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Nwankwo Kanu

(From Wikipedia)

Nwankwo Kanu, OON (born 1 August 1976), or simply Kanu, is a Nigerian footballer who plays for Portsmouth. He was also a member of the Nigerian national team for 16 years from 1994 until 2010. Kanu is a member of the Igbo ethnic group;[2] his name, Nwankwo, means Baby boy born on Nkwo market day in the Igbo language.[3]

Kanu has won a UEFA Champions League medal, a UEFA Cup medal, three FA Cup Winners Medals and two African Player of the Year awards amongst others. He is also one of few players to have won the Premier League, FA Cup, Champions League, UEFA Cup and an Olympic Gold Medal.[4] He holds the record for most substitute appearances in Premier League history, appearing from the bench 118 times.[5] He is also a UNICEF ambassador.[6]

Career

Early career

Born in Owerri, Nigeria, Kanu began his career at Nigerian league club Federation Works, before moving to Iwuanyanwu Nationale. After a notable performance at the U-17 World Championships he was signed by Dutch Eredivisie AFC Ajax in 1993 for €207,047. He made his Ajax debut the following year and went on to score 25 goals in 54 appearances. Kanu also came on as a sub in Ajax's 1995 Champions League final win over AC Milan. In 1996, Ajax sold Kanu to Serie A side Internazionale for around $4.7 million that summer he captained the Nigerian team that won gold at the Olympics, and scored two late goals in the semi-finals against powerhouses Brazil to overturn a 2–3 scoreline into a 4–3 win in extra time. Kanu was also named African Footballer of the Year for that year . However, soon after returning from the Olympics, Kanu underwent a medical examination at Inter, which revealed a serious heart defect; he underwent surgery in November 1996 to replace an aortic valve and did not return to his club until April 1997. In interviews, Kanu frequently cites his faith as a Christian,[7] and has often mentioned this trying time of his career as an occasion when he prayed to God. Kanu's experience also led to his founding the Kanu Heart Foundation, an organisation that helps predominantly young African children who suffer heart defects. Kanu is known throughout Africa for his philanthropic work.

Arsenal

In February 1999, after just eleven games and one goal for Inter, Kanu was signed by Arsenal for approximately £4.15 million. His debut for Arsenal, against Sheffield United in the FA Cup, was a highly unusual match. With the score 1–1 and ten minutes to go, the United goalkeeper, Alan Kelly, kicked the ball out of touch so that treatment could be given to an injured player. When the ball was thrown back into play by Ray Parlour, although it was intended for Kelly, Kanu was unaware of the circumstances. Thinking it to be an attacking move, he chased the throw-in down the right wing unchallenged, and centred the ball for Marc Overmars, who promptly scored to make the match 2–1. Immediately after the match Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger offered to right the error and replay the match; in the end, Arsenal won that match 2–1 as well.

Despite the events overshadowing his debut, Kanu's career was quickly revived at Arsenal. He scored his first goal for the club in the next round of the cup against Derby County, coming off the bench to net the only goal of the game. He quickly became known for his goalscoring prowess from the bench, scoring important goals against Sheffield Wednesday, Tottenham Hotspur and Aston Villa as a substitute. He became very popular among the fans for his two-fingered salute – something that he later explained was based on the team's nickname, The Gunners – which started in 1999 against Middlesbrough.

Kanu was named African Footballer of the Year for the second time in 1999, and in 1999–2000 he scored 17 times in 50 matches for the Gunners, including three goals in fifteen minutes against Chelsea to turn a 2–0 deficit to a 3–2 victory. In August 2001, Arsenal rejected a bid from Fulham of "around £7m" for Kanu.[8] However, Kanu's appearances for Arsenal gradually became less frequent, particularly after the emergence of Thierry Henry as Arsenal's first choice striker, when Kanu was mainly used as a substitute. Despite this, Kanu won the Double with Arsenal in 2002, an FA Cup in 2003 (as an unused sub) and the Premier League title in 2004. In all he played 197 games for Arsenal (nearly half of them as a substitute), scoring 44 goals. In the summer of 2004, after his contract with Arsenal ended, he moved to West Bromwich Albion on a free transfer.

In 2008, Kanu was voted 13th in the "Gunners' Greatest 50 Players" poll[9]

West Bromwich Albion

West Brom had just been promoted to the FA Premier League for the second time in the space of two years. Kanu started as a regular for the club, making his debut in a 1–1 draw away at Blackburn Rovers on 14 August 2004. He scored his first goal for Albion on 18 September 2004, an 88th-minute equalizer in a 1–1 home draw against Fulham. In a match against Middlesbrough on 14 November 2004, Kanu was guilty of an incredible miss in injury time, with Albion 2–1 down. Kanu had sent a low cross over the bar from a yard away from the goal line. Manager Bryan Robson was seen in TV footage mouthing the words "How the Bleep did he miss that?", and Kanu's howler was crowned 'Miss of the Season' by many television stations in the end-of-season reviews. Nevertheless, the 2004–05 season was ultimately a memorable one for West Brom, as they became the first club to avoid relegation from the Premier League after being bottom of the table at Christmas.

One of the most memorable games of the 2005–06 season for Kanu came with the visit of his former club Arsenal to The Hawthorns on 15 October 2005. Philippe Senderos put the visitors ahead in the 17th minute, but Kanu equalised shortly before half time. West Brom went on to win the match 2–1 with a spectacular strike from Darren Carter. It was their first home win over Arsenal since 1973,[10] and the first time that they had come from behind to win a Premier League game.[11] But such highlights were rare for Albion that season, and the club was relegated at the end of 2005–06. Kanu's contract had expired, and he chose not to renew it. In his two years at The Hawthorns he made a total of 58 appearances – 16 of them as a substitute – and scored nine goals.

In the summer of 2006, Kanu played as a guest for Arsenal in Dennis Bergkamp's testimonial game, the first match to be played in Arsenal's new Emirates Stadium. The game was tied 1–1 when Kanu scored the winning goal, making him the third person to score in the stadium. At the end of the match, Kanu joined the rest of the Arsenal side in hoisting the retired Dutchman on their shoulders as fans gave him a standing ovation. He remains a popular figure at Arsenal, being applauded when he appears at the Emirates Stadium.

Portsmouth

Kanu was a free agent following his departure from West Brom, and he signed for Portsmouth on a one-year deal shortly before the start of the 2006–07 season.[12] Pompey had undergone a revival in the second half of the previous campaign, following the return of Harry Redknapp as manager, avoiding relegation by four points after being in serious danger at the turn of the year. At the start of the 2006–07 season, they were undefeated in their first five games, during which they did not concede a single goal. Kanu made his debut for Portsmouth as a substitute against Blackburn Rovers on 19 August 2006, the opening day of the 2006–2007 Premier League season. He scored twice and missed a penalty. Though Kanu led the top scorers chart early in the season, he had a goal drought for the rest of the season, but still finished as the top goalscorer for Portsmouth, with 12 goals.

In his second season at Portsmouth, Kanu scored in both the FA Cup 1–0 semi-final win against West Bromwich Albion and the 1–0 win in the final against Cardiff City, earning him a third FA Cup winner's medal.

His first goal of the 2008–09 season put Portsmouth 2–0 up in their eventual 2–2 UEFA Cup draw with Italian club A.C. Milan. He later scored the winning goal against Bolton Wanderers, which ensured Pompey's mathematical safety. It was his only Premier League goal of 2008–2009. He re-signed with Pompey in August 2010, with an eye on becoming a coach when he retired.[13] Kanu signed a three-year deal and kept the number 27 shirt,[14] but was not a regular starter throughout the course of the season and only managed two goals.

International career

Kanu was a member of the Nigerian national team from 1994 until 2010, making his debut in friendly against Sweden. Earlier on at the start of his career, Kanu was instrumental in Nigeria's overall success at the 1993 FIFA U-17 tournament in Japan and their subsequent 2–1 victory over Ghana in the final. With five goals, he was second joint-scorer in the tournament with Peter Anosike and Manuel Neira, behind compatriot and Captain Wilson Oruma.

