

Chief Jeremiah Oyeniyi Obafemi Awolowo (Yoruba: Ọbáfẹ́mi Awólọ́wọ̀; March 6, 1909 – May 9, 1987) popularly known as "Awo" was one of Africa's most influential nationalists, political writer and a pre-eminent Nigerian statesman whose vision and tireless work defined a modernist Yoruba political project in an emergent Nigerian post-colonial nation state after the decolonization process in the 1940s. He is often neglected among African political intellectuals because he did not become a head of state. Awo is often criticized heavily by the Ndi Igbos for committing massive genocide against the Igbos in the Biafran War, a charge he seriously denied throughout his life. His admirers refers to him as "the best president Nigeria never had."

A Yoruba and native of Ikenne in Ogun State of Nigeria, he started his career,like some of his notable contemporaries, as a nationalist in the Nigerian Youth Movement of which he became Western provincial secretary, and was responsible for much of the progressive social legislation that has made Nigeria a modern nation. He was an active journalist and trade unionist as a young man, editing The Nigerian Worker amongst other publications while also organizing the Nigerian Produce Traders Association and serving as secretary of the Nigerian Motor Transport Union. After earning a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Nigeria from a London University through correspondence, he went to the UK where he earned a law degree as an external student. While there, he founded the Egbe Omo Oduduwa, a pan-Yoruba cultural society, which set the stage for the formation of the Action Group, a liberal nationalist political party.

 As Leader of the Group, he represented the Western Region in all the constitutional conferences intended to advance Nigeria on the path to independence. He was the first Leader of Government Business and Minister of Local Government and Finance and first Premier of the Western Region under Nigeria's parliamentary system, from 1952 to 1959, and was the official Leader of the Opposition in the federal parliament to the Balewa government from 1959 to 1963. In addition to all these, Awolowo was the first individual in the modern era to be named Leader of the Yorubas (Yoruba: Asiwaju Omo Oodua), a title which has come over time to be conventionally ascribed to his successors as the recognized political leader of the Yoruba peoples of Nigeria.
Gunther started out in his book by comparing Chief Obafemi Awolowo to his chief political rival Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe (Zik) at page 773 of the book:"... the leader of the Action Group, and Zik’s chief political rival, Obafemi Awolowo (pronounced A-wa-luwa), has an altogether different quality. He is not a demagogue, but and intellectual. There has never been a breath of scandal about him. He is a man with a good deal of reserve, conscientious, precise, and somewhat stiff-backed. I heard an Englishman say, with genuine regret, “if only Awolowo would relax, and have a glass of sherry with us sometimes!” His intellectual arrogance is marked, although he seemed reasonable enough when we talked to him.
Chief Obafemi Awolowo

Obafemi Awolowo was born on March 6, 1909 to Chief David Sopolu Awolowo and his wife Mary Efunyela Awolowo in Ikenne,Remo in present-day Ogun State of Nigeria. His first name, Obafemi, means 'The king loves me' and the surname Awolowo, the source of his nickname, Awo, means 'The mystic (or mysticism) commands honour (or respect)'.
Chief Obafemi Awolowo`s helicopter campaign

Awolowo`s father was a farmer and sawyer. He had his primary school education at St. Saviour's School, Ikenne and at Imo Wesleyan School, Abeokuta. His education at this early stage was interrupted for several years by the sudden death of his father in April 1920 when he was about seven years, an event that left him without financial support and compelled him to fetch firewood for sale, and do similar jobs, to support his schooling.
He attended various schools, and then became a teacher in Abeokuta, after which he qualified as a shorthand typist. Subsequently, he served as a clerk at the famous Wesley college, as well as a correspondent for the Nigerian Times. It was after this that he embarked on various business ventures to help raise funds to travel to the UK for further studies.
Following his education at Wesley College, Ibadan (a teachers' college) in 1927, he enrolled at the University of London as an External Student. He was awarded the degree of Bachelor of Commerce (Hons.) and the Bachelor of Laws by the University of London. He was called to the Bar by the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple on November 19, 1946.
Chief Obafemi Awolowo and his famous wife Hannah Idowu Dideolu Awolowo (née Adelana)

On 26th December, 1937 Obafemi Awolowo got married to Miss Hannah Idowu Dideolu Adelana. They remained each other's best friend to the end; together they fought for the cause of justice and for the release of their fellow man’s mind from ignorance and the freedom on his body from disease. They had 5 children: Olusegun (1939-1963), Omotola, Oluwole, Ayodele and Tokunbo.
Wedding of Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Miss Hannah Idowu Dideolu Adelana. Circa 1937

In 1949 Awolowo founded the Nigerian Tribune, the oldest surviving private Nigerian newspaper, which he used to spread nationalist consciousness among his fellow Nigerians.

Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Premier of Western Region of Nigeria, just landing from his helicopter to start campaigning in Sokoto for his party, the Action group, for the federal elections. He is in the green robe at the right-hand microphone, speaking in English; an interpreter at Awo's right translates his speech into Hausa for the crowd of about 2,500." circa 1959. courtesy Eliot Elisofon

Back home from Britain, Awolowo formed the cultural group known as “Egbe Omo Oduduwa” in 1949 and a political party, the Action Group, (AG), in 1951 also known as Egbe Afenifere in Western part of Nigeria as part of the Social Programme for the emancipation of Yoruba race. Awolowo became Nigeria's foremost federalist. In his Path to Nigerian Freedom (1947) — the first systematic federalist manifesto by a Nigerian politician — he advocated federalism as the only basis for equitable national integration and, as head of the Action Group, he led demands for a federal constitution, which was introduced in the 1954 Lyttleton Constitution, following primarily the model proposed by the Western Region delegation led by him. His party won the first elections ever conducted in Western Nigeria. As a result of that victory, the AG formed the first elected government in the Western Region and Obafemi Awolowo, now a Chief, became the Leader of Government Business and Minister for Local Government in 1952.

December 19, 1958: Premiers Of Nigeria – These are the faces of the Men of Destiny of Nigeria and the Southern Cameroons. From left to right, they are those of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, Alhaji Tafawa Balewa, Dr E.M.L. Endeley and Alhaji Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto. The five men are heads of Governments which make the Nigerian federation. The happiness and fortunes of 35 million people will soon depend on their wisdom and courage. They are not only regarded as very important cogs in the wheel of Nigeria’s destiny. They are in fact so. (Photograph by Drum Photographer ©BAHA).

In 1954, Awo (as he had come to be fondly known within his party) became the first Premier of the Western Region. His party won the elections again in May 1956 and Awo retained his position as Premier. As premier, he proved to be and was viewed as a man of vision and a dynamic administrator. Awolowo was also the country's leading social democratic politician. He supported limited public ownership and limited central planning in government. He believed that the state should channel Nigeria's resources into education and state-led infrastructural development. Controversially, and at considerable expense, he introduced free primary education for all and free health care for children in the Western Region, established the first television service in Africa in 1959, and the Oduduwa Group, all of which were financed from the highly lucrative cocoa industry which was the mainstay of the regional economy.


He stood up stoutly against mediocrity and drift in government, and began to define alternative channels along which Nigeria's government should go. His own concept of a Nigerian nation was probably too advanced for his opponents, who began to see the Awolowo-led opposition as a major threat. Following a trial for treasonable felony, he was jailed for 10 years in September 1963.

      Nigeria`s 1960 elections with the famous Nigeria [political heavy-weights of their time: Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Abubakar Tafewa Balewa, Ahmed Bello and Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe.

Conflict in Western Nigeria
From the eve of independence, he led the Action Group as the Leader of the Opposition in the federal parliament, leaving Samuel Ladoke Akintola as the Western Region Premier. Serious disagreements between Awolowo and Akintola on how to run the Western region led the latter to an alliance with the Tafawa Balewa-led NPC federal government. A constitutional crisis led to the declaration of a state of emergency in the Western Region, eventually resulting in a widespread breakdown of law and order.
Samuel Ladoke Akintola, Administrator and politician, Premier of the Western Region of Nigeria and an early victim of the January 1966 military coup. This photograph was taken when Eliot Elisofon was on assignment for Life magazine and traveled to Africa from August 18, 1959 to December 20, 1959.

