year-old political crisis, the Nigerian government said.

Abiola, 60, who appeared to have won Nigeria's annulled 1993 presidential election and had been jailed since the following year, was the focus of rising hopes for ending 15 years of military rule in Africa's most populous nation.

Following the death last month of military ruler Sani Abacha, the new military government had raised expectations of Abiola's imminent release as a step toward restoring civilian rule and ending Nigeria's international isolation. His demise shattered Nigeria's mood of political hope and plunged the nation into deep uncertainty.

Within hours, as the news of his death spread, rioting was reported in Lagos, the country's largest city and the center of opposition to military rule.

U.S. officials said Abiola collapsed not long after he began a discussion with U.S. Undersecretary of State Thomas R. Pickering and other diplomats at a government guest house in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, where Abiola had been held in custody in recent weeks.

Pickering said in an interview with CNN that Abiola halted the meeting after a few minutes, "asking to restore his thoughts. He took tea and had trouble breathing." A physician was called, Pickering said, and Abiola was taken by car to the clinic that serves the country's military leadership. Doctors worked for an hour and a half in an unsuccessful effort to save his life, Pickering said.

Abiola: A Political Life 1937: Born into a family of modest income in the state of Ogun. 1960: Wins a scholarship to study accounting at Glasgow University. 1970s: Rides Nigeria's oil boom to wealth. Was involved in a series of massive tele-communications projects with American multinational ITT. 1979: Military government hands power to civilians, and Abiola joins the National Party of Nigeria. The party wins elections, and Shehu Shagari, who is from Nigeria's north, becomes president. 1983: In December, Maj. Gen. Mohammed Buhari seizes power in a military coup. 1985: Buhari is deposed. Maj. Gen. Ibrahim Babangida takes over. Babangida later appoints Maj. Gen. Sani Abacha defense minister. 1980s, early '90s: Abiola concentrates on business interests that include an airline and a shipping company, as well as a group of newspapers. 1993: Long-delayed presidential election held on June 12. Abiola, running on the Social Democratic Party ticket, appears to win, but Babangida stops the count and annuls the election. A military-backed interim government is installed. In November, Abacha assumes absolute power. 1994: On the first anniversary of the annulled elections, Abiola declares himself president and is arrested. He is later charged with treason. September: Abiola reported to suffer from high cholesterol and a spinal injury. 1996: Abiola's senior wife, Kudirat, is assassinated by gunmen after she campaigned for his release. 1998: In June, Abacha -- the man who jailed Abiola -- dies of a reported heart attack. His successor, Gen. Abdulsalam Abubalcar, begins to release political prisoners. Early July: U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan says Abiola will be released within days after renouncing his claim to the presidency. July 7: Abiola dies after a reported heart attack. SOURCES: BBC, Africa News Service

In Washington, President Clinton expressed regret at Abiola's "sudden and untimely" death. Pickering, a former ambassador to Nigeria, said in an interview with National Public Radio: "It's a great tragedy, and we ... are deeply concerned by the situation, not only with the disappearance of a political leader of some great note here in the country, but also for the potential for disturbances that might bring."

Pickering quoted physicians at the clinic as saying that Abiola had evidently died of "cardiac arrest or a pulmonary embolism," but said that he had urged the government to order an independent autopsy.

The death of Abiola – seen by many Nigerians, especially those of his Yoruba ethnic group, as a political savior – appeared certain to damage prospects for political reconciliation and cooperation between the new military government of Gen. Abdulsalam Abubakar – who succeeded Abacha – and the Yoruba-dominated political opposition.

Abiola's imminent release had been announced Thursday by visiting U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and confirmed to Nigerian journalists by senior government sources. The military, they said, had agreed to release Abiola on condition that he renounce his claim to the presidency, which Annan suggested he had done.

That suggestion sparked anger among many Yorubas committed to seeing his 1993 election finally implemented. The fact that Abiola died without stating his position publicly "greatly complicates the situation," Emma Ezeazu, head of a Nigerian group called Democratic Alternative, said by telephone from Abuja.

Some of Abiola's supporters immediately voiced suspicions that he may have continued to resist the military's conditions and had been poisoned. "We are all stunned," said Ezeazu, referring to the broad and often fractious political opposition movement. "Of course, under these circumstances, people ... suspect that he might have been killed."

In an effort to forestall such suspicions, the government immediately offered to conduct an autopsy, as Pickering had urged. Abiola's family asked that it be conducted "by an independent entity along with the family physician," said Randall E. Echols, Abiola's Washington-based lobbyist. Reports from Abuja indicated that the government had agreed.

Even if it can be demonstrated that Abiola died of natural causes, many people will "hold the military government responsible," Echols said. Abiola "was incarcerated for four years and saw his doctor only twice," even though he suffered from high blood pressure and a herniated spinal disc, he said.

"It was absolutely negligent" that the military leadership engaged Abiola in negotiations, plus meetings with Annan, Pickering and others, without giving him access to his personal physician, he said.

Nigeria's political crisis and Abiola's political importance are rooted in the country's deep ethnic and regional fissures. For 28 of the 38 years since the country gained independence from Britain, Nigeria has been governed by the military, which is dominated by northern, Hausa-speaking ethnic groups.

The southern Yorubas – the country's second-largest ethnic group after the Hausas – have seldom held top positions in Nigeria's civilian or military governments. Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo, who became military ruler in 1976 after his predecessor was assassinated and returned the country to civilian rule in 1979, has been the country's only Yoruba ruler.

Embittered Yorubas have declared that Nigeria risks violence and perhaps civil war if their demands for greater political representation are not met. "This will lead to attacks" by Yorubas on Nigerians of northern ethnic groups who are seen as supporters of the military leadership, "and, I think, the breakup of Nigeria," said Lanre Banjo, a Washington spokesman for the National Conscience Party, a prominent, Yoruba-led opposition group based in Lagos.

News of Abiola's death immediately triggered rioting by Yorubas in Nigeria's southwestern region, which includes Lagos, the country's teeming commercial capital. Crowds of young men quickly massed in the streets of the city, burning tires and throwing stones at policemen, who responded with tear gas, according to news service reports.

Abiola, a wealthy publisher and entrepreneur, emerged as the Yoruba standard bearer in 1993, when the military government of Gen. Ibrahim Babangida prepared to hand power back to civilian rule through elections. He financed a vigorous campaign, and being a Muslim he appealed to many in the mainly Islamic north, as well as the Yoruba south.

As votes were counted, Abiola appeared to have easily defeated his northern opponent, but Babangida's government ordered the election annulled. Yorubas erupted in protest, saying the incident "showed that the northern elite would not let a Yoruba govern," said Tunji Braithwaite, a prominent Lagos attorney and politician.

After Babangida stepped down in favor of a military-backed interim government, Abacha seized power in November 1993. The following year, when Abiola claimed to be the rightful president, Abacha's regime arrested him on charges of treason, holding him in solitary confinement but never bringing him to trial.

Abacha's subsequent rule was marked by periods of turmoil, including strikes, riots and bombings. This year, with Abacha maneuvering to have himself elected president of a civilian government to which he would transfer power, political tensions rose again, and on May 1, Yorubas rioted in the city of Ibadan.

On June 8, however, Abacha died. The government made no formal announcement of a cause of death, but government sources told journalists it had been a heart attack.

The new leader, Abubakar, quickly freed a number of political prisoners and began a dialogue with civilian political groups on the best way to return Nigeria to civilian rule. Abiola's daughter, Hafsat, said the government had asked Abiola to renounce his claim to the presidency and either to cooperate with a military-guided transition or to return to private life.