Why the hell would zik want to be in charge of yoruba affairs in the western region, anyway? Is western region, iboland ni?
why didn't he contest for premiership in the north where he was born?
Because Zik really didn't consider himself an Easterner. He was pan-Africanism personified. His aim was to free Africa from colonial rule not to be premier of anywhere. That was just a means to an end. And people understood that.
See, this is what happens when you don't experience something live. Everybody who has WRITTEN a book a book about that period and who was there acknowledged that other "party" was actually an NCNC gimmick. They were actually pure NCNC and everybody knew it.
there is nothing like NCNC gimmick, NCNC was the 1st party founded by a Yoruba man,most of the stalwarts of NCNC were Yoruba's,it was seen then as the Lagos party,in the SW it couldn't clinch the majority none of the parties then had a majority, AG and Ibadan parapo went into alliance and they formed the government in the western region nobody betrayed Zik,the official record is still there no one alive of dead can dispute that,all this old men are just perpetual liars.
Exactly. An Ibadan paper throughout that time, propped up by monies Awo took as a politician. Zik's paper, founded decades earlier, was transnational, certainly not an Onitsha paper.
so awo took money as a politician? And Zik did not, interesting, Awo started his paper when he was not in a political office.
Nigeria changed their currency. All Igbos were given £20 regardless of how much pre-war NIGERIAN currency they had. That is CRUEL!!
Nigeria did not change her currency before the war,they did during the war, one of the reason they did that was that the biafran army sacked the CBN office in benin took away all the money,the Igbo's did not av money on Nigerian banks before the war,they withdrew it and went to the east,converted their money into Biafra pounds, you guys should stop lying its too obvious, dispite that the Nigerian govt paid every adult 20 pounds even the majority who never had any money in the bank got it,is that not fair enough?
See, this is what happens when you don't experience something live. Everybody who has WRITTEN a book a book about that period and who was there acknowledged that other "party" was actually an NCNC gimmick. They were actually pure NCNC and everybody knew it.
the records of what happened are at the national archives, Ibadan parapo was not part of NCNC,this is just like calling today's APGA,PDP
Ahmadu Bello was 49 at this time. Nnamdi Kanu is 50
Someone wrote this about the interview. What do you think?
He said d truth d only reasons. Why Ibos are hated is because they dominate d economy anywhere they are found while all dat d host communities can do is to hate hate and hate again. But for d educated host communities they jealous jealous and jealous again. D industrious nature of Ibos is so amazing. They hate idleness with passion The interview of Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Saduarna of Sokoto by BBC jorunalsit back in 1960.
Here is the interview.
Question:
One thing I have noticed while I have been here is that northerners seem to have the worst form of obsession about the Igbos, could please explain that?
Ahmadu Bello: Well, the Igbos are mainly the type of people whose desire is to dominate everybody. If they go to the village or town, they want to monopolise everything in that area.
If you put them as a labourer, within a year they will try to emerge as the headman of that camp...and so on...well.
We are not alive to their responsibilities because you can see from our modernisation policy that in 1952 when I came here, there weas less Northerners in our service. Then I fought. Now all important posts are being held by Northerners.
Question:
Is this policy of filling all the posts in the north solely with northerners and no Nigerian a temporary or permanent one?
Ahmadu Bello:
In actual fact, what it is, is a northerner first. Then if we can't get a northerner, then we take an expatriate like yourself (looking at the interviewer), if we can't then, we can employ another Nigerian, but on contract too. It is not going to be permanent as far as I can foresee, because it will be rather vengeance to see many of our boys are now turning from all institutions without having work to do. Am sure whatever government it will be, it will be rather embarrassing; it might even lead to black-sheep.
Question:
It might damage the idea of all people in all regions of Nigeria being par citizens of one country.
Ahmadu Bello: well it might but...amm...we are known to our reasons...how many northerners are employed in the east and west? The answer is none. And if they are, they may be only ten labourers employed in the two regions.
masseratti: there is nothing like NCNC gimmick, NCNC was the 1st party founded by a Yoruba man,most of the stalwarts of NCNC were Yoruba's,it was seen then as the Lagos party,in the SW it couldn't clinch the majority none of the parties then had a majority, AG and Ibadan parapo went into alliance and they formed the government in the western region nobody betrayed Zik,the official record is still there no one alive of dead can dispute that,all this old men are just perpetual liars.
