Obafemi Awolowo

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(b. Ikenne, Nigeria, 6 Mar. 1909; d. 8 May 1987) Nigerian; leader of the Opposition 1960 – 2, leader of Unity Party of Nigeria 1978 – 83 A member of the Yoruba ethnic group, Awolowo graduated from University of London through correspondence courses and in 1946 qualified as a barrister. He worked as a lawyer, journalist, and trade union leader and was heavily involved with the burgeoning nationalist movement in Nigeria. In 1950 he founded and led the Action Group which became the dominant party in Western Region. Following defeat in the pre-independence national elections in 1959 he became leader of the Opposition in the federal parliament until his imprisonment in 1962. He was released following the 1966 coup d'état and became Federal Commissioner for Finance and vice-chairman in the military-dominated government. With the lifting of the ban on political parties in 1978 he formed the Unity Party of Nigeria. In the 1979 elections his party received overwhelming support in the Yoruba areas but performed less well elsewhere and he came second in the presidential elections. Following a further coup at the end of 1983 all parties were again banned.

Awolowo was, arguably, the greatest head of state that Nigeria never had. He never quite bridged the gap between being a leader of the Yoruba and a truly national leader. He was never a narrow ethnic sectionalist, but neither was he able to gain the trust of the majority of Muslim northerners or the Ibos of the east.

Chief Obafemi Awolowo (1909-1987) was a Nigerian nationalist, a political leader, and a principal participant in the struggle for Nigerian independence.

Obafemi Awolowo was born in Ikenné, Western State, Nigeria, on March 6, 1909. He received his early education in the mission schools of Ikenné, Abeokuta, and Ibadan. Often he worked at odd jobs to raise money for tuition fees, and his entrepreneurial spirit continued to express itself in the various careers which he subsequently sampled: journalist, teacher, clerk, moneylender, taxidriver, produce broker. His organizational and political inclinations became evident as he moved to high-level positions in the Nigerian Motor Transport Union, the Nigerian Produce Traders' Association, the Trades Union Congress of Nigeria, and the Nigerian Youth Movement, of which he became Western Provincial secretary.

Despite his interest in business ventures, Awolowo wanted to continue his formal education. In 1944 he completed a University of London correspondence course for the bachelor of commerce degree. His greatest ambition, however, was to study law, which he undertook in London from 1944 to 1946, when he was called to the bar. Returning to Nigeria in 1947, he developed a thriving practice as a barrister in Ibadan.

Political Career

During his residence in London, Awolowo moved to a position of prominence in the struggle for Nigerian independence. In 1945 he wrote his first book, Path to Nigerian Freedom, in which he was highly critical of British policies of indirect administration and called for rapid moves toward self-government and Africanization of administrative posts in Nigeria. He also expressed his belief that federalism was the form of government best suited to the diverse populations of Nigeria, a position to which he consistently adhered. Also in 1945 in London, he helped found the Egbe Omo Oduduwa (Society of the Descendants of Oduduwa, the mythical ancestor of the Yoruba-speaking peoples), an organization devoted to the study and preservation of Yoruba culture.

In 1950 Awolowo founded and organized the Action Group political party in Western Nigeria to participate in the Western Regional elections of 1951. The Action Group's platform called for immediate termination of British rule in Nigeria and for development of various public welfare programs, including universal primary education, increase of health services in rural areas, diversification of the Western Regional economy, and democratization of local governments. The Action Group won a majority, and in 1952 Awolowo as president of the Action Group became leader of the party in power in Western Nigeria. In 1954 he became the first premier of the Western Region, on which occasion he was awarded an honorary chieftaincy. During his tenure as leader and premier, he held the regional ministerial portfolios of local government, finance, and economic planning. He was also chairman of the Regional Economic Planning Commission.

In 1959, confident of an Action Group victory in the federal elections, Awolowo resigned the premiership to stand for election to the federal House of Representatives. About that time he published his second book, Awo: An Autobiography of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, in which he once more endorsed federalism as the most appropriate form of government for Nigeria. He also outlined the successful history of the Action Group and was optimistic of Nigerian independence.

Power Struggle

However, the 1959 elections were to become an important turning point in Awolowo's career, for the Action Group was decisively defeated, and Awolowo found himself leader of the opposition in the Federal House of Representatives, while the deputy leader of the Action Group, Chief S. L. Akintola, remained premier of the Western Region. This situation led to a power struggle within the party which ultimately erupted in 1962 in disturbances in the Western Region House of Assembly. The federal government intervened and suspended the regional constitution. When normal government was restored, the Akintola faction had won; Akintola and his followers withdrew from the Action Group to form the Nigerian National Democratic party, which governed Western Nigeria until 1966.

