IT is difficult to isolate one aspect in the life of a man of so many parts. Especially when for his kids, knowledge of his philanthropy — the work for which he was known in his lifetime and remembered beyond it — was acquired almost by osmosis.
Of course, we knew our father was a generous man. From primary school, we were encouraged to bring our friends and teachers, who needed assistance, to get help from him, knowing that he would give it.
But rather like the hadith that instructs believers to give such that their left hand does not know what their right hand is doing, conversations at home never indicated the scale of his philanthropy other than his oft-repeated dream of everyone all over Nigeria knowing someone whose life he has touched.
Some of his attempts are documented. He awarded over 1,000 scholarships to deserving students in tertiary institutions at home and abroad. He assisted widows and small-scale businessmen/women.
He donated eight trophies for the National Inter-University Competition in March 1990. He donated books on African Affairs to some English, French and Portuguese-speaking Universities in Africa.
He is credited with the construction of 63 secondary schools, 121 mosques and churches, 41 libraries, 21 water projects in 24 states of Nigeria, and was grand patron to 149 societies or associations in Nigeria.
He established Abiola Bookshops to provide affordable, locally produced textbooks in the 1980s when imported textbooks became out of the reach of ordinary Nigerians as the Naira was devalued.
He was endowed the Chair of Business Administration by the University of Benin and endowed chairs in various disciplines by Universities of Lagos and Ilorin.
In March 1990, he donated N1m (equivalent of N40 million in 2010) to each State University; N50,000 (N2 million in 2010) to each Federal University for student welfare; N20,000 (N800,000 in 2010) to each Federal University to aid publications and N25,000 (N1 million in 2010) to each Polytechnic and College of Education.
He also established the Salawu Abiola Comprehensive High School (named after his father), Osiele, Abeokuta to provide free education for students. Zulikha Abiola College of Arabic & Islamic Studies (named after his mother) was founded to provide free Islamic education. But so much is not recorded, because he was not giving to keep score.
Dad was understandably busy but he felt that the most important thing he could do by his children was to set us on the right path. Some of his ideas in this regard were fairly eccentric, like his choosing to build his home in Ikeja as opposed to Ikoyi and not allowing us to attend country clubs because he didn’t want his children spoiled by a sense of entitlement. But he also sought every opportunity to show us what, according to him, matters most in life.
On rare occasions, he would blow into our home like a hurricane, announcing that we would be going on a trip with him. Perhaps it was to the opening of a school that he had helped build or to the launching of a mosque or church for a community in some far off place. The details were rarely important to us and we would drown out his explanations with our wild celebration: to spend time with him was to bask in the sun at its most beneficent.
The events themselves are a blur now; but what we will always remember was the journey there, or more precisely, our dad on his way to do something good. On the way, he would begin singing and tapping on some surface, teasing out a song from his childhood or from his days as a small-town singer, sometimes something by the Beatles. And after a while, he would begin moving to the rhythm.
Normally restless, he would grow still and reflective at such times, as if he were a tree whose roots were sinking more deeply into the soil. To be with our Dad when he was on his way to doing good was to experience him at his happiest. And so it was that we learned that by investing in others, we invest in ourselves; in giving, we receive.
It will always be one of life’s great blessings to have been raised by such a giant among men.
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