By Charles Adegbite
Today, May 11, 20 years ago, the first President of Nigeria and Owelle of Onitsha, Dr. Benjamin Nnamdi Azikiwe, bade the world goodbye.
Precisely on May 11, 1996, he died at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu, during a protracted illness. Although the elder statesman, foremost nationalist, accomplished journalist, outstanding politician, author and administrator died at a ripe age of 92, his death was a great loss to the nation and the continent of Africa.
The man, who was nicknamed “Zik of Africa” because of his pan-African struggles and his immense contributions when many African nations were struggling for political emancipation, was a man with a chequered life, even as his biography is embellished with many firsts. He was the first Premier of the Eastern Region (1954-59), first Senate President of the National Assembly (Jan. 1960-October 1960), first and only indigenous Governor General of Nigeria (1960-63) and first President of Nigeria (1963-66).
Upbringing
Zik, as he was fondly called by friends, foes, political associates and all who knew him, was born on November 21, 1904 at Zungeru, the then capital of Northern Nigeria, in the present Niger State, where his father of Igbo descent was a clerk with the Nigeria Regiment of the West African Frontier Forces. There, he grew up, speaking Hausa language before his father sent him to Holy Trinity School, Onitsha, for his primary education in the Eastern part of the country.
He continued his education in the Western part of Nigeria at Wesleyan (now Methodist) Boys High School, Lagos, and in the South South at Hope Waddell Training Institute, Calabar (Cross Rivers State), before he later travelled to the United States of America to study. All these movements from one place to another across Nigeria gave him early exposure, both to city life and ability to speak the three major Languages in Nigeria; Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba fluently. Many believe it contributed in no small measure to his understanding of their cultures and gave him nationalistic outlook from early life.
America Influence
His adventure into schooling in the USA in 1925 contributed a lot to his development of oratorial power, struggle for human rights and political cum economic freedom. It was at the time black resistance against white domination and all sorts of discrimination against black race were going on. He witnessed the growth of militant press and a lot of struggles against racism. He participated in campus press activities, which laid the foundation for his journalism. He bagged his bachelor and postgraduate degrees at Howard University, Washington DC, Columbia University and University of Pennsylvania. There, he developed strong desire for the emancipation of his country and continent.
Journalism career & political struggle
After about nine years of adventure in America, he returned to Africa in late 1934, staying in Gold Coast (Ghana) where he was offered the appointment of Editor-in-Chief of Africa Morning Post newspapers. There, he brought his knowledge of American sensational press to bear, which brought him fast recognition and made the daily newspaper a force to reckon with until it fetched him detention for sedition by the government there in 1937.
He thereafter returned to Nigeria and founded the West African Pilot in Lagos, which made great impact in the struggle for independence. He also established Eastern Nigerian Guardian (Port Harcourt), Nigerian Spokesman (Onitsha), Southern Nigerian Defender (Warri, later Ibadan), Daily Comet (Kano, later Lagos), Eastern Sentinel (Enugu) and Nigerian Monitor (Uyo). Through those newspaper titles, he carried out his struggle for the political emancipation of Nigeria and pan-African nationalism in West Africa through the Pilot newspapers between 1937 and 1960. He gradually, within the period, concentrated on nationalism in Nigeria, using his journalism career to fight racial inequalities and injustice. IAs it appeared, his nationalism and journalism exploits became two sides of a coin, with one complimenting the other. He was a pen soldier and eloquent speaker who used his pen and oratory power to fight colonialists, along with other nationalists until the British Government had no option than to give Nigeria independence in 1960.
Without mincing words, his intellectual ability, literary prowess, oratorial power, courage and determination inspired other younger nationalists like Awolowo to follow the part of getting degrees in university in early 1940s to equip them enough for the struggle. This prompted Awolowo who was a reporter with Daily Times to opt for studying Law in the United Kingdom.
With Zik, the political foundation and Nigeria’s nationalism which the maternal grandson of Bishop Ajayi Crowther, late Engr. Olayinka Hebert Macaulay laid in 1923 when he formed the Nigerian National Democratic Party (NNDP), the first political party in Nigeria, were built higher and stronger when he took over from him after the man died at 81 on May 7, 1946 and buried on May 11.
The trio of Herbert Macaulay, Zik and Awolowo, had a lot of things in common. They were all great men from the Southern part of Nigeria. Although Macaulay died on May 7, 1946, Awolowo died on May 9, 1987 and Zik died on May 11, 1996. It was this same May 11 that Macaulay and Awolowo were buried. Macaulay was buried on May 11, 1946. Awolowo who had been on embalment since 1987 was also buried on May 11, 1996, exactly 50years of Marcaulay’s burial. That same day (May 11, 1996), as if waiting for remains of Awolowo, his political rivals, to be committed to be buried, Zik gave up the ghost. Just as Awolowo who was born on Saturday, died and was buried on Saturday, Zik also died on Saturday.