You were not there, neither was I.
Here is what someone who was there said:
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....
At that time, we told Britain, Nigeria had over 250 tribes but that we could not dissect Nigeria into 250 nations. We told them that what has happened in Western Nigeria where an Igbo man was rejected…nobody questioned the fact as at then that Zik was the leader of Nigeria and then suddenly, having won victory, which would have been a great thing for Nigeria, in a predominantly Yoruba region, because the Yoruba were extremely sophisticated and they were the most developed part of Nigeria, and they voted on the basis of ideological orientation. Zik’s party produced a Zik premiership in Western Nigeria and in the night, Awolowo went round to convince the Yoruba that, ‘you are a tribe. Your tribe is called Yoruba. Zik’s tribe is called Igbo. Do not allow this to happen. Whether you like me or not, it is better to have a Yoruba man to rule over Yorubaland’. Unfortunately, I feel, this was the starting point of our problems.
So, he succeeded, and Zik was forced to go to his own place to become a little tribal leader, which was never what he wanted. That man called Zik was responsible for the revolution in Ghana, and he started his revolutionary activities in America. Zik was very keen on having a United States of Africa. He wanted nations within each state, that could create supra-powerful goals around which political actions could be taken
masseratti: Nigeria did not change her currency before the war,they did during the war, one of the reason they did that was that the biafran army sacked the CBN office in benin took away all the money,the Igbo's did not av money on Nigerian banks before the war,they withdrew it and went to the east,converted their money into Biafra pounds, you guys should stop lying its too obvious, dispite that the Nigerian govt paid every adult 20 pounds even the majority who never had any money in the bank got it,is that not fair enough?
Nobody ever said Nigeria changed currency before the war. Once again people were given UP TO £20. Many people got nothing at all because they got.no money.
It is people that prepare archives. Fortunately there were people who were actually there and they haven't been shy telling is what actually happened
two people are saying two different things,there is an official records written by the clerk of the western house,meanwhile it was a parliamentary system not like the ones we have now,that said, saraki as senate president today was voted in majorly by members of PDP ,APGA and LABOUR party with few members of APC,can we now say the preferred candidate of APC was betrayed by PDP members, you guys should stop lying to yourself,Unogo was a staunch member of NCNC he is only lying, same lies Zik told his eastern brothers that is the Genesis of the hatred between Yorubas and Igbo's coz of ambition is what unogo is saying now.
Nobody ever said Nigeria changed currency before the war. Once again people were given UP TO £20. Many people got nothing at all because they got.no money.
which many people got no money Govt knowing fully well they don't have records declared 20pounds to those that had accounts in the bank and those who didn't have which was the majority, you think govt will annouce free 12000 naira today for everyone ,the equivalent of 20 pounds today people that av accounts and people that don't av accounts won't claim it?
Because Zik really didn't consider himself an Easterner. He was pan-Africanism personified. His aim was to free Africa from colonial rule not to be premier of anywhere. That was just a means to an end. And people understood that.
Yeah, of course, he didn't! Tell that "fabu" to the marines!!!
Zik did not see himself as an ibo man yet he presided over the Ibo state assembly in her 1st year anniversary in 1949.
Below is part of his speech at Aba, Nigeria, on Saturday, June 25, 1949.........................................
[b]"Harbingers of a new day for the Ibo nation, having selected me to preside over the deliberations of this assembly of the Ibo nation, I am conscious of the fact that you have not done so because of any extraordinary attributes in me. I realize that I am not the oldest among you, nor the wisest, nor the wealthiest, nor the most experienced, nor the most learned. I am therefore grateful to you for elevating me to this high pedestal.
The Ibo people have reached a cross-road and it is for us to decide which is the right course to follow. We are confronted with routes leading to diverse goals, but as I see it, there is only one road that I can safely recommend for us to tread, and it is the road to self-determination for the Ibo within the framework of a federated commonwealth of Nigeria and the Cameroons, leading to a United States of Africa. Other roads, in my opinion, are calculated to lead us astray from the path of national self-realization.
The keynote in this address is self-determination for the Ibo. Let us establish an Ibo State, based on linguistic and ethnic factors, enabling us to take our place side by side with the other linguistic and ethnic groups which make up Nigeria and the Cameroons."