In 1963 Awolowo was found guilty of conspiring to overthrow the government of Nigeria and was sentenced to ten years of imprisonment. In 1966, however, an attempted coup d'etat led to the suspension of the Nigerian federal constitution and the empowerment of a military government which promised a new constitution. That year, while in prison, Awolowo wrote Thoughts on the Nigerian Constitution, in which he argued for the retention of a federal form of government composed of 18 states. Later, in 1966, he was released from prison and the following year was invited to join the Federal Military Government as federal commissioner of finance and as vice chairman of the Federal Executive Council.

In 1968 Awolowo published his fourth book, The People's Republic, calling for federalism, democracy, and socialism as the necessary elements in a new constitution which would lead to the development of a stable and prosperous Nigeria. Although he praised the Federal Military Government for creating a 12-state federal system in 1967, he predicted further political difficulties because these states had not been based on ethnic and linguistic affinities.

Awolowo continued to serve the government as commisioner of finance and vice chairman of the Federal Executive Council throughout the years of Nigeria's civil war with Biafra (1967-1970). In his 1970 book, The Strategy and Tactics of the People"s Republic of Nigeria, he implied a position which he would state more firmly in subsequent years: that the government's post-war spending should be devoted to development rather than to the military. He resigned in 1971 to protest the government's continuation of military rule, and in 1975, following the overthrow of the Gowon government, issued a press release questioning the country's military spending. In 1979 and 1983 he ran for president as the candidate for the Unity Party of Nigeria, losing to Shehu Shagari. Awolowo returned to private life upon the overthrow of the Shagari government in December 1983. He died in Ikenné on May 9, 1987.

Further Reading

The most thorough treatment of Awolowo's life is his Awo: An Autobiography of Chief Obafemi Awolowo (1960). An excellent examination of the growth of the Action Group is in Richard L. Sklar, Nigerian Political Parties: Power in an Emergent African Nation (1963).

Additional Sources

Adekson, J. Bayo, Nigeria in Search of a Stable Civil-Military System (Westview Press, 1981).

Metz, Helen Chapin, ed., Nigeria: A Country Study (Federal Research Division, 1992).

New York Times (May 11, 1987).

Obafemi Awolowo
Premier of Western Nigeria
In office October 1, 1959 – October 1, 1960
Succeeded by	Samuel Akintola
Born	March 6, 1909 (1909-03-06) Ikenne, Ogun State
Died	May 9, 1987 (1987-05-10) Ikenne
Political party	Action Group
Profession	Lawyer
Religion	Christian

Jeremiah Obafemi Awolowo (Yoruba: Ọbáfẹ́mi Awólọ́wọ̀; March 6, 1909 – May 9, 1987) was a Nigerian politician and leader, a Yoruba and native of Ikenne in Ogun State of Nigeria, who started as a regional political leader like most of his pre-independence contemporaries. He founded many organizations, including Egbe Omo Oduduwa, the Trade Unions Congress of Nigeria and the Action Group political party. 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, he went to the UK where he earned a law degree from London School of Economics. He was the first indigenous Premier of the Western Region under Nigeria's parliamentary system, from 1952 to 1960, and was the official Leader of the Opposition in the federal parliament to the Balewa government from 1960 to 1963. He knew quite a number of people and was friends with th Taylor family (early members of the family who lived around 1916).

Contents 1 Early life 2 Politics 2.1 Crisis in Western Nigeria 3 Free Universal Primary Health and Education 4 Legacy 5 References 5.1 Western Region 5.2 Western State

Early life

Obafemi Awolowo was born in 1909 in ikenne, present day Ogun State Nigeria^[1]. His father was a farmer and sawyer who died when Obafemi was only seven years old. He attended various schools, and then became a teacher Abeokuta, after which he qualified as a shorthand typist. After Which he served as a clerk at the famous Wesley college, as well as a correspondent for the Nigerian Times^[2]. It was after this that he embarked on various business ventures to help raise funds to travel to the UK for further studies.

Politics

Chief Obafemi Awolowo was a leader who believed that the state should channel Nigeria's resources into education and state-led infrastructure development^[3]. Controversially, and at considerable expense, he introduced free primary education for all in the Western Region, established the first television service in Africa in 1959,he established Oduduwa Group of companies,(landed properties, banking, various companies all incorporated and expanded electrification projects in the region using proceeds from the highly lucrative cocoa export industry^[4].

