On the 1st of October, Nigeria marked her 53rd Independence Anniversary. That occasion not only called for celebration, it also called for sober reflection on the sacrifices of our great men and women, who, at one time or the other, and in one way or the other had laboured to shake loose the grip of colonial powers on our collective destiny.

According to the Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary, a hero is a person, especially a man, admired by many people for doing something brave or good. A heroine is, to be specific, the female counterpart. Thus, these men and women are Nigeria’s heroes and heroines.

The struggle for political emancipation and self-determination became popular in the geo-political entity called Nigeria at the close of the 19th century. The activities of some educated pan-African nationalists who overtly expressed their opposition to colonial oppression through their write-ups sparked the fire of national consciousness, such that the first half of the 20th century witnessed a full-blown nationalist struggle by the indigenous intellectual elite, who fought colonialism to a halt with their pens.

But prior to this era of popular nationalist movement, there were brave men and women, leaders, who fought to defend their kingdoms or nations or even states as the case may be, against external control in like manner. It is a fact that the heroic posture of these early nationalists in different parts of what is now Nigeria inspired the concerted efforts that eventually ended colonialism and brought freedom our way. LEADERSHIP Friday today takes a look at the legacies bequeathed to us and generations to come by our heroes and heroines past.



King Jaja of Opobo (Amanyana)

Jaja of Opobo (full name Jubo Jubogha, 1821-1891), was a merchant prince and founder of Opobo city-state in an area now part of Nigeria. Born in Umudioha, Amaigbo in Igbo land, he was sold at about the age of 12 as a slave in Bonny. He later took the name “Jaja” for his dealings with the British.

At the 1884 Berlin Conference, the European powers designated Opobo a British territory and the British soon moved to claim it. Jaja’s opposition to colonial advances led to his incarceration and trial in the Gold Coast (now Ghana). He was later taken to London and eventually exiled to Saint Vincent in the West Indies.

In 1891, Jaja was granted permission to return to Opobo but died on the way, allegedly poisoned with a cup of tea. Following his exile and death, the power of the Opobo State rapidly declined. But there is no gainsaying the fact that Jaja was one of the few Nigerian monarchs who sowed the seed of opposition to colonialism that eventually led to the actualisation of independence for Nigeria.



Queen Amina of Zazzau (The Nigerian Princess)

Another legend who could be categorised as one of the earliest rulers in Nigeria that guarded their kingdoms jealously, repelling all external aggression, was the woman by the name Amina Mohammed (also Aminatu), Queen of Zazzau (now Zaria) in what is now Kaduna State.

Although the time of her reign as queen of the empire has been a subject of controversy among historians, most of them situated it in the Elizabethan era, between the late 15th and early 16th centuries. According to an account composed around 1836, Amina was the first to establish government in the area. She forced Katsina, Kano and other neighbouring regions to pay tribute to her and even collected tribute from as far away as the Nupe and Kwararafa Kingdoms. She ruled for 34 years, during which the kingdom triumphed under her leadership in battles that bordered mainly on protecting and expanding the territory.

She helped Zazzau to become the centre of trade and to gain more land. The introduction of kola nuts in the area and the building of earthen walls around Hausa cities are credited to her.



Nana of Itshekiri

Nana Olumu (1852-1916) was an Itshekiri chief and merchant from the Niger Delta region of southern Nigeria. He was the fourth Itshekiri chief to hold the position of Governor of Benin.

In 1851, the British Consul for the Bights of Benin and Biafra, John Beecroft, established the post of Governor of Benin River and gave it to an Itshekiri chief.

Nana also sowed the seed of nationalism in his time. The business romance that thrived between him and the British came to an abrupt end when, after the Berlin Conference and the ensuing scramble for Africa, the expatriates tried to bypass the Itshekiri middlemen and trade directly with the Urhobo people. In the estranged relationship that ensued, Nana moved to frustrate any direct business transactions between the coastal residents of Urhobo land and the British.

In response to his uncompromising posture, he was arrested and deported to the Gold Coast. His struggle, like that of his contemporaries, may have been part of the background to the nationalistic struggle that culminated in Nigeria’s independence.