As well as winning the Olympics gold in the football event at 1996 Olympics,[15] Kanu participated in the 1998 and 2002 FIFA World Cups. On 24 June 2010, Kanu ended his international career following Nigeria's exit from the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Nigeria lost their group matches against Argentina and Greece, before a 2–2 draw with South Korea ended their stay in the tournament.[16] He won 86 caps and scored 13 goals for his country and is the joint most capped Nigerian player of all-time alongside Muda Lawal.

Personal life

His younger brother is also professional footballer and his stepbrothers are Anderson "Anders" Gabolalmo Kanu and Henry Isaac. He also has a younger brother called Yaya.

Henry Oloyede Fajemirokun (1926-78 )


Henry Oloyede Fajemirokun was a prominent Nigerian businessman and one of the country's dynamic indigenous entrepreneurs who promoted West Africa's economic integration.

He was born in Ile-Oluji in Ondo State, Nigeria on July 14 1926. Between 1932 and 1936 he attended St Peter’s School in his birthplace and later St Luke’s School in Oke-Igbo, from 1937 to 1940. He had his secondary education at C.M.S Grammar School, Lagos and Ondo Boys’ High School.

In April 1944, Fajemirokun enlisted in the old Royal West African Frontier Force and in 1945 served with the 2nd Echelon at Jhansi GHQ in India. After army service in 1946, he pursued an accountancy career, joining the post and telecommunications division of the colonial civil service. He was elected president of the Post and Telecommunications Ex-servicemen’s Union in 1948 and later became president-general of the Nigerian Civil Service Union until 1956, when he left to start a business career, which at the time of his death in March 1978 spanned a whole spectrum of ventures from insurance and engineering to shipping, centred around Henry Stephens and Sons.

He started business in the 1950s by exporting hides and skin, rubber, coffee and shea nuts. In the 1960s he started a massive importation of cement from Egypt and Poland. He received funding for this particular venture from a credit facility that had been provided to him by a British bank in London. He also ventured into commodity brokerage and in 1969 he bought and held a seat on the London Stock Exchange.

Later in the decade, as the chairman and largest shareholder of the Henry Stephens group of companies, he became a major shareholder in some leading companies in Nigeria. Following a decision to withdraw the wealth of the country from foreign nationals that was taken in 1972, an “indigenisation” decree was promulgated by the Federal Government. Henry Stephens capitalized on the euphoria of the contemporary nationalism of the period and acquired or represented major foreign operations in the country. It became the sole distributor for Xerox after the Daily Times, a company Fajemirokun had failed to acquire a stake in, left negotiations. Henry Stephens also acquired stakes in Johnson Wax and Fan Milk. The company was a pioneer in the Nigerian maritime industry and was one of the first Nigerian companies to own an interest in a shipping line

In 1970 he was appointed president of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry; in 1972 he became president of the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry and Mines; the same year he was elected the first president of the Federation of West African Chambers of Commerce, followed in 1974 with the vice presidency of the Federation of Commonwealth Chambers of Commerce. Henry Fajemirokun was one of the two co-presidents of the Nigeria-British Chamber of Commerce and also a member of the Board of Governors of the Nigerian-American Chamber of Commerce.


Henry Fajemirokun was not only a successful businessman; he was also a respected man in Nigeria. In 1968, in appreciation of his own contributions to the development of his province, the Jegun of Ile-Oluji conferred the chieftaincy title of Yegbato of Ile-Oluji on him. In 1971 he was given the title of Asiwaju of Okeigbo and the University of Ife conferred on him the honorary degree of Doctor of Science. A few days before his death – in Abidjan, while leading a trade mission to the Ivory Coast – he presented a cheque for N 15,000 to help build a town hall in Ile-Ife.

Sir Louis Phillipe Odumegwu Ojukwu, KBE, (1909-1966)

Sir Louis Odumegwu Ojukwu was an extremely successful Nigerian businessman and politician from the Ojukwu family of Nwakanwa Quarters Obiuno Umudim Nnewi south east of Onitsha in modern Anambra State. One of the most illustrious citizens of Nigeria, he had remarkable success as a businessman and also rendered distinguished public service in several fields. He was also associated with several philanthropic and cultural organisations to which he made generous material and tacit contributions.

He was born in 1909 in Nnewi and attended a primary school in Asaba and the Hope Waddell Institute. After formal schooling he joined the Produce Inspection Service as produce examiner in 1928 and later worked as a clerk with the large West African trading company of John Holt. It was here that the self made man who later became one of Nigeria’s foremost business tycoons and a multi-millionaire developed his business interest. He incorporated a textile company in Onitsha to supplement his income during this period, already exhibiting a little bit of his entrepreneurial spirit. While at John Holt, he noticed the severe strain a lack of adequate transportation had on Eastern textile traders He resigned from John Holt in 1934 to start a transport business with one second-hand truck that later grew into a vast transport enterprise. As a transporter he was a tireless worker and meticulous to detail; he was usually the first to inspect his transport vehicles for oil and leakages. His transport company (Ojukwu"s Transport Company) was the first major transport company to move the easterners to Lagos from the Asaba end of the Niger river after they might have crossed over from Onitsha on a boat.

He entered politics in 1951 as a member of Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe’s National Council of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC) which included him in the delegation to the London Constitutional Conference in 1951. Four years later Odumegwu Ojukwu was elected to the Federal House of Representatives in Lagos, but resigned in 1956 to become chairman of the Eastern Region Development Corporation.

Apart from his work ethic, his success was also oiled by the economic boom after World War II, working with the West African Railway Company and the newly inaugurated produce boards, he provided his fleet for commodity transportation and for other traders use. During the 1950s, he diversified his interest, bought some industries and invested heavily in the real estate sector.

His success, drive and ability led him to a host of other business appointments as chairman of the Eastern Nigerian Marketing Board, chairman of the Nigerian Shipping Line, chairman of the Nigerian Cement Company, first and founding President of The Nigerian Stock Exchange and director of a number of business concerns including Shell-BP. He was also a member of the board of Nigerian Coal Corporation. His last public engagement was as chairman of the Eastern Nigeria Marketing Board. He resigned from this position and also from office as chairman of the African Continental Bank, in May 1966 as a result of ill health.

His own company, founded on the Ojukwu Transport Company in 1934, had at the time of his death in 1966 spread its activities into construction and other areas, growing into a multi-million-naira group and employing thousands of workers.

In 1953, he was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal; he was knighted in 1960. In 1963 the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Law, becoming the first to be so honoured by that university. He died on September 13th 1966 at Nkalagu in his home state, at the age of 57.

Ojukwu’s death came a few months after the first Nigerian civilian government was ended by a military coup d’etat which saw his son, Lieutenant-Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, ascend to office as Military Governor of Eastern Nigeria. Lieutenant-Colonel Ojukwu later declared the region, which he renamed Biafra, independent of the Federation of Nigeria, but secession was ended after a three-year bitter civil war in 1970.

Alhaji Alhassan Dantata

(1877-Aug 17th 1955). The wealthiest man in West Africa. 

 

Alhaji Alhassan Dantata was a Nigerian businessman who was the wealthiest man in West Africa at the time of his death.

 

                                             Ancestors and Heritage  

Dantata's father was Abdullahi, a man from the village of Danshayi, near Kano. Dantata was born in Bebeji in 1877, one of several children of Abdullahi and his wife, both of whom were traders and caravan leaders.

Bebeji was on the Kano to Gonja (now in northern Ghana) and Kano to Lagos routes. The people of Bebeji, at least those from the Zango (campsite) were great traders. Bebeji was considered a miniature Kano. There was a saying which went “If Kano has 10 kolas, Bebeji has 20 halves" or in Hausa: "Birni tana da goro goma, ke Bebeji kina da bari 20".  The town attracted many people of different backgrounds in the 19th century, such as the Yorubas, Nupes, Agalawas, etc. It was controlled by the Sarki (chief) of Bebeji who was responsible for the protection of Kano from attack from the southwest. 

