Elder statesman and nationalist, Dr. Paul Unongo, is one of the few surviving politicians who played key roles in all democratic dispensations and in the struggle for Nigeria’s independence. In this interview, he speaks on the state of the nation, pin-pointing where we started losing our way and the path forward.

Excerpts: By Omeiza Ajayi


On where the problem started

The problem is that after Azikiwe scored a fantastic victory in the Western House as a member of the House and his party was to form the government, the man who brought federalism as a form of governance reverted to the game we are playing in Nigeria today, which is tribalism,quite different from federalism. I just want people not to be too angry with themselves. Awolowo felt, as the strongman of the Yoruba, Azikiwe should not have won the election in his place, and he could not countenance an Igbo man coming to be the premier or the first minister or prime minister of a predominantly Yoruba place. Night came, and when day broke, Zik discovered his majority had collapsed.

The Yoruba abandoned him and went to a strange person they did not know ideologically, that is Awolowo, on the basis of tribe. So, Zik was forced to rethink as an intelligent person, to relocate. He went back to his own part of the country to become the first Premier of Eastern Region. Some of us sprang up too, in going with Awolowo’s federalism, that the notion that there are only three tribes or sections in the country was so fundamentally defective that we called on the metropolitan power, Britain, to correct this before they would leave.
So, we in the Middle Belt of Nigeria came together and decided that we would call ourselves ‘people in the middle’ and that we were not Hausa, we were not Fulani.

Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/06/nigerias-problems-started-awos-introduction-tribal-politics-unongo/

www.nairaland.com/attachments/4959346_awolowo_jpegfc9d706f1535123f6e81a96846b17c32 Dr. Paul Unongo

May you live long for saying the truth sir. For the first time in the history of Nigeria, someone from the northern part of Nigeria has said the bitter truth.
Awolowo introduced tribalism in to Nigeria government.

His e-rats will soon come online to disagree with this old man that witnessed what Awo did.

I have said it earlier that Yorubas are the real problem of Nigeria.

Absolute nonsense, Awolowo knew Azikiwe more than any average Yoruba man at the time. Azikiwe as a Newspaper editor was a tribal champion who used his newspaper to promote ibo superiority over Yoruba in particular.
Why would such a man even want to lead Yoruba? Thank God Nigerians were not very informed at that period, even Time magazine refered to him as a demagogue.

Past! Past! Past! Maybe there is something in the past that will propel us into the future without addressing the present.

Paul Unongo is a typical Hausa-Fulani slave.
Kudos to Awolowo for preventing Zik from becoming premier in the West.

Viergeachar:
Paul Unongo is a typical Hausa-Fulani slave.

Kudos to Awolowo for preventing Zik from becoming premier in the West.

See them......the problems of Nigeria

Truth is like pregnancy
It cannot be hidden for long

Why didn't Azikiwe resume in the Western Region as a leader of opposition? Atleast he still had his single seat he won and his party was now holding minority seats when compared to the majority seat that Awolowo and his independents alliance held?

Because he only wanted to lead and not follow. So he ran back to the Eastern region and usurped Dr Eyo Ita as the Premier of that region. All of a sudden, Azikiwe remembered he had a village in the East, yet he wanted to be a Western Premier, when the North had a Northerner and the East had Eyo Ita an Easterner. Or could Awolowo have ran to the East to contest for Eastern Premier if he had failed in his Western bid like Azikiwe quickly retraced his steps?

A man who having schooled in the US and not UK like Awolowo, did not understand parliamentary system of government. He foolishly chose to partner with the Northern NPC to become ceremonial president as opposed to being executive Prime Minister in an NCNC and AG alliance. The same American education would not allow Azikiwe to agree to Awolowo's demand to have a secession clause in the constitution. America had fought a civil war to keep it's territory intact between the slave owning South and the emancipated North Yankees. While a parliamentary Britain had managed to settle for Irish separation from the UK.
In the end, it is his people that suffered for his political ignorance, and ended up fighting a civil war like the Southern Americans and lost like them.

But seriously, how can a tremendously educated Western Region have an Easterner who was only the first generation of educated Igbos as Premier? Even the poorly educated North had a Northerner. What did Azikiwe who was a Lagos politician know about the yearnings and aspirations of the Western Region?

In retrospect, Awolowo proved to be a blessing to the Western region and scored many firsts in Africa, that the rest of Nigeria had to play catch-up.

Abeg, cry me a river.

Guestlander:
Absolute nonsense, Awolowo knew Azikiwe more than any average Yoruba man at the time. Azikiwe as a Newspaper editor was a tribal champion who used his newspaper to promote ibo superiority over Yoruba in particular.
Why would such a man even want to lead Yoruba? Thank God Nigerians were not very informed at that period, even Time magazine refered to him as a demagogue.

