From Nnamdi Azikiwe: " a lamp to guide our feet..." & history that vindicates the just
Rex Marinus
“As the hierarchy of our great party, the National Executive committee meets today to tackle some of the burning political problems which confront our country. The composition of the Federal House of Representatives has been determined. The personnel of the council of ministers is yet to be decided. You have a rare privilege in deciding who should be ministers of state to represent the Eastern and Western regions of the federation of Nigeria. I hope you will discharge this sacred duty patriotically and realistically.
The results of the Federal elections have placed the parties roughly as follows: Northern Peoples Congress, 84, NCNC 63, Action Group 20, KNC 6, UNIP 5, Idoma States Union, 2 Middle Belt Peoples Party, 2, Igbirra Tribal Union 1, Nigerian Commoners Liberal Party, 1. This means that no one political party has established a clear majority over the other parties. According to the Royal Instructions to His Excellency, the Governor-General, if such a situation arises then he shall consult with leaders of the majority political parties in each region in order to appoint the ten ministers, of whom the NCNC will be entitled to six.
It is true that this constitutional pattern will present a situation in which the NCNC will have a majority in the executive and the Northern Peoples Congress will dominate the parliament. The question arises: can the NCNC and the Northern Peoples Congress operate a government in which either party is in a position to paralyze action? If so, can such a government be stable enough to win the confidence of the peoples of Nigeria and the outside world? Otherwise, must Nigeria be subjected to another spate of conferences for the revision of its constitution?
I believe the NCNC and the Northern Peoples Congress can work a government by agreement in which the former dominates the executive and the latter controls the legislature, provided that both parties intend to give the new constitution a fair trial. I have two reasons for subscribing to this view. In the first place, the leaders of the two parties have publicly expressed the desire to give the new constitution a proper chance of survival. The resent hiatus is an opportunity for both parties to demonstrate good faith. In the second place, the present constitutional situation is not unique in the political history of mankind. I want you to realize that in the United States today, the Republican Party controls the cabinet, and the Democratic Party dominates the Houses of Congress. The question of whether such a hybrid government can be stable has been answered in the United States, whose constitution, by the way, is partially our model, and where the Democratic and Republican parties have bridged the gulf of their differences by establishing an accord based on bi-partisanship. That, ladies and gentlemen, is a lamp to guide our feet towards the building of goodwill and understanding in Nigeria, in spite of our political differences.
I will admit that there is an ideological chasm between the NCNC and the Northern Peoples Congress, but I will submit that, in the realm of practical politics, such a chasm can be bridged by a span of mutual respect for each other, based on a bi-partisan policy of government by mutual accord. Therefore, the fact that the NCNC is in a position to dominate the Council of Ministers, and the Northern Peoples Congress is poised to control the House of Representatives does not preclude the possibility of a bi-partisan policy which should enable each of the cooperating political parties to co-exist and exert salutary influence on policy, be it at the executive or legislative level.
Having dispelled the mist from the atmosphere, we can now see clearly enough to enable us to se who will be our standard bearers in the Council of Ministers appointed from the Eastern region and from the Western region. As soon as this has been done, we shall charge our ministers with the responsibility of maintaining cordial relations with their colleagues in the Council of Ministers. They should be warned that, whilst they would not expected to compromise on fundamental issues on which the party feels strongly, they should not hesitate to consult the party hierarchy for guidance and direction so as to avoid unnecessary embarrassment. The same goes to those of you who are members of the House of Reresentatives.
The NCNC believs that there is room in this country for different shades of political opinion. Unlike a certain other political party, we shall not seek to destroy our identity; rather we will gladly cooperate with any political party which is honest in it intentions, sincere in its outlook, and genuine in its programme. But the NCNC will not encourage any form of Nazism in this country, no matter whether it rears its ugly head in form of intolerance, bigotry, or terrorism.”
· Nnamdi Azikiwe addressing the joint meeting of the NCNC Federal Parliamentary parliamentary caucus and the National Executive Committee, Jan. 8, 1955 in Lagos.
Victor Okafor
What a brilliant mind! But alas, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe was demonstrably doing his utmost best to serve a nation which, unfortunately, did not holistically value his intellectual worth and political wizardry.
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Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - From Nnamdi Azikiwe: " a lamp to guide our feet..." & history that vindicates the just
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Salimonu Kadiri
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - From Nnamdi Azikiwe: " a lamp to guide our feet..." & history that vindicates the just
Ugo Nwokeji
University of California, Berkeley
686 Barrows Hall #2572
Berkeley, CA 94720
Tel. (510) 542-8140
Fax (510) 642-0318
Salimonu Kadiri
Historically, we all know that there was no exclusive NCNC/NPC government in 1955 but a national government. Therefore, Ugo Nwokeji thinking about Azikiwe's vision for distributing NCNC'S appointments in an inclusive way to reflect the then diversity of the NCNC could not be put to test. Nevertheless, after the 1959 federal elections the results showed that NPC, NCNC AG and their respective allies won 148, 89 and 75 seats respectively in the 312 members of Federal House of Assembly. Since, none of the political parties had absolute majority to form a government, Chief Obafemi Awolowo expressed the view to serve in a national government led by Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe. The AG and NCNC had 168 members as against NPC's 148 in the Parliament. Having been called upon by the Governor General, Sir James Robertson, to form a government, Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa realizing the Parliamentary situation expressed his desire to form a National Government comprising of NPC, NCNC, and AG. The AG leader, Obafemi Awolowo, said that he could not serve in a feudalist led government. Then, on Sunday, 20 December 1959, and in spite of opposition from its ally in the North, NEPU, Azikiwe's NCNC announced a coalition government agreement with the NPC in which Balewa was to become Prime Minister of the federation. The NCNC even agreed to the demand of NPC that no member of the NEPU should be appointed to ministerial post or any other government institutions. Awolowo decided to be the leader of opposition in the Federal Parliament. Azikiwe coldly calculated that the highly educated NCNC would dominate those he had named feudal autocrats, non-English speaking ciphers and illiterate dummies of the NPC even if the leader of the government was a feudalists. The federal coalition government between NPC and NCNC of 1959 onwards gave Azikiwe's NCNC the opportunity to put to test his vision of inclusively distributing federal appointments to reflect the diversity of the NCNC, but it did not happen. The political disagreement between Awolowo and his deputy Samuel Akintola arose out of the latter concern that because Awolowo refused to join the federal government, the NCNC had excised Yoruba indigenes out of federal government's appointments. The rest is history!!
Ugo Nwokeji wrote, "...the aim of Zik and people who shared his mind-set to forestall Nazism in this country, no matter whether it rears its ugly head in form of intolerance, bigotry, or terrorism, has failed."