 

 Alhassan was born into an Agalawa trading family. His father was a wealthy trader and caravan leader; Madugu Abdullahi while his mother was also a trader of importance in her own right enjoying the title of Maduga - Amarya. Abdullahi, in his turn, was a son of another prosperous merchant, Baba Talatin. It was he who brought
the family from Katsina, probably at the beginning of the nineteenth century, following the death of his father, Ali.

Abdullahi already had a reputation of some wealth from his ventures with his father and therefore inherited his father’s position as a recognized and respected madugu. Like his father, he preferred the Nupe and Gonja routes. He specialized in the exchange of Kano dyed cloth, cattle, slaves and so on for the kola of the Akan forest. Surprisingly, he had added cowries brought to the coast by European traders to the items he carried back to Kano. 

 

Abdullahi continued to operate from Madobi until 1877, one of our few fixed dates when having just set out for a journey to Gonja, his wife delivered in the Zango (campsite) of Bebeji. The child was a boy and after the usual seven days, he was named Alhassan. Abdullahi purchased a house in the town and left his nursing wife and child to await his return from Gonja. On his return, he decided to abandon Madobi and moved to Bebeji. Some say that the house that contains his tomb is still held by the family. The date of his death is unknown, but it was probably about 1885 when Alhassan was between seven and eight years of age. By then he had brothers and sisters – Shuaibu, Malam Jaji, Malam Bala, Malam Sidi and others.

 

 

 

                                                                             Early life

The children were too young to succeed to their father’s position and to manage his considerable wealth. They all received their portion according to Islamic law. Maduga Amarya, like her mother in law, was a trader of wealth in her own right. Indeed she was known to be such a forceful character that nobody in the Zango would take her to wife. She therefore decided to leave the children in Bebeji, in the care of an old slave woman, while she moved to Accra where she became one of the wealthier Hausa traders. 

 

The slave was known as "Tata" from which circumstance young Alhassan became known as Alhassan Dantata because of her role as his ‘mother’ (" Dantata" means "son of Tata”).

Alhassan was sent to a Qur'anic school (madrasah) in Bebeji and as his share of his father’s wealth (as so often happens), seemed to have vanished, he had to support himself. The life of the almajiri (Qur’anic student) is difficult, as he has to find food and clothing for himself and also for his malam (teacher) and at the same time read. Some simply beg while others seek paid work. Alhassan worked and even succeeded at the insistence of Tata in saving. His asusu, “money box” (a pottery vessel) purchased by Tata and set in the wall of the house can still be seen.

 

When he was about 15 years of age, Alhassan joined a Gonja bound caravan to see his mother. He purchased some items from Bebeji, sold half of them on the way and the rest in Accra. When he saw his mother, he was very delighted hoping she would allow him to live without doing any work since she was one of the wealthier local traders. After only a rest of one day, she took him to another malam and asked him to stay there until he was ready to return to Kano and he worked harder in Accra than he did in Bebeji. After the usual reading of the Qur’an, Alhassan Dantata had to go and beg for food for his malam, and himself. When he worked for money on Thursdays and Fridays, Alhassan Dantata would not be allowed to spend the money for himself alone, his malam always took the lion’s share (this is normal in Hausa society). After the visit, his mother sent him back to Bebeji where he continued his studies. Even though now a teenager, Tata continued to insist that he must save something everyday.

 

 

                                      Upheavals and slavery 

When he was still a teenager, great upheavals occurred in the Kano Emirate. This included the Kano Civil War (1893-1894) and the British invasion of the emirate. During the Kano Civil war, Alhassan and his brothers were captured and sold as slaves, but they were able to buy back their freedom and return to Bebeji shortly afterwards.

 

                                       Business career 

Alhassan remained in Bebeji until matters had settled down and the roads were secure, only then did he set out for Accra, by way of Ibadan and Lagos (Ikko) and then by sea to Accra and then to Kumasi, Sekondi and back to Lagos. Alhassan was one of the pioneers of this route. For several years, he carried his kola by sea, using steamers; to Lagos where he usually sold it to Kano bound merchants. By this time, he was relatively wealthy. In 1906, he began broadening his interests by trading in beads, necklaces, European cloth, etc. His mother, who had never remarried, died in Accra around 1908 and he thereafter generally restricted his operations to Lagos and Kano, although he continued to visit Accra.

 

 

Thus far in his career, with most of his fellow long distance traders, he continued to live in one of the towns some distance from Kano City, only visiting the Birni for business purposes. Before Alhassan settled in Kano permanently, he visited Kano City only occasionally to either purchase or sell his wares. He did not own a house there, but was satisfied with the accommodation given to him by his patoma (land lord.). It was during the time of the first British appointed Emir of Kano; Abbas (1903-1919) that Alhassan decided to establish a home in Kano. He purchased his first house in the Sarari area (an extension of Koki). At that time there were no houses from the house of Baban Jaki (at the end of Koki) up to Kofar Mazugal. In fact the area was called Sarari because it was empty and nobody wanted that land. Alhassan built his first house on that land and was able thereafter to extend it freely.

 

 

In 1912, when the Europeans started to show an interest in the export of groundnut, they contacted the already established Kano merchants through the Emir, Abbas and their chief agent, Adamu Jakada. Some established merchants of Kano like Umaru Sharubutu, Maikano Agogo and others were approached and accepted the offer.

 

Later in 1918, Alhassan was approached by the Niger Company to help purchase groundnuts for them. He was already familiar with the manner by which people made fortunes by buying cocoa for Europeans in the Gold Coast. He responded and participated in the enterprise with enthusiasm, he had several advantages over other Kano business men: he could speak some English because of his contact with the people on the coast, thus he could negotiate more directly with the European traders for better prices. He also had accumulated a large capital and unlike other established Kano merchants, had only a small family to maintain, as he was still a relatively young man. Alhassan had excellent financial management, was frugal and unostentatious. He knew some accounting and with the help of Alhaji Garba Maisikeli, his financial controller for 38 years, every kobo was accounted for every day. Not only that, Alhassan was hard working and always around to provide personal supervision of his workers. As soon as he entered the groundnut purchasing business, he came to dominate the field. In fact by 1922 he became the wealthiest businessman in Kano. Umaru Sharubutu and Maikano Agogo were relegated to the second and the third positions respectively. When the British Bank of West Africa was opened in Kano in 1929, he became the first Kano businessman to utilize a bank account when he deposited twenty camel loads of silver coins. Shortly before his death, he pointed to sixty “groundnut pyramids” in Kano and said, “These are all mine”.


 

Alhassan became the chief produce buyer especially of groundnuts for the Niger Company (later U.A.C). It is said that he used to purchase about half of all the nuts purchased by U.A.C in northern Nigeria. Because of this, he applied for a license to purchase and export groundnuts in 1940 just like the U.A.C. However, because of the great depression and the war situation, it was not granted. Even Saul Raccah lost his license to export and import about this time because he did not belong to the Association of West African Merchants. In 1953-4 he became a licensed buying agent (L.B.A) that is, a buyer who sells direct to the marketing board instead of to another firm. However, Alhassan had many business connections both in Nigeria and in other West African countries, particularly the Gold Coast. He dealt, not only in groundnuts, but also in other merchandise. He traded in cattle, kola, cloth, beads, precious stones, grains, rope and other things. His role in the purchase of kola nuts from forest areas of Nigeria for sale in the North was so great, that eventually whole “kola trains” from the Western Region were filled with his nuts alone.

 

When Alhassan finally settled in Kano, he maintained agents, mainly his relations, in other places. For instance Alhaji Bala, his brother, was sent to Lagos. Alhassan employed people, mainly Igbos and Yoruba's and the indigenous Hausas, as wage earners. They worked as clerks, drivers, and labourers. Some of his employees, especially the Hausas, stayed in his house. He was responsible for their marriage expenses. They did not pay rent and in fact, were regarded as members of his extended family. He sometimes provided official houses to some of his workers.

