Obafemi Awolowo

Obafemi Awolowo
Premier of Western Nigeria
In office October 1, 1954 – October 1, 1960
Succeeded by	Samuel Akintola
Personal details
Born	March 6, 1909(1909-03-06) Ikenne, Ogun State
Died	May 9, 1987(1987-05-09) (aged 78) 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, trade unionist and statesman. A Yoruba and native of Ikenne in Ogun State of Nigeria, he started his career as a regional political leader like most of his pre-independence contemporaries and was responsible for much of the progressive social legislations that made Nigeria a modern nation.^[1] 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 from a London University through Correspondence, 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. In addition to all this, Awolowo was also the first individual in the modern era to be referred to as the Asiwaju of Yorubaland, a title which has come over time to be automatically ascribed to his direct successors as the recognised political leader of the elders and members of the Yoruba clans of Nigeria.

Early life

Oloye Obafemi Awolowo was born in 1909 in Ikenne, present day Ogun State Nigeria.^[2] 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 in 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.^[3] It was after this that he embarked on various business ventures to help raise funds to travel to the UK for further studies.^{[citation needed]} In 1949 Awolowo founded the Nigerian Tribune, the oldest surviving private Nigerian newspaper.^[4]

Politics

Awolowo was a leader who believed that the state should channel Nigeria's resources into education and state-led infrastructure development.^[5] 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,and the Oduduwa Group of which the highly lucrative cocoa industry which was the mainstream of the regional economy.(.^[6]

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 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, eventually resulting in the Agbekoya crisis of the late 1960s.

Excluded from national government, the position of Awolowo and his party became increasingly precarious. Akintola's followers, angered at their exclusion from power, formed the Nigerian National Democratic Party (NNDP) under Akintola's leadership. A constitutional crisis in the region led the federal parliament to declare a state of emergency in the Western region. The federal government suspended the elected Western Regional Assembly, and then reconstituted the body after controversial new elections that brought the NNDP in control. Shortly afterward, Awolowo and several disciples were charged and jailed for conspiring with some Ghanaian authorities under Kwame Nkrumah to overthrow the federal government.^[7] 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

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 which were questionable, his polices of Free Health and Education were carried out throughout all the states controlled by his party UPN.

Legacy

Awolowo is remembered for building Liberty Stadium in Ibadan, the first of its kind in Africa; WNTV, the first television station in Africa, the first skyscraper in tropical Africa: The Cocoa House (Still the tallest in Ibadan) and running a widely-respected civil service in the Western Region. He is also 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 president that Nigeria never had. Awolowo's closest position to federal service was as the de facto Vice President to General Yakubu Gowon when he was Vice President of the Supreme Federal Executive Council under Gowon, a position he resigned immediately after the Nigerian Civil War.

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. Many institutions in Nigeria, honoured him and several regional and national institutions are named after him, including Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife Osun State(formerly University of Ile-Ife), Liberty Stadium in Ibadan is now Awolowo Stadium. His portrait on the ₦100 naira note, in commemoration of his service to the nation. A prolific political author, his most prominent works include Path to Nigerian Freedom, Thoughts on the Nigerian Constitution, and Strategies and Tactics of the People Republic of Nigeria.

References

1. ^ Historical dictionary of the British empire, Volume 1
2. ^ Nigerian Political Parties: Power in an Emergent African Nation,R L. Sklar(2004),Africa World Press, ISBN 1592212093
3. ^ "then British owned"
4. ^ "About Us". Nigerian Tribune. http://tribune.com.ng/index.php/about-us. Retrieved 2011-05-11. 
5. ^ Case For Ideological Orientation,O. Awolowo
6. ^ "Obafemi Awolowo: The Man With a Plan"
7. ^ Adventures in Power Book One: My March through Prison,O.Awolowo Macmillan Nigeria Publishers, 1985

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Persondata
Name	Awolowo, Obafemi
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	March 6, 1909
Place of birth	Ikenne, Ogun State
Date of death	May 9, 1987
Place of death	Ikenne