Hajiya Gambo Sawaba

Hajiya Sawaba (1933-2001) was a Nigerian politician and political activist who was a supporter of the Northern Elements Progressive Union (NEPU). This means she was part of the political struggle that eventually won independence for Nigeria.

Although Sawaba had a poor educational background and was married out at the early age of 16, she towered above her challenges to emerge as a dynamic, independent political activist, helping to educate many others. She came out of colonial repression and deformity, refreshed in her political activism. And like most of her contemporaries, she put in a lot towards the emancipation of African women from the clutches of obnoxious African traditions that were perceived as anti-women.



Pa Michael Imoudu

Pa Michael Imoudu was a strong pioneer labour leader who, while piloting the affairs of the Nigerian Labour Union back then, stood firm in his resolve to confront and rebuff the industrial injustices suffered by Nigerian workers under the repressive and exploitative administration of the British. The Edo-born unionist, though not visible in the mainstream of politics in his time, led the labour movement revolt against the injustices and evils of colonialism. One of such occasions was the general strike of 1945 by Nigerian workers.



Margaret Ekpo

Margaret Ekpo (1914-2006) was a Nigerian women’s rights activist and social mobiliser, who was a pioneering female politician in the country’s First Republic and one who rallied women beyond ethnicity. She played major roles as a grassroots and nationalist politician in the eastern Nigerian city of Aba, in an era of a hierarchical and male-dominated movement towards independence.

Apart from championing the cause of women’s rights, Ekpo joined the decolonisation process, which led her to the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC), as a platform to represent a marginalised group. In the 1950s, she teamed up with Fumilayo Ransome-Kuti to rise against the killing of workers who were protesting some colonial practices at the Enugu coalmine. She was not only nominated by the NCNC to the regional House of Chiefs in 1953, she also co-opted many Aba women into active politics and won a seat to the Eastern Regional House of Assembly in 1963. In short, she was part of the struggle that later led to Nigeria’s freedom in 1960.



Sir Herbert Macaulay

Herbert Samuel Heelas Macaulay (1864-1946) was a Nigerian journalist, politician, engineer and musician, considered by many Nigerians as the founder of Nigerian nationalism. Born in Lagos to Sierra Leonean Creole parents (descendants of freed African-American slaves settled in western Sierra Leone), he was the grandson of Bishop Ajayi Crowther and the son of the founder of the first secondary school in Nigeria, the CMS Grammar School, Lagos. After his secondary school education, he went abroad and studied civil engineering in Plymouth, England.

Macaulay was one of the first Nigerian nationalists and for most of his life a strong opponent to British rule in Nigeria. As a reaction to British claims that they were governing with “the true interest of the natives at heart”, he wrote, “The dimensions of ‘the true interest of the natives at heart’ are algebraically equal to the length, breadth, and depth of the white man’s pocket.” In 1908, he exposed the corruption in the handling of railway finances and in 1919, argued successfully for the chiefs whose lands had been taken by the British, in front of the Privy Council in London and they were compensated. In retaliation for his uncompromising posture, he was jailed twice by the British.

On June 24, 1923, he founded the Nigerian National Democratic Party (NNDP), the first Nigerian political party. He was an integral part of the constitutional development that later saw Nigeria actualising her dream of independence on October 1, 1960.



Nnamdi Azikiwe

Benjamin Nnamdi Azikiwe, better known as Nnamdi Azikiwe and more popularly simply as “Zik”, was one of the leading figures of modern Nigerian nationalism. He was a great pan-African, who spared no time in forging an intellectual struggle against colonialism and imperialism in Africa, especially the West African sub-region.

The legacy of Zik could be used to justify the saying that the pen is mightier than the sword. An educational stint abroad, which saw him graduating in 1930 from the Lincoln University in the US and bagging a master’s degree in political science from Columbia University in 1934, saw Zik intellectually prepared for the uphill task of decolonising his fatherland.

After working at Lincoln University as an instructor, Zik practised his combative anti-colonial journalism in Ghana during the regime of Kwame Nkurmah for a few years, before returning to Nigeria. In 1937, Zik founded the West African Pilot Newspaper with the motto “To show the light and let the people find their way.”

