chino11:

What are we talking about here. Its like comparing Apple and Orange. Great Zik is too far ahead of awalowo who was just a rural dweller without any form of education, unlike Great Zik who already had attended several universities in US and UK with multiple educational degrees. Great Zik has high international recognition unlike Awalowo who was not even known beyond his door-step. At least FG is building a resting place for the Great Zik in Onitsha, Anambra state and his birth place in Zungeru Niger state, Ahmadu Bello is also being recognized, what has FG done in the memory of Awalowo The fore-most international airport in Abuja was named after the Great Zik, important roads across the country is also named after the great Zik, studium was named after Zik, this is to show how important a nationalist great Zik was. Also Almadu Bello is getting the same attention. What has been done in the memory of Awalowo, the only statue of Awalowo was recently pulled down by yorobah rascal rulers. I think you guys should be weeping for the humiliation meted against your man Awalowo. He has suffered neglect in the hands of the successive FG and states governments.

Chino, you have put it nicely. While i don't take anything away from AWO. I don't think he should in anyway be compared with the likes of ZIK of Africa and Bello.

afam4eva:

Chino, you have put it nicely. While i don't take anything away from AWO. I don't think he should in anyway be compared with the likes of ZIK of Africa and Bello.

afam4eva

what did ZIK of Africa Ndigbo achieve all his life

pls name it. thank you

alj_harem:

afam4eva

what did ZIK of Africa Ndigbo achieve all his life

pls name it. thank you

Hate him or like him. You can't mention Nigeria without ZIK coming into the picture. But that cannot be said of Awolowo. AWO can only be mentioned when matters relating to Yoruba and south-west are discussed.

afam4eva:

Hate him or like him. You can't mention Nigeria without ZIK coming into the picture. But that cannot be said of Awolowo. AWO can only be mentioned when matters relating to Yoruba and south-west are discussed.

Simply means you can not name anything.

This is what they say about Awolow and ZIk when their names are mentioned.


SIX LEADERS OF BLACK AFRICA

Chief Obafemi Awolowo, 49, of the powerful Yoruba tribe, dedicated, teetotaling Prime Minister of the Western Region of Nigeria who began as a barrister, has gradually emerged as a statesman of integrity in a land where charges of corruption are the political order of the day.

His fellow Prime Minister to the more populous but primitive north, the Sardauna of Sokoto, is a haughty Moslem nobleman out of another century. Nigeria's other regional Prime Minister, the demagogic, U.S.-educated Nnamdi ["Zik"] Azikiwe of the Ibo tribe to the east, lives under a cloud as a result of a financial scandal in his administration.

So rent by divisions (250 tribes speaking 400 languages), Nigeria has a compromise federal Prime Minister, Abubakar Balewa, a northerner. "To many of us," says Awolowo, "Britain is our second home. We have thrown no stones, fired no shot, and we have not shed a drop of British blood. We are attaining independence by peaceful, orderly and democratic methods."

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,894174,00.html

Hehe.

That Azikiwe banking scandal in the Eastern region, I nearly forgot about that

Eko Ile:


Simply means you can not name anything.

This is what they say about Awolow and ZIk when their names are mentioned.


SIX LEADERS OF BLACK AFRICA

o boy u wicked ooo

but why is bello not there

What the EFF is Zik of Africa Some people want to force this "Zik of Africa" on everyone's throat!!!  

If you must name someone "Zik of Africa", then provide EVIDENCE of his Achievements in or for Africa or forever SHUT UP!!!

jason123:

What the EFF is Zik of Africa Some people want to force this "Zik of Africa" on everyone's throat!!!  

If you must name someone "Zik of Africa", then provide EVIDENCE of his Achievements in or for Africa or forever SHUT UP!!!

Dude, pls don't kill yourself over nothing. Nobody is forcing anything down your throat. I didn't name him Zik of Africa. He was given the name due to the contribution he made to Africa as a continent unlike Awolowo that was not even a national leader but a small regional leader(western region). You have to give honour to whom it's due. If you're still disgruntled about the name then go jump off london bridge. You're still in London right?

afam4eva:

Dude, pls don't kill yourself over nothing. Nobody is forcing anything down your throat. I didn't name him Zik of Africa. He was given the name due to the contribution he made to Africa as a continent unlike Awolowo that was not even a national leader but a small regional leader(western region). You have to give honour to whom it's due. If you're still disgruntled about the name then go jump off london bridge. You're still in London right?

don't mind this slow minded people full of hatred Na high b p go set in soon idiots,

afam4eva:

Dude, pls don't kill yourself over nothing. Nobody is forcing anything down your throat. I didn't name him Zik of Africa. He was given the name due to the contribution he made to Africa as a continent unlike Awolowo that was not even a national leader but a small regional leader(western region). You have to give honour to whom it's due. If you're still disgruntled about the name then go jump off london bridge. You're still in London right?

1. When they talk about real Africa leaders, they mention Awolowo among others, never ZIK of that ever you're talking about. They don't even know who da hell he was outside Nigeria.

2. Your ZIK of Africa is nothing but a worthless nickname you people made up. Of what use are you as a leader when at the end of the day there's nothing to show for it.

3. You yourself can not name a single thing the man achieved

4. The only thing we know and read about him remains about corruption, incompetency and a useless figure head and ceremonial vice presidency slot and when he crossed over to regional, he still delivered nothing while Awolowo on the other hand delivered so many firsts not only in Nigeria, but in the whole of Africa.

5. The incompetent man that ran and stayed away from the people he took oath to serve when the country was in turmoil

This is what's in our history books about him and if you have something different, let us hear about it.

It's is only in Nigeria we honor people for corruption and incompetency.

I dare you to name one single thing your ZIK achieved.

Do that or just shut up with all that silly nonsense.