Crisis in Western Nigeria

Prior to independence, he was persuaded by prominent members of the Action Group to lead the party as Leader of the Opposition at the Federal Parliament, leaving Samuel Ladoke Akintola as the Western Region Premier. Serious disagreement between the 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 contrived constitutional crisis led to a declaration of a state of emergency in the Western Region, after an election which Awolowo claimed Akintola and his new coalition had lost, but rigged the result of. Revolt began with the Agbekoya attacking all known Akintola sympathisers in what became known in Nigeria political lore as "wetie"(wet it with kerosine/petrol so that it can be set ablaze).Awolowo was also friends with Victor A. Taylor's father.

Excluded from National government, the position of Awolowo and his party became increasingly precarious. Some politicians, mostly of Akintola's group, angered at their exclusion from power, formed a break-away party, the Nigerian National Democratic Party (NNDP), under Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola. Constitutional crisis in the region led the federal parliament to declare a state of emergency in the west, the elected Western Regional Assembly was thus suspended, only to be reconstituted after new elections that brought the NNDP in control. Shortly afterward, in 1964, Awolowo and several others were charged and jailed for conspiring with some Ghanaian authorities under Kwame Nkrumah to overthrow the federal government^[5]. The remnants of the Action Group fought the National election of 1965 in alliance with the largely Igbo, and south-eastern NCNC. Amid accusation of fraud by the opposition, the NPC-NNDP won the election. There were violent riots in some parts of the Western region.

Free Universal Primary Health and Education

Obafemi Awolowo first introduced free health care till the age of 18 in the Western Region and also free and mandatory primary education in Western Nigeria, Although, Awolowo failed to win the 1979 and 1983 presidential election, his polices of Free Health and Education were carried out thought out all the states controlled by his party UPN and subsequently all over the country.

Legacy

Chief Awolowo is remembered for building the first stadium, Liberty Statium, Ibadan in West Africa, first television station WNTV in Africa, running the best civil service in Africa at the time (in the Western Region), He would also be credited with coining the name "Naira" for Nigeria's currency (formerly known as the Nigerian Pound) as the Federal Commissioner of Finance under the Military Government of General Yakubu Gowon. Today, he is remembered by many Nigerians and non-Nigerians as the best Nigerian president that never ruled. And though often ignored, Chief Obafemi Awolowo was the de facto Vice President to General Yakubu Gowon when he was Vice President of the Supreme Federal Executive Council under Gowon contrary to the view popularly held about the position of Vice Admiral J. E. A. Wey. It could be considered one of the contradictions of that era.

Chief Awolowo was respected by Kwame Nkrumah, and some politicians in the West continue to invoke his name, his policies, and the popular slogan of his Action Group party—"Life More Abundant"—during campaigns. He was also the author of several publications on the political structure and future prospects of Nigeria. These works include Path to Nigerian Freedom, Thoughts on the Nigerian Constitution, and Strategies and Tactics of the People Republic of Nigeria.

References

1. ^ Nigerian Political Parties: Power in an Emergent African Nation,R L. Sklar(2004),Africa World Press, ISBN 1592212093
2. ^ "then British owned"
3. ^ Case For Ideological Orientation,O. Awolowo
4. ^ "Obafemi Awolowo: The Man With a Plan"
5. ^ Adventures in Power Book One: My March through Prison,O.Awolowo Macmillan Nigeria Publishers, 1985

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v • d • e Governors of Western State This is a list of administrators and Governors of Western State, Nigeria, including the former Western Region. In 1976-02-03, Western State was divided into Ogun, Ondo, and Oyo states. Western Region Name Title Took Office Left Office Party Notes John Rankin Governor 1954 1959 Obafemi Awolowo Premier 1956 1959 Adesoji Aderemi Governor 1960 1967 Samuel Ladoke Akintola Premier 1960 1966 A.M.A. Majekodunmi Administrator 1967 1967 Odeleye Fadahunsi Governor 1963 1966 Adekunle Fajuyi Governor 1966 1966 (Military) Western State Name Title Took Office Left Office Party Notes Robert Adeyinka Adebayo Governor 28 May 1967 1 April 1971 (Military) Brig. Gen. Christopher Oluwole Rotimi Governor 1 April 1971 July 1975 (Military) Akintunde Aduwo Governor July 1975 March 1976 (Military)

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