Excluded from national government, Awolowo and his party faced an increasingly precarious position. Akintola's followers, angered at their exclusion from power, formed the Nigerian National Democratic Party (NNDP) under Akintola's leadership. Having previously suspended the elected Western Regional Assembly, the federal government then reconstituted the body after manoeuvres that brought Akintola's NNDP into power without an election. Shortly afterwards Awolowo and several disciples were arrested, charged, convicted and jailed for conspiring with the Ghanaian authorities under Kwame Nkrumah to overthrow the federal government. The remnants of the Action Group fought the national election of 1965 in alliance with the largely Igbo, and south-eastern NCNC. Amid accusations of fraud from the NCNC-AG camp, the NPC-NNDP won the election; the AG supporters reacted with violent riots in some parts of the Western region. Awolowo was later freed by the military administration of General Yakubu Gowon who subsequently appointed him Federal Commissioner for Finance and Vice-President of the Federal Executive Council. This took place in the unsettled circumstances immediately preceding the Civil War.

      Oba Akenzua welcoming Queen Elizabeth to his Kingdom whilst Chief Obafemi Awolowo looks on.

By July 1966, Nigeria's problems had become so intractable that disintegration of the country seemed inevitable. A new Federal Military Government promptly opened the gates of Calabar Prison, brought Awolowo out and appointed him as a minister to take charge of the country's treasury and to provide political support as Vice Chairman in the Federal administration. In those two roles, he was one of the major architects of Nigeria's victory over secession in the 3D-month Civil War. When the war ended, Awo waited just long enough to give Nigeria a National Development Plan; as soon as the Plan was completed, he resigned from the government, although, to his last day, he remained grateful to the man who gave him an opportunity to serve his country.
When Nigeria's Armed Forces lifted the ban on civilian participation in politics in September 1978, Nigerians who believed in Awo’s political ideas and principles joined him in forming the Unity Party of Nigeria which presented Nigeria with a dynamic programme of socio economic change along democratic socialist lines. Awo led the party until it was banned, along with Nigeria's other political parties, during the military take-over at the end of 1983.
Sir Ahmedu Bello and Chief Obafemi Awolowo

Awolowo is best remembered for his remarkable integrity, ardent nationalism, principled and virile opposition and dogged federalistic convictions. His party was the first to move the motion for Nigeria's independence in the federal parliament and he obtained internal self-government for the Western Region in 1957. He is credited with coining the name 'naira' for the Nigerian standard monetary unit and helped to finance the Civil War and preserve the federation without borrowing. He built the Liberty Stadium in Ibadan, the first of its kind in Africa; established the WNTV, the first television station in Africa; erected the first skyscraper in tropical Africa: the Cocoa House (still the tallest in Ibadan) and ran a widely-respected civil service in the Western Region.
R-L Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Mrs. Hannah Dideolu Awolowo, H.O. Davies, Chief Adetokunbo Ademola at a Church service. This is a rare photograph and it was taken in 1977

Awolowo was reputedly admired by Ghana's Kwame Nkrumah, and some of his disciples in the South-West have continued to invoke his name and the policies of his party, the Action Group, during campaigns, while his welfarist policies have influenced politicians in most of the other geopolitical zones of the nation.He was a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and Chancellor of the University of Ife (his brainchild) and Ahmadu Bello University. He held many chieftaincy titles, including those of the Losi of Ikenne, Lisa of Ijeun, Asiwaju of Remo, Odofin of Owo, Ajagunla of Ado-Ekiti, Apesin of Osogbo, Odole of Ife and, amongst the Ibibios, Obong Ikpa Isong of Ibibioland. He was also conferred with the highest national honour of Grand Commander of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, a rank and title that have ordinarily been bestowed upon the country's presidents. Many institutions in Nigeria have honoured him and some regional and national institutions are named after him, including Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife, Osun State (formerly University of Ife) Obafemi Awolowo Stadium (formerly the Liberty Stadium)and the Obafemi Awolowo Institute of Government and Public Policy in Lekki,Lagos State. His portrait is on the ₦100 naira note. He was also the author of several publications on the political structure and future prospects of Nigeria, the most prominent of which are Path to Nigerian Freedom, Thoughts on the Nigerian Constitution, and Strategies and Tactics of the People's Republic of Nigeria.
However, his most important bequests (styled Awoism) are his exemplary integrity, his welfarism, his contributions to hastening the process of decolonization and his consistent and reasoned advocacy of federalism-based on ethno-linguistic self-determination and uniting politically strong states-as the best basis for Nigerian unity. Awolowo died peacefully at his Ikenne home, the Efunyela Hall (so named after his mother), on May 9, 1987, at 78, amid tributes across political and ethno-religious divides.
University of Nigeria, Nsukka:           LL.D. (1962)
University of Lagos:                         D.Litt. (1968)
University of Ibadan:                        LL.D. (1972)
Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria:      LL.D. (1975)
University of Cape Coast, Ghana:    LL.D. (1976)

He was honoured with many chieftaincy titles, including the following:

Asiwaju of Yoruba
Asiwaju of Remo
Losi of Ikenne
Lisa of Ijeun
Apesin of Osogbo
Odole of Ife
Ajagunla of Ado-Ekiti
Odofin of Owo and
Obong Ikpan Isong of Ibibio Land.