Eko Ile:


1. When they talk about real Africa leaders, they mention Awolowo among others, never ZIK of that ever you're talking about. They don't even know who da hell he was outside Nigeria.

2. Your ZIK of Africa is nothing but a worthless nickname you people made up. Of what use are you as a leader when at the end of the day there's nothing to show for it.

3. You yourself can not name a single thing the man achieved

4. The only thing we know and read about him remains about corruption, incompetency and a useless figure head and ceremonial vice presidency slot and when he crossed over to regional, he still delivered nothing while Awolowo on the other hand delivered so many firsts not only in Nigeria, but in the whole of Africa.

It's is only in Nigeria we honor people for corruption and incompetency.

I dare you to name one single thing your ZIK achieved.

Do that or just shut up with all that silly nonsense.

Eko ile well said

I am waiting to see what ZIK achieved in his life

we know of Bello

we know of Awolowo

what of ZIK

jason123:

What the EFF is Zik of Africa Some people want to force this "Zik of Africa" on everyone's throat!!!

If you must name someone "Zik of Africa", then provide EVIDENCE of his Achievements in or for Africa or forever SHUT UP!!!

Exemplary Life of Nnamdi Azikiwe-Zik of Africa
Nnamdi Azikiwe dedicated his life to "the upliftment of the black race out of darkness and into light'.His Cavalry charge was "Shine the light that others may follow".Using education as a tool he mentored and motivated great leaders in Africa-Some include Kwame Nkrumah, Julius Nyerere, Obafemi Awolowo,Nelson Mandela,Tony Enahoro, Bala Zurkogi to name a few.He is fondly called Zik of Africa-The Father of Modern Africa

houvest:


Exemplary Life of Nnamdi Azikiwe-Zik of Africa
Nnamdi Azikiwe dedicated his life to "the upliftment of the black race out of darkness and into light'.His Cavalry charge was "Shine the light that others may follow".Using education as a tool he mentored and motivated great leaders in Africa-Some include Kwame Nkrumah, Julius Nyerere, Obafemi Awolowo,Nelson Mandela,Tony Enahoro, Bala Zurkogi to name a few.He is fondly called Zik of Africa-The Father of Modern Africa

so what is his achievement or sacrifice for Nigerians or Africans

or are we just calling him ZIK of whatever because you people are telling us so

I would like if you can list his achievement like awolowo, Bello, mandela etc

thanks

^-- Good question. I'm actually curious, what exactly did he do?

ekt_bear:

^-- Good question. I'm actually curious, what exactly did he do?

abi we must know before some people tell us he is ZIK of whatever

I respect the man, surely I do but my respect is just due to the fact that he was part of the 3 sages of Nigeria which were Bello, Awolowo and him (ZIK)

after that, there is nothing else and infact that is all the respect NIGERIANS have for him except his people of course

same can not be said of Saro wiwa, Awolowo, Bello and to some extent Edwin clark, Fashola, Dora and dokubo

I consider Nigeria's first nationalist and father of Nigerian nationalism to be Herbert Macualay however, among the trio of Zik, Sarduana and AWO, Zik comes first. Zik wasn't popular to Ndigbo.

The sour truth is that Ndiigbo quite detest the man for issues I've mentioned severally on this forum however, in the spirit of fairness without recourse to ethnocentric views, its unfair by fellow forumites, to be very knowledgeable about Nigerian history yet, not consider ZIK as the better of the trio.

AWO was a very regional leader both in almost all his antecedents and at mind. Sarduana was even worse cos of his ardent believe in the North. Ndiigbo never had anyone like these two men, in the person of Azikiwe.

Azikiwe was very pro-Nigerian even to the detriment of his own people.

dem_people:

I consider Nigeria's first nationalist and father of Nigerian nationalism to be Herbert Macualay however, among the trio of Zik, Sarduana and AWO, Zik comes first. Zik wasn't popular to Ndigbo.

The sour truth is that Ndiigbo quite detest the man for issues I've mentioned severally on this forum however, in the spirit of fairness without recourse to ethnocentric views, its unfair by fellow forumites, to be very knowledgeable about Nigerian history yet, not consider ZIK as the better of the trio.

AWO was a very regional leader both in almost all his antecedents and at mind. Sarduana was even worse cos of his ardent believe in the North. Ndiigbo never had anyone like these two men, in the person of Azikiwe.

Azikiwe was very pro-Nigerian even to the detriment of his own people.

Well said

dem_people:

I consider Nigeria's first nationalist and father of Nigerian nationalism to be Herbert Macualay however, among the trio of Zik, Sarduana and AWO, Zik comes first. Zik wasn't popular to Ndigbo.

The sour truth is that Ndiigbo quite detest the man for issues I've mentioned severally on this forum however, in the spirit of fairness without recourse to ethnocentric views, its unfair by fellow forumites, to be very knowledgeable about Nigerian history yet, not consider ZIK as the better of the trio.

AWO was a very regional leader both in almost all his antecedents and at mind. Sarduana was even worse cos of his ardent believe in the North. Ndiigbo never had anyone like these two men, in the person of Azikiwe.

Azikiwe was very pro-Nigerian even to the detriment of his own people.

I was asking WHY HE IS CALLED THE ZIK OF AFRICA. I understand he was a nationalist, I very much understand that. What was his achievement for Africa or Nigeria. As in, what exactly did he do to warrant such a title in Africa. If he did not develop his people because he was a nationalist, what did he then do for Africa or Nigeria?
PS: It does not mean I hate him or anything but I am simply curious because it seems we are just calling him Zik of Africa because some people want us do so . . .

jason123:

I was asking WHY HE IS CALLED THE ZIK OF AFRICA. I understand he was a nationalist, I very much understand that. What was his achievement for Africa or Nigeria. As in, what exactly did he do to warrant such a title in Africa. If he did not develop his people because he was a nationalist, what did he then do for Africa or Nigeria?
PS: It does not mean I hate him or anything but I am simply curious because it seems we are just calling him Zik of Africa because some people want us do so . . .