He soon became actively involved with the Nigerian Youth Movement (NYM), the first genuinely nationalist organisation. He later co-founded the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC) with Herbert Macaulay in 1944. Following the attainment of independence in 1960, Zik became the second (but first indigenous) and last Governor General from 1960 to 1963 and the first president of Nigeria, following the declaration of Nigeria as a Republic in 1963. He is indeed a national hero, considering his dogged and selfless commitment to the cause of an independent, vibrant, united, detribalised and sovereign Nigeria.



Tafawa Balewa

Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa (1912-1966) popularly called “the man with the golden voice”, was an eloquent but humble politician of northern extraction, who was an integral part of the constitutional build-up to Nigeria’s independence. A trained teacher, he made a foray into politics and was elected in 1946 to the colony’s Northern House of Assembly in 1947. As a legislator he was a vocal advocate of the rights of northern Nigeria, and together with Ahmadu Bello, who held the hereditary title of Sardauna of Sokoto, he co-founded the Northern People’s Congress (NPC) as part of the struggle.

Balewa entered government in 1952 as Minister of Transport. In 1957, he was elected a chief minister, forming a coalition government between the NPC and the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC), led by Nnamdi Azikiwe. He became prime minister when Nigeria gained her independence in 1960 and was re-elected in 1964.

As prime minister, he played an important role in the continent’s formative indigenous rule. He was a key leader in the formation of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), now the African Union (AU).



Sir Ahmadu Bello

Sir Ahmadu Bello (1910-1966) was a firebrand charismatic politician of northern Nigerian origin, who represented the political interests of that part of the country in the pre- and post-independence constitutional processes. Many saw him as the political godfather of northern Nigeria.

In 1954, Bello became the first premier of the Northern Region. In the 1959 independence elections, Bello led the NPC to win a plurality of the parliamentary seats. Bello’s NPC forged an alliance with Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe’s NCNC to form Nigeria’s first indigenous federal government at independence. Bello, then, as president of the NPC, was to become the prime minister, but chose to remain premier of northern Nigeria and devolved the position to his party deputy, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa.

Bello’s greatest legacy was the modernisation and unification of the diverse people of northern Nigeria. He was assassinated on January 15, 1966 in a coup that toppled Nigeria’s first post-independence government.



Obafemi Awolowo

Jeremiah Obafemi Awolowo (1909-1987) was a Nigerian nationalist, political writer and statesman. A Yoruba man and native of Ikene in Ogun State of Nigeria, he started his career, like some of his notable contemporaries, as a nationalist in the Nigerian Youth Movement (NYM), of which he became western provincial secretary and was responsible for much of the progressive social legislation that made Yoruba land a modern nation.

While he was a student in the UK, he founded the Egbe Omo Oduduwa, a pan-African cultural society, which set the stage for the founding of the Action Group (AP). He represented the western region in all the constitutional conferences intended to advance Nigeria on the path to independence. He was the first premier of the western region under Nigeria’s parliamentary system from 1952-1959 and was the official leader of the opposition in the federal parliament between 1959 and 1963.



Pa Anthony Enahoro

Anthony Eremosele Enahoro (1923-2010) was one of Nigeria’s foremost anti-colonial and pro-democracy activists. Enahoro had a long and distinguished career in the media, politics, the civil service and the pro-democracy movement.

The Edo-born politician was an accomplished journalist, who served as editor in the newspaper empire of Nnamdi Azikiwe. In 1953, he became the first to move the motion for Nigeria’s independence, which was eventually granted in 1960, after several political setbacks and defeats in parliament. Enahoro is regarded by academics and many Nigerians as the father of the Nigerian State.

He was prominent in politics at a time of rapid change. He was twice jailed for sedition by the colonial government for an article allegedly mocking a former governor, and then for a speech allegedly inciting Nigerian troops serving in the British Army.


http://leadership.ng/news/181013/legacies-our-heroes-and-heroines-past

I thought i would see Obasanjo's name sef...maybe when he dies, or maybe he is still a youth among these...