"IGBO ARE THE MAKERS OF MODERN NIGERIA"--PROF TEKENA TAMUNO, NIGERIAN HISTORIAN

The problem with writing skewered history is that it equally misinforms its target: Kayode Esho was a great jurist, but Akunne Oputa was the "Socrates" of the Supreme court. Enahoro was a young editor, but Azikiwe made him that young editor with Osita Agwuna as his assistant, at his paper, the Southern Nigerian Defender in Ibadan, where my own father incidentally started as a rookie before shortly abandoning journalism for the stable berth of the civil service. The myth of Awolowo as building the first this and that does not match the documented economic history of the period.

Between 1954 and 1964, Eastern Nigeria was described as "the fastest growing economy in the world," by the Harvard Review; faster than China, faster than Singapore, and all the so-called "Asian Tigers." Awolowo is often credited with "free education".

But no one yet has pointed out any surviving school buildings of the period built by Awo. But all over the East there were quality schools built by the various communities using the Town Development Unions from 1954, and acessing the matching grants of the Eastern Nigeria Development Corporation. And this was the East with the poorest revenue resources of any of the regions. The Mbaise secondary school exists, the National High School Okigwe exists, the Ngwa High school exists, the Enyiogugu Grammar School exists, etc. These were solid schools built all over the East with matching goverment grants. But where are the buildings of the Modern schools in Western Nigeria? They do not exist. They were makeshift.

The Catholic church forced the Azikiwe government from its scholarship program, but it is also on record, that the Eastern government was the only government in the world that invested 45% of its revenues in education. The East had the highest number of schools; the highest school enrollment; the broadest penetration of medical services; and the best modern road network in west Africa.

Indeed if we look carefully, the only public hospitals and most of the schools still standing in the East today, at various stages of run down are the schools and hospitals built by Azikiwe/Okpara. Every division of the East had a Joint Hospital as part of the Eastern Medical services. So it is often claimed Awo built the first television station; the first sky scraper, and the first Sports stadium, the liberty stadium in Ibadan. Well, these are prestige or white elephant investments.

First, the Eastern Outlook, the government paper of Eastern Nigeria was the first newspaper established by any government in Nigeria, and it was of such quality and impact that the literacy level of Easterners, and the depth of public information retailed by Outlook was without compare. This is besides the fact that Western Nigerian Broadcast Services, WNBS-TV founded in 1958 only preceded the ENBC-TV founded in 1959, by only seven months. But Outlook preceded Sketch by about 15 years.

Now Azikiwe built the Onitsha Modern market, the first modern mall or trade emporium in West Africa. Onitsha was effectively Dubai before Dubai. People traveled all over Africa, from as far as the Congo and Sudan and Egypt, to come and buy and trade in Onitsha. The economic impact of this was humonguos. So, give me the vast Onitsha modern market over Cocoa House in Ibadan. Azikiwe built the first Nigerian University at Nsukka with the first School of Law, the first School of Engineering, the first Business School; the first school of journalism, and the first school of music and performance, etc. By the time its first graduates took the Nigerian civil service exams in 1963, everybody began to raise the cry of "Igbo domination" starting with Akintola and Ayo Rosiji. Give me UNN over Liberty stadium.

Azikiwe began the first modern library system in West Africa. The East had a system of city libraries starting with the very modern Ziks Library in Enugu. I Literally grew up in the Umuahia Divisional Library. These libraries were built all over the East. Schools in the East were built with libraries. Moreover the Eastern Nigerian Library Board had a sysem of rural amd mobile libraries. There was nothing like it anywhere else in Nigeria: kids having library cards and able to borrow or order books from the public library. Give me the the first library over the first TV. I do not by this mean that Awolowo did not make his contributions, but the regular skewering of the facts, and angling of contemporary national narratives often makes it seem these days like the greatest contributor to the founding of Nigeria and its development is Awolowo and the Yoruba, when the actual facts speak differently.

The great Ibadan historian, Tekena Tamuno, was unambiguous in stating once at NIPPS, Jos, that "the Igbos are the makers of moderm Nigeria. When they abandoned their project, Nigeria collapsed." We must remind Nigerians, particularly Igbo children, daily of these fact, to achieve what Achebe called " a balance of stories." And that also means we must read beyond the surface of things. Babarinsa's Guardian essay is angled carefully to maintain a revisionist narrative. And that is to be always challenged, however innocent it might seem.