I answered that for you above or  inspiring a generation of African leaders and nationalist movements across Africa thereby birthing modern free Africa on his Resume  not enough to be called Zik of Africa. If he affected all those leaders would you rather give that title to Nkrumah or Nyerere or Mandela? Folks here want to see the fish or list of fishes he gave Africa and not the fishing he taught Africa.

houvest:

I answered that for you above or  inspiring a generation of African leaders and nationalist movements across Africa thereby birthing modern free Africa on his Resume  not enough to be called Zik of Africa. If he affected all those leaders would you rather give that title to Nkrumah or Nyerere or Mandela? Folks here want to see the fish or list of fishes he gave Africa and not the fishing he taught Africa.

and is that his achievment

btw thanks jason and thempeople

houvest:

I answered that for you above or  [b]inspiring a generation of African leaders and nationalist movements across Africa thereby birthing modern free Africa on his Resume  not enough to be called Zik of Africa. If he affected all those leaders would you rather give that title to Nkrumah or Nyerere or Mandela? [/b]Folks here want to see the fish or list of fishes he gave Africa and not the fishing he taught Africa.

right

Why should ZIK be accredited for that. A wide spread revolution happened in africa then all of a sudden ZIK should take the credit

dem_people:

I consider Nigeria's first nationalist and father of Nigerian nationalism to be Herbert Macualay however, among the trio of Zik, Sarduana and AWO, Zik comes first. Zik wasn't popular to Ndigbo.

The sour truth is that Ndiigbo quite detest the man for issues I've mentioned severally on this forum however, in the spirit of fairness without recourse to ethnocentric views, its unfair by fellow forumites, to be very knowledgeable about Nigerian history yet, not consider ZIK as the better of the trio.

AWO was a very regional leader both in almost all his antecedents and at mind. Sarduana was even worse cos of his ardent believe in the North. Ndiigbo never had anyone like these two men, in the person of Azikiwe.

Azikiwe was very pro-Nigerian even to the detriment of his own people.

Awolowo was charged to take care of the the people of the western region, not Nigeria.

ZIK was a powerless dummy vice president incapable of doing anything and when he was charged to do something in his region, he did nothing but swam in corruption and illegalities as stated by even the Times magazine.

Awolowo did his job and millions beyond the western region including ibo, and hausa people benefited from his achievements.

The indfustrial extates Awolowo created remains Nigeria's main economic mainstay and that millions of Nigerians beyond the western region are benefiting from.

Please tell what ZIK contributed to Nigeria. He was a powerless figure head incapable of lifting a finger to do anything talk less doing anything for Nigeria.

When they they talk about the first Africa regarding Awolowo's achivements, they don't say first in Yorubaland or first in the western region, they say first in Nigeria and first in Africa.

When they talk about great African leaders, they talk about Awolowo and others, never ZIK simply because Africa never regonized him as one because he contributed nothing to Africa but his own self ans selfishiness. He was cuooruot and incompetent.

ZIK was pro ZIK and never pro Nigeria, not even pro his own people.

Was he pro Nigeria when he deserted Nigerians and run away from her troubles like a sissy?

I beg you, please state to us what exactly he did that was pro anything .

All the silly Pan AFRICAN crap is nothing but a nother phrase for failure, even Africa never recognized him as an African leader? What was he? President of Africa? He wasn't even the president of Nigeria or the prime minister of Nigeria.


You people need to go pick up some history books for your own good.

alj_harem:

right

Why should ZIK be accredited for that. A wide spread revolution happened in africa then all of a sudden ZIK should take the credit

If you notice I am responding to Jason who is ready to learn. I do not respond to certain folks on NL except when I want to put them on the spot. You are on the internet so use google to determine Ziks influence and that of his writings and publications on the African Nationalist movement if you really wanna learn. You could start from his stay in Ghana.

houvest:

If you notice I am responding to Jason who is ready to learn. I do not respond to certain folks on NL except when I want to put them on the spot. You are on the internet so use google to determine Ziks influence and that of his writings and publications on the African Nationalist movement if you really wanna learn. You could start from his stay in Ghana.

why do u think i am not ready to learn, was i not the one that started this question at the first place

ok this is what i found on zik

ACHIEVEMENTS
He was inducted into the prestigious Agbalanze society as Nnayelugo in 1946. Then, in 1962, he became a second-rank red cap chief (Ndichie Okwa), as Oziziani Obi. In 1970, he was installed as Owelle-Osowa-Anya, making him a first-rank red cap chief (Ndichie Ume). In 1960, Queen Elizabeth II awarded him the title of Privy Councilor to the Queen of England. He was conferred with the highest national honor of Grand Commander of the Federal Republic (GCFR) by the Federal Republic of Nigeria, in 1980. He has received fourteen honorary degrees from Nigerian, American and Liberian Universities. They schools include Lincoln University, Storer College, Howard University, Michigan State University, University of Nigeria Nsukka, University of Lagos, Ahmadu Bello University, University of Ibadan, Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka, and University of Liberia.