 

People’s opinion of Alhassan Dantata differed. To some people, he was a mutumin kirki (complete gentleman) who was highly disciplined and made money through hard work and honesty. He always served as an enemy to, or a breaker of hoarding. For instance, he would purchase items, especially grains, during the harvest time, when it was abundant at low prices. He would wait until the rainy season, (July or august) when there was limited supply in the markets or when grain merchants started to inflate prices. He then moved to fill the markets with his surplus grains and asked a price lower than the current price in the markets by between 50 – 70%. In this way, he forced down prices. His anti- hoarding activities did not stop at grains and other consumer goods, but even to such items as faifai, igiya, babarma (Mat), dyed cloth, shuni, potash, and so on. However on the other hand, according to information collected in Koki, Dala, Qul-qul, Madabo, Yan Maruci e.t.c Alhassan was viewed as a mugun mutum (wicked person). This was because some people expressed the view that Dantata undercut their prices simply to cripple his fellow merchants.

 

He founded, with other merchants (attajirai), the Kano Citizens’ Trading Company, for industrial undertakings. In 1949, he contributed property valued at  ₤10,200 (ten thousand, two hundred pounds) to the proposed Kano citizens trading company for the establishment of the first indigenous textile mill in Northern Nigeria. Near the end of his life he was appointed a director of the Railway Corporation.

 

 

Real estate

He started to acquire urban land as early as 1917 in the non- European trading site (Syrian quarters) when he acquired two plots at an annual fee of ₤20. All his houses were occupied by his own people; relations, sons, servants, workers and so on. He never built a hotel for whatever purpose in his life and advised his children to do like wise. His numerous large warehouses in and around Kano metropolis were not for rent, rather he kept his own wares in them. 

 

 

Business with women

Because of his Islamic beliefs, Alhassan never transacted business with a woman of whatever age. His wife, Hajiya Umma Zaria, (mother of Aminu) was his chief agent among the women folk. The women did not have to visit her house. She established agents all over Kano city and visited them in turn. When she visited her agents, it was the duty of the agents to ask what the women in the ward wanted. Amina Umma Zaria would then leave the items for them. All her agents were old married women and she warned her agents to desist from conducting business with newly wedded girls. Umma Zaria dealt in the smallest household items, which would cost 2.5 d to sophisticated jewels worth thousands of pounds.

 

 

The manners of Alhassan Dantata

Though Alhassan became the wealthiest man in the British West African colonies, he lived a simple life. He fed on the same foodstuffs as any other individual, such as tuwon dawa da furar gero. He dressed simply in a white gown, a pair of white trousers (da itori), and underwear (yar ciki), a pair of ordinary local sandals, and sewn white cap, white turban and occasionally a malfa (local hat). He was said never to own more than three sets of personal clothing at a time. He never stayed inside his house all day and was always out doing something. He moved about among his workers joking with them, encouraging and occasionally giving a helping hand. He ate his meal outside and always with his senior workers like Garba Maisikeli and Alhaji Mustapha Adakawa. Alhassan met fully established wealthy Kano merchants when he moved to Kano from the Kauye, like Maikano Agogo, Umaru Sharubutu, Salga and so on. He lived with them peacefully and always respected them. Occasionally he visited the senior of them all Umaru Sharubutu to greet him. The eldest son of Umaru Sharubutu became an important employee in his commercial enterprise. He avoided clashes with other influential people in Kano. He hated court litigation. He was in court only once, but before the final judgment the case was settled outside a Lagos court (it was a ₤10,000 civil suit instituted by one Haruna against him). He lived peacefully with the local authorities. Whenever he offended the authorities he would go quietly to solve the problems with the official concerned.

 

 

Health

Alhassan enjoyed good health and was never totally indisposed throughout his active life. However, occasionally he might develop malaria fever and whenever he was sick, he would go to the S.I.M clinic for treatment. Because of his simple eating habits, ordinary Hausa food two or three times a day and his always active mode of life, he never developed obesity. He remained slim and strong throughout his life. Alhassan had no physical defects and enjoyed good eye sight.

 

 

Religion

Alhassan was a devout Muslim. He was one of the first northerners to visit Mecca via England by mail boat in the early 1920’s. He loved reading the Qur’an and Hadith. He had a personal mosque in his house and established a qur’anic school for his children. He maintained a full time Islamic scholar called Alhaji Abubakar (father of Malam Lawan Kalarawi, a renowned Kano public preacher).

He paid zakkat annually according to Islamic injunction and gave alms to the poor every Friday. He belonged to the Qadiriyya brotherhood.

 

 

Pilgrimage and presentation to the King

Soon after the First World War he went on the pilgrimage to Mecca, via Britain, where he was presented to King George V.

 

Education

Alhassan Dantata respected people with qur’anic and other branches of Islamic learning, and helped them occasionally. He established a qur’anic school for his children and other people of the neighbourhood. He insisted that all his children must be well educated in the Islamic way. He appreciated also, functional western education, just enough to transact business (some arithmetic, simple accounting, Hausa reading and writing and spoken English).

 Alhassan backed the establishment of a western style school in the Dala area for Hausas (i.e. non-Fulani) traders’ children in the 1930’s. The existence of a school in Bebeji (the only non-district headquarters in Kano to have one in the 1930’s) was probably due to his influence, although he could neither read nor write English. Alhassan could write beautiful Ajami, but could not speak or write Arabic, although he could read the Qur’an and other religious books with ease (this is very common in Hausa society). Most of the qur’anic reciter's could read very well, but could not understand Arabic. Alhassan Dantata knew some arithmetic-addition and subtraction and could use a ready reckoner. He also encouraged his children to learn enough western education to transact business, the need of his time. He established his own Arabic and English school in 1944, Dantata Arabic and English school.

 

Politics

 He never became a politician in the true sense of the term. However, because of his enormous wealth, he was always very close to the government. He had to be in both the colonial government’s good books and maintain a position very close to the emirs of Kano. He was nominated to represent commoners in the reformed local administration of Kano and in 1950 was made a councillor in the emir’s council- the first non- royal individual to have a seat at the council. Other members of the council then were: Madakin Kano, Alhaji Muhammadu Inuwa, Walin Kano, Malam Abubakar Tsangaya, Sarkin Shanu, Alhaji Muhammadu Sani, Wazirin Kano Alhaji Abubakar, Makaman Kano Alhaji Bello Alhaji Usman Gwarzo, and the leader Alhaji Abdulllahi Bayero. Alhassan therefore was a member of the highest governing body of Kano in his time. He was also appointed to mediate between NEPU and NPC in Kano in 1954 together with Mallam Nasiru Kabara and other members. He joined no political party, but it is clear that he sympathised with the NPC.

Death

In 1955, Alhassan fell ill and because of the seriousness of the illness, he summoned his chief financial controller, Garba Maisikeli and his children. He told them that his days were approaching their end and advised them to live together. He was particularly concerned about the company he had established (Alhassan Dantata & Son’s). He asked them not to allow the company to collapse. He implored them to continue to marry within the family as much as possible. He urged them to avoid clashes with other wealthy Kano merchants. They should take care of their relatives, especially the poor among them. Three days later he passed away in his sleep on Wednesday 17th august, 1955. He was buried the same day in his house in Sarari ward, Kano. When he died in August 1955, he was the wealthiest man of any race in West Africa.

Heirs

It was and is rare for business organizations to survive the death of their founders in Hausa society. Hausa tradition is full of stories of former successful business families who later lost everything. In Kano city alone names like: Kundila of Makwarari, the wealthiest man at the end of nineteenth century, Maikano Agogo of Koki Ward, Umaru Sharubutu also of Koki Ward, Baban Jaji, Abdu Sarki of Zaitawa Ward, Madugu Indo of Adakawa, and others too numerous to mention here, were some of them. The question is, why this sorry state of affairs?