Ugo Nwokeji with his proclamation of Zik's anti-Nazism philosophy reminds one of George Orwell's 1946, Politics and the English Language wherein he stated, "Political language - and with variations this is true of all political parties, from conservatives to Anarchists - is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give appearance of solidity to pure wind." There has never been National Socialists, derived from the German Nationalsozialistische, in Nigeria. What we have had and still have are tribalists who came with the idea of master tribe destined by God to dominate other tribes in Nigeria politically and economically. It is ironical that he who introduced tribalism into the body politics of Nigeria should be talking of Nazism (National Socialism) rearing its head into Nigeria. When Nnamdi Azikiwe returned to Nigeria in 1937, The Nigerian National Democratic Party (NNDP) had been in existence since 1922 with Herbert Macaulay as the general Secretary and Joseph Egerton Shyngle as the President. The NNDP had won all elections to the Legislative Council in Lagos from 1923 to 1938 when it was defeated by the Nigerian Youth Movement (NYM). In fact NYM was an off-shoot of Lagos Youth Movement that was founded in 1933 by James Churchill Vaughan, Ernest Sissei Ikoli and Samuel Adesanya as leaders. When the NYM won all the three seats for Lagos to the Legislative Council in 1938, Azikiwe decided to join NYM. Besides Ikoli and Adesanya, Azikiwe stated that among the leaders of NYM at that time were, Dr Akiola Maja, H. S. A. Thomas, Jubril Martin and Dr Kofoworola Abayomi. "Prominent among its backbenchers were Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Chief S.L. Akintola, J.A. Tuyo, Hamzat A.Subair, F. Ogugua-Arah, S.O. Shonibare and L. Duro Emmanuel," Zik wrote in his Selected Speeches. Azikiwe desired leadership role for himself which was very difficult to achieve with the calibre of those in the leadership of NYM. Therefore, when a bye-election nomination over who should contest the election to the Legislative Council to replace Dr Abayomi who was on specialist study in UK turned sourer within the NYM, Azikiwe seized the opportunity to join other forces to scuttle the NYM. By 1943, NYM was in coma and NNDP won all the three seats for Lagos to the Legislative Council. That same year, Nnamdi Azikiwe founded the first tribal Union in Nigeria called *IBO FEDERAL UNION* and installed himself as the President. The name was later changed to *IBO STATE UNION.* He was immediately imitated by Eyo Ita who also founded *IBIBIO STATE UNION.* Then in August 26, 1944, Azikiwe founded NCNC and named himself the Secretary and Herbert Macaulay the President. Herbert Macaulay was 80 years old in 1944 and remained the Secretary of NNDP that was still winning elections. He had no need for a new party but the foxy Nnamdi Azikiwe targeted him for the purpose of riding on Macaulay's popularity to power. When Herbert Macaulay died on May 7, 1946, Nnamdi Azikiwe became the President of both NNDP and NCNC. Thus at the Legislative Council Elections of December 1946, Nnamdi Azikiwe, H.P. Adebola, T.O.S. Benson, Dr Ibiyinka Olorunmbe and Adeleke Adedoyin contested and won on the platform of NNDP. After the 1951 elections Azikiwe buried the NNDP until 1964 when Akintola outfoxed the foxy Azikiwe by reincarnating NNDP. It is worth remembering that five years after the Ibo Federal Union was founded by Nnamdi Azikiwe, the Egbe Omo Oduduwa was formed in Lagos by Adeyemo Alakija, Dr Akinola Maja, Dr Kofo Abayomi, Chief Bode Thomas, Chief H. Oladipo Davies, Dr Akanni Doherty and others. In the North, Dr Dikko and others founded Jamiyyar Mutanen Arewa translated to Northern People's Congress. It is also noteworthy that while members of IBO STATE UNION were automatically affiliated to NCNC, members of EGBE OMO ODUDUA could belong to other parties. Thus, Oladipo Davies was an active member of NCNC and at the same time member of Egbe Omo Oduduwa. If there had been no IGBO STATE UNION, there would have been no tribalism in Nigeria. Very soon there will be OBA OF YORUBA IN ONITSHA, ABA, OWERRI, and ENUGU in response to EZE NDI IGBOS OF LAGOS.
From: u...@berkeley.edu
Date: Sat, 25 Apr 2015 16:12:24 -0700
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - From Nnamdi Azikiwe: " a lamp to guide our feet..." & history that vindicates the just
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com
Ugo Nwokeji
Anunoby, Ogugua
After the hung 1959 federal elections, Awolowo did propose to Azikiwe that their parties come together and form the government at the center with Azikiwe as the prime minister. What is true too is that although Awolowo public claimed that he would not serve in a feudalist government in partnership with Ahmadu Bello’s party, he (Awolowo) was contemporaneously, secretly consulting with Ahmadu Bello to form such a coalition government at the center. Shehu Shagari said he was. Shagari was Ahmadu Bello’s confidant, and emissary to Azikiwe after the 1959 elections. He informed Azikiwe that Awolowo was two-faced and should not be trusted by either Ahmadu Bello or Azikiwe. Awolowo’s two-timing has been claimed to be the proximate cause of Azikiwe’s swing away from Awolowo and toward Ahmadu Bello.
Akintola and Awolowo’s disagreement was first economic before it was political. Akintola wanted some of the propitious economic/business privileges (spoils) of the office of premier of Western Nigeria that Awolowo continued to enjoy even after he, Awolowo, was no longer premier and had relocated from Ibadan to Lagos. Awolowo refused to give them up. Akintola would not take “no” for an answer. Hell broke loose from then on and an economic/business disagreement over the spoils of the office of the premier of Western Nigeria became political as it was bound to become if it was not amicably and promptly resolved. The disagreements led to what became known as the Western Crises which was one of the reasons for the January 1966 military coup.
Awolowo did become the leader of opposition at the center- Lagos. He was determined to become prime minister even without an election mandate. He was suspected of, investigated, and accused of planning to overthrow the federal government by force. He was arrested, charged to court, and prosecuted fairly under the law. He had ample opportunity to defend himself and he did robustly. One of his defense lawyers was Sir Dingle Foot- a highly competent, senior British lawyer (Queen’s Counsel). Awolowo along with some of his co-conspirators, was convicted after their treasonable felony trial by the very well-respected Supreme Court Justice George Sowemimo (an Abeokuta man). Awolowo was sentenced to ten years in prison. Awolowo was serving his sentence in Calabar prison until his release by Emeka Ojukwu and not Yakubu Gowon as some revisionists of history have claimed.
A majority if not all Nigerians should share Ugo’s sentiments when he says “ We (Nigerians) need to aim higher and to do so with belief and determination!” This will be less likely to happen if history continues to be intentionally misreported and misrepresented to present and future generations, and always misunderstood.