SPORTS – He was actively involved in sports at every stage of his life, and he was successful in a lot of events that he participated in. They include Welterweight Boxing Champion Storer College (1925-27); High Jump champion, Howard University Inter-Scholastic Games (1926); Gold Medallist in Cross Country, Storer College (1927); Back-stroke Swimming Champion and No.3 swimmer in Freestyle Relay team, Howard University (1928); Captain, Lincoln University Soccer Team (1930); Winner Two Miles Run, Central Inter-Collegiate Athletic Association Championships at Hampton Institute Virginia (1931); Bronze Medallist, Richmond Cross Country Marathon (1931); Gold Medallist in the 1,000 yards run, One Mile Run and Three Miles Run, Catedonian Games in Brooklyn, NY (1932); Silver Trophy winner in the Half Mile race, and Silver Cup winner in the One Mile Race, Democratic Field Day Championships, New Haven, Connecticut (1933); Runner-up(with G.K. Dorgu) at the Lagos Tennis Men’s Double Championships (Division B 1938); anchor man for the ZAC team which won the 50 yards Freestyle Relay at the Lagos Swimming Championships (1939); Won letters in athletics (Lincoln University) and cross country (Storer College and Lincoln University), swimming (Howard University), and soccer (Lincoln University); entered to compete in the Half-Mile Race and One-Mile run at the British Empire Games to represent Nigeria, but was rejected by the A.A.A of Great Britain on technical grounds (he dropped his English Christian name, “Benjamin”); and Founder (with M.R.B. Ottun) of the Zik’s Athletic Club to promote athletics, boxing, cricket, soccer, swimming and tennis in Nigeria.

POLITICS – During his lifetime, he held some political posts all over the world, especially our great country, Nigeria. They include Executive Committee Member of Mambili Party, Accra (1935-37); General Secretary of National Council of Nigerian and the Cameroons (1944-45); President of the NCNC (1946-60); Vice-President of the Nigerian National Democratic Party (1947-60); Member for Lagos in the Legislative Council of Nigeria (1947-51); Member for Lagos and Leader of the Opposition in the Western House of Assembly (1952-53) Member for Onitsha in the Eastern House of Assembly (1954-60); Minister of Internal Affairs (Jan.-Sept. 1954); Minister of Internal Affairs, Eastern Region (1954); Member of His Excellency Privy Council, Eastern Nigeria (1954-59); Primer of Eastern Nigeria (1954-59); President of the Senate of the Federation (Jan.-Nov. 1960); Governor-General and Commander-in-Chief of Nigeria (1960-63); President of the Republic of the Republic of Nigeria (1963-1966); and Chairman and Presidential candidate of the Nigeria People’s Party (1978-83). Professional World – He also made a name for himself in the professional world. He was a Third-class Clerk, Treasury Department, Lagos (1921-1924); Recruit, Gold Coast Police Force (Jul.-Sept. 1924); Solicitor Clerk to the late Mr. Justice Graham Paul at Calabar (Jan.-Aug.1925); Instructor in Political Science, Lincoln University (1931-34); University Correspondent for the Baltimore Afro-American (1928-34); General and Sports Correspondent for the Philadelphia Tribune (1928-34); Editor-in Chief of the West African Pilot (1937-45); Correspondent for the Associated Negro Press (1944-47); Correspondent for Reuters (1944-46); Managing Director of Zik’s Press Limited (printers and publishers of the West African Pilot (Lagos), Eastern Guardian (Port Harcourt), Nigerian Spokesman (Onitsha), Southern Nigeria Defender (Ibadan), Daily Comet (Kano), and Eastern Sentinel (Enugu); Managing Director of Comet Press Limited (1945-53); Chairman of West African Pilot Limited and the Associated Newspapers of Nigeria Limited and six other limited liability companies (1952-53); Chairman, Nigerian Real Estate Corporation Limited (1952-53); etc.

SOCIETIES AND ORGANIZATIONS - He was a member of many organizations or societies, including Anti-Slavery Society for the protection of Human Rights; Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity (Alpha Chapter and Mu Chapter); West African Students Union; Onitsha Improvement Union; Zik’s Athletic Club; Ekine Sekiapu Society of Buguma, Kalabari; St. John’s Lodge of England; Royal Economic Society; Royal Anthropological Institute; British Association for the Advancement of Science; American Society of International Law; American Anthropological Association; American Political Science Society; American Ethnological Society; Iwarefa, Reformed Ogboni Fraternity; Amateur Athletic Association of Nigeria; Nigerian Swimming Association, Nigerian Boxing Board of Control; Nigerian Cricket Association; Ibo State Union; and Nigerian Table Tennis Association; Nigeria Olympic Committee and British Empire and Commonwealth Games Association.

LITERARY WORKS - In his lifetime, he wrote a lot of books, poetry, and articles. His celebrated publications include Liberia in World Politics: Renascent Africa (1934); Political Blueprint for Nigeria (1943); Economic Reconstruction of Nigeria (1943); Zik: A Selection of the Speeches of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe (1961); Assassination Story: True or False? (1946); “Essentials for Nigeria’s Survival.” (1965); “Before Us Lies The Open Grave” (1947); “The Future of Pan-Africanism” (1961); “The Realities of African Unity” (1965); “Origins of the Nigerian Civil War” (1969); I Believe in a One Nigeria (1969); Peace Proposals for Ending the Nigerian Civil War (1969); My Odyssey: An Autobiography (1970); Dialogue on a New Capital for Nigeria (1974); “Creation of More States in Nigeria, A Political Analysis” (1974); Democracy with Military Vigilance (1974); “Reorientation of Nigerian Ideologies: lecture on 9th December 1976, on eve of the launching of the UNN Endowment Fund” (1976); Our Struggle for Freedom; Onitsha Market Crisis (1976); Let Us Forgive Our Children, An appeal to the leaders and people of Onitsha during the market crisis (1976); A Collection of Poems (1977); Civil War Soliloquies: More Collection of Poems (1977); “Themes in African Social and Political Thought” (1978); Restoration of Nigerian Democracy (1978); Matchless Past Performance: My Reply to Chief Awolowo’s Challenge (1979); A Matter of Conscience (1979); Ideology for Nigeria: Capitalism, Socialism or Welfarism? (1980); “Breach of Trust by the NPN” (1983); and History Will Vindicate The Just (1983).

http://zikism.tripod.com/Owelle.html

so what value did he add to Nigeria or africa

houvest:

If you notice I am responding to Jason who is ready to learn. I do not respond to certain folks on NL except when I want to put them on the spot. You are on the internet so use google to determine Ziks influence and that of his writings and publications on the African Nationalist movement if you really wanna learn. You could start from his stay in Ghana.