Republished many books and still had some in the press at the time of his transition.  Among his best-known works are: Path to Nigerian Freedom (1947), Awo - an autobiography (1960), Thoughts on the Nigerian Constitution (1966), The People’s Republic (1968), The Strategy and Tactics of the People's Republic (1970), The Problems of Africa: The need for ideological reappraisal (1977), Adventures in Power­Book 1: My March Through Prison (1985). Re had planned to launch Book 2 entitled The Travails of Democracy and the Rule of Lawon 6th June 1987.
The oldest privately owned newspaper in Nigeria, the Nigerian Tribune, and two other newspapers (the weekly Sunday Tribuneand Irohin Yoruba) were founded and owned by Chief Obafemi Awolowo.

Chief Obafemi Awolowo and his famous wife Hannah Idowu Dideolu Awolowo (née Adelana) and their family


EXCLUSIVE - Chief Obafemi Awolowo On Biafra (In His Own Words)



At this point I’ll hand you over to the moderator.



Programs of UPN And Qualification to be President

Programs of UPN

Qualification to be President

             Oba Adesoji Aderemi, the Ex Oba Ile Ife , Obafemi Awolowo and a British diplomat


Success Factors


Expanding the Base Beyond the West

Moderator: Can you repeat the question please.


Lt-Col Yakubu Gowon (left), Nigeria's new military Ruler, walks with Chief Obafemi Awolowo following Baba Awo's release from jail, 1966 . Source: Historic Images




How Policies Will be Executed

Moderator: Mr. Sonala Olumhense.







Moderator: Yes Mr…….Mr. Oparadike.












Program ends abruptly

The Many Myths and Mystics of Late Chief Obafemi Awolowo


Francis Adewale


“If only Awolowo would relax, and have a glass of sherry with us sometimes!”
-Anonymous Englishman quoted in 1955 book by John Gunther titled “Inside Africa”

My good friend Fred Igbeare recently wrote an article published by the Times of Nigeria online on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the death of Chief Obafemi Awolowo titled Awo: What Legacy?” He asked “What would Nigeria be like today if the whole country had come under Awo’s free education policy?” He concluded that Chief Obafemi Awolowo is so controversial that he drew fervent reactions from foes and friends alike.

In this piece, we shall attempt to dissect Chief Awolowo’s life from the lens of an American who visited with him sometimes in the 1950s and wrote his encounter with the legend in his book titled “Inside Africa.” That American is John Gunther, and the book, now out of print was published by Harper & Brothers in 1955. We will endeavor to critically examine how his life, politics and courage impacted Nigeria then and now.


In today’s Nigeria, corruption is not only endemic but it has become the directive principles of state policy. An erstwhile Nigeria military ruler-General Abacha was reported to have stolen $4 billion USD all of which were traced to foreign assets. When Gunther wrote about Chief Awolowo, he was then the premier of Western Region of Nigeria. Since that time Chief Awolowo rose to the position of the vice head of government and minister of finance during the regime of General Yakubu Gowon. He was also the chairman of the Unity Party of Nigeria. At the end of each of his tenure, in all the above listed position, his administration was probed, investigated and re-probed by countless commission of enquiries, military tribunals and investigating journalist. Some of his lieutenants and associates went to jail for corruption at the end of such probe but the commission of enquiry or military tribunals usually come back with a clean bill of health for him, his policies and administration. So we can repeat with certainty what Gunther wrote about him in the 1950s that “there has never been a breath of scandal about him.”

We cannot say that about many of his associates however, some of whom wined and dined with the military, stole billions out of the treasury. Some were caught with their hands in the jar. Some served deserved prison jail sentence and come out of prison to continue looting the country. I believe Awolowo’s penchant for probity and uprightness contributed in no small measure to the many myths and mystics about him. Every time Nigerians look at the present crop of charlatans ruling our dear country, we long for Papa Awo. We imagined what could have been.