It is also amazing that while Macaulay and Zik were born in November, Awolowo who was born in March ensured that his wife, HID Awolowo, was a November child and his newspaper, Nigerian Tribune was established in November (1949). Both Zik and Awolowo, together with other vibrant youths like H.O. Davies, Ernest Ikoli were in the Nigerian Youth Movement (NYM) which reduced the dominance of Macaulay in Lagos through the 1938 Lagos Town Council election. But Macaulay later dropped his NNDP (which until then only made strong impact in Lagos) and formed the National Council of Nigeria and Cameroons(NCNC) along with Zik in 1944 before he fell sick in 1946 in Kano while they were campaigning across the country. He later died in Lagos. Consequently, the leadership of the party then asked Zik to take over as leader of the party. Through this, the political struggle started by Macaulay was intensified. And he carried on till he became Premier of Eastern Region and later Governor General in 1960,
…And Corruption Lingers
It is unfortunate that the First Republic was marred by corruption and a lot of civil unrest when he was the President of Nigeria but he was only a ceremonial Head of State, while Alhaji Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa was the head of government. When late Major Kaduna Nzeogwu, was leading the first coup that ended the regime of Zik and Balewa, it was the issue of corruption that topped the list on January 15, 1966.
Today, the same cankerworm of corruption has eaten so deep into the nerves of Nigerians that the case then was like a child’s play. The battle against corruption is still yet to be worn. Azikiwe and Tafawa Balewa must be wandering what is wrong with Nigeria by now.
The Vacuum
Were he alive, he would have been getting ready for his 112 years birthday. But he would have been too old to give Nigerians the word of wisdom expected from one of the prominent people who mid-wifed Nigeria and served as her baby-sitters. If however, he has God’s grace as an orator and nationalist, to still speak fluently, he would have bore his mind on the issue of Boko Haram insurgency, Niger Delta militancy, herdsmen incursion into other people’s land and the insane killings by them.
But would he have supported the agitation for Biafra? This is the question only him could answer, whether he would change his mind as a strong believer in one Nigeria or consider 50 years of political challenges the Igbo have been facing since the second Nigeria Head of State of Igbo extraction, Major General J.T.U. Aguiyi Ironsi was killed in a counter coup of July 29, 1966. The November 23, 1987 edition of Newswatch Magazine, (Page 27) published his role in the Nigeria Civil War, describing him as being neither here nor there. And the reason was not farfetched. At the beginning, he was reported to have been going about, seeking support from other African countries to make it a reality. But in 1968 when it became clear to him that the agitation for Biafra could not be realized, he made a deal with the Federal Government and asked for a soft landing for his people. He asked his people to drop their weapons and that contributed to the end of the Biafra struggle. This made the then Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon(rtd) to declare the end of the war as “No victor, No Vanguished”.
On the Nigerian side, he was seen by many as being not committed to one Nigeria even though he fought for her independence for nearly 30 years of his life. But on the Biafra side, they saw him as being not committed to their cause.
Since he returned from Ghana (the then Gold Coast) in 1937, he devoted his time and committed everything God endowed him with to the struggle for independence of Nigeria. So, what he spent 23 years to build along with others, he did not want to pull down because of six months crisis that lasted for three years (1967-1970). He would not have wanted to be seen as an ethnic champion by Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Chief Anthony Enahoro, Mallam Aminu Kano and many other nationalists who were both younger than him and also met him in the struggle for political emancipation of Nigeria.
But as an Igbo man, he did also not want to reject or oppose openly his people’s agitation for an independent nation. And as a man who probably understood Nigeria more than the then brilliant soldier and Military Governor of Eastern Region, late Col. Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, he knew the agitation could not not be realised then. So, he didn’t throw his weight behind the struggle. That fetched him disregard by Ojukwu and his government througout the period of the struggle between 1966 and 1969.
Today, Zik is not celebrated in the East the way Awolowo is celebrated in the West but that is one of the prices leaders pay, whenever their conviction clashes with that of their people and when what they are seeing is not what they are seeing. The question in the mind of many is: how would he have watched his people continue to be killed in a battle he knew they won’t win? That was Zik’s dilemma.
Surprisingly, the issue of Biafra is still as fresh as it was about 50 years ago. Only God knows how, the great Zik, Ojukwu, Aguiyi-Ironsi and other Igbo who were directly or indirectly involved in the battle would be feeling in their graves by now.