M.G Smith suggested that three reasons were responsible as follows: the amount of money spent by the wealthy Hausa man on religious and social obligations was so great that only large fortunes could survive. Secondly, he was, after the introduction of the colonial economy, dependent for credit facilities on good relations with expatriate firms and stable groups of reliable agents and thirdly, under Islamic law, his estate was subdivided on inheritance.

He further suggested that only Alhassan of Kano was likely to leave able heirs to continue his business in a grand way. This observation was made in 1949 before Alhassan’s death. The reasons for this, Smith argued, was that his heirs were interested in keeping the family name going and the employment of modern methods of book keeping, the only local merchant to do so at that time. Another observer, Tahir (1919-75) has the opinion that business ventures in Hausa society often collapsed upon the death or retirement of the founder because the heirs were not trained before the death or retirement of the founder. Alhassan Dantata’s entire estate was subdivided according to Islamic law among the eighteen children who survived him. Alhassan’s descendants include Dr Aminu Dantata (son), Sanusi Dantata (son), Abdulkadir Sanusi Dantata (grandson), Dr Mariya Sanusi Dangote (granddaughter), Alhaji Aliko Dangote (great-grandson), Alhaji Tajudeen Aminu Dantata (great-grandson) and Alhaji Sayyu Dantata (great-great grandson).

Eshugbayi Eleko (The Oba/Eleko of Lagos/Eko)

Eshugbayi Eleko, the validly appointed King of Lagos by custom had been deposed by the colonial government in 1925. Part of Eleko’s trouble with the colonial government began with the government’s proposed pipe borne water scheme, estimated to cost about ₤130,000 and the subsequent government proposal that Lagosians should pay the cost because it was for their health. Eleko’s objections were that they had not been informed earlier about this scheme, that it was the Europeans who wanted pipe borne water and should pay for it and that the Lagosians’ old well water was still good enough for them. The press, which may be regarded as representing the vocal educated elite, opposed the water rate not because it objected to taxation, but on the American colonists principle of ‘No taxation without representation’. It said the people had not been consulted and therefore the government had no right to tax them. But despite protests, agitations and petitions from Eleko and other anti-government factions, the Iju waterworks was constructed.

Governor Egerton held out the bait of a town council in which they would participate, but they refused it. There they thought the matter ended, but Egerton suddenly published his House Assessment Ordinance, which, despite denials from the government, the people believed was a prelude towards imposing a water rate. Towards the end of 1908, a mass meeting was called. All the markets were closed, expatriate shops were looted, 15,000 people marched on State House, in response to the call from the Eleko’s bellman (town crier). Egerton was impressed by the traditional elite’s demonstration of
power; so also was the educated elite.

Eleko also fell out with the colonial government when he accepted the invitation from the Central Mosque to approve the appointment of Bashorun Balogun and others. The government believed that this was a purely muslim affair that should have been done in the Central Mosque with its blessings rather than with Eleko’s approval. The government held on to this and used the opportunity to avenge itself for Eleko’s defiance over the water rate levy. It thus withdrew recognition and suspended the Eleko’s stipend. Instead of making life more difficult for Eleko as the colonial government had believed, so as to make him change his mind, the suspension made Eleko more popular. Market women flooded Eleko’s palace with foodstuff, while Chief Oluwa (an Idejo chief) and other members of the Ilu committee made sure that the Oba was financially and materially self sufficient. This was a slap on the face of the colonial government. Seeing this, Yesufu Omo Oba led a pro-government group to the government asking for Eleko to be deposed, while the lawyer Egerton Shyngle led another faction which defended Eleko’s action in approving the Central Mosque appointment. As a result, Eleko was reinstated by Sir Hugh Clifford in 1919.

Finally, the controversial trip of Herbert Macaulay and Chief Amodu Tijani Oluwa to London over the Apapa land case and the statement made by Macaulay to the British press were to have significant effect on the Eleko affair. While in London, Macaulay gave a statement to the British press, saying that Eleko (whose grandfather had ceded Lagos to the British) was the head of seventeen million Nigerians and that Eleko was earning less than the lowest paid European gardener in Lagos, that the pension promised Eleko’s grandfather, Dosunmu, had never been paid, while the colonial government had neither rebuilt his Iga (palace) nor renovated it. This provoked serious reaction from the British government, as the British press played up the statement.

Meanwhile, the colonial government in Lagos was at Eleko’s throat over Macaulay’s statement in London. Eleko denied knowledge of the statement, but admitted giving his staff of office to Oluwa according to native customs. Although his press release of the denial appeared in the newspapers, the government would only be content if Eleko’s bell-ringers (town crier) went round with a denial written on behalf of Eleko by Henry Carr. Eleko bluntly refused. The colonial government reacted by withdrawing its recognition of Eleko as a native chief and stopping his stipend.

On June 10, 1925, nineteen princes (known to be pro-government) signed a letter demanding that Eleko should quit the palace within fourteen days. Their letter was signed by eleven literate princes, while the remaining eight affixed their thumbprints. Another letter was sent to Eleko on June 26 notifying him that Ibikunle Akitoye had been chosen to replace him.

The government sanctioned the deposition and ordered that Eshugbayi should leave Lagos. The Eleko did not comply with the order and on August 8th another order was made against the Eleko. He was thus arrested and exiled to Oyo. Sanusi Olusi was then appointed Oba by the Colonial Government.

Eshugbayi took his case to the Privy Council in London and he was assisted by Herbert Macaulay, who was hell-bent on remedying the damage done to the Eleko by a care free Governor-General.

On reviewing the customary laws of Lagos on the deposition of Eleko and the appointment of another oba, the Privy Council in London found rightly that British administrators in Lagos were beginning to act lawlessly. It stated that no validity could be given to a Lagos custom by the whimsical action of the Nigerian Governor-General of Lagos Colony, because, “it is the assent of a community that gives validity to a customary law”. Hence, the court said that the deposition of Eshugbayi Eleko was completely contrary to customary law. Mr Olusi was politely asked by the Lagos colonial authorities to leave Iga Idungaran soonest. This he did on Wednesday June 28, 1931.

After the privy Council directive of June 1928 in favour of Eleko, Herbert Macaulay’s “Lagos Daily News” published an article alleging that the colonial government was planning to plant gunpowder in the car that would bring Eleko back from Oyo, so that it could explode and kill him. For his publication, Macaulay was given six months imprisonment with hard labour, without option of a fine, while his co-owner of the paper, Dr Caulcrick, was fined £50 with the alternative of a month jail term.

Eshugbayi Eleko later resumed Obaship of Lagos in 1931. in 1933, however, Eshugbayi Eleko died.

Olufunmilayo Ransome-Kuti (Sisi Eko)

She led Egba women in a protest against the Alake for enforcing British food trade regulations. The protest led to the deposition and deportation of the Alake. She fought for the right of women to vote and also fought against separate taxes levied on women. She was also the first Nigerian woman to drive a car & ride a bike. Her activism inspired her sons Olikoye, Fela & Beko & her nephew, Wole Soyinka, to campaign for the rights of Nigerians.

She died on 13th April 1978 when soldiers, who had invaded the home of her son Fela Anikulapo Kuti, threw her out of a second floor window. She was 78 years old when she died.

"Life's most persistent and urgent question is: 'What are you doing for others?'"
— Martin Luther King, Jr.

I gather, from the briefing document, that they'll have proper terminals and stations with shops etc (renting out shops is one of the ways they want to make money from the project).

Furthermore, large sections of the rail line will be elevated, while the sections at ground level will have barriers, to prevent people from encroaching on the rail line (as it so often happens with the NRC lines).

I heard that the Abuja line is having funding issues. Apparently, the National Assembly believes that the project is too costly.

Augustus Taiwo “Tai” Solarin cAugust 20, 1922 – June 27, 1994

He served in the Royal Air Force during the 2nd World War and remained in Britain, studying at University of Manchester and then at the University of London. Tai Solarin married English born Sheila Mary Tuer in 1951.