Mistakes were made in the past. It is time the all effort must be to not repeat the same or similar mistakes are not repeated. There is enough national, state, and other communal experience already to inform the enlightened construction of an achieving country in which all citizens who are prepared to work hard, have faith and true love of country would have peaceful enjoyment of the duties, right and privileges of equal citizenship.
oa
Chika Onyeani
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Segun Ogungbemi
Prof. Segun Ogungbemi
After the hung 1959 federal elections, Awolowo did propose to Azikiwe that their parties come together and form the government at the center with Azikiwe as the prime minister. What is true too is that although Awolowo public claimed that he would not serve in a feudalist government in partnership with Ahmadu Bello’s party, he (Awolowo) was contemporaneously, secretly consulting with Ahmadu Bello to form such a coalition government at the center. Shehu Shagari said he was. Shagari was Ahmadu Bello’s confidant, and emissary to Azikiwe after the 1959 elections. He informed Azikiwe that Awolowo was two-faced and should not be trusted by either Ahmadu Bello or Azikiwe. Awolowo’s two-timing has been claimed to be the proximate cause of Azikiwe’s swing away from Awolowo and toward Ahmadu Bello.
Akintola and Awolowo’s disagreement was first economic before it was political. Akintola wanted some of the propitious economic/business privileges (spoils) of the office of premier of Western Nigeria that Awolowo continued to enjoy even after he, Awolowo, was no longer premier and had relocated from Ibadan to Lagos. Awolowo refused to give them up. Akintola would not take “no” for an answer. Hell broke loose from then on and an economic/business disagreement over the spoils of the office of the premier of Western Nigeria became political as it was bound to become if it was not amicably and promptly resolved. The disagreements led to what became known as the Western Crises which was one of the reasons for the January 1966 military coup.
Awolowo did become the leader of opposition at the center- Lagos. He was determined to become prime minister even without an election mandate. He was suspected of, investigated, and accused of planning to overthrow the federal government by force. He was arrested, charged to court, and prosecuted fairly under the law. He had ample opportunity to defend himself and he did robustly. One of his defense lawyers was Sir Dingle Foot- a highly competent, senior British lawyer (Queen’s Counsel). Awolowo along with some of his co-conspirators, was convicted after their treasonable felony trial by the very well-respected Supreme Court Justice George Sowemimo (an Abeokuta man). Awolowo was sentenced to ten years in prison. Awolowo was serving his sentence in Calabar prison until his release by Emeka Ojukwu and not Yakubu Gowon as some revisionists of history have claimed.
A majority if not all Nigerians should share Ugo’s sentiments when he says “ We (Nigerians) need to aim higher and to do so with belief and determination!” This will be less likely to happen if history continues to be intentionally misreported and misrepresented to present and future generations, and always misunderstood.
Mistakes were made in the past. It is time the all effort must be to not repeat the same or similar mistakes are not repeated. There is enough national, state, and other communal experience already to inform the enlightened construction of an achieving country in which all citizens who are prepared to work hard, have faith and true love of country would have peaceful enjoyment of the duties, right and privileges of equal citizenship.
oa
From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com [mailto:usaafric...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Salimonu Kadiri
Sent: Sunday, April 26, 2015 5:08 PM
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com
Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - From Nnamdi Azikiwe: " a lamp to guide our feet..." & history that vindicates the just
"..... and my thinking is that his (Azikiwe's vision for distributing NCNC'S appointments would have been inclusive and reflected the then diversity of NCNC as well,"- Ugo Nwokeji.
Historically, we all know that there was no exclusive NCNC/NPC government in 1955 but a national government. Therefore, Ugo Nwokeji thinking about Azikiwe's vision for distributing NCNC'S appointments in an inclusive way to reflect the then diversity of the NCNC could not be put to test. Nevertheless, after the 1959 federal elections the results showed that NPC, NCNC AG and their respective allies won 148, 89 and 75 seats respectively in the 312 members of Federal House of Assembly. Since, none of the political parties had absolute majority to form a government, Chief Obafemi Awolowo expressed the view to serve in a national government led by Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe. The AG and NCNC had 168 members as against NPC's 148 in the Parliament. Having been called upon by the Governor General, Sir James Robertson, to form a government, Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa realizing the Parliamentary situation expressed his desire to form a National Government comprising of NPC, NCNC, and AG. The AG leader, Obafemi Awolowo, said that he could not serve in a feudalist led government. Then, on Sunday, 20 December 1959, and in spite of opposition from its ally in the North, NEPU, Azikiwe's NCNC announced a coalition government agreement with the NPC in which Balewa was to become Prime Minister of the federation. The NCNC even agreed to the demand of NPC that no member of the NEPU should be appointed to ministerial post or any other government institutions. Awolowo decided to be the leader of opposition in the Federal Parliament. Azikiwe coldly calculated that the highly educated NCNC would dominate those he had named feudal autocrats, non-English speaking ciphers and illiterate dummies of the NPC even if the leader of the government was a feudalists. The federal coalition government between NPC and NCNC of 1959 onwards gave Azikiwe's NCNC the opportunity to put to test his vision of inclusively distributing federal appointments to reflect the diversity of the NCNC, but it did not happen. The political disagreement between Awolowo and his deputy Samuel Akintola arose out of the latter concern that because Awolowo refused to join the federal government, the NCNC had excised Yoruba indigenes out of federal government's appointments. The rest is history!!
Ugo Nwokeji wrote, "...the aim of Zik and people who shared his mind-set to forestall Nazism in this country, no matter whether it rears its ugly head in form of intolerance, bigotry, or terrorism, has failed."