We however need to point out that Papa Awo was definitely not like Caesar’s wife, “above board”, many rumors of his alleged “conflict of interest” with Western Nigerian land allocations and business abound. But they remained what they were, legends and rumors and when we look at the unabashed stealing going on in our country by current crop of Nigeria politicians it is easy to see why many Nigerians will overlook alleged conflict of interest by Papa Awo. Many Nigerians long for a politician who would not relax until his people are freed of oppression. We all long for a politician who would refuse to have a glass of sherry with oil company executives polluting our shores and farmlands. If that is intellectual arrogance we need to breed more of it. Now that we have seen what “intellectual prostitution” brings on our polity, I believe we would opt for the former.

Obafemi Awolowo, by Bassano Ltd, 21 July 1972 - NPG x171537 - © National Portrait Gallery, London


Gunther wrote the following about Chief Obafemi Awolowo and the birth of his political party- the Action Group:

The Action Group, which has its principal strength in the Yoruba West, is a newer party than Zik’s, and grew out of a semi-religious group, the Egbe Omo Odudua, founded by Awolowo to give voice to Yoruba nationalist and tribal aspirations. In theory at least it would like to remain on friendly relations with the British, when and if they go. But many of its members are extremist, and Awolowo himself was a prime mover for fixing 1956 as the target date for independence. Recently an Action Group member, commenting on the troubles in Kenya, went so far as to say that Mau Mau in spite of its horrors might “still be the way out of Nigeria’s bondage.”

Why did Awolowo started out on an ethnic platform? The mystery will always remains with us. Why a so called intellectual giant should reduce himself to a Yoruba irredentist by giving voice to “Yoruba nationalist and tribal aspirations” will forever remain a puzzle for us. Each time I read about the very beginnings of Awolowo’s politics I shudder. Is Nigeria not worth fighting for.

Gunther gave us a tepid explanation for this when he quoted Chief Awolowo in his book at page 747 as saying the followings:

““West and East Nigeria are as different as Ireland from Germany. The North is as different from either as China.”

Thanks to the likes of Awolowo, Nigeria remain divided in 2007 as it was in the 1950s even though Germany and Ireland are now part of a united European Union with a commonwealth economic and political behemoth that has brought Ireland out of economic doldrums to one of the most industrialized nation on earth. The allusion to China is in itself laughable. The geographical nexus of the three regions at that time render Awolowo’s metaphor incongruent. This is atypical of Nigeria’s ethnically jaundiced politician from all the regions. They sowed the seeds of discord that has held Nigeria in bondage to date.

Yes. Nigeria is complex, full of bewildering variety of peoples and languages within a limited area. But, thanks to Nigerian politicians, the lack of homogeneity noticed by Gunther in the 1950s remain with us today. And this lack of homogeneity remains the overriding political and national problem. It is now a curse, an albatross hanging over the neck of this great country. Many have wrongly called it “tribalism’ or ethnic prejudice, but I believe the proper word for it is sectionalism. I called it sectionalism because many of the so-called tribes and tongue tugging at different parts of Nigeria, trying desperately to pull it apart have little or nothing in common until the Europeans arrived on the continent. In fact, there were no homogenous group called the Yorubas until the Europeans asked their neighbors to the north what they called the people to the south of them. The same thing with the East, where every village is as fiercely independent of each other and jealously guard it’s border from the next neighboring village. The closest thing to a united northern Nigeria is the Sokoto caliphate, which contained within it’s borders over 120 different “tribes and tongue” with nothing in common other than it’s oppressive and repressive subjugation by the Fulanis.

Most of these ethnic groups like the Jukuns, the Tivs, the Hausas, the Kanuris were fighting each other with passion before the colonialist came. Same thing applies in the West where they were having internecine civil wars raiding and pillaging villages for slaves for the trans Atlantic slave trade. The East was even more amorphous. Majority of the inhabitants could barely understand each other. The colonialist and Christian missionaries forced Hausa language on the North and encouraged the West to develop the language of metropolitan old Oyo on the West. The word Yoruba itself is etymologically derived from Hausa language. So where did Awolowo got the idea that the West is homogenous from.