In 1952, he became the principal of Molusi College, IjebuIgbo, a post he held till 1956, when he established the famous Mayflower School, Ikenne, Ogun State. The school is noted for academic excellence.

For the majority of the first forty years after independence, Nigeria had no effective opposition to the mostly military governments of that time. Activists, such as Tai Solarin, Wole Soyinka, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti and Gani Fawehinmi acted as opposition to the government.

In 1975, when the General Gowon regime delayed returning power to a civilian regime, Tai published his “The beginning of the End” statement, which he then physically distributed on the roadside. He was subsequently imprisoned for this act. Throughout his lifetime, Tai fought running battles with various governments in order to improve the lot of Nigerians.

As a columnist, Tai was a relentless critic of military rule, as well as of corruption in government and the church. He was often jailed for his public remarks. Tai wrote regularly for the Daily Times, the Nigerian Tribune and the Guardian.

In 1989 the People's Bank was founded by the government and Tai Solarin, against the advice of Gani Fawehinmi, became the first chairman. The bank was created to disburse soft loans and other forms of credit to the very poor to start up their own business.

Tai was a well known humanist and atheist who opposed the ownership of schools by churches. He once said that “black (people) hold on to their God just as a drunken man holds on to the street lamp post – for physical support only”. He declared that he wanted to be buried within hours of his death and without any ceremony or coffin, so that his body could serve as organic fertilizer for the plants in his compound. However, he devised a means of promoting religious harmony in his school, Mayflower, by creating a “quiet hour” in the mornings, rather than the “assembly time” that was observed in other schools. During the quiet hour, students who felt like praying in the Christian way, could go to a corner and say their prayers, those who felt like praying in the Muslim way could also go to a corner and say their prayers, etc. students who did not want to pray, could quietly read their books.

Tai was known for his modesty and was always dressed in simple khaki shirt and shorts.

This should be a learning experience. We are not going to have the same heroes, but you can write about your heroes, while I write about mine. We will all learn from this. It shouldn't result in quarrels.


For example, it was Chukwuemeka Ojukwu who modernised the Nigerian Army uniform and started the production of army uniforms in Nigeria(I think he was quartermaster-general at the time). Previously, soldiers wore colonial uniforms (shorts) that were made in Britain. This was before Biafra.

Ojukwu's lawsuit against the Lagos State Government over Villasca Lodge is the locus classicus in self help law in Nigeria. This was after Biafra.

Please write about your hero so that we can all learn a little.

Herbert Samuel Heelas Macaulay & Henry Rawlinson Carr

Henry Carr stated that “Lagos was led by a little clique of ambitious and vainglorious men led by an evil genius who owned a sensationalist newspaper (the Lagos Daily News)”. “Among all the human monsters with whom we have been brought into contact, none has displayed the devilish ingenuity of this man”. Macaulay was a “desperate enemy of society; my hatred will only finish with my life”. Macaulay was, in Carr’s opinion, a disquieting factor in the public peace and should be banished “as a crooked mind and a dangerous fool”.

According to Herbert Macaulay’s malicious account, in a pamphlet published in 1924 entitled “Henry Carr must go”, Carr’s father was Amuwo Carr, a liberated Saro emigrant, popularly known as Daddy Shope, who deserted his wife Rebecca Carr, “a devout Christian woman” to settle in Abeokuta as a happy polygamist. The young Carr helped his mother after school hours by selling fufu and beads. Carr replied that the pamphlet was “nothing but the ravings of a lunatic…(of) a mind coarse, of gross perception, and with a disastrous lack of delicacy”.

To Macaulay, Carr was “a disappointed and disgruntled parvenu”, whose one passion was to clamour for promotion.

A fierce hatred existed between Henry Carr and Herbert Macaulay and the political troubles of Lagos were largely due to the antipathy between them. Carr believed that the best way to secure a better life for Lagosians was by working with and through the colonial government. He had risen through the colonial service to occupy the highest position held by an African; the post of Resident (commissioner) for the Colony. He was a successfully assimilated African (the ideal common to many of the modern elite of his day), who believed that it was right for the African to be as European as possible. Carr declared himself and people like him “not Europeanised natives, but men transformed (transfigured) into Europeans”. Therefore, he argued, blacks who, like himself, came from a certain class ought to be allowed to go on leave to England, just as their white counterparts did, “for health reasons”.

Macaulay disagreed. He found expression in his idea of nationhood, in his recognition of the customs of the people, their institutions and their land. The government’s assault on native rights and Macaulay’s defence of them were the main causes of neo-traditional nationalism, without which, political nationalism would have been considerably delayed.

Herbert Samuel Heelas Macaulay

Herbert Macaulay was born on 14 November 1864, into an already famous family; his grandfather was Bishop Crowther, first black bishop of the Anglican Church and his father was Reverend T.B Macaulay, first principal of CMS Grammar School, Lagos. His father was a strict disciplinarian and Macaulay grew up in a rigid Victorian household. “Seven”, once wrote Macaulay, “is a holy number…I was the seventh child of my parents…I was a holy child, innocent and lovable…my mother generally dressed me in a suit of purple silk velvet knickerbockers…(and) coat to match…but excessive kneeling at prayers soon left a circular worn patch in the velvet breeches”. “I was presented every day to Governor Glover who used to visit my father every evening”. Macaulay attended the Lagos Grammar School and became the first Nigerian to be sponsored by the colonial government for a professional course abroad when he won a scholarship to study land surveying and civil engineering at Plymouth, England in 1890 (some say the scholarship was awarded as an appreciative gesture for the work of his grandfather, Bishop Ajayi Crowther). He also studied piano tuning in London.

Returning to Nigeria in 1893, Macaulay joined the colonial civil service as government surveyor in charge of crown grants, a function that not only introduced him to the land situation in Lagos, but also gave him an insight into the irregularities of the colonial administration. Macaulay served the government diligently until he became disenchanted with its racist policies. Macaulay’s first personal experience of colonial injustice was when, as a surveyor, he was given a salary of £120 per annum, despite Governor Carter’s recommendation that his minimum pay should be £250 (the amount being paid to his British colleagues). This and a succession of other events led to Macaulay’s resignation from the service.

Macaulay then engaged in politics in order to fight for the rights of Nigerians. In 1912 he led a delegation to protest against the government’s decision to place lands in the Northern Provinces of Nigeria “under the control of the Governor who shall hold and administer them for the use and common benefit of the natives” and to do likewise in the Southern Provinces. He was subsequently jailed for this. He was also a key character in the celebrated Oluwa land case. Macaulay also founded the Lagos Daily News as a means of enlightening the people. In 1922 he founded the Nigerian National Democratic Party (NNDP), Nigeria’s first political party. When Nnamdi Azikiwe formed the NCNC in 1944, Macaulay was made its first national president. It was in the course of leading the party in a nationwide campaign tour in 1946 that he was taken ill and died in Kano on May 7, 1946.

Macaulay and Carr share the distinction of being the greatest bibliophiles in Nigerian history. No one can possibly write about Lagos history and politics without consulting the thousands of files collected by Macaulay on just about every subject in Lagos history. He was known as the “Wizard of Kirsten Hall”, because of his ability to obtain classified information, which he used to devastating effect. His network of informers would be the envy of a modern intelligence service. He paid handsomely for this information, but his real asset was that those who gave him information genuinely believed that he would use it in the national interest.

Herbert Macaulay was an extremely superstitious man. His files were filled with documents of fortune tellers and diviners, with full instructions on taboos and other occult practices. To give an example, one Mustapha, an Indian diviner, warned Macaulay about women: he should not receive any food from any woman; allow a woman into his bedroom or have an affair with any woman before she had a “bath in your presence in your home”.

Macaulay was also a great socialite: he electrified the social life in Lagos before what Echeruo called the “death’ of the peculiarly Victorian Lagos society at the end of the nineteenth century. He was a regular feature at the numerous “at homes”, “conversaziones” concerts, shows, etc., that were part of Lagos society. It was in this milieu that he came to acknowledge the gift that was to stand him in good stead during his quarrel with the government over the Eleko – his remarkable genius for organising things and people.