Ugo Nwokeji with his proclamation of Zik's anti-Nazism philosophy reminds one of George Orwell's 1946, Politics and the English Language wherein he stated, "Political language - and with variations this is true of all political parties, from conservatives to Anarchists - is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give appearance of solidity to pure wind." There has never been National Socialists, derived from the German Nationalsozialistische, in Nigeria. What we have had and still have are tribalists who came with the idea of master tribe destined by God to dominate other tribes in Nigeria politically and economically. It is ironical that he who introduced tribalism into the body politics of Nigeria should be talking of Nazism (National Socialism) rearing its head into Nigeria. When Nnamdi Azikiwe returned to Nigeria in 1937, The Nigerian National Democratic Party (NNDP) had been in existence since 1922 with Herbert Macaulay as the general Secretary and Joseph Egerton Shyngle as the President. The NNDP had won all elections to the Legislative Council in Lagos from 1923 to 1938 when it was defeated by the Nigerian Youth Movement (NYM). In fact NYM was an off-shoot of Lagos Youth Movement that was founded in 1933 by James Churchill Vaughan, Ernest Sissei Ikoli and Samuel Adesanya as leaders. When the NYM won all the three seats for Lagos to the Legislative Council in 1938, Azikiwe decided to join NYM. Besides Ikoli and Adesanya, Azikiwe stated that among the leaders of NYM at that time were, Dr Akiola Maja, H. S. A. Thomas, Jubril Martin and Dr Kofoworola Abayomi. "Prominent among its backbenchers were Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Chief S.L. Akintola, J.A. Tuyo, Hamzat A.Subair, F. Ogugua-Arah, S.O. Shonibare and L. Duro Emmanuel," Zik wrote in his Selected Speeches. Azikiwe desired leadership role for himself which was very difficult to achieve with the calibre of those in the leadership of NYM. Therefore, when a bye-election nomination over who should contest the election to the Legislative Council to replace Dr Abayomi who was on specialist study in UK turned sourer within the NYM, Azikiwe seized the opportunity to join other forces to scuttle the NYM. By 1943, NYM was in coma and NNDP won all the three seats for Lagos to the Legislative Council. That same year, Nnamdi Azikiwe founded the first tribal Union in Nigeria called *IBO FEDERAL UNION* and installed himself as the President. The name was later changed to *IBO STATE UNION.* He was immediately imitated by Eyo Ita who also founded *IBIBIO STATE UNION.* Then in August 26, 1944, Azikiwe founded NCNC and named himself the Secretary and Herbert Macaulay the President. Herbert Macaulay was 80 years old in 1944 and remained the Secretary of NNDP that was still winning elections. He had no need for a new party but the foxy Nnamdi Azikiwe targeted him for the purpose of riding on Macaulay's popularity to power. When Herbert Macaulay died on May 7, 1946, Nnamdi Azikiwe became the President of both NNDP and NCNC. Thus at the Legislative Council Elections of December 1946, Nnamdi Azikiwe, H.P. Adebola, T.O.S. Benson, Dr Ibiyinka Olorunmbe and Adeleke Adedoyin contested and won on the platform of NNDP. After the 1951 elections Azikiwe buried the NNDP until 1964 when Akintola outfoxed the foxy Azikiwe by reincarnating NNDP. It is worth remembering that five years after the Ibo Federal Union was founded by Nnamdi Azikiwe, the Egbe Omo Oduduwa was formed in Lagos by Adeyemo Alakija, Dr Akinola Maja, Dr Kofo Abayomi, Chief Bode Thomas, Chief H. Oladipo Davies, Dr Akanni Doherty and others. In the North, Dr Dikko and others founded Jamiyyar Mutanen Arewa translated to Northern People's Congress. It is s by Adeyemo Alakija, Dr Akinola Maja, Dr Kofo Abayomi, Chief Bode Thomas, Chief H. Oladipo Davies, Dr Akanni Doherty and others. In the North, Dr Dikko and others founded Jamiyyar Mutanen Arewa translated to Northern People's Congress. It is also noteworthy that while members of IBO STATE UNION were automatically affiliated to NCNC, members of EGBE OMO ODUDUA could belong to other parties. Thus, Oladipo Davies was an active member of NCNC and at the same time member of Egbe Omo Oduduwa. If there had been no IGBO STATE UNION, there would have been no tribalism in Nigeria. Very soon there will be OBA OF YORUBA IN ONITSHA, ABA, OWERRI, and ENUGU in response to EZE NDI IGBOS OF LAGOS.
Ayo Turton
An edifying speech indeed!
What is so edifying in such a cunny speech with a self serving argument comparing American Presidential system of government to a Parliamentary system of government with regards to power sharing?
It is like comparing Apple to Coconut.
Azikiwe was a politician who stood for and was never known for any political philosophy his entire political life. He was an all weather political scavenger who stood for nothing but immediate gratification.
So when he died, he died leaving no legacy behind or a political philosophy for his followers to emulate.
Awolowo legacy lives on in the West and has provided direction for Yoruba political afilliation, Sardauna political philosophy is still a light unto the feet of an average Northern politician.
What and where is Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe political legacy? A curious mind wants to know.
Ayo Turton
--
Rex Marinus
Ibrahim Abdullah
Ayo Turton
I cannot see anything in the rather rhetorical question of Mr. Ogungbemi that limits the understanding of who will qualify as an historian to the traditional definition of an historian.
His question could as well be asking if OA is an "historian" in the mould of Edmund Wilson or Paul Krugman. The operative part of his statement is for OA to stop saying or write what he doesn't know.
The truth is that no matter how many times a lie is told, a lie told a million times will still not make it the truth. I will like to challenge OA as an intellectual to provide us with the link or the source of his information where Shagari attested to Awo's double-dealing.
That is another gospel according to Igbo intellectuals just like the "masterpiece" tales by the moonlight of "carpet-crossing" in the Western Region, manufactured by Zik and Mbadiwe and perpetuated by the likes of Chinua Achebe. I hope you know that didn't happen as well.
I am prepared to supply you with the names of everyone that participated in that election and the party they represented.
The truth is that there is the Nigerian history and there is the Igbo-made version of Nigerian history.
Well if there is no ideological difference between NPC and AG, how come that Zik the different one was always the one to quickly jump into others bandwagon?
I am still putting this challenge out there, what was Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe political ideology? Where did he stand as a politician?
Best,
Ayo Turton
Segun Ogungbemi
Prof. Segun Ogungbemi
Historically, we all know that there was no exclusive NCNC/NPC government in 1955 but a national government. Therefore, Ugo Nwokeji thinking about Azikiwe's vision for distributing NCNC'S appointments in an inclusive way to reflect the then diversity of the NCNC could not be put to test. Nevertheless, after the 1959 federal elections the results showed that NPC, NCNC AG and their respective allies won 148, 89 and 75 seats respectively in the 312 members of Federal House of Assembly. Since, none of the political parties had absolute majority to form a government, Chief Obafemi Awolowo expressed the view to serve in a national government led by Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe. The AG and NCNC had 168 members as against NPC's 148 in the Parliament. Having been called upon by the Governor General, Sir James Robertson, to form a government, Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa realizing the Parliamentary situation expressed his desire to form a National Goent. Having been called upon by the Governor General, Sir James Robertson, to form a government, Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa realizing the Parliamentary situation expressed his desire to form a National Government comprising of NPC, NCNC, and AG. The AG leader, Obafemi Awolowo, said that he could not serve in a feudalist led government. Then, on Sunday, 20 December 1959, and in spite of opposition from its ally in the North, NEPU, Azikiwe's NCNC announced a coalition government agreement with the NPC in which Balewa was to become Prime Minister of the federation. The NCNC even agreed to the demand of NPC that no member of the NEPU should be appointed to ministerial post or any other government institutions. Awolowo decided to be the leader of opposition in the Federal Parliament. Azikiwe coldly calculated that the highly educated NCNC would dominate those he had named feudal autocrats, non-English speaking ciphers and illiterate dummies of the NPC even if the leader of the government was a feudalists. The federal coalition government between NPC and NCNC of 1959 onwards gave Azikiwe's NCNC the opportunity to put to test his vision of inclusively distributing federal appointments to reflect the diversity of the NCNC, but it did not happen. The political disagreement between Awolowo and his deputy Samuel Akintola arose out of the latter concern that because Awolowo refused to join the federal government, the NCNC had excised Yoruba indigenes out of federal government's appointments. The rest is history!!
/>
Bode
Ayo Turton
Thanks Prof. Ogungbemi.
I deliberately refused to be on the defensive with regards to the NPC and AG comparison by Dr. Nwakama.
When a supposedly learned person can write that there is no ideological difference between those two parties, as far as I am concerned "oro ti pesi je" (the statement already swallowed the answer)
One has to be an Igbo intellectual to say that. Where do you begin to lecture such person? They were actually like two parallel lines. NPC was against everything AG stood for.
