Zik has no legacy!

maestroferddi: @Bloggernaija. Are you a visitor from Mars? It is a travesty of objectivity to make those ascriptions to Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe. Zik, in case you don't know, is among the fathers of African nationalism. He was an ideologue par excellence whose accomplishments speak for themselves. A man who was the editor of the influential West African pilot in 1920s. An intellectual and wordsmith whose wit and sagacity are yet to be matched in Africa. Zik's influence in liberating Africa from the morass of colonialism transcended Nigeria:he was particularly instrumental to the Ghanaian independence in 1957 through collaboration with Kwame Nkrumah. It takes a discerning mind to separate an ethnic champion from a veritable statesman. It is like comparing the English national team with that of the Germans: while one is built just on media hype and razzmatazz while the other is a performer and perenial achiever.

No name-calling folks. Learn to make a compelling argument without resorting to gutter language. Only people with low IQ default to casting aspersions when confronted with superior arguments. Let there be some honour among thieves (although I am not one).

AWOLOWO CANT BE COMPARED TO NELSON MANDELA. Mandela sowed seeds of love, national interest and unity, Awolowo sowed seed of tribalism, regional interest, war, distrust and discord. MANDELA IS AN INTERNATIONAL HERO OF AFRICAN ORIGIN WHILE AWOLOWO IS AT BEST A HERO OF A TINY SECTION OF NIGERIA with insignificant national recognition

Fyi: Zik is the Nigeria's foremost Nationalist and first president of Nigeria just like Mandela and Kwame. Awoh is a typical yorobar tribal leader who was not even know outside the yorbarland talk more Nigeria. Again awho had adult education for his first degree. No wonder he left you people with substandard education till today. Check who leads in Jamb, Waec/Neco and Unity schools.

Zik is of Africa just like mandela, kwame, achebe while awho is of obscure local yorobar tribe.

smartchoice: Zik has no track record, no legacy, just another crooked politician. Awo's legacies lives on.....if you don't like it ...GO N DIE!

Zik has no legacy Ceremonial President?!

one.east1:
Fyi: Zik is the Nigeria's foremost Nationalist and first president of Nigeria just like Mandela and Kwame. Awoh is a typical yorobar tribal leader who was not even know outside the yorbarland talk more Nigeria. Again awho had adult education for his first degree. No wonder he left you people with substandard education till today. Check who leads in Jamb, Waec/Neco and Unity schools.

Zik is of Africa just like mandela, kwame, achebe while awho is of obscure local yorobar tribe.

Awo surpasses Mandela on people impact and overall greatness!

Igbo Delta: AWOLOWO CANT BE COMPARED TO NELSON MANDELA. Mandela sowed seeds of love, national interest and unity, Awolowo sowed seed of tribalism, regional interest, war, distrust and discord. MANDELA IS AN INTERNATIONAL HERO OF AFRICAN ORIGIN WHILE AWOLOWO IS AT BEST A HERO OF A TINY SECTION OF NIGERIA with insignificant national recognition

I find your comments to be quite hilarious. First of all, your moniker is 'Igbo Delta' and you have the guts to say someone else is tribalistic and put it in an insulting manner. Very hilarious! A tiny section of Nigeria with insignificant national recognition Did you poop in your pant while typing? You should learn some more Geography, maybe then you would be able to argue with logic and not misguided sentiment. One quick question, how would you describe the size of Igbo Delta? Significant or Insignificatant?

smartchoice: Awo surpasses Mandela on people impact and overall greatness!

Awoh was an ordinary local champion who was not even known outside yorobarland, how then could he be greater than Pan Africanists as Zik, Mandela and Kwame? Check your head wella..lol

Dhelake: Lolz... and you still don't want to go back to your Developed Eastern Nigeria

not everybody on nairaland lives in your slumoplolis, i wonder how people even survive in that gutter called lagos and ibadan

Who is Mandela? Awolowo is even greater than Prophet Mohammed sef!

smartchoice: Zik has no track record, no legacy, just another crooked politician. Awo's legacies lives on.....if you don't like it ...GO N DIE!

You are very correct that Awo's legacies lived on today. They are called tribal bigotry and insanity of loud mouth.