Henry Carr

Henry Carr was born on August 15 1863 in Lagos. He was the son of Sierra-Leonean emigrants of Egba origins, Amuwo Carr and Rebecca Carr. He had his elementary education at the St Paul’s (Breadfruit) School between 1869 and 1870, but finished schooling at the Olowogbowo Wesleyan Elementary School, also in Lagos, which he attended from 1871 to 1873. In 1874, he enrolled at the newly opened Wesleyan Boys High School in Freetown, Sierra Leone. He entered Fourah Bay College in 1877 and obtained, with honours, the Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics and physics in 1882, at the age of 19. He was the first student of the college to obtain an honours degree. He left for Britain an enrolled at Lincoln’s Inn, St Mark’s College in Chelsea and the Royal College of Science in South Kensington, also in London.

On his return to Nigeria in June 1885, after an absence of 12 years, Carr was appointed senior assistant master at the Church Missionary Society (CMS) Grammar School, in Lagos. In 1889, he was invited by the colonial governor to join the civil service as Chief Clerk and Sub-Inspector of Schools for Lagos, becoming, the following year, the Assistant Colonial Secretary for Native Affairs. He later returned to the Department of Education as Provincial Inspector, then Chief Inspector of Schools in Southern Nigeria and Commissioner (Resident) of the Colony of Lagos, from which post he retired on August 1 1924, at the age of 61. He was appointed to the Legislative Council in 1928 and served as an adviser to the government until 1941.

In 1906, Henry Carr received the Master of Arts and Bachelor of Civil Law Degrees from Durham University. In the King’s Birthday Honours of 1920 he was made a Companion of the Imperial Service Order. Later, he received the Commander of the Order of the British Empire and also the honorary degrees of Master of Science and Doctor of Civil Law.

Henry Carr died on March 6 1945.

Carr’s erudition was phenomenal. When he died in 1945 he left a library of 18,000 books each, of which, Rossiter believes, showed marks of a personal selection. Carr left his library, which formed the foundation of the library of the University of Ibadan, to the Nigerian Government.

Carr’s rivalry with Herbert Macaulay was fierce. As far as Carr was concerned, Macaulay was an egotist who could never conceive of himself as making a mistake or look upon an opponent as anything but a villain. The politics of Lagos, which Macaulay dominated after 1919, were, according to Carr, simply a contest in competitive mass bribery, an appeal to the cupidity of the people. Lagos affected by “rampant racialism and nationalist feeling”, began to show a strain of primitivism. Nationalism was a disease that Carr wished Lagos could avoid.

According to Macaulay, Carr’s appointment as provincial commissioner was highly irregular. The post was created mainly to remove Carr from the education department, where he ought to have become director of education; Carr was given none of the functions which Lugard in his 1918 political memoranda specified as part of the office of resident. Lagos was not a province; therefore, the resident could not be the senior government official in the area and not being a province, the resident could not exercise, as Lugard’s memoranda expected residents to do, a close supervision over Lagos.

Carr invented numerous excuses for avoiding uneducated Africans, for whom he had an aversion. But he was a tremendous fighter for his own welfare and prestige within the colonial service.

Carr was essentially an elitist: he had no patience with the masses, whom he considered to be “sheep-like-ready to follow where they are led”. He was not much impressed by the argument that majority of the people might want what he considered unprofitable. He characterised the illiterate masses as swayed more by emotion than reason, with emotions more suited to market women than men. Lagos politics he thought “a kind of systematic insanity”; the people of Lagos had refused to think for themselves: they had placed their trust in a leader who retained his hold over them “by stirring up mob emotions, by using tricks, mass propaganda, hate drill and all kinds of mumbo-jumbo”. Their profession of patriotism was a smoke screen to hide spite, greed, dishonesty and vanity.

Carr was therefore a good example of Malcolm X’s veritable “house Negro”. Unloved by all sections of Lagos community, he found solace, again like the “house Negro”, in Christianity.
Herbert Macaulay could not have been more different from Carr in character, looks and personality. Macaulay was flamboyant and resplendent, while Carr was quietly conservative. Macaulay was ebullient, effervescent and charming. Carr was foreboding, dour, shy, stolid and withdrawn. Macaulay had the most improbable handlebar moustache, which made him look like a cunning playboy and he was something of a daredevil. The indigenes of Lagos could understand and love Macaulay as they never could Carr.

Professor Benedict Chukwukadibia Enwonwu

He attended Government Colleges, Ibadan and Umuahia between 1934-1937; Goldsmith College, London in 1944; Ruskin College, Oxford, England, 1944-1946; Ashmolean College and Slade School of Fine Arts, Oxford, 1946-1948, graduating with first class honours and did postgraduate courses in anthropology and ethnography at the University of California, USA and Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, USA.

From 1939, he was an art teacher in various Schools, including Government College, Umuahia, Mission School in Calabar Province, 1940-1941 and at at Edo College, Benin City, 1941-1943.

He was art adviser to the Nigerian government from 1948. He toured and lectured in the United States from 1950 and executed many commissions as a freelance artist. In 1956 he was commissioned to sculpt a bronze portrait of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II. The sittings began at Buckingham Palace and the resulting full length bronze statue was shown at the R.B.A Gallery (Royal Society of British Artists, to which he had been elected) and the Tate Gallery.

On the 5th of October 1966, the Federal Government, on behalf of the Nigerian people, made a special gift of Enwonwu’s sculptural masterpiece, “Anyanwu”, or The Awakening (1955) to the United Nations. The sculpture, prominently displayed at the lobby of the headquarters of the United Nations in New York, is the symbol of the emancipation of the emergent African Continent and her right to self expression.

He was editor, Nigeria Magazine, from 1966; fellow, University of Lagos, Lagos, 1966-1968; cultural advisor to the Nigeria government, 1968-1971; visiting artist, Institute of African Studies, Howard University, Washington, DC; appointed first professor of Fine Arts, University of Ife, Ile-Ife, 1971-1975 and art consultant to the International Secretariat, Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC), Lagos, 1977. He executed portraits of Nigerians as private commissions, illustrated Amos Tutuola’s The Brave African Huntress and maintained a studio in London. He was also a Fellow, Royal Anthropological Institute, London and Member: Royal Academy of Arts, London.

Enwonwu's work is displayed in the National Gallery of Modern Art, Lagos. He died in 1994


’I will not accept an inferior position in the art world. Nor have my art called African because I have not correctly and properly given expression to my reality. I have consistently fought against that kind of philosophy because it is bogus. European artists like Picasso, Braque and Vlaminck were influenced by African art. Everybody sees that and is not opposed to it. But when they see African artists who are influenced by their European training and technique, they expect that African to stick to their traditional forms even if he bends down to copying them. I do not copy traditional art. I like what I see in the works of people like Giacometti but I do not copy them. I knew Giacometti personally in England, you know. I knew he was influenced by African sculptures. But I would not be influenced by Giacometti, because he was influenced by my ancestors”.
“Art is not static, like culture. Art changes its form with the times. It is setting the clock back to expect that the art form of Africa today must resemble that of yesterday otherwise the former will not reflect the African image. African art has always, even long before western influence, continued to evolve through change and adaptation to new circumstances. And in like manner, the African view of art has followed the trend of cultural change up to the modern times”. 1950, Ben Enwonwu.

Chief Abdul-Ganiyu "Gani" Oyesola Fawehinmi (SAN)

Gani Fawehinmi was born on April 22, 1938 into the prominent Tugbolo Fawehinmi family in Ondo. His father, a timber magnate, was fully responsible for his education and welfare. His hope of becoming a lawyer was almost dashed when he lost his father while he was a law student in London. All efforts to raise a loan to enable him to complete his university education proved abortive. So he had to fend for himself.


Although he eventually succeeded in becoming a lawyer, Gani decided to dedicate his entire life to struggle for the establishment of a society where every needy child would be educated at the expense of the State. Chief Fawehinmi and his estates have given scholarship to many indigent undergraduates on an annual basis since 1976.