Even today, most Yoruba think that Awolowo founded the Universities of Ibadan and Lagos. No one has reminded them that it took Azikiwe's pressures for a university for Nigeria, in his meeting with Arthur Richards in 1946, that led to the cobstitution of the Eliot commision and subsequently the founding of the University College, Ibadan. This fact is even clearly conveyed in Michael Crowder's eponymous book, The Story of Nigeria. Nsukka was Azikiwe's critique of what he felt to be the conceptual limitations of Ibadan. The University of Lagos was the result of NCNC's ideological contributions to the federal policy during the ill fated coalition government with the NPC. UNILAG was an NCNC project, shepherded by Aja Wachukwu as minister for education. Even the great UNILAG in her 50th anniversary failed to mention Prof Eni Njoku as the pioneer Vice Chancellor of the university, a man that layed the solid foundation of what made Unilag what it is today.

These facts must be made known and put as forcefully accross as possible. Again, until the lion t7ells his own story, the story of the hunt will belong to the hunter.

Fake news! His family has come out to denounce this ‘article’

emi14:
"IGBO ARE THE MAKERS OF MODERN NIGERIA"--PROF TEKENA TAMUNO, NIGERIAN HISTORIAN

The problem with writing skewered history is that it equally misinforms its target: Kayode Esho was a great jurist, but Akunne Oputa was the "Socrates" of the Supreme court. Enahoro was a young editor, but Azikiwe made him that young editor with Osita Agwuna as his assistant, at his paper, the Southern Nigerian Defender in Ibadan, where my own father incidentally started as a rookie before shortly abandoning journalism for the stable berth of the civil service. The myth of Awolowo as building the first this and that does not match the documented economic history of the period.

Between 1954 and 1964, Eastern Nigeria was described as "the fastest growing economy in the world," by the Harvard Review; faster than China, faster than Singapore, and all the so-called "Asian Tigers." Awolowo is often credited with "free education".

But no one yet has pointed out any surviving school buildings of the period built by Awo. But all over the East there were quality schools built by the various communities using the Town Development Unions from 1954, and acessing the matching grants of the Eastern Nigeria Development Corporation. And this was the East with the poorest revenue resources of any of the regions. The Mbaise secondary school exists, the National High School Okigwe exists, the Ngwa High school exists, the Enyiogugu Grammar School exists, etc. These were solid schools built all over the East with matching goverment grants. But where are the buildings of the Modern schools in Western Nigeria? They do not exist. They were makeshift.

The Catholic church forced the Azikiwe government from its scholarship program, but it is also on record, that the Eastern government was the only government in the world that invested 45% of its revenues in education. The East had the highest number of schools; the highest school enrollment; the broadest penetration of medical services; and the best modern road network in west Africa.

Indeed if we look carefully, the only public hospitals and most of the schools still standing in the East today, at various stages of run down are the schools and hospitals built by Azikiwe/Okpara. Every division of the East had a Joint Hospital as part of the Eastern Medical services. So it is often claimed Awo built the first television station; the first sky scraper, and the first Sports stadium, the liberty stadium in Ibadan. Well, these are prestige or white elephant investments.

First, the Eastern Outlook, the government paper of Eastern Nigeria was the first newspaper established by any government in Nigeria, and it was of such quality and impact that the literacy level of Easterners, and the depth of public information retailed by Outlook was without compare. This is besides the fact that Western Nigerian Broadcast Services, WNBS-TV founded in 1958 only preceded the ENBC-TV founded in 1959, by only seven months. But Outlook preceded Sketch by about 15 years.

Now Azikiwe built the Onitsha Modern market, the first modern mall or trade emporium in West Africa. Onitsha was effectively Dubai before Dubai. People traveled all over Africa, from as far as the Congo and Sudan and Egypt, to come and buy and trade in Onitsha. The economic impact of this was humonguos. So, give me the vast Onitsha modern market over Cocoa House in Ibadan. Azikiwe built the first Nigerian University at Nsukka with the first School of Law, the first School of Engineering, the first Business School; the first school of journalism, and the first school of music and performance, etc. By the time its first graduates took the Nigerian civil service exams in 1963, everybody began to raise the cry of "Igbo domination" starting with Akintola and Ayo Rosiji. Give me UNN over Liberty stadium.

Azikiwe began the first modern library system in West Africa. The East had a system of city libraries starting with the very modern Ziks Library in Enugu. I Literally grew up in the Umuahia Divisional Library. These libraries were built all over the East. Schools in the East were built with libraries. Moreover the Eastern Nigerian Library Board had a sysem of rural amd mobile libraries. There was nothing like it anywhere else in Nigeria: kids having library cards and able to borrow or order books from the public library. Give me the the first library over the first TV. I do not by this mean that Awolowo did not make his contributions, but the regular skewering of the facts, and angling of contemporary national narratives often makes it seem these days like the greatest contributor to the founding of Nigeria and its development is Awolowo and the Yoruba, when the actual facts speak differently.