Op please which of the awolowos are you comparing with Mandela? I just hope it's not the thief that I know?

Awolowo stands heads and shoulders higher.....

Seun says:
Ofeimun is right. Awo was great through actions and great thoughts. Mandela was great through moderation and great sacrifice. In both times of peace and war, deep thoughts and great action are more profitable to a nation.....Awolowo, Churchill, Lincoln, Roosevelt.....while sacrifice is usually for protests and opposition....Mandela, Gandhi. The only way to supercede this is to combine both ....Muhammad, Jesus. This said, not all great leaders have been to prison, but all great leaders have living legacies.

They are both great leaders but I will rate the late sage chief obafemi awolowo higher due to his high intelligence and impact on his people.the best president we never had.

Another view:

How could Chief Obafemi Awolowo who did so much to develop his people with declaration of free education,free health and establishment of first television station in Africa in the fifties and early sixties be compared with late Nelson Mandela who was unjustly imprisoned in South Africa for calling for to eradication of white racist policies operating government and was jailed for 27 years for fighting for freedom for his people and when he was released from prison was elected president of South Africa and served only one term and retired be comparable?.

Hear this from Tajudeen!

Awo a tribalist?He supported Ernest Ikoli(Ibo man)against Akinsanya(a yoruba) in the Lagos Council election in 1938.How many people can remember this?

For TJ

Chief Awolowo’s greatest achievements resulted from the foresight, clear sense of direction and sheer competence that he brought into government.

At the beginning of his career in government, Chief Awolowo quickly reformed the Local Government system of the Western Region and took revolutionary steps to Nigerianise and improve the Western Nigeria Civil Service. An extremely good judge of men’s qualities, he had also put together a very efficient team of ministers. Having taken those steps, he was set to achieve within 5 years a string of "Firsts" in the history of Africa. Between 1954 and 1959, his government­
evolved, and was served by, the most efficient Civil Service in Black Africa;
introduced and successfully implemented the first Free Primary Education programme in Africa;
introduced and successfully managed the first Free Medical Service programme in Nigeria - for children up to the age of 18;
established the first Television Station in Africa;
built the Liberty Stadium, the first such modem sports facility in Nigeria;
introduced and successfully implemented the first minimum wage policy in Nigeria and actually paid to Western Nigerians from October 1954 a minimum wage that wasdoublethe amount paid to workers of the same level in some other parts of Nigeria;
set up Nigeria’s first industrial complex at Ikeja;
set up Nigeria's first commercial Housing Estates at Ikeja and Bodija,ibadan

EVERY CITIZEN IN NIGERIA IS HAVING THE BENEFIT OF AWOLOWO LEGACY.
ONE OF HIS LEGACY IS "FREE EDUCATION ".....

CAN ANYONE TELL ME MANDELA LEGACIES?

Awolowo is to the Yorubas what Mandela is to black South Africans.
Mandela can never be greater than Awo in Yorubaland.

Ore_MI_22: Who is Mandela? Awolowo is even greater than Prophet Mohammed sef!

Brother you are correct, It takes the greatest hero to die like puppet drinking Ota-piapia(Rat poison) after stealing peoples money and given them 20 serlings from their millions

5.00GP:
EVERY CITIZEN IN NIGERIA IS HAVING THE BENEFIT OF AWOLOWO LEGACY.
ONE OF HIS LEGACY IS "FREE EDUCATION ".....

CAN ANYONE TELL ME MANDELA LEGACIES?

I said it seem every Yoruba man is living on Fela's vegetable. Awo that stole money from the SEners/SSners and use it give his primitive ppl free education, he is the first corrupt finance minister.

This is how it goes:

Nkrumah > Great Zik

Great Zik > Mandela

Mandela >> Awo (Please see the double greater-than signs)

The only thing the best writer couldn't do was to rewrite history.

@ Smartchoice. Your rookie attempt to concoct some fallacious historical narrative is embarrassing to say the least. Must you resort to "agbeni and dugbe market" history and literature session? I am regretting lending my voice to this pathetic argument. I leave you and your co-travellers to keep trying harder. Since you appear to revel in what is glaringly a lose-lose polemic, I rest my case.