Having identified law as a tool of oppression in the hands of the ruling class Gani provided legal services, on pro bono publico basis, to thousands of workers, students and other victims of social injustice, abuse of power and oppression.


Gani made most of his money from publishing the Nigerian Weekly Law Reports (NWLR). Before his revolutionary intervention in law reporting only a handful of privileged lawyers who had access to cyclostyled copies of the judgments of the appellate courts were winning cases in our Courts. Chief Fawehinmi sent his lawyers to courts around the country to obtain such judgments but decided to popularise legal knowledge by embarking on regular publication of law reports.

Upon the completion of his legal education in London Gani returned home and was called to the Nigerian Bar in January 1965. Barely a year later, the first republic was sacked by the armed forces. The Constitution was suspended while draconian decrees were imposed on the Nigerian people. In 1969, he took up the case of a factory worker whose wife had been snatched by a powerful permanent secretary in the service of the Benue Plateau State Government. Not withstanding that he was a rookie lawyer, he defeated the late Chief Rotimi Williams, QC, who was the counsel to the permanent secretary.


For daring to challenge the corrupt establishment the Yakubu Gowon regime arrested and detained him without trial for several months. Instead of cowing him into submission, the brutal experience strengthened him as Gani resolved to wage a decisive battle against injustice in all its ramifications.

For instance, in the Garba v. University of Maiduguri (1986) 2 NWLR (PT 18 ) 559, the fundamental right of students to fair hearing before rustication or expulsion was upheld.

The injustice in the Legal Practitioners Act which made the Attorney-General of the Federation the accuser and the prosecutor with respect to allegations of misconduct involving lawyers was highlighted by the Supreme Court in the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee v. Fawehinmi (1985) 3 NWLR (PT 7) 300. The decision led to the amendment of the Act.

The dismissal of the case of Fawehinmi v. Nigerian Bar Association (1989) 2 NWLR (PT 107) 558 by the Supreme Court on the ground that the respondent was not a juristic personality led to the registration of the Nigerian Bar Association under the Companies and Allied Matters Act.

In Balarabe Musa v. INEC (2003) 10 WRN 1, the political space was liberalised when the Supreme Court struck down the stringent conditionalities imposed by INEC on new political parties.

In Fawehinmi v. Akilu (1987) 2 NWLR (PT 67) 767 the Supreme Court relaxed the anachronistic doctrine of locus standi so as to permit the private prosecution of criminal offences by concerned individuals on the ground that “we are all our brothers’ keepers”.

Since the Attorney-General of the Federation has never sued the Federal Government as a defender of public interest, the locus standi of Gani to challenge the violations of the Constitution and other illegalities was upheld in the case of Fawehinmi v. The President (2007) 14 NWLR (PT 1054) 275.

In Abacha v. Fawehinmi (2001) 51 WRN 29 the Supreme Court held that since the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights has been domesticated by the National Assembly, our domestic courts have the jurisdiction to construe and apply its provisions whenever there are allegations of human rights infringement.

In Fawehinmi v. Inspector-General of Police (2002) 23 WRN 1 it was declared by the Supreme Court that the public officers covered by the immunity clause in Section 308 of the Constitution can be investigated while in office.

However, one of Gani’s post-humous rewards for his contribution to the legal system in Nigeria is the enactment of the Fundamental Procedure Rules 2009. Under the new human rights regime in Nigeria, concerned individuals and public spirited organizations can now file actions in courts challenging the violation of the human rights of other citizens.

In 1986, while Chief Gani Fawehinmi was Dele Giwa's Lawyer, the latter was killed in a bomb blast under suspicious circumstances.

Again, in 1995, Chief Fawehinmi served as counsel to Ken Saro-Wiwa when Saro-Wiwa was being tried for murder, but Fawehinmi withdrew from the case, branding the tribunal a Kangaroo court.

As a result of his activities chief Gani Fawehinmi had been arrested, detained and charged to court several times. His international passport was seized on many occasions and his residence and Chambers were searched several times. He was beaten up time after time and was deported from one part of the country to another to prevent him from being able to effectively reach out to the masses among whom he was popular. His books were confiscated by the Federal Military Government and his library at Surulere, a suburb of Lagos, were set ablaze. His law Chambers at Anthony Village, Lagos State, were invaded by persons suspected to be agents of the government. The guards were shot, two of them seriously wounded.
Gani died in the early hours of 5 September 2009 after a prolonged battle with lung cancer. He was 71 years old.


Gani had been locked up in the following police and security cells between 1969 and 1996:

* Police Headquarters, Kaduna , 1969.
* Jos Police Station, 1969
* Ilorin Police Station, 1969
* Police Headquarters, Lagos, 1969
* Police Headquarters, Lagos 1972 (twice)

* C. I. D. Alagbon, Lagos, 1978
* Inter-Centre Detention Outpost, Lagos, 1978

* Ikoyi Police Station,1978
* Panti Police Station, Lagos, 1987
* Panti Police Station, Lagos, 1988 (three times)
* Police Station Ikeja, 1988
* Panti Police Station, Lagos, 1989 (twice)
* Ikoyi Police Station, 1989
* State Security Services (SSS) Cell Maiduguri, 1989
* State Security Services (SSS) Cell Awolowo Road, Ikoyi 1991
* C. I. D. Police Station Ikoyi, 1992
* Police Station Wuse Abuja, 1992
* Inter-Centre Cell, Lagos 1993
* State Security Services (SSS) Awolowo Road, Ikoyi, 1993
* C. I. D. Police Station Ikoyi, 1993
* Police Station Wuse Abuja, 1993
* Police Headquarters, Abuja, 1993
* Panti Police Station, Lagos, 1994
* F. I. I. B. Alagbon, Ikoyi, Lagos 1994 (Once)
* Panti Police Station, Lagos, 1995 (Twice)
* State Security Services Shangisha Cell Lagos, 1995 (Once)
* State Security Service Shangisha Cell Lagos, 1996 (Once)

In all these arrests and detentions, he was treated sometimes cruelly, sometimes crudely and sometimes with some civility.

He had also been detained in the following federal prisons by various Military Governments from 1969 to 1996:

* Kaduna Prison, 1969
* Gombe Prison, 1969 - 1970
* Ikoyi Prison, 1978
* Gashua Prison, 1989
* Nigerian Prison Ikoyi, 1990
* Nigerian Prison Kuje, 1992
* Nigerian Prison Kuje, 1993 and
* Nigerian Prison, Bauchi 1996

Cool! I think I'm really going to like this thread. Can I nominate people to that list?


(Note that some may want to create controversy on your thread. Although most people have someone they consider a hero, nobody's perfect. Some may want to focus on the negative side of our heroes).

It's not really about Ghanaians. This is about an illness that inhabits the minds of a few. On Nairaland it starts off with the Igbo hates Yoruba, Yoruba hates Igbo threads. The illness morphs into South Africans, Ghanaians or African Americans hate us threads and in the face of extreme boredom, they add East Africans (primarily Kenyans) to the mix.

A key symptom of this illness is the tendency to replace reason with emotion.

Another symptom is the individual's inability to take responsibility for his own situation and a tendency to blame everybody else for what's happening to him.

The illness is spread via "the race to determine who is the most silly".



This is the way it plays out. A bigot from ethnic group B makes a silly statement about ethnic group A. Someone from ethnic group A sees the statement and, rather than correcting the bigot or taking the higher moral road, he decides to "defend his tribe" and makes a silly statement about ethnic group B.

What follows is a race to determine who is more silly.

Please do not get infected.

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When you see geese, flying in a "V" formation, you might consider what science has discovered as to why they fly that way. As each bird flaps its wings, it creates an uplift for the bird immediately following. By flying in a "V" formation, the whole flock adds at least 71 percent greater flying range than if each bird flew on its own.

People who share a common direction and sense of community can get where they are going more quickly and easily, because they are travelling on the thrust of one another.