1. What's African Nationalist movement? Is it a job and if yes, please show us the job discription and how Nigerians benefited from that job.

2. Show us where and when Nigerians gave him that Job and how we benefited from that job

3. You can accord to any man man anything beyond what he was charged to do. He was the vice president of Nigeria, not the vice president of what ever phantom movement you are talking about.

4. He was the head of the eastern region, tell us what he delivered to the people of the eastern region and how Nigerians benefited and still benefiting from Like Awolowo's many achievments.


They asked you what the man's achiements was and you replied, he was a pan africanists? What da hell is that? What about his real job, the jobs Nigerians gave him to do, the jobs that he swore to do?

houvest:

I answered that for you above or  inspiring a generation of African leaders and nationalist movements across Africa thereby birthing modern free Africa on his Resume  not enough to be called Zik of Africa. If he affected all those leaders would you rather give that title to Nkrumah or Nyerere or Mandela? Folks here want to see the fish or list of fishes he gave Africa and not the fishing he taught Africa.

Thanks for the response.

Eko Ile:

1. What's African Nationalist movement? Is it a job and if yes, please show us the job discription and how Nigerians benefited from that job.

2. Show us where and when Nigerians gave him that Job and how we benefited from that job

3. You can accord to any man man anything beyond what he was charged to do. He was the vice president of Nigeria, not the vice president of what ever phantom movement you are talking about.

4. He was the head of the eastern region, tell us what he delivered to the people of the eastern region and how Nigerians benefited and still benefiting from Like Awolowo's many achievments.


They asked you what the man's achiements was and you replied, he was a pan africanists? What da hell is that? What about his real jon, the jobs Nigerians gave him to do, the jobs that he swore to do?

abi, and i still can't understand why they are trying to tell us pan-african=achievement

i am pan-african as well, can i be considered as alj harem of africa

alj_harem:

abi, and i still can't understand why they are trying to tell us pan-african=achievement

i am pan-african as well, can i be considered as alj harem of africa

Ofcourse u can son. You sure can. When you were born, I held u in my arms and knew u will do me proud one day. 

Don't stop at being the alj harem of africa. Aim much higher by being the Shehu of Africa itself.   

Zik the Pan African,

(1955) Nnamdi Azikiwe, “The University of Nigeria Speech”

On May 18, 1955 the Eastern House of Assembly, the regional legislature for Eastern Nigeria, moved a resolution to established the first university in Eastern Nigeria. Nnamdi Azikiwe gave a speech seconding the motion introduced by the Eastern Region Minister of Education. That eastern university became the University of Nigeria. Azikiwe's remarks given on May 18, 1955, appear below.

[b]Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to second this historic motion and in doing so I wish to confine my remarks to one aspect of the speech so ably made by the Honourable the Minister of Education. I have in mind his statement about the philosophy of education which animates the introduction of this Bill. I must admit that I have been impressed by the recommendations made by the African Education Commission, which visited Nigeria in 1920 with the late Kwegyir Aggrey, under the auspices of the Phelps-Stokes Fund and the Foreign Mission Societies of North America and Europe, particularly the following:

1. That all concerned distinguish clearly the educational needs, namely, the education of the masses of the people, the training of teachers and leaders for the masses, and the preparation of professional men who must pass the conventional requirements of British universities.

2. That the education of the masses and their teachers be determined by the following elements, namely, health, ability to develop the resources of the country, household arts, sound recreation, rudiments of knowledge, character development, and community responsibility. The native teachers should also have access to the great truths of physical and social science and the inspiration of history and literature.

I make the above admission because, after 35 years, the observations and recommendations of the Commission are still timely. Indeed, I can say that this report forms a basis of the philosophy of education for Africa, not because Africans deserve a separate philosophy but, in the words of Dr Anson Phelps-Stokes, the purpose of the Commission was to help Africans ‘by encouraging an education adapted to their actual needs. . . . The time has passed when the old thesis can be successfully maintained that a curriculum well suited to the needs of a group on a given scale of civilization in one country is necessarily the best for other groups on a different level of advancement in another country or section.’[/b]

But Dr Stokes did not end on a dogmatic note. After pointing out that agricultural or industrial training, under Christian auspices, proved to be the best type of education for the majority of the freed Negroes, ‘at this particular time of their development’, he cautioned that ‘the door was and always should be kept wide open for a higher education’ for those who had the ability and the character to profit by university training.

In appreciating any philosophy of education we should always find out the aims of those who postulate such ideas. As far as one can observe from a subsequent statement by the Phelps-Stokes group, the objective sought was Nigerian leadership. In one of their latest reports, it is said:

In terms of the African continent, this should clearly imply such changes as that there should be more emphasis on education for native leadership; that European officials should gradually give way to a trained native African civil service; that duly elected Africans should play a larger part in the legislative councils of the colonies; and that investments should be further controlled in the interest of better wages for native workmen, and better working and living conditions. It is believed that if such things are done the African people, and the nations in which they will form the large majority, will be happier, and will ultimately have an important contribution to make to the civilization of the world.
I believe that, side by side with higher vocational education, opportunities should be created to enable the trained individuals to play a useful role in the development of the country. Here is where I agree with the founders of Achimota College that,

The immediate aim of African education should be to develop character, initiative, and ability of the youth of the country, so that they may be reliable, useful, and intelligent in the rapidly changing life and circumstances of their own people. In other words, the aim of education is to develop the manhood and womanhood of the rising generation for the sake of their peoples. Anything narrower than this must lead to a stagnant and menacing flood of unemployed and unemployable youth.