CHESSBOARD:
I said it seem every Yoruba man is living on Fela's vegetable. Awo that stole money from the SEners/SSners and use it give his primitive ppl free education, he is the first corrupt finance minister.

WHAT ARE U PASSING ACROSS?
ALL UR FAMILY N U ARE HAVING BENEFIT OF AWOLOWO LEGACY TILL NOW... *FREE EDUCATION *
BABY FACTORY TRIBE

DerideGull:

You are very correct that Awo's legacies lived on today. They are called tribal bigotry and insanity of loud mouth.

egbon ode, happy new year

Ore_MI_22: Who is Mandela? Awolowo is even greater than Prophet Mohammed sef!

ROTFLMAO

smartchoice: Zik has no track record, no legacy, just another crooked politician. Awo's legacies lives on.....if you don't like it ...GO N DIE!

SMH. If Zik said Africa kills her children. Then I say Africans are their worst enemy.

Let's analyse the two icons:

Awolowo started the Egbe Omo Oduduwa group that later metamorphosed into AG. He was involved in the struggle against colonialism. Created an ideology that most Yoruba's still align with and set the bar for public administration for the Yoruba's. At the forefront of post-colonial Yoruba consciousness (some would even argue that he created it). Educated more than two generations of Yoruba people. Went to prison for what he believed. And his legacy is the reason why the Yoruba race is excelling across the globe. However, he wasn't a revolutionary/radical; wasn't popular outside Nigeria; and he never compromised.

Nelson Mandela on the other hand was the face of the struggle against apartheid. Went to prison for 27 years for what he believed in. He was a revolutionary and at the same time a radical. Arguably the most popular black man ever. However, he did compromise. But I can't blame him for that since that was what he thought was the right thing to do at that time. He probably regretted it before he passed away. Also, he never created an ideology for South Africans to follow.

All in all, they were both great icons and they both had impact on their people. Comparing the two is like comparing what MLK and Sekou Toure achieved. Definitely not a fair comparison. However, if I were to ask my pops, mum and grandma - they would all unanimously go for Awolowo. As for me - I can't compare.

Shalom!

maestroferddi: @Uye Iredia. It will be more auspicious if you can get a little academic in your assertions. How do you measure greatness? Is greatness attained by bravado and recklessness? Some of the individuals you are pushing forward were known to have lacked tact, finesse and in some cases rectitude when their respective circumstances demand such. A skilled general employs tactical and strategic considerations to win wars. He focuses on the final analysis which is victory. In the course of his battles he may have to conduct reconnaissance and even beat retreats so as to retool and get an advantage. The foregoing do not preclude the incidence of risk. You might make a case that the persons you mentioned paid the ultimate price but you should be constrained to appreciate the enormity of risk Mandela had to contend with. He must have made it either by being discrete or simply by divine design. My brother, victors write history. Mandela overcame almost humanly insurmountable odds. He fought power, overcame power, got power but did not allow power to overcome him. He lived out virtues and values that appeal across racial and ideological lines.

I think by academic you mean a view that agrees with yours. Let start with some common ground. Mandela did live out virtues that transcend racial and ideological lines as you say. I, as a preteen, was impressed that he left after a term. Coming from a country where coups and counter-coups to hold power was rife, I was impressed with Mandela's example. Moreso after seeing how long he spent in jail without bitterness for his captors. But ultimately, was he the saint of peace he is painted as ? Certainly not like MLK or Gandhi. In fact he is only painted because he was a political pawn (an icon born of a struggle) who decides to play cool. Had he taken a more hardline stance especially wrt the economic betterment of his people I'm sure history will be quite different.

BTW Hitler, Napoleon and the Communists lost but still wrote and made history which affects us till now.

Uyi Iredia:

SMH. If Zik said Africa kills her children. Then I say Africans are their worst enemy.

Can you please tell us Zik's legacy and what he achieved apart from being a ceremonial president, with no power? And even that, he sold his soul to get it.

biggest joke of the century... tell yourself a lie for too long and you'll actually believe it... enough said

Wonder why southwesterners r so advanced....one answer Awolowo