[/b]
Barely two years later, he was salivating at the prospect of becoming premier over the yorubas in the western region of nigeria.
Bro, was it out of Awo's unconditional love for the Igbos that he brought about the infamous ten pounds policy to reimburse them after the war, even those that had millions in the bank?
Awo was a staunch tribalist, just a highly intellectual and stealthy one.
Where in the world tell me, does civil war end in a country and the government pay any money to the vanquished rebels.
Even the then head of state Gowon does not want Awolowo to pay the money, but he still went ahead. This is documented.
What else do you call this if not an act of kindness. We have always shown kindness to Igbo people but they are never appreciative of it.
masseratti: two people are saying two different things,there is an official records written by the clerk of the western house,meanwhile it was a parliamentary system not like the ones we have now,that said, saraki as senate president today was voted in majorly by members of PDP ,APGA and LABOUR party with few members of APC,can we now say the preferred candidate of APC was betrayed by PDP members, you guys should stop lying to yourself,Unogo was a staunch member of NCNC he is only lying, same lies Zik told his eastern brothers that is the Genesis of the hatred between Yorubas and Igbo's coz of ambition is what unogo is saying now.
Unongo is a northerner who fought against Igbos. See what he said about Zik? See, these people never saw Zik as Igbo or Yoruba. Everybody understood he just needed a platform to fight the British. They knew he was not interested in being the premier of a section.of Nigeria. That's why they all felt betrayed by what Awo did
masseratti: which many people got no money Govt knowing fully well they don't have records declared 20pounds to those that had accounts in the bank and those who didn't have which was the majority, you think govt will annouce free 12000 naira today for everyone ,the equivalent of 20 pounds today people that av accounts and people that don't av accounts won't claim it?
Remember Nigeria was literally drowning in oil money at the time. Still they gave Biafrans UP TO 20 pounds and many got nothing, believe me. Couple years later they had so much money they had Udoji award, giving everybody money even high school kids.
Yeah, of course, he didn't! Tell that "fabu" to the marines!!!
Zik did not see himself as an ibo man yet he presided over the Ibo state assembly in her 1st year anniversary in 1949.
Below is part of his speech at Aba, Nigeria, on Saturday, June 25, 1949.........................................
[b]"Harbingers of a new day for the Ibo nation, having selected me to preside over the deliberations of this assembly of the Ibo nation, I am conscious of the fact that you have not done so because of any extraordinary attributes in me. I realize that I am not the oldest among you, nor the wisest, nor the wealthiest, nor the most experienced, nor the most learned. I am therefore grateful to you for elevating me to this high pedestal.
The Ibo people have reached a cross-road and it is for us to decide which is the right course to follow. We are confronted with routes leading to diverse goals, but as I see it, there is only one road that I can safely recommend for us to tread, and it is the road to self-determination for the Ibo within the framework of a federated commonwealth of Nigeria and the Cameroons, leading to a United States of Africa. Other roads, in my opinion, are calculated to lead us astray from the path of national self-realization.
The keynote in this address is self-determination for the Ibo. Let us establish an Ibo State, based on linguistic and ethnic factors, enabling us to take our place side by side with the other linguistic and ethnic groups which make up Nigeria and the Cameroons."
[/b]
Barely two years later, he was salivating at the prospect of becoming premier over the yorubas in the western region of nigeria.
My friend everybody knew Zik was a pan Africsnist who fought for Ghana's independence. A politician will play to whoever he was talking to at the moment. If you dig out his speeches to Yorubas it will be similar.
Where in the world tell me, does civil war end in a country and the government pay any money to the vanquished rebels.
Even the then head of state Gowon does not want Awolowo to pay the money, but he still went ahead. This is documented.
What else do you call this if not an act of kindness. We have always shown kindness to Igbo people but they are never appreciative of it.
Bros, this was just police action to arrest Ojukwu according to Gowon. He maintained throughout that Igbos stayed Nigerian citizens. No Victor, no vanquished. Yet they gave Biafrans only UP TO 20 pounds, and many got nothing, believe me. Despite the fact the country was drowning in oil money. Couple years later they had so much money they had Udoji award, giving everybody money even high school kids.