It is important that higher educational facilities should be provided locally to enable those to be benefited to make full use of them. It is said that a fully educated person should be ‘enlightened in im interests, impersonal in his judgment, ready in his sympathy for whatever is just and right, effective in the work he sets himself to do, and willing to lend a hand to anyone who is in need of it.’ I strongly support the belief of the late Sir Frederick Gordon Guggisberg that ‘the keystone of progress is education; but all that will be idle rhetoric if we mix the materials of the keystone badly.’ In this connection, this former Governor of the Gold Coast confessed that the British would never succeed ‘if the sole place in which the African can get his higher education and his professional training is Europe. Much learning, and of the best, he can get there; character-training, none. . . . We must aim at giving the whole of our education locally, and, where it is essential that an African should go to Europe for the final steps to enter a profession, we must arrange our system in such a manner that his absence will be reduced to the shortest possible time and the foundations of his character firmly laid before he goes. . . . To stand the pressure brought to bear on the Arch of Progress by the hurricane of material development, the storm of criticism, and the windy tornadoes of political agitation, the keystone must be well and truly laid and composed of strong materials.’

In order that the foundations of Nigerian leadership shall be securely laid, to the end that this country shall cease to imitate the excrescences of a civilization which is not rooted in African life, I strongly support this Bill to the effect that a full-fledged university should be established in this Region without further delay. Such a higher institution of learning should not only be cultural, according to the classical concept of universities, but it should also be vocational in its objective and Nigerian in its content. We should not offer any apologies for making such a progressive move. After all, we must do f or ourselves what others hesitate to do for us. In the thoughts of a great American Negro historian, ‘History shows that it does not matter who is in power or what revolutionary forces take over the government, those who have not learned to do for themselves and have to depend solely on others never obtain any more rights or privileges in the end than they had in the beginning.’
[b]I notice that it is envisaged that the university should have six degree-conferring Faculties: Arts, Science, Law, Theology, Engineering, and Medicine. I hope that the curricula of the university will be related to the day-to-day life of our people and that they will be so organized as to relate the mission of the university to the social and economic needs of the Region. I also observe that the following twenty diploma-conferring Institutes are among those which will be established for the professional and technical education of our men and women on whom we shall have to rely heavily in the difficult years ahead: Agriculture, Architecture, Diplomacy, Domestic Science, Dramatics, Education, Finance, Fine Arts, Fishery, Forestry, Journalism, Librarianship, Music, Pharmacy, Physical Education, Public Administrations, Public Health, Secretarial Studies, Social Work, Surveying and Veterinary Science. If these Institutes are so organized as to operate pari passu with the Faculties, then this Region will embark upon an historic renaissance in the fields of academic, cultural, professional and technical education on the same lines as the leading countries of the world.[/b]

I wish to make it emphatic that the university should be coeducational. It will be remembered that the Cambridge Conference on African Education made reference to this subject in their report, which says:

Women and girls need an education that fits them to live in a world of social change; and they need the tools of learning to help them to understand and take a fuller part in daily life. The increasing numbers need opportunities for professional and occupational training so that they can be both economically independent and fitted to take over progressively their responsibility for educating and training their own people. The main task for education among women and girls therefore is to provide so sound a training in the techniques of living that the whole level of African life can be raised socially, intellectually, and spiritually by the full co-operation of women in the home and in the community at large. . . . We recommend that priority should now be given to providing trades and technical training for women and girls in the fields of needlecraft, catering, institutional management, and secretarial arts.
It is now accepted in progressive circles that male and female students of any modem university should be allowed to live side by side on the same campus, where residence is available; they should study together, play together, and share together the vicissitudes of the cultural atmosphere of secondary school or university life. The aim of such co-education should be to enable male and female students to engage together in academic, vocational and co-curricular activities in developing their personalities.

I feel that it is of utmost importance that we should inculcate in our university students not only the dignity of labour, but also the idea that by hard work, sacrifice and self-determination, a poor student can obtain university education. In many colleges and universities of the world today, thousands of students are demonstrating that lack of funds is not an unsurmountable barrier to higher education. The fact that students are not affluent enough to pay all their bills need not make them ashamed.

It is my earnest hope that indigent male and female students of the new university will be encouraged to work in order to be able to meet their university expenses. The experience gained thereby will stand them in good stead in the struggle for survival in life. By making sacrifices, by being thrifty, and by working hard, such students will cultivate self-reliance and confidence. As experience has shown in American and German universities, many elements which, ordinarily, would have discouraged the average student and possibly caused him to be a failure in life, are usually encountered by such working students with remarkable fortitude and determination to rely on his own resources to succeed, no matter the handicaps. Later in life, he can always recount the turning point of his life with pride.

It is my fondest wish that when the University of Nigeria ultimately becomes a reality, our young men and women will find opportunities for gaining experience in life’s battle, so that lack of money will not deter them from obtaining higher vocational education in any of the faculties or institutes of the university. I hope that the training in self-help and the experience in self- reliance will make them more confident of themselves and enable them to puncture the myth of the proverbial lack of initiative and drive on the part of the Nigerian worker.

Finally, I trust that, with the establishment of this university, it will be complementary with the Ibadan University College, co-operating with it, drawing inspiration from its efforts, and gaining experience from this pioneer institution of higher education in this country.

Sir, I beg to second.
Sources:

Nnamdi Azikiwe, Zik: A Selection from the Speeches of Nnamdi Azikiwe, Governor-General of the Federation of Nigeria formerly President of the Nigerian Senate formerly Premier of the Eastern Region of Nigeria (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1961).


http://www.blackpast.org/?q=1955-nnamdi-azikiwe-university-nigeria-speech

Zik's philosophy was Africa first, Nigeria second and Igbo 3rd.

