1951 Election: Facts & Fictions
Adey Oyenuga
A review of Ganiyu Olawale Dawodu’s Awo or Zik: Who won the 1951 Western
Nigeria Elections? By ’Bosun Odedina.
WHERE there is no knowledge, the people perish, is an adage and this can
easily be followed by another, that where there is no informative
records, the people wallow in abject poverty of misinformation.
The above summarises the concerted efforts a consummate Lagos grassroot
politician of the Awolowo’s political school of thought, Alhaji Ganiyu
Olawale Dawodu, has done in setting the records straight as concerns
the 1951 Western Nigeria elections which has generated controversy since
it was held.
The two major political parties that contested the elections were the
Action Group (AG), led by the sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo and the Dr.
Nnamdi Azikiwe-led National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons, which
later changed to National Council of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC).
Although, there was also the Northern Peoples Congress (NPC) which had
no difficulty in controlling the Northern House of Assembly, the NCNC
also had it smooth sailing in winning majority seats to control the
Eastern House of Assembly. However, because of certain understandable
factors, the NCNC attempted to control the Western House but met stiff
opposition in the Action Group which came into existence rather late but
that notwithstanding, was strong, disciplined, cohesive, committed and
well organised.
What Alhaji Dawodu, who was the Action Group organising secretary for
Lagos Zone (1958-1962) had done in the ten-chapter, 85-page book, was to
controvert, by setting the records straight, series of allegations and
innuendoes to the contrary of the victory of the Action Group over the
NCNC at the 1951 Western Nigeria elections.
According to the author, he had been prompted into trying to correct
some of these wrong impressions being spread by Dr. K.O. Mbadiwe, as
well as his (Mbadiwe) attack on the leaders of the AG as published in
the Guardian newspaper, of 21 September, 1989, by writing a rejoinder in
the Nigerian Tribune on Tuesday 17 October, 1989. The rejoinder received
kudos from Alhaji S.O. Gbadamosi, Pa Alfred Rewane, and Mr. Anthony
Oladipo Adegbite, among others.
In his foreword to the book, the late first executive governor of Ondo
State, Chief Michael Adekunle Ajasin, pointed out that “some of the
attributes of this book can be found in the author’s mission to destroy
ethnic suspicion arising from prejudice in the political foundation of
the Nigerian nation.”
Alhaji Dawodu devoted the first chapter of the book to countering NCNC’s
allegations against the AG on the elections, most especially as
enunciated by the elder statesman, Dr. Mbadiwe. In a very lucid manner,
the author quoted extensively from written materials, references to such
allegations and went ahead to disprove such through some other
documents, asking at one point, that Dr. Mbadiwe never for once quoted
the source of his allegation that the NCNC won the elections but rather
made general statements that the NCNC won.
“How many seats did they (NCNC) win and from which divisions? What are
the names of their (NCNC) successful candidates?” Were some of the
questions posed by Alhaji Dawodu to Dr. Mbadiwe who claimed that the
NCNC won the 1951 parliamentary elections in the West by a “handsome
majority.”?
Chapter two was devoted to the electoral battle, preparatory to
the D-day and here the author dealt on efforts by the electoral
authorities to check electoral controversy.
According to him, the authorities took an interest, sought to nip the
controversy in the bud and the then Public Relations Officer of the
Nigerian Government, Mr. Harold Cooper, wrote to the parties contesting
the elections to submit the list of their candidates for the final
elections. This request was published in the Daily Times front page of
Friday 21 September, 1951.
However, while the Action Group complied a list of 68 names, which was
published in the Daily Service and the Nigerian Tribune on and before
the 24 September, 1951, the NCNC did not submit any of such list, the
author stated.
The election results saw the AG winning 38 seats out of the 72 seats
contested for, as contained in Chapter three which also stated that the
Ibadan Peoples Party’s (IPP) six candidates also won their seats as
independent candidates.
The book, in Chapter four, contains the proof of AG’s victory and this
is backed-up with pictures of some of the events of that time as well as
some publications in the Daily Service, and the Daily Times.
In Chapter five, Alhaji Dawodu tried to show what practical steps the
AG took, to proof its majority, while in Chapter six, he explained the
reasons behind the failure of Dr. Azikiwe to win a seat in the House of
Representatives.
Chapter seven deals with the political alignments of divisional
organisations in the Western Region which saw the IPP, the Otu Edo of
Benin and the Ondo Improvement League candidates joining the AG and the
NCNC, after some political manoeuverings.
The content of the book is “hidden” in Chapter eight where in 1970,
about 20 years after the event, Dr. Azikiwe reacted in black and white
to the results of the election in his autobiography titled My Odyssey.
According to the author, Dr. Azikiwe stated in the autobiography “that
the NCNC was under the impression that it had won 43 seats out of 80 but
20 of the legislators whom they “regarded as members, supporters or
sympathisers” aligned themselves with the Action Group.” Dr. Azikiwe
listed these legislators with reasons and this was written in Alhaji
Dawodu’s book.
The author, in Chapter nine, explains why the Action Group emerged as
the winner at the elections while the tenth chapter explains reasons
for the believe in NCNC’s claims to victory.
Appendix one of the book contains the election result chart of the 25
divisions comprising the old Western Region with the number of seats
being a total of 80. Out of the 80 seats, the AG won 38, NCNC 24,
Independent candidates who aligned with the AG won 15 seats while their
colleagues who went with the NCNC were three in number. This brings the
total to AG 53, and NCNC 27 seats on the overall.
The book is a very revealing one to politicians as well as political
students who seek to know much about the history of the 1951 elections.
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