My friend everybody knew Zik was a pan Africsnist who fought for Ghana's independence. A politician will play to whoever he was talking to at the moment. If you dig out his speeches to Yorubas it will be similar.
Why don't you dig out his similar speeches, if any, that he made to the yorubas . After zik's speech in 1949, many non-ibos left the NCNC in disgust. Two years later, the man was trying to be placed in charge of yoruba affairs. Meanwhile the pseudo-nationalist didn't even dare contest for premiership in the north.
By 1949, NCNC has been turned into an ibo party though it was formed by a coalition of nigerians with mainly yoruba people at the vanguard.
Very simple. Just paste the link to the video in your Nairaland post.
Thanks bro. Didn't realise it was that simple. Lalasticlala, mynd44, seun this is a good thtead. Teaches history,let's people decide to what extent Awo was a hero, villain.
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....
At that time, we told Britain, Nigeria had over 250 tribes but that we could not dissect Nigeria into 250 nations. We told them that what has happened in Western Nigeria where an Igbo man was rejected…nobody questioned the fact as at then that Zik was the leader of Nigeria and then suddenly, having won victory, which would have been a great thing for Nigeria, in a predominantly Yoruba region, because the Yoruba were extremely sophisticated and they were the most developed part of Nigeria, and they voted on the basis of ideological orientation. Zik’s party produced a Zik premiership in Western Nigeria and in the night, Awolowo went round to convince the Yoruba that, ‘you are a tribe. Your tribe is called Yoruba. Zik’s tribe is called Igbo. Do not allow this to happen. Whether you like me or not, it is better to have a Yoruba man to rule over Yorubaland’. Unfortunately, I feel, this was the starting point of our problems.
So, he succeeded, and Zik was forced to go to his own place to become a little tribal leader, which was never what he wanted. That man called Zik was responsible for the revolution in Ghana, and he started his revolutionary activities in America. Zik was very keen on having a United States of Africa. He wanted nations within each state, that could create supra-powerful goals around which political actions could be taken
Yet Unongi is a northerner talking after he had pogroms and war against Igbos. That Zik must have been one charismatic dude. People simply worshiped the guy
Ahmadu Bello was 49 at this time. Nnamdi Kanu is 50
Someone wrote this about the interview. What do you think?
He said d truth d only reasons. Why Ibos are hated is because they dominate d economy anywhere they are found while all dat d host communities can do is to hate hate and hate again. But for d educated host communities they jealous jealous and jealous again. D industrious nature of Ibos is so amazing. They hate idleness with passion The interview of Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Saduarna of Sokoto by BBC jorunalsit back in 1960.
Here is the interview.
Question:
One thing I have noticed while I have been here is that northerners seem to have the worst form of obsession about the Igbos, could please explain that?
Ahmadu Bello: Well, the Igbos are mainly the type of people whose desire is to dominate everybody. If they go to the village or town, they want to monopolise everything in that area.
If you put them as a labourer, within a year they will try to emerge as the headman of that camp...and so on...well.
We are not alive to their responsibilities because you can see from our modernisation policy that in 1952 when I came here, there weas less Northerners in our service. Then I fought. Now all important posts are being held by Northerners.
Question:
Is this policy of filling all the posts in the north solely with northerners and no Nigerian a temporary or permanent one?
Ahmadu Bello:
In actual fact, what it is, is a northerner first. Then if we can't get a northerner, then we take an expatriate like yourself (looking at the interviewer), if we can't then, we can employ another Nigerian, but on contract too. It is not going to be permanent as far as I can foresee, because it will be rather vengeance to see many of our boys are now turning from all institutions without having work to do. Am sure whatever government it will be, it will be rather embarrassing; it might even lead to black-sheep.
Question:
It might damage the idea of all people in all regions of Nigeria being par citizens of one country.
Ahmadu Bello: well it might but...amm...we are known to our reasons...how many northerners are employed in the east and west? The answer is none. And if they are, they may be only ten labourers employed in the two regions.
So Ahmadu Bello was younger than Kanu at time of the interview. Yet they call Nnamdi Kanu a small boy while Bello was already father of the North. Weird world!
masseratti: which many people got no money Govt knowing fully well they don't have records declared 20pounds to those that had accounts in the bank and those who didn't have which was the majority, you think govt will annouce free 12000 naira today for everyone ,the equivalent of 20 pounds today people that av accounts and people that don't av accounts won't claim it?