Over 60 years after Awolowo emerged on the scene, his distinct political philosophy still lives on. His legacies you can point to, his trademark hat is still coveted by politicians seeking to emulate him.
I rather want to be enlightened about the "remains" of Nnamdi Azikiwe, what is there out there that we can point as a product of Azikiwe political sagacity that he displayed so much when alive? Nothing. Because the man as brilliant as he was stood for nothing.
Best,
Ayo
Ayo Turton
I am sorry Dr or Mr Bode I don't know how to address you because I am new to the forum even though I know some of the participants here before now.
That statement by Dr. Nwakama is typical and was calculated to diminish both political parties.
He made it look like the both parties were built around Obas and Emirs.
It make sense why one will choose to attack what you perceived as the greatest strength of your opponent that one knows he lacked.
Both Yoruba and Hausa/Fulani/Kanuri had civilizations that preceded colonization. They built empires and lived in well structured societies that could rival with any civilization of its time. As a matter of fact the Yoruba people lived in walled cities like the Roman and Greek civilizations did.
Unlike our brothers from the East of Niger River who lived in less structured society and whose all major cities were built by colonial masters as provincial centers.
How do you now build a system of government that will leave out a substantial part of your history? The Japanese created a role for its monarch, Britain did and many other civilized countries across the world. What makes such structure a "political ideology?"
I am shaking and scratching my head in Prof. Bolaji Aluko mode.
Ayo
--
Rex Marinus
You might recall, the powerful Emir Sanusi of Kano too was deposed and exiled by an NPC government of the North. The NPC's northern program was also modernization - but as for "radical change" - that's taking it too far. The question has been thrown here, about how many northerners benefited from a Northern education program. The fact is every Northerner that went to school in the North had free education and generous scholarships. All we need to do is look at the range of Northerners that emerged in the national stage between 1954 and the postwar years, and you will begin to understand the extent of the northernization program in public education. As at 1959, Judith Safinat Attah was the first Northern Nigerian woman to attain a university degree. She went to school in Readings under a Northern Nigerian program on women's education. She returned as Education officer to the North managing and establishing Girls Secondary schools in Ilorin, Kano, Yola, and many cites where a new generation of Northern women were being educated. I point this out to cut through these rather unfounded assumptions, borne largely of misinformation, that the Awoist love very much, that no other regions were investing in education as did the Action Group government with its "Free education" program. Indeed, if you read Awolowo himself, he did say pointedly that his free education was necessary "in order to catch up with the East!" in much the same way as he also very clearly argued that the reason for progress in the East of his time, was because of the established "fidelity" between the East and its leaders. I'd like Awoists to read a lot of Awo. Bode, AG's political philosophy and its organogram was built on maintaining a traditional, conservative, power infrastructure. That was why, when Awo finally realized the limits of that program, and took the plunge with the so-called "young turks" in 1962 following their Jos Conference, intent on reforming the party and expanding its mission, the Action Group swooned into a massive crisis . The ideological cracks widened the internal power divisions that emerged in the party circa 1959/60.
Ayo Turton: "Zikism" - the philosophical and ideological constructions derived from the political writings and organizing principles of Nnamdi Azikiwe - is the ideology that Azikiwe left behind. Zikism is rooted on the idea of the "new African" and of an African renaissance based on five clear ethical foundations. Azikiwe coherently theorized this in 1937 in his Renascent Africa, for years considered the most important book on African political philosophy in one generation. As Walinmu Julius Nyerere, himself a Zikist, said while giving the Nnamdi Azikiwe lectures at Lincoln, "until my generation read Renascent Africa we did not know of the Africa that exists..." I personally had the great pleasure in 1997 at a private dinner organized for him at the home of his late friend, the distinguished economist Pius Okigbo, on Sanusi Fafunwa street in Victoria Island to meet Nyerere; and in my snatch discussions with him on the subject of Zik, he said, and I remember this clearly: "Azikiwe's ideas charted the course, and we all followed... ." So, for those who question the legacy of Zikist philosophy, they should excavate it in the works and writings of those who were driven by Zikist thought: Nkrumah, Ako Adjei, even the old intellectual nationalists like Kobina Sekyi, whose meeting with Zik in the Gold Coast in 1934/5 with Akunna Wallace-Johnson, changed the course of political discourse and action in Ghana; and in Nigeria many more; and across Africa many more.
There is only one truth which I am bound to concede here: Nigeria, as it is today, is the failure of the Zikist project and the triumph Awo's and Sarduana's ideas about nation. We can acknowledge this. As a political philosophy Zikism, as Zik himself clearly articulated it, is drawn from a hybrid of three methods: aspects of Fabianism, Garveyite Pan-Africanism, and Whitehead's pragmatism - drawn essentially from the influence of his teacher, Alain Locke, for whom he had been research assistant at Howard, and who himself had bee a student of James Whitehead's at Harvard. So, what is the ideology of Zikism: it is based on the idealist philosophy of Zik, that the renewal and modernity of Africa constitutes a moral and historical imperative, based on a method of sublate engagement, and anchored on five ethical foundations: mental freedom, economic determinism, spiritual balance, etc. Azikiwe's organizational principle is based on the "Ekumeku" method: to engage an unequal power, you must learn the slipperiness of the boxer, the patience of the Roman General Maximus Pontifex, and the necessity of dynamic motion. To be fixed to a spot is to be subject to overwhelming force. As for the quip about moving from "Zik of Africa" to "Owelle of Onitsha" - Zik himself was clear: the clear source of universality is locality. Zikism is a version of an idealist humanism, that can today be viewed from two lenses: the idea that social or renascent movements can be overdetermined, and secondly, that Africa as an idea constitutes a permanent renaissance based on the eternal philosophy of a permanently "new Africa," using whenever necessary, the Ekumeku method. I hope I have answered your questions.
Obi Nwakanma
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - From Nnamdi Azikiwe: " a lamp to guide our feet..." & history that vindicates the just
From: segun...@gmail.com
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com
Femi Segun
Rex Marinus
You must be a professor at the University of Ibadan! It does actually show in the quality your thinking and your writing. It is very contemporary Ibadan. For that, I thruway salute. May your tribe increase wherever you study or 'profess' interdisciplinarity. Your logic astounds me, and the world, not just I, needs be astounded. I salute you.
Obi Nwakanma
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - From Nnamdi Azikiwe: " a lamp to guide our feet..." & history that vindicates the just
From: segun...@gmail.com
Ayo Turton
Thanks for your piece Dr. Nwakama but we need to separate facts from fiction.
Number one, did you just say Awo said "in order to catch up with the East" in education? I can't believe you just wrote that! When the East didn't even produce their first sets of professionals until several decades after the West did.
As a matter of fact, all the best of the best from the East were all trained in the West. They enjoyed our free education, Zik tried it and fail.
Achebe, the Okigbos, Ekwueme, Ojukwu etc were all trained and schooled in Yorubaland. Even Ngozi Okonjo-Iwealla went to Saint Annes Ibadan and her father also did!
