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> Did Rich and oil interests oppose a rise to power of Abiola?

One of Abiola's sons is carrying out all business transactions in Nigeria on behalf of Tradescantia, a Rich company.

Sources in the oil sector believe that in spite of spirited efforts by NNPC's [Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation] management to give reasons for the selective process used in awarding petroleum product import contracts, they may actually be concerned by efforts by the Lower House to probe the corporation's activities.
Also, industry sources said contrary to NNPC's claims that it patronised mainly the multinationals like Shell, Totalfina and Mobil for the imports, it may have given most of the contracts to a few foreign and local companies, such as Tradescantia of Switzerland; Sahara Energy Resource Limited; Sadiq Petroleum; and two NNPC subsidiaries - Hyson Nigeria Limited and Napoil Nigeria Limited. Others include Ocean and Oil Limited and Besses Oil Limited.
Specifically, an official with one of the multinationals dismissed claims by NNPC's group managing director, Mr. Jackson Gaius-Obaseki that the oil majors had been importing most of the fuel into the country since May last year.
He said companies like Shell and Totalfina were only given a few cargoes to import products after which the contracts petered out entirely. But Tradescantia, which belongs to the Swiss commodity trader, Mr. Marc Rich, has been given contracts to deliver close to 1 million metric tonnes of fuel products since the beginning of this year.
It was further learnt that all business transactions on behalf of the Swiss firm in Nigeria were being carried out by Mr. Michael Prest and one of the sons of the late Chief M.K.O. Abiola.

"Nigeria; NNPC Invites Bids for Fuel Importation,"
Ijeoma Nwogwugwu, This Day (Lagos)
Africa News
September 7, 2000

More on the Abacha/Rich connection:

An oil embargo is not without risks. Abacha could threaten Americans and nationalize US interests. He could take out his wrath on others still imprisoned, such as Moshood Abiola, Olusegun Obasanjo, Musa Yar'Adua, and Beko Ransome-Kuti, or reach abroad to Wole Soyinka, the Nobel laureate, and Ken Wiwa, the Ogoni leader's son. And he could get around a US embargo and sell at least some of his production to European and Asian buyers through Marc Rich, the indicted American broker who operates for Nigeria out of Switzerland. But what Abacha cannot do is remain long in office. In this highly politicized nation of 250 ethnic groups, no single individual can hold the country ransom forever, particularly no one as despised and isolated as Abacha.
Seizing or freezing foreign bank accounts of Abacha and other members of his cabal has been suggested as an alternative to an embargo, but this would be ineffective. It is difficult to locate his assets; most are not in the US. He does not use his own accumulated wealth to dispense the corruption that sustains him in power, and any assets forfeited will only impel him to recover his losses more aggressively.

From:
"The Only Way to Dislodge Nigeria's Dictator,"
By Paul Beran; [Paul Beran is the pseudonym of an investor with years of experience in Nigeria.]
The Christian Science Monitor
OPINION/ESSAYS; Pg. 19
November 24, 1995, Friday

It certainly looks like Abacha was becoming too greedy and obvious. There are also signs in the Rubin press conference that the distance between Abacha and Clinton's State Department had been growing. It is also clear that in July 1998, Kofi Annan, the EU, and the US were desperately trying to get Abiola to give up his claim to be the legitimate leader. While Annan reported that Abiola had told him that he was not so "naive" as to think he could be released from imprisonment immediately to take over the government, my guess is that this was closer to Annan's position than Abiola's.