Bro, 9jadoc is right, many people got no money. My grandpa was rich before the war but became poor after the war and stayed poor rest of his life. I was told he got the 20 pounds. Why this was news was because no other family member got it..
Yeah, of course, he didn't! Tell that "fabu" to the marines!!!
Zik did not see himself as an ibo man yet he presided over the Ibo state assembly in her 1st year anniversary in 1949.
Below is part of his speech at Aba, Nigeria, on Saturday, June 25, 1949.........................................
[b]"Harbingers of a new day for the Ibo nation, having selected me to preside over the deliberations of this assembly of the Ibo nation, I am conscious of the fact that you have not done so because of any extraordinary attributes in me. I realize that I am not the oldest among you, nor the wisest, nor the wealthiest, nor the most experienced, nor the most learned. I am therefore grateful to you for elevating me to this high pedestal.
The Ibo people have reached a cross-road and it is for us to decide which is the right course to follow. We are confronted with routes leading to diverse goals, but as I see it, there is only one road that I can safely recommend for us to tread, and it is the road to self-determination for the Ibo within the framework of a federated commonwealth of Nigeria and the Cameroons, leading to a United States of Africa. Other roads, in my opinion, are calculated to lead us astray from the path of national self-realization.
The keynote in this address is self-determination for the Ibo. Let us establish an Ibo State, based on linguistic and ethnic factors, enabling us to take our place side by side with the other linguistic and ethnic groups which make up Nigeria and the Cameroons."
[/b]
Barely two years later, he was salivating at the prospect of becoming premier over the yorubas in the western region of nigeria.
Bros, I see absolutely nothing wrong with what Zik said here. He was simply telling them to prepare for federalism. He would have said the same thing to Yorubas. See, though the Igbos claimed Zik, he never really saw himself as belonging to the Igbos (as, for ecample, Awo with Yoruba). He was called Zik of Africa and that's really how he saw himself. There is one secret non-Igbos do not know about Zik - the man did not speak Igbo well. He spoke Hausa and Yoruba probably better. His aim was African independence and he would have been willing to be premier even in Ghana if that afforded him a better platform to fight the Europeans. His aim was not to be premier over Yorubas. IT WAS A MEANS TO AN END!
Thanks bro. Didn't realise it was that simple. Lalasticlala, mynd44, seun this is a good thtead. Teaches history,let's people decide to what extent Awo was a hero, villain.
I thought and still think it is more complicated than that.
Yet Unongi is a northerner talking after he had pogroms and war against Igbos. That Zik must have been one charismatic dude. People simply worshiped the guy
Not only that, here he is, a rich old msn risking the wrath of the Yoruba nation just to bring out the truth.
So Ahmadu Bello was younger than Kanu at time of the interview. Yet they call Nnamdi Kanu a small boy while Bello was already father of the North. Weird world!
I still don't understand how Ahmadu Bello was father of the North at 49.
Bro, 9jadoc is right, many people got no money. My grandpa was rich before the war but became poor after the war and stayed poor rest of his life. I was told he got the 20 pounds. Why this was news was because no other family member got it..
WetinConsignMe: WHAT DO YOU FOLKS THINK OF THE FOLLOWING? (Note the boldeds)
(Please remember I am not the one that did the interview nor wrote the article. So know who to attack.)
Nigeria’s problems started with Awo’s introduction of tribal politics — Unongo (MIDDLE BELT MAN)
26 JUN 2017
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 (YORUBA MAN)
Paul Unongo What is your take on the state of the nation?
I think Nigeria as an evolving society has done pretty well. We came as an amalgamation of different kinds of people into one state as many other countries have done including the US. In our case, our relatively revered father, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, who was the father of this nation and who believed very strongly in a form of government that is called Union Government because he believes that Africans could evolve, like Germany evolved under (Otto Von) Bismarck with all her numerous problems, and about 300 states, was able to bring them under the umbrella of one German nation. Dr. Azikiwe thought that he could replicate that.