The only achievement actually attributable to Zik was his desperation to get close to the West in education and he actually did using the alliance with NPC by taking 90% of scholarship positions due to the South to train Igbo people alone to the detriment of others in a country that understood only North/South dichotomy.
With regards to Northern education the North has a policy not to expose their wards to the "evil" Western education that may make them challenge their feudalistic authority. They deliberately kept them down and sent them to Arabic Schools as opposed to Awolowo that massively educated his own people.
Of course the negligible number of Northern elites that did got it for free.
As a matter of fact Awolowo was challenged and castigated for preaching free education to their people. Prof. Banji Akintoye who I can bring to the forum to testify to this had an encounter with one of the Northern leaders as a Senator even as late as 1979 that they are not interested in free education of masses of their people.
With regards to Zikism, I still don't know what that means till today other than it being a political slogan. I have heard of Buharism and Adedibuism as well, lobatan. E come finish.
Pan-Africanism that Zik learned as a follower of Nkurumah IS NOT a POLITICAL IDEOLOGY it was a MOVEMENT. That is why it died with the actors. That's all I have to say about that. You will need to try again sir
Best,
Ayo
Rex Marinus
Dear Professor Falola: my hat is on the floor for you. I salute you sir. First, as you'd notice, I do not refer to "the Yoruba" as a general rule; I refer to "Awoists" because it is quite clear to me that Awo led a distinctive movement, and it was hardly pan-Yoruba. And as you correctly noted, not everyone in the East is a Zikist. I think your point is well made and taken. I think people are free to have their own heroes, but I think it is equally important to know the heroes we celebrate, and the ideas that animated them. We have a right to review, contextualize, and examine the facts that shape our alignments and affiliations, beyond myth-making. That is the value of all these to me: to make certain that we know the deities to whom we bow. I am glad that you mentioned that Ibadan was a "Zikist city" if there was any. There are many today, who do not know this fact. Thank you very much for your patience, when we at certain moments of enthusiasm, let free the run of our madness. This forum is a marketplace. And it is as Jadum, the great madman and philosopher was wont to say, "The market may be crowded, but some come with empty baskets."
Ayo Turton:
I'm quite certain that you will change your mind if you have all facts, which is why I'm providing these contexts. I think, if you permit me to say, you have been wrongly educated on the subject of Nigerian history. For example, Achebe, Okigbo, Ekwueme, Ojukwu, etc. went to the government colleges - in Umuahia and Lagos (Kings), and this long before any of these men came to power. Achebe and Okigbo, for instance, went to the University College Ibadan, which without Aziiwe's pressure would possibly not have been established. My authority on this is Michael Crowder (see his The Story of Nigeria) and his reference to Arthur Richard's attempt to cuddle Zik, circa 1945/6. Awolowo was not in the picture when the University College Ibadan was established. He had no hand in it. Please verify for yourself. Read! Read! Read beyond your comfort zones!
You probably did not know that Ibadan was governed from Enugu up till 1943, before the creation of the three regions by Arthur Richards in 1946. Ayo, the facts of Northern education from 1954 to at least 1966, as you have reproduced here is significantly false. It is true that a greater more people were always enrolled in schools in Southern Nigeria, but the NPC government had, as part of its northernization policy to "catch up with the South," embarked on a vast program of rapid education. That is how come the likes of Babangida, etc. ended up at the various government colleges in Barewa, Bida, Keffi, Kastina, Kaduna, Illorin, etc, supplemented by missionary schools in Gindiri, Zaria, Jos, Kano, etc. And the beneficiaries were not vastly children of the aristocracy. Most of the contemporary laeders of the North did not turn out to be children of the aristocracy. Sir Abubakar Balewa was no child of the traditional Northern aristocracy. It is part of the Southern Nigerian conceit, particularly from the kind of misinformation retailed by Awoists, to presume and comfort itself with the fiction of "Northern ignorance" and "illiteracy." I think you must re-examine that attitude. The only fundamental difference between Awo and Sarduana was that one cast his eyes Eastwards, and the other westwards; besides that that they were cut from the same political cloth.
Francis Kwame Nkrumah himself has himself written in acknowledgement of his ideological debts to Zik, and so it is pointless stretching this point with you. Nkrumah met Zik in Accra, and used to come to listen to Azikiwe address labour and other political activists at the Accra Clubs Union. He was on his way to the Catholic seminary when Zik convinced him to a different course, secured him admission and scholarship at his alma mater, Lincoln in 1938, and introduced him to his wide network in the African-American intellectual community, just as he did Ako Adjei, k.O.Mbadiwe, Nwafor Orizu, Ikejiani, Mbonu Ojike, K.A.B Quartey-Jones, who later wrote his biography, and some more, who became the backbone of the Zikist project of African liberation in the 1940s. In other words, these were the Zik discipleship. It was Zik who wrote to and convinced the leaders of the Nationalist party, the Gold Coast Convention Party in Ghana - the likes of Ofori-Attah, his uncle J.B. Danqua, Emman Kobina Sekyi, etc., to bring back Nkrumah from London, where he was "wasting his talents" as Azikiwe noted. Therefore, how could Zik have learnt Pan-Africanism from Nkrumah? And I beg your pardon: an ideology is the categorical principles on which a movement is instrumentalized. Zikism was the instrumental ideology for the African liberation and anti-colonial movement in the crucial inter war years in West Africa. I do not think you can revise this. Pan-Africanism is in abeyance from the forces of neo-colonialism. It is not dead. Every renaissance movement speaks to the renewal of a dying past. There will be a new pan-African surge, and it will rely on the clarity of vision of the Zikists.
Finally to Femi Segun: thanks for your question. Years ago as a young reporter, I went to Enugu to interview Mokugo Okoye, among the five of the Zikists, who were at the frontline of the movement that I was able to speak with: Harry Nwanna, Kola Balogun, MCK Ajuluchukwu, and Mbazulike Amechi. Among these, Amechi is the lone survivor at the moment. In my various questions, I distilled the story of Azikiwe's action thus: when the leaders of the Zikist movement met Zik in Lagos to open discussions about entering the phase of the armed struggle, Azikiwe cautioned them about the stages of the revolution. First, he asked them who would supply them the arms for a sustained rebellion. If they were to rely on the same foe they were fighting to supply them, then they were bound to reconsider. Secondly, Nigerians were not ideologically ready or motivated, at that stage of political development, to support an armed struggle. It made more sense to adopt two methods: the Ghandi method and the British claim to liberal constitutionalist principles and catch them at their game. Zik had had this same argument with I.T.A Wallace Johnson in Accra in 1935. With his experience of the sedition laws and his trial in the Gold Coast in 1936, he knew that the British had set a trap for the Zikists. The British colonial intelligence services had also infiltrated the ranks of the Zikist movement. If the NCNC and Zik had anything, they also had a vast and intricate network of local intelligence too, and were constantly ahead of the game. The British colonial authority planned to use the excuse of an armed rebellion to eliminate the leadership of the anti-colonial movement, destroy the movement, and set back the agitation for independence. Azikiwe, from talking with these men, made these all clear. But the Zikists, mostly young "hot-headed" men, insisted on defying Zik and pursuing their objective. Azikiwe requested that they first let him go to Epe, before they launched their action, which they did. It did not take much for the colonial regime to subdue that rebellion in all the cities where they had staged their action, arrest the leaders of the movement, and put them to trial. But all in anticipation of this, Azikiwe had used the West African Pilot to quickly, publicly distance the leadership of the movement from the Zikist movement: "these are young fissiparous elements" he declared. Azikiwe's action accomplished two things: (a) it tied the hands of the colonial regime from moving and investigating, and arresting the leaders of the nationalist movement, and (b) it gave him the leverage to negotiate their release. It took Zik, working his channels, to reduce the jail terms, and reduce the consequences, other than the banning of the movement, on these young men, some of them no older than 19 years. It was a very strategic, and pragmatic move.