One can see the crass opportunism in Nigerian politician use of “tribalism” to divide and rule Nigeria, as the colonialist did. Incase anyone thinks Awo’s inglorious contribution to the demise of Nigeria unity is underserved, read the following at page 773 of Gunther’s book:

Awolowo has a tidier mind and more planning capacity than Zik. Awolowo, people say, seized the Nigerian nationalist movement away from Zik, by organizing his own party in the West. Before this, Zik had a claim to be leader everywhere. Overnight, there were two parties, which is a healthy enough sign of democratic evolution if they are not too rigidly regional. The Action Group uses scabrous language in attacking Zik’s East. One of its newspapers recently characterized the Eastern Assembly as a home “of terrorism, gangsterism, blackmail, shameless lying, and mob politics.” At one juncture, when they were quarrelling ferociously, Awolowo and Zik sued each other for libel for considerable sums; the two awards more or less canceled each other out. Then, after the crisis in 1953, the two began to work together again, each keeping his own sphere of influence, with Awolowo stronger in the West, Zik in the East. But in 1954 and later came other bitter quarrels, and split venomously once more.

Welcome primordial ethnic prejudice. I hope folks who think that ethnic’s politics in Nigeria is only a recent creation will now see where it started from. So when in 2002, Chief Bola Ige, one of the ardent followers of Awo, exclaim that the Yoruba race is far more superior than any other ethnic group in Nigeria, we can understand where that is coming from. It has been a miracle that the kind of ethnic holocaust witnessed in Rwanda has not happened in Nigeria, given all these very inflammatory words by Nigerian politicians.


Having said that, we need to acknowledge and perhaps acclaim the contributions of many Nigerian nationalist politicians like Chief Awolowo, to the struggle for independence in Nigeria despite their effete ethnic chauvinism. John Gunther wrote the followings about Awolowo and his party member reaction to his attendance at a dinner party hosted by the colonial Governor General: this particular time, a severe constitutional crisis was at its peak. The African ministers representing one important political party, the Action Group, had adopted a non-fraternization policy, and would not accept hospitality from the Governor, although their Northern colleagues did. They were perfectly willing to talk business with Sir John McPherson in Government House, but they would not accept “hospitality” from him, not even a glass of water. There was nothing particularly personal in this. Macpherson was widely liked as an individual. But Government House symbolizes the Crown, and both West and East were at that time boycotting the Crown as a matter of principle. (Page 750).

We can only wish that Chief Awolowo and his co-nationalist like Dr. Azikiwe, Sir Tafawa Balewa and the Sardauna of Sokoto- Ahmadu Bello had come together and reasoned together. What makes Abraham Lincoln a legend in America today, is due largely to his desire to fight for freedom not only for Chicagoans or the North but for all of America. Our politician in Nigeria knows nothing about consensus and consequently they lost the big picture and lost Nigeria in the labyrinth of their short sighted parochial mind. One of my friends had tried to explain Awo’s appeal to ethnicity to advanced his political agenda on the grounds that Awo never imagined that all the regions will be granted independence at the same time. “In short,” my friend concluded “Awo never thought the North will ever be ready for independence, he therefore opted to rule a part of the whole and thus mortgaged the whole for a part.” My instant retort, is what happened subsequently after October 1, 1960? Why did he not changed? Why did he allowed himself to be anointed the Leader of Yoruba at the height of Nigerian civil war? Why did he promised to lead a breakaway Nigerian if East succeeded in it’s secession? How can you run for the presidency of a nation, when your world view is that some of it’s people are more inferior to another within the same polity! What was going on in his mind in the 1940s when he came back from Great Britain to join Nigeria politics?

I found something else startling about Awolowo, reading Gunther’s book. Let me quote the first paragraph of page 774 of the book:

Awolowo was born in a small Yoruba village in 1909; he was poorest of the poor, and is entirely self-made. This is unusual in Nigeria; an intelligent youngster, if destitute, will in the normal course of events be taken in by some family. Awolowo, on his own, managed to get a British education at a mission school in Ibadan, and then made his way to London, where he studied law. He is a barrister of the Inner Temple. Returning to Nigeria he became an advisor to the trade unions. He did not take a strong political line against the British until about 1948. Awolowo is an extremely cultivated and intelligent man. He speaks, of course perfect English. His book Path to Nigerian Freedom was well received by intellectuals in London. He has a world sense somewhat unusual among Africans (if only because few Africans ever have opportunity to acquire it) and recently visited India and Egypt; Jawaharlal Nehru made a great impression on him-and vice versa. In 1954 he became Premier of the Western Region, which means that he is in effect prime minister. [italics mine]