His younger brother, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, came on the scene with a correct diagnosis, but people did not believe him. They called him a tribalist. They were wrong. Chief Awolowo said having watched the African systems and the European systems, later on, the form of togetherness which would give the component tribes legal, constitutional ability to express their uniqueness within a larger nation-state would be preferable, and he said that form of government, federalism, was good for Nigeria.
But some of us ‘small small’ people formed our own organization to tell Britain that ‘you have divided Nigeria into three.’ Awolowo has spoken; Zik has spoken, and of course, Sir Ahmadu Bello has spoken. He said his people were not very ready for independence and that the process had to be gradual, pledging, however, to remain in Nigeria but that he would not hold the rest of the country back since they wanted independence as at 1956 while the North would be ready by 1959. There was a lot of wisdom in what they said. So, we the firebrand, the young people, we made our choices. People like me would pick the path of Nnamdi Azikiwe because we felt he was the Bismark of our time who was ready to unite everybody. So the three principal participants rejected co-federalism, rejected unionism and adopted Awolowo’s federalism, and we became the Federal Republic of Nigeria later on. Within that context, you can choose to evaluate Nigeria and ignore whatever is happening in this country now. I think Nigeria is in the process of evolving as a nation-state stressing residual powers in the regions.
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.
At that time, we told Britain, Nigeria had over 250 tribes but that we could not dissect Nigeria into 250 nations. We told them that what has happened in Western Nigeria where an Igbo man was rejected…nobody questioned the fact as at then that Zik was the leader of Nigeria and then suddenly, having won victory, which would have been a great thing for Nigeria, in a predominantly Yoruba region, because the Yoruba were extremely sophisticated and they were the most developed part of Nigeria, and they voted on the basis of ideological orientation. Zik’s party produced a Zik premiership in Western Nigeria and in the night, Awolowo went round to convince the Yoruba that, ‘you are a tribe. Your tribe is called Yoruba. Zik’s tribe is called Igbo. Do not allow this to happen. Whether you like me or not, it is better to have a Yoruba man to rule over Yorubaland’. Unfortunately, I feel, this was the starting point of our problems.
So, he succeeded, and Zik was forced to go to his own place to become a little tribal leader, which was never what he wanted. That man called Zik was responsible for the revolution in Ghana, and he started his revolutionary activities in America. Zik was very keen on having a United States of Africa. He wanted nations within each state, that could create supra-powerful goals around which political actions could be taken.
So, we begged Britain to create a fourth region just to balance, because, within this fourth region that we perceived, we were not talking about religion because this region would have cut across the whole of the central part of Nigeria. It would have included the Nupe that were predominantly even Moslems; it would have included the Ebira, the Igala; it would have included some of the Yoruba, Benue-Plateau, etc., but we gave ourselves a title, Middle Belt, and we made very convincing arguments. I was the secretary to the leader of the UMBC, late Joseph Tarka, who people did not know, was only two and a half years older than me and I was very educated because I just came out from what you now call secondary school. So, I wrote our presentation for the London Constitutional Conference, and I knew we were committed to a fantastic nationalism.
Nigeria hasn’t gone beyond its past leaders
How far have we moved beyond our leaders in terms of development? Zero! We have not moved anywhere, and I am so sad. Today, the pursuit of other things rather than nationalism and patriotism have taken over. Whatever you say about our old leaders, they were patriotic. They saw a bigger picture of the nation that together we could do more in the economy, and that together we could command more respect in the international community.
When people say the problem of Nigeria is that old men have not given an opportunity to the youth to rule, well, at the time of Awolowo, all the people that ruled were young people, and they did well. Gowon was only 29. Murtala was young. All the generals that ruled Nigeria were young. Why didn’t they become our Bismarck? Why didn’t they even become this young man in Ghana, Rawlings? That is why I have no sympathy for people who do not bend down and analyse the problem correctly. People believe if my tribesman is the president of Nigeria, then I am president. The Yoruba man who thought like that, where has Obasanjo taken him? In this regard, I still haven’t found out why education hasn’t helped us, but I think that regarding what Nigeria ought to have been, 60 years after independence, it is an insult on some of us that we are still talking about Nigeria’s potentials.
What I find interesting about this is the courage of Unongo. There he was talking to a Yoruba.guy and knowing fully well he stood to.incure the wrath of many Yoruba people, yet hr still told the truth.