Obi Nwakanma
Date: Wed, 29 Apr 2015 10:21:15 -0400
Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - From Nnamdi Azikiwe: " a lamp to guide our feet..." & history that vindicates the just
Ayo Turton
Dr. Nwakama thanks for the amount of effort put into your last write-up it is appreciated. I will reply fully when I am a little bit less busy.
But let me quickly say here that there was never a time Ibadan was governed from Enugu. Sir Bernard Bourdillon who preceded Arthur Richard in office divided the Southern Nigeria into East and West and governed from the Government House in Lagos. Bourdillon Road Ikoyi is named after him. This is a factual disagreement that we can easily verify.
But with regards to the education of the likes of Achebe, Okigbos, Zik's political ideology I will get back to you later.
Little bit busy now.
Thanks.
Ayo
Segun Ogungbemi
"Indeed, if you read Awolowo himself, he did say pointedly that his free education was necessary 'in order to catch up with the East'."
Would you please cite the source so that we can read it, if you want us to believe you.
Prof. Segun Ogungbemi
Segun Ogungbemi
Prof. Segun Ogungbemi
Ayo Turton
Dr. Nwakama,
Since it doesn't look like I will have the time to fully address your points anytime soon, let me quickly address the highlights of your post.
On Northern Education
It is no secret that Sardauna was more preoccupied with recruiting his wards into the military than colleges which he saw as the future of Nigeria. He was right to some extent. It is trite, therefore a waste of time debating it.
On Training Igbo Elites in Yorubaland
I didn't make this assertion in reference to Awo's free education but in reference to your assertion that the West was trying to catch up with the East. At what point was that possible when the first sets of Igbo to have better education had to set their feet on Yorubaland to acquire it. Is it not trite that the first Nigerian Doctor, Lawyer, Accountant etc were all Yoruba?
On University of Ibadan
I get uncomfortable when intellectuals manufacture stories that can be easily debunked. The Commissions set up by the British Government, Asquith & Elliott Commissions already decided to set up University College Ibadan in 1943 before Arthur Richard who was "cuddling Zik circa 1945/46" according to you even became the Governor of Nigeria.
On Zik & Nkurumah
I think whereever the history of Pan Africanism is being told, after W B Dubois, the names of the likes of Nkurumah and Julius Nyerere would be next.
That is actually besides the point, the truth is that Pan Africanism is a movement to get independence for all African countries, therefore it can't be Zik's political ideology for post independent Nigeria.
Pan-Africanism is irrelevant with regards to Nigeria local politics.
Thanks,
Ayo.
--
Anunoby, Ogugua
so,
Does one have to be a historian to qualify to contribute in this forum? You seem to be concerned with the messenger and not their message.
You surprise me. What is your point?
One does not know including know correctly just because the one is a witness. The one must be paying full and proper attention with an open mind. You have heard I believe, of unreliable witness accounts which accounts are usually not acceptable as information of record.
What causes or places you in a position to make a determination on what other people know or do not know? My suggestion (I was tempted to say advise but you may take offense) is that you post to this forum, what you know including any worthy disagreement with the postings of others rather than expend valuable mental energy and time on obtuse assertion and contention.
Facts do not cease to be facts because the ignorant or misinformed dispute them.
oa
--
Salimonu Kadiri
Ogugua Anunoby wrote,"After the hung 1959 federal elections, Awolowo did propose to Azikiwe that their parties come together and form the government at the center with Azikiwe as the Prime Minister. What is true too is that although Awolowo publicly claimed he would not serve in a feudalist government in partnership with Ahmadu Bello's party, he (Awolowo) was contemporaneously, secretly consulting with Ahmadu Bello to form such a coalition government at the center. Shehu Shagari said he was. Shehu Shagari was Ahmadu Bello's confidant, and emissary to Azikiwe after the 1959 elections." To begin with, it is historically untrue that Awolowo proposed a two party government of AG and NCNC at the centre to Azikiwe. What Awolowo proposed was a national government comprising of NPC, NCNC and AG led by Azikiwe as the Prime Minister. It should not be forgotten that only Awolowo campaigned throughout Nigeria in !959 while Azikiwe restricted his campaigns to the Western and Eastern Region. Ahmadu Bello as the leader of NPC restricted his campaign to the North and vowed never to forgive Awolowo for forcing him to beg for votes from his subjects. Awolowo and Azikiwe had relinquished the Premiership of their respective region to contest for Prime ministership at the centre while Ahmadu Bello ceded the federal Prime Minister's post to his deputy, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa. On one hand Ogugua Anunoby admitted that Awolowo publicly announced that he would never serve in a National Government led by a feudalist and in the other hand OA referred to Shehu Shagari as Ahmadu Bello's confidant and emissary to Azikiwe after the 1959 elections who revealed to Azikiwe that Awolowo was consulting with NPC to form a coalition government. If we are to apply historical probability that it was true that Shehu Shagari credited Awolowo with secret coalition contact with the NPC, would it not be intelligent to think that Shehu Shagari said this to Azikiwe in order to prevent him from accepting the Prime Ministership offered by Awolowo? Why did Ahmadu Bello send Shehu Shagari as an emissary to Azikiwe? Was it not for the purpose of convincing Azikiwe not to accept to lead a national government offered by Awolowo? Did it make any sense to claim that Ahmadu Bello sent Shehu Shagari as an emissary to Azikiwe when he could have talked to him direct? In 1957, when Azikiwe and Awolowo were still Premier of Eastern and Western Region respectively, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa in his broadcast to the nation in September 1957 as the first Prime Minister of Nigeria said among other things, "To further this overriding need for unity, my colleagues in the Council of Ministers and I have decided to give the country a lead by inviting the leaders of the Action Group to form with us a truly National Government composed of members of the main parties.... I and my colleagues of the NCNC and NPC hold out our hands in welcome to the Action Group members of the Council and I promise you that we shall do our utmost to ensure that the deliberations of the Council are held in an atmosphere devoid of strife and narrow party prejudice (p. 6-7, MR PRIME MINISTER - A selection of speeches made by Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Prime Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Published by the Federal Ministry of Information, Lagos, 1964)." Although, AG eventually joined the national government, it is clear from the above referenced broadcast that the NCNC had already been in the government with the NPC which Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe had described, in his Presidential address to the IBO State Union in 1950, as feudal autocrats, non-English speaking ciphers and illiterate dummies. Those qualities were the main reason why Azikiwe's NCNC was always eager to go into coalition with the NPC in order to assert its presumed superior educational and business talents over the backward North. Viewed from this historical fact, the assertion of Ogugua Anunoby that the swing of Azikiwe to the NPC depended on alleged Awolowo's two-timing was a grade one historical construction and a lie.
