This week, about two or three important issues that merit attention competed for this space. Prof Chukwuma Soludo’s election as Anambra State governor is an important development. His victory signposts the rise of high caliber technocrats to power. The victory has salutary effect for Ndigbo and Nigerians. Many Nigerians are more convinced they could do a few things to effect much needed change using the ballot. Never mind the story that made the rounds; the incident in Ihiala during the gubernatorial poll in Anambra was not a happenstance. You can see there is still so much to say even on the All Progressives Congress governorship candidate’s threat or is it disclosure to go to court in an election he could read the minds of the people very clearly.
Then the EndSARS panel report detailing the high degree of bestiality stoking the land and the penchant of President Muhammadu Buhari for attending every seminar. These are all important matters that should receive our attention. On the priority scale, remembering Nnamdi Azikiwe, whose posthumous birthday was on Tuesday, November 16, topped the agenda for me, for the simple reason great nations flow from the heroic acts of men and women, and if such acts must be nurtured and made recurring decimal then society must give past heroes a recognition and a place in their lives.
They ought to be celebrated always to pass a lesson and to motivate upcoming generations. Except for Anambra State, home state of Azikiwe that declared a public holiday no other state, including those in the South East, found it necessary to honour a man who did so much to give the Black race, not just Nigeria, a sense of direction. At the Federal level everything concerning Zik of Africa was on mute.
The federal government did well in the early life of the Buhari administration to embark on the rehabilitation of the dilapilated Zik Mausoleum in Onitsha but honouring such an icon and others of near same attainments should be more than token acts of appreciation. I don›t like public holidays for an underdeveloped economy, so that can be skipped. Yet we can honour them by other means like organizing special summits with national weight to discuss their philosophy and impact. Nnamdi Azikiwe University did this last Tuesday with Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State as Guest Speaker. This is great even though very limited in scope and reach for a leader of Zik›s pedigree.
The government at the centre should give our heroes a mention during their birthdays while radio and television stations in the country and even beyond should be encouraged to run special documentary programmes on them, their efforts, idealogies, social relations and efforts at nation building. Many of us learn of world personalities via documentaries from their home countries. It is impossible in these modern days to watch American television series without seeing clips on their heroes especially the quotable quotes. You will see George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson and Martin Luther King.
Recently, Trinity Broadcasting Network, a Christian television service began running a series on President John Adams, showcasing how his dedication to eradication of slavery inspired him to run for the presidency twice, losing first time and winning in the second attempt, then losing reelection and opting to go to Congress to continue the fight over what he strongly believed in. I picked great lessons from watching each stage of his foray. We can replicate same here and even for foreign audiences. Heroes are national monuments.
Nnamdi Azikiwe was a unique being; that he could find himself abroad at a time Blacks were the butt of dehumanizing subjugation was a testament to inner strength, the kind that is not common among men. That Zik defied racism to enroll in one of the best universities is a pointer that he understood purpose very early in life, knew the pathway to it, what course of study to pursue and how to deploy it after graduation. Many of his mates wasted away in America trying to be more American than the owners of the land, frolicking with women of easy virtue but Zik returned to the African continent to Ghana, to be specific, to start a transformation process that would bring liberation from colonialism to all countries in the African continent.
He looked away from routine office jobs, which were available during his time but rather made journalism practice his fort, serving as Editor in Ghana, from where he began what many have termed the greatest «war», the battle for the minds of men. Zik went for the soul of Black people and he got them. Zik no doubt recruited many bright minds across Africa, encouraging many to go abroad for better education and others to start the task of pushing White colonialists away from Africa. At the turn of the century in the late fifties, his efforts began to pay off with African nations gaining independence. Zik›s biggest imprints were in Nigeria, where he also got the greatest betrayals. He ran with the concept of united and strong Nigeria. While his contemporaries from Northrrn and Western Nigeria settled for ethnic strength, Zik insisted on national strength.
Karl Chinedu Uchegbu captured the real Zik in Nigeria›s murky political climate this way: «Zik was ahead of his time. Zik saw a united country devoid of religious and ethnic sentiments while other leaders preferred narrow prisms of ethnic and religious hegemony. It is to his credit that he kept on preaching about the need for Nigerians to forget their differences, while others revelled in it. He failed to realize that his attempt to build a nation of ideas would come to nought because the British positioned Nigeria on the fault lines of ethnic and religious intolerance .” Great was Zik yet he was victim of naivety.
It was northern leaders who insisted on regional government.