Setting aside Gunther’s racial prejudice for the time being, it is interesting to learn here for the first time that Awolowo did not take a strong political line against the British until about 1948. Does this explain his distaste for the NCNC politics? Did he form his world views after he came back from India and Egypt? What impact did his membership of West African Student Union (WASU) in Britain whilst studying for law had on him? Most importantly why did he start out in politics by establishing a quasi ethnic outfit by the name: “Egbe Omo Odudua?” These are question I have tried to understand from many books on contemporary Nigerian politics without avail. If indeed Awolowo is as intellectual as widely claimed why did he not have a more Pan-Nigeria outlook when he started politics. Why the acerbic attack on Zik and other Eastern Nigerian born politicians in the West Assembly?


We can write volumes and tomes about Awolowo sectionalist mind, but one thing we cannot begrudge him is his monumental contribution to discipline, vision and forthright administration:

We met Awolowo in odd circumstances, on a lonely road out in the bush, driving back to Lagos from Ibadan. We had missed him in Ibadan, and were pursuing him to his home village, by name Ikenne. To catch Awolowo at Ikenne, we had to be there by 5P.M., since he was proceeding elsewhere. The British said, “He will not wait for you-get there on time.” But we were delayed, and when we finally reached the outskirts of Ikenne at about seven we had given up hope of seeing Awolowo. It was becoming dark, and soft, steamy rain came down. Then a shiningly bright new American car appeared suddenly over the crest of the red road, like a metallic apparition charging out of tropical dusk. In it was Awolowo. Our chauffeur recognized him as we slithered past. We stopped. He had been waiting for us but could wait no longer. So we stood out there in the rainy twilight talking. We became conscious of a strange buzz and stir-the sound of myriads of insects. It became darker, and the shafts of light from the two cars made furrows into the green mask of jungle. Rain fell harder, and Awolowo stepped into our car, saying “I can give you a quarter of an hour.” We could still hear the solid, strident call of insects. It was a strange place to have a conference.

Herein lies much of mysticism about Awolowo, he is as diverse an African as you could find in any African university campus, full of ideas and serenity, and yet with an ethnically prejudiced bent. But at least there is no ounce of inferiority complex in his bone! Let’s continue the excerpts from Gunther’s book:

“Awolowo is of medium height, with a studious look; he wore Nigerian robes, and a dark red and gold turban. His manner is suave, considered, and aware. I asked him if Nigeria would, after independence, become a republic. He thought not. The Nigerian chiefs would not like the word “republic.” He went on, “We have to consider our princes. They do not resemble princes elsewhere. They fight for independence with us.” He discussed briefly constitutional anomalies within the Commonwealth. I asked him what his principal grievances against the Britain were, considering the British record of accomplishment in Nigeria. He replied, first, that it was morally wrong for one nation to govern another; second, that British administration was carried out by incompetent, inferior officials, third that the British did not have the true interests of the country at heart. “In fourteen months, under the present government, we have done more for Nigeria than the British did in 120 years.”

The question is can the present corps of Nigerian politician say the same thing, 40 years after independence from Britain? Chief Awolowo was right on all counts against the British rule in Nigeria but the same thing cannot be said about the ethnically jaundiced Nigerian politicians and military rulers who took over from the British. We can all agree that it was morally wrong for military to rule Nigerian for over 40 years out of almost 47 years of independence. Governments, which like the colonial rulers is without any accountability. A government of subjugation, with little or no voice for the people of Nigeria. We can also safely conclude that Nigerian government since the colonialist left in October 1960 has been carried out by incompetent nincompoops, inferior civil servants, and politicians who have little or no interest of the country at heart. Can we in all seriousness argue against this judgment given the massive corruption by Nigerian “militricians” who have stolen the country blind. It is quite an irony that in late 2004 and 2005 we have to sought the help of the same British to recover stolen corrupt funds stashed away by the military ruler, General Abacha and Governor Alamiesigha of Bayelsa in of all places-British banks!

Francis Adewale
Spokane, WA

United States


    central govt jobs

  2. This has really helped to understand the history of Nigeria.


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