By Joke Kujenya
DR. DOYIN Abiola, Nigeria’s first female Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief of a national daily newspaper, National Concord, has died at the age of 82.
Messages shared among former colleagues on The Great Concord Family WhatsApp platform by Dr. Tunji Bello, confirmed she passed away at exactly 9:15pm on Tuesday after a brief illness.
The family is yet to release an official statement.
Abiola began her journalism career in 1969 at the Daily Sketch, where she introduced the column “Tiro” to address public and gender issues.
She left in 1970 to pursue a master’s degree in journalism in the United States.
On returning, she joined the Daily Times as a Features Writer, rose to Group Features Editor, and later earned a PhD in communications and political science from New York University in 1979.
She returned to serve on the paper’s editorial board alongside respected editors such as Stanley Macebuh, Dele Giwa, and Amma Ogan.
In the early 1980s, the newly formed National Concord, owned by her husband, Bashorun Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola, appointed her its pioneer daily editor.
In 1986, she became Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief, making history as the first Nigerian woman to lead a national daily newspaper. Her tenure at National Concord spanned three decades.
She was also chairperson of the Awards Nominating Panel for the inaugural Nigerian Media Merit Award and served on the Advisory Council of the Faculty of Social and Management Sciences at Ogun State University.
Her contributions earned her the Diamond Award for Media Excellence Lifetime Achievement Award and the Eisenhower Fellowship in 1986.
Tributes have poured in from former staff and colleagues.
Former Concord editor, Nsikak Essien, described her as an influential leader, suggesting the platform change its logo to her photograph for a week as a mark of honour.
He said: “Extremely sad. I know we will all die. It’s unfortunate that she has left. May her soul rest in peace. She touched my life.”
He later counsels: “As a mark of honor to our departed MD/EIC, Dr. Doyin Abiola, I advise that we change the logo of the platform to her photo for one week. Bashorun MKO Abiola would have appreciated that.”
Akinpelu Browne wrote, “Rip Mama, she was not loud at all, you cannot hear her, too quiet.”
Aliu Mohammed called her passing “a great loss” and prayed for her family’s comfort.
Chairman wrote: “A giant has fallen in the forest of journalism … May Dr. Doyin Abiola’s lively soul rest in peace … A sad passage.”