From: Anun...@lincolnu.edu
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com
Date: Thu, 30 Apr 2015 09:02:10 -0500
Subject: FW: USA Africa Dialogue Series - From Nnamdi Azikiwe: " a lamp to guide our feet..." & history that vindicates the just
Cornelius Hamelberg
Lord Ogugua Anunoby,
Just look at the remarkable difference that Ogbeni Kadiri’s latest contribution has made to the discussion, now that he’s back from his state visit to Merry England and sipping tea near Buckingham Palace, maybe digging as my Better Half did the whole summer of 1971, where there is a lot about Zik, I.T.A. Wallace-Johnson and Kwame Nkrumah and the West African Youth League lodged in the in the colonial archives of the British Museum.
In Salimonou Kadiri’s absence some of the assertions made in this forum have gone unchallenged, but silence has never meant consent as he so vigorously now makes clear…
Even the eminent historians have been known to dis-agree and sometimes even be guilty of mountainous error - the one I have mostly read Hugh Trevor-Roper comes to mind.
You can compare some of the elements in Akintola Wyse’s The Krio of Sierra Leone: An interpretive history with some of those tendered by Leo Spitzer: Leo Spitzer: The Creoles of Sierra Leone: Responses to colonialism or some of the analyses of Sierra Leone’s Creoles, done by Abner Cohen and my sometimes differing understanding of some of the matters he takes up in that chapter in his book “The politics of elite cultures”
And what are we to make of the records of our pre-literate societies, the oral transmissions of the griots and other epic praise singers; must their accounts be declared null and void or sub-standard because lacking in formal cum laude degrees from Oxbridge?
And then there are the historical novels situated in and imbued with history and imaginative interpretations of history; I’m thinking now not of autobiographies but historical fiction of the sort done by Gore Vidal ( Burr) and the personal first person histories of e.g. Wole Soyinka’s “The Man Died” , Ngugi’s “ Detained - A writer’s diary “ , Montagu Slater’s “ The trial of Jomo Kenyatta” and the absolute accuracy of the verbatim protocols , transcripts of the court proceedings published as “ The Testimony of Steve Biko “ - and with reference to Nigeria that most delightful source of history which I visited many times before joining this forum, namely the Great Speeches section of Bolaji Aluko’s DAWODU and last but not least some of the later history of Sierra Leone and Ghana, during the years 1966-1967 that has not yet been seen in print…
Sincerely,
CH
Cornelius Hamelberg
Correction (a serious one)
I didn’t mean Akintola Wyse’s “The Krio of Sierra Leone: An interpretive history” but his
certainly more detailed H. C. Bankole-Bright and Politics in Colonial Sierra Leone, 1919–1958
which takes up some of the same subject matter as Leo Spitzer: The Creoles of Sierra Leone: Responses to colonialism
...
Salimonu Kadiri
There is no end to learning and as long as we live we will all continue to learn. Since we are yet to read where Chief Obafemi Awolowo said that his *Free education was necessary in order to catch up with the East* this forum will be very grateful to know from Mr Nwakanma the source of his information about Awolowo's statement on catching up with the East educationally even though we are not Awoist. However, in Obafemi Awolowo's Magnus Opus, (as I consider it) Path To Nigerian Freedom, 1947, one of the reason he adduced for Nigeria not being ready for self-government was expressed as follows, "The existence of a MICROSCOPIC LITERARY CLASS would lead to EXPLOITATION OF THE GREAT MAJORITY OF ILLITERATES BY THE INTELLIGENTSIA." Awolowo's free education strife was motivated out of desire to prevent few educated class to exploit the uneducated masses. Thus, when the formation of Action Group was announced on the 21st of March 1951, Awolowo wrote, "The basic principles which, therefore, have brought us together within the fold of the Action Group may be stated in the following words: 1. The immediate termination of British rule in Nigeria in every phase of our political life. 2. THE EDUCATION OF ALL CHILDREN OF SCHOOL-GOING AGE, AND GENERAL ENLIGHTENMENT OF ALL ILLITERATE ADULTS AND ALL ILLITERATE CHILDREN ABOVE SCHOOL-GOING AGE. 3. The provision of health and general welfare for all our people. 4. The total abolition of want in our society by means of any economic policy which is both expedient and effective (p. 223-224, AWO - The autobiography of Chief OBAFEMI AWOLOWO)." Item two could not have been aimed at catching up with the East since most children in the East had no access to education before or after 1951. Furthermore, Awolowo as the Presidential candidate of the UPN in the 1979 election had the following in the Party's manifesto, "Free Education at all levels; Free Medical Services to all Nigerians (both curative and Preventive); Integrated Rural Development; and Full Employment for all Nigerians."
Personally, I do not think that there is anything wrong or bad if Awolowo's ambition with his free education program was for the West to catch up with the East educationally. Nevertheless, I am convinced that Mr Nwakanma is only out to seek ethnic glorification based on fictitious story. Generally, it is well established in most history books on Nigeria that because of Yorubas early contact with Europe they acquired Western education earlier than any other part of Nigeria (including the East). Who was catching up with whom educationally in Nigeria was expressed by Chinua Achebe as follows, "Although the Yoruba had a huge historical and geographical head start, the Igbo wiped out their (educational) handicap in one fantastic burst of energy in the twenty years between 1930 and 1950 (p. 74, under A History of Ethnic Tension and Resentment, in There Was A Country; also on p. 46, under The Igbo Problem, in THE TROUBLE WITH NIGERIA)." In fact, it was not only in Education that the Igbo wiped out their handicap but also in dressing whereby, Azikiwe learned how to wear Yoruba attire, SÒKÒTÒ (AGADANSHÍ), BÙBÁ and AGBÁDÁ, which he introduced to his tribe's men in the East where they have since been counterfeited into various forms to suit Igbo taste.
From: rexma...@hotmail.com
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com
Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - From Nnamdi Azikiwe: " a lamp to guide our feet..." & history that vindicates the just
Segun Ogungbemi
power. When Herbert Macaulay died on May 7, 1946, Nnamdi Azikiwe became the President of both NNDP and NCNC. Thus at the Legislative Council Elections of December 1946, Nnamdi Azikiwe, H.P. Adebola, T.O.S. Benson, Dr R