The great Ibadan historian, Tekena Tamuno, was unambiguous in stating once at NIPPS, Jos, that "the Igbos are the makers of moderm Nigeria. When they abandoned their project, Nigeria collapsed." We must remind Nigerians, particularly Igbo children, daily of these fact, to achieve what Achebe called " a balance of stories." And that also means we must read beyond the surface of things. Babarinsa's Guardian essay is angled carefully to maintain a revisionist narrative. And that is to be always challenged, however innocent it might seem.

Even today, most Yoruba think that Awolowo founded the Universities of Ibadan and Lagos. No one has reminded them that it took Azikiwe's pressures for a university for Nigeria, in his meeting with Arthur Richards in 1946, that led to the cobstitution of the Eliot commision and subsequently the founding of the University College, Ibadan. This fact is even clearly conveyed in Michael Crowder's eponymous book, The Story of Nigeria. Nsukka was Azikiwe's critique of what he felt to be the conceptual limitations of Ibadan. The University of Lagos was the result of NCNC's ideological contributions to the federal policy during the ill fated coalition government with the NPC. UNILAG was an NCNC project, shepherded by Aja Wachukwu as minister for education. Even the great UNILAG in her 50th anniversary failed to mention Prof Eni Njoku as the pioneer Vice Chancellor of the university, a man that layed the solid foundation of what made Unilag what it is today.

These facts must be made known and put as forcefully accross as possible. Again, until the lion t7ells his own story, the story of the hunt will belong to the hunter.

[quote author=bugzy84 post=90132257]Fake news! His family has come out to denounce this ‘article’

Re: Disclaimer: Unauthorized Use of the Name, Image and Likeness of late Emeritus Prof. Tekena N. Tamuno

To Whom It May Concern:

It has come to the attention of the family of the late Emeritus Prof. Tekena N. Tamuno (1932-2015) that an article titled “IGBO ARE THE MAKERS OF MODERN NIGERIA-PROF TEKENA TAMUNO” posted on a website info@theawarenessngr.com (Opinions section) is improperly using the name and image of our dear dad, the late Emeritus Prof. Tekena N. Tamuno. The article is circulating on social media. The faceless and nameless author of the article uses the name of our late dad at the beginning and end of the Article. A cursory review of the post may lead a reader to believe that it was written by the late Emeritus Professor Tekena. N. Tamuno. Buried in the article is a statement ascribed to our dad, without a full and verifiable citation or context, which we are unable to accept, contextualize or refute, partially or fully.

The undersigned on behalf of the Tekena N. Tamuno family hereby unequivocally states that the afore-mentioned write-up posted on the above-mentioned website and circulating on social media was not written by the late Emeritus Prof. Tekena N. Tamuno nor was it approved by his family. Attaching our dad’s photograph and name to the title and at the end of the article as if he was the author of the article is impermissible. The family of the late Emeritus Prof. Tekena N. Tamuno strongly object to such unauthorized use of the name and likeness of the late patriarch of the family and submit this disclaimer to that end.

The late Emeritus Prof. Tekena N. Tamuno, of blessed memory, was apolitical, non-sectional and non-partisan and his scholarly writings reflect that. Inasmuch as everyone has a right to free speech/freedom of expression, the family of the late Emeritus Prof. Tekena N. Tamuno family is saddened that a nameless and faceless person would use the likeness and name of our dad to push the author’s narrative and such conduct is strongly denounced by the family. The family hereby cautions the general public to cross check facts that may circulate on the internet ascribed to a well known, indeed to any, personality, to verify the authenticity of the alleged facts or statements. The family of the late Emeritus Prof. Tekena N. Tamuno request that info@theawarenessngr.com immediately remove our dad's name and picture from the unauthorized publication and provide full verifiable citation of any quote attributed to our dad.

This serves to put info@theawarenessngr.com and the world on notice that future attempts to publish and disseminate information that misleads as to authorship under the name and likeness of the late Emeritus Prof. Tekena N. Tamuno will be vigorously challenged to the fullest extent of applicable laws. The family of the late Emeritus Prof. Tekena N. Tamuno reserves all its rights.
Sincerely,

Ene Tamuno, Esq.

Tamuno & Tamuno Partners

(On behalf of the late Emeritus Prof. Tekena N. Tamuno family)