I know knuckleheads wont understand the simple and well articulated speech.

Zik the Igbo man,

Do you know how much of Nnamdi Azikiwe's personal resources went to establishing the University of Nigeria at Nsukka? Quite aside from the money from donor groups, of whom Zik sought numerous audiences, and the money set aside by the Eastern Nigerian Development Corporation from 1956 for the development of the University of Nigeria, and I'm sure Mrs Oyibo Odinamadu would know because she was an official of the ENDC, the highest personal contributor to the development of UNN was Nnamdi Azikiwe. The University was his dream: he saw to its development, and I'm certain that people like R.O. Nkwocha, who did contracts at Nsukka would never have been awarded contracts in the climate of contemporary Nigeria, whose leaders would either award it to themselves or to Julius Berger. But this question is about the Zik's flats, which was leased to the University for students accommodation, and which was the property of the Nnamdi Azkiwe Foundation. The stated aim of the Nnamdi Azikiwe foundation was also clear, at least in its statement of charter and in its trust: it was to promote Azikiwe's public work and ideas inter alia: the promotion of scientific and cultural research; the promotion of the ideasl of Zikism as a political philosophy (see the 5 cardinal princples); his plans to endow his library to the University; his plans to dedicate his final intellectual years close to the life of the university planned as the center for a global black internationalism. [b]Nsukka was concieved as the epicenter of black revendication in Africa, that would draw the best of, particularly the Black Diaspora to that single spot in Igbo land - a sort of the intellectual headquaters for the black race in Africa. That was Zik's conception of Nsukka, and that was why he made Edward Blyden's son, Chukwuemeka Blyden, a Professor and the first orator of the University of Nigeria. Zik himself he planned to retire in 1969 when he would have turned 65, return to Onuiyi Haven, and use his presence in Nsukka to attract the most international scholars to Nsukka. No other Igbo have done this. He had indeed started his transition back to Nsukka from 1964, and was spending more time at Nsukka than at the State House in Marina, and was deeply involved in the life of the University as its first Chancellor. Zik's life and plans were basically disrupted by the civil war which uprooted him from Nsukka; which saw the looting and burning of the Zik library, close to the Zik flats, which its very rare collection of books and manuscripts, including personal letters and manuscripts from leading anthropologists, writers, philosophers like Franz Boas, Alain Locke, Du Bois, Langston Hughes, and so many others, which was dedicated to the special collections of the library Zik planned for Nsukka. There are indeed rumours that much of Zik's mansuscripts, books, and letters were retrieved, and may be in the possession of the Awolowo collection at Ikenne. No one has confirmed this yet. But it would be worthwhile investigating it.
          Azikiwe's Nsukka masterplan indeed was modelled after Jefferson's University of Virginia plan, and has bever been fully realized and may [/b] indeed never be fully realized judging from the emergence of an ignorant generation that neither knows its history, nor the purpose of that history. But it is important to emphasize that Zik, in his final moments, endowed the Zik flats at a very token sum to the University. The Azikiwe foundation also endowed the first one hundred thousand naira, at today's value about N10 million, to the Zik Space Research Center at the University of Nigeria in 1980, the first exploratory space studies in Nigeria, and possibly in the continent. Nnamdi Azikiwe had no need to steal from the Igbo. He was already wealthy before he went into political office as premier in the East. After the Forster Sutton Commission used by the British to try and checkmate him, Nnamdi Azikiwe gave up his shares in ACB, his private Bank, and handed it to Eastern Nigeria. Zik did not own property in Enugu's GRA, or Ikoyi. After making money in Accra and Lagos, he made his highest peronal investments in the East. It is thus both an egregious lie against the man's memory, and a most unedifying comment about those who retail that lie that Zik stole from the Igbo. [b]Let truth be told: Zik DRAGGED the Igbo into the modern era. Zik established the Foundational principles of Igbo insurgence in the 20th century. It was Zik, who on returning from th US in 1935, toured Igbo land, and proclaimed the mantra: "each one train one" that ginegred families and communities to take up individuals and train them in  chain. Azikiwe's policies - both his adoption in 1954 of the County Council model of givernment for the East, and his use of the Town Councils as the basis of community development, led the Igbo transformation of Igboland. More schools wer built by Communities in Igboland from 1954 to 1966, than at any other time in Igbo histiry, through Azikiwe's program of Community development , using matching grants: it was the same - the joint Hospitals, the technical schools; the County Scolarship Funds, were all programs adopted under Zik's political program and guardianship, and fully implemented when he left the East in 1959, by Mike Okpara. The Igbo uprsurge that rattled the rest of Nigeria, with the emergence of he modern Igbo from 1935 was Zik's [/b] legacy.

