Dr. Doyin Abiola, the first Nigerian woman to head a national daily newspaper as Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief, has died. She was 82.
Family sources confirmed that she passed away at 9:15pm on Tuesday, August 5.
Before becoming widely known as the wife of the late politician and businessman Chief MKO Abiola, Doyin had already made her mark as a journalist.
She began her career in 1969 at the Daily Sketch, where her column “Tiro” focused on social and gender issues. In 1970, she travelled to the United States to pursue further studies, earning a master’s degree in journalism.
On her return, she joined Daily Times as a Features Writer. She rose to become Group Features Editor and later went back abroad to earn a PhD in Communications and Political Science in 1979.
Back in Nigeria, she joined the editorial board of Daily Times, working alongside respected journalists like Dele Giwa, Stanley Macebuh, and Amma Ogan.
In the early 1980s, she joined the National Concord, owned by MKO Abiola. She was appointed as its first daily editor and, in 1986, became Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief—making her the first woman in Nigeria to hold that position in a national newspaper.
She married MKO Abiola in 1981 and remained a steady presence through the political turmoil that followed his disputed 1993 presidential election victory.
Her career in journalism spanned more than three decades, during which she remained an influential voice in Nigerian media.