Atimes I blame those who scrapped history from our curriculum...just look at the sheer ignorance you are displaying.

Azikiwe that was a renowned nationalist and insisted on one Nigeria even at the expense of his own brothers during the war, he used his newspaper to propagate African liberation from the colonists, unlike Awolowo who focused more on regional politics which landed him in prison...

Everybody knows that Awolowo was not only a tribal bigot, evil minded person, coward but also a murderous betrayer.

Dr. Azikwe had told Ahmadu Bello: “Let us forget our differences…” to which the latter replied: “No, let us understand our differences, I am Muslim and a Northerner. You are a Christian, an Easterner. By understanding our differences, we can build unity in our country.”
Bello was further quoted as admitting that the amalgamation of northern and southern protectorate as “mistake of 1914.”
From the above it is clear Nnamdi Azikiwe was a unity beggar.

Since 1914 the British Government has been trying to make Nigeria into one country, but the Nigerian people themselves are historically different in their backgrounds, in their religious beliefs and customs and do not show themselves any signs of willingness to unite … Nigerian unity is only a British invention” – Alhaji Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, 1948.

“Nigeria is not a nation. It is a mere geographical expression. There are no ‘Nigerians’ in the same sense as there are ‘English,’ ‘Welsh,’ or ‘French,’ The word ‘Nigeria’ is a mere distinctive appellation to distinguish those who live within the boundaries of Nigeria and those who do not” - Chief Obafemi Awolowo, 1947.

IPOB should erect Awolowo and Tafawa Balewa statues in all the cities in Igbo land.
They should burn whatever is left of Azikiwe's family house for being a proponent of one Nigeria who left no legacies for the ibos.
Ibos should start looking inwards.

Why yorubas like division

It started long time ago

It's ok.
Nigerians should keep digging up the past, it's 'healthy' for us all.
All I know is that, one day, we will get to a place where we'll look each other in the face, tell ourselves the truth and decide on whether or not to move on.

todayboy:
Why yorubas like division

like they are raining causes on other tribes and struggling to form biafra out of Nigerian union.


Biafrans struggling hard and sweating profusely to shift the impression they've created for themselves to the Yorubas.This thunderclap headache Afonjas dey give you worse pass that of subarachnoid heamorrhage oo.

StOla:
Why didn't Azikiwe resume in the Western Region as a leader of opposition? Atleast he still had his single seat he won and his party was now holding minority seats when compared to the majority seat that Awolowo and his independents alliance held?

Because he only wanted to lead and not follow. So he ran back to the Eastern region and usurped Dr Eyo Ita as the Premier of that region. All of a sudden, Azikiwe remembered he had a village in the East, yet he wanted to be a Western Premier, when the North had a Northerner and the East had Eyo Ita an Easterner.

A man who having schooled in the US and not UK like Awolowo, did not understand parliamentary system of government. He foolishly chose to partner with the Northern NPC to become ceremonial president as opposed to being executive Prime Minister in an NCNC and AG alliance.

Abeg, cry me a river.

Can you imagine this mindset..... SMH

The truth is, you can't separate the Yorubas from tribalism!

They are like a collidal solution! Their tribalism is now like a religion, so much so that, even in the Church where I worship, because a yoruba man is the founder, the yoruba people in that Church have turned into a "Yoruba" Church in no time ! So sad, but , that's the truth.

The birth place for all Nigeria's problems is indeed, Tribalism, and the brain that hatched it was Awo, out of obsession to rule!

Marcelo290:
Atimes I blame those who scrapped history from our curriculum...just look at the sheer ignorance you are displaying.

Azikiwe that was a renowned nationalist and insisted on one Nigeria even at the expense of his own brothers during the war, he used his newspaper to propagate African liberation from the colonists, unlike Awolowo who focused more on regional politics which landed him in prison...

This story has been told like a thousand times on this website and I believe everything is archived here. Yes, Azikiwe like others fought for Nigeria independence but that doesn't make him a saint.
He did use his newspaper to promote tribal hegemony and he was referred to as a demagogue.
You are the ignorant one here, you obviously only read what you want to read.
Tell me he wasn't a demagogue, tell me he didn't write articles promoting ibo superiority.

StOla:
Why didn't Azikiwe resume in the Western Region as a leader of opposition? Atleast he still had his single seat he won and his party was now holding minority seats when compared to the majority seat that Awolowo and his independents alliance held?

Because he only wanted to lead and not follow. So he ran back to the Eastern region and usurped Dr Eyo Ita as the Premier of that region. All of a sudden, Azikiwe remembered he had a village in the East, yet he wanted to be a Western Premier, when the North had a Northerner and the East had Eyo Ita an Easterner.