          [b]People today say, the "golden age" of the Igbo was between 1945 and 1966. How did it happen?  How come Port-Harcourt, Aba, Onitsha, became the fastest growing cities in West Africa, from 1954: the Onitsha mall - what we now call the Onitsha main market was the vastest mall of its kind in Africa and it stimulated the transformation of Onitsha as an economic zone - a model which people in Dubai later copied, and which is what Tinapa really is, but which the Igbo had in Onitsha, under Zik. The "made in Aba" phenomenom was based on the Zik/Ojike economic theory of protectionism for local industrial, particularly cottage industry production: what Ojike articulated as "boycott the boycotable" By 1964, following the full implementation of the Eastern Nigerian Economic Reconstruction Plan (1964-1964) - the ten year plan, that Eastern Nigeria was declared by the Harvard Review in 1964, as the fastest growing economy in the world!  If the East sustained that momentum and mainained the administrative discipline of that era, Igbo land would have ntered the exponential stage of economic and cultural modernity by now. How come Eastern Nigeria, particularly the Igbo began to dominate the Officers corp of the Nigerian Army from 1954, when Zik assumed power as premier in Enugu? It was in that very period that the first group of Southern Nigerians began to be recruited from the best schools in Igbo land to Sandhurst. How come the Igbo dominated the political and civic life of Nigeria, so much so that by 1966, the greatest public issue in Nigeria was "Igbo dmination." When Zik chartered the University of Nigeria in 1956, and opened the University in 1960, its first entry class was One thousand students, with the first Business school,  the first Law School, Engineering school, Journalism School, Computer, School of Public Health, Social Work, and the first school of Education, the fist school of the social sciences and so on in Nigeria. Ibadan was still admitting under 300 students a year, reaching the one thousand total in 1962. The impact of this was so clear that by the first graduating class in 1964, Igbo University trained manpower from Nsukka  took absolute control of the Nigerian public service space in one generation, in one fell swoop. Many of these of course, lost their positons following the civil war. It was not accidental that Kenneth Dike became first principal of UCI, or Eni Njoku the first  chancellor of the University of Lagos, or JTU Aguiyi-Ironsi the firt GOC of the Nigerian Army, or Louis Edet, the first Inspector-General of police. It was Azikiwe's capacity to negotiate the Igbo to power, beyond his own personal ambition. Zik could have chosen to be PM, assume the widest powers, and Igbo could go to hell. But he did not. He sublated his own right to power, which could have been his if he was more personally ambitious, but chose carefully to go into an alliance to secure wider Igbo interest. Azikiwe, unlike any other Igbo, sacrifuced his own right to power for a broader ambition for the Igbo. Today, that sacrifice is the basis of the vilification that many Igbo subject his name. One of the the conditions for which Zik chose to be president (even though Awo offerdd him the options of the PM) was so that Igbo would be Deputy PM, Igbo would be Speaker of the House of Rep, Igbo would be president of senate, Igbo would take strategic positions in the Railways, Airways, Shipping and Ports, and so on. But above all, to secure gurantees for Igbo life and property and its expansion in Northern Nigeria where the Igbo had settled in great numbers. Indeed the Igbo never had it so good with Zik on account of his service to the Igbo.[/b]

        Yet the Igbo disprage the name of this 20th century giant. If Zik were Yoruba, he would have been deified. And the Igbo would be among those going to his shrine and weeping more than the bereaved. But no, he is Igbo, and we use gods and dispose them, when they no longer serve us. But we must never be lured to the heresy of  the kind of history retailed here: that Zik stole from the Igbo. Indeed, the greatest tribute was paid to Zik by Awolowo himself in his own book, when he said, that the Igbo were dominant and progressive in that era because they trusted their leaders, and that their leaders, led by Dr. Azikiwe, "show them the highest fidelity."  People say, ah, but Zik abandoned the Igbo. Well, he was in London in 1966, and could have chosen to stay back. But he returned to Igbo land, was involved in Biafra, and left in 1969. Thank God he did when he did, otherwise, many people here would never be alive to utter idiotic statements about Zik: many would have been food for the termites. [b]Zik forced the hands of Great Britain, mobilized his incredible international goodwill, using his friend William Tolbert in Liberia to get the Americans on the table, and using his old contacts in the NACCP, and his political capital within black America he got the black lobby on the table, people like his friend, that Igbo man Paul Robeson, and the war was ended with minimal violence on the Igbo in 1970. Zik authored the "no victor, no vanquished" document in the London negotiations, after his public lecture in Oxford and his meeting with the British authorities. The aim of the "no victor, no vanquiahed" agreement remains clear: to get the Nigerian government to officially declare that the Igbo were not defeated in war, stop any furher talk about a Nurremberg style trial of Igbo officers, get Gowon to declare that war torn Igbo land was a disaster area, and to push special federal funds towards its reconstruction, thus the RRR program of the Gowon regime. Indeed, Azikiwe's critcism of Asika and his friends Adedeji and Obasanjo's implementation and handling of the Reconstruction and Rehabilitaton of public infrastructure in the East led to Asika's first insults thrown at Azikiwe about the "ex-this and that" and the "onye ube ruru" talk. Zik's final service to the Igbo was in 1979, when once again, he renegotiated them back to power, and raised once more the talk about "Igbo re-emergence" when the Yoruba, following Awolowo, found themselves out of power, and the Igbo returning in full force after nine years of the end of war. The psychological balm of Azkiwe's presence to th Igbo mind among the candidates in 1979 was a great form of healing. Any development in Igbo land in the modern era can be fully attributed to the work of Zik and his acolytes. Afyer them, since 1983, Igbo land has seemed like a vast orphanage. The evidence is overwhelming: Igbo land became a political desert with the rise of the new Igbo, following the relay death of great Zikists and their ouster from the picture: the RBK Okafors, the Okparas, the Mbadiwes, and the old horses who knew the meaning of modern political organization and who could mobilize internal resources because "Zik said so." Igbo land today is a reflection of the absence of Zik's political genius: Igbo politicians today take their orders from outside Igbo land, are sponsored from outside Igbo land, and have allegiances that have no basis in Igboland. They have very scant political ideas and there is no rallying, ramifying presence of the Zikist mode to inspire what Zik himself dubbed the "risurgimento" in 1937. Why? Because Zik's era has passed from Igbo land at least for the moment. Here is the judgment of history: the greatest Igbo of the modern era remains Akunne Nnamdi Azikiwe: he brought the light, and showed the light, and our people saw their way. He did not RULE, he LED the Igbo in their finest moment yet. The Zikist light went out in Igbo land that is why the Igbo are the way the are today: there is no longer a Zik among us. Let truth be told.[/b]

Zik had no rival in Nigeria. He was simply a man of intellect who wished and worked towards the best for his people and Africa.