A man who having schooled in the US and not UK like Awolowo, did not understand parliamentary system of government. He foolishly chose to partner with the Northern NPC to become ceremonial president as opposed to being executive Prime Minister in an NCNC and AG alliance.

Abeg, cry me a river.

please who is crying?

olu77:
Past! Past! Past! Maybe there is something in the past that will propel us into the future without addressing the present.

Maybe my brother. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

Guestlander:



This story has been told like a thousand times on this website and I believe everything is archived here. Yes, Azikiwe like others fought for Nigeria independence but that doesn't make him a saint.
He did use his newspaper to promote tribal hegemony and he was referred to as a demagogue.
You are the ignorant one here, you obviously only read what you want to read.
Tell me he wasn't a demagogue, tell me he didn't write articles promoting ibo superiority.

Ok bro, I'm not a tribalist anyways, but whatever makes you happy...

Tribal politics or not it doesn't make sense for an easterners to come to the west to be first Minister. The truth is that for an easterners like Zik even trying to be leader of the western region shows the hospitable nature of the Yorubas.

Marcelo290:
Ok bro, I'm not a tribalist anyways, but whatever makes you happy...

Whether you are a tribalist or not is the question here. What I'm saying are documented facts. You only need to counter my points with facts rather than trying to insult me.

bakynes:
Tribal politics or not it doesn't make sense for an easterners to come to the west to be first Minister. The truth is that for an easterners like Zik even trying to be leader of the western region shows the hospitable nature of the Yorubas.

Thank you. Why is nobody mentioning the fact that Yorubas voted for him regardless of whether he was Igbo or not.
Perhaps Awo justifiably stopped him because he knew him more than the largely illiterate voters.

Iykmann:
please who is crying?

Those who always cry that they were not allowed to rule in the West, or the North did not allow them to take all the jobs meant for Northern graduates, yet they held on tightly to all that was available in their own region.

Guestlander:
Absolute nonsense, Awolowo knew Azikiwe more than any average Yoruba man at the time. Azikiwe as a Newspaper editor was a tribal champion who used his newspaper to promote ibo superiority over Yoruba in particular.
Why would such a man even want to lead Yoruba? Thank God Nigerians were not very informed at that period, even Time magazine refered to him as a demagogue.

Since you are in the know like Elder Unonogo, can you cite such instances Azikiwe promoted Ibo superiority over Yoruba.

bakynes:
Tribal politics or not it doesn't make sense for an easterners to come to the west to be first Minister. The truth is that for an easterners like Zik even trying to be leader of the western region shows the hospitable nature of the Yorubas.

The real question is what was Azikiwe's business contesting for elections in the SW. Nigeria was not yet independent, yet the Igbos were already planning how to take over everywhere.

We knew him to be born in Zungeru which is in the North, and tribally from Onitcha in the East, and politically a son of Herbert Macaulay in Lagos the capital of Nigeria.

So what exactly was his business competing outside his land of birth or tribe, when other regions were having indigenous Premiers?

Anyway, Awolowo who understood parliamentary politics knew that you don't become premier until a government was formed. Azikiwe found himself seating on his single seat which he won, and he still had his band of thoughtless Yoruba NCNC party members who also had won seats, yet were not ambitious to aspire to the Premiership in their own region.

Lightening:


Since you are in the know like Elder Unonogo, can you cite such instances Azikiwe promoted Ibo superiority over Yoruba.

You dey mind the mofo

Guestlander:


Whether you are a tribalist or not is the question here. What I'm saying are documented facts. You only need to counter my points with facts rather than trying to insult me.

Feed yourself with a little bit of history, I don't have that luxury of time to keep running in circles with you like you expected.

http://dailypost.ng/2013/03/06/obinna-akukwe-obafemi-awolowo-hero-of-yoruba-killer-of-biafra-betrayed-by-the-north/

It is an Established fact that Obafemi Awolowo introduced tribalism into the Nigerian system, not forgetting his hatred towards the Igbos, make sure you read the article to the end.

Lightening:


Since you are in the know like Elder Unonogo, can you cite such instances Azikiwe promoted Ibo superiority over Yoruba.

You make me laugh, there were many. There was a speech he made in 1948 at Igbo state union in which he spoke about the god of igbo eventually giving the leadership of Nigera and Africa to igbo, that is not how Nkruma and Julius Nyerere spoke. There was a particular article he wrote, again in the 40s that he titled football illiad. Please find it and tell me if he sounded like a nationalist.

eastsidechillz:


You dey mind the mofo

Hehehehe, you know they have nothing left when they resort to insults.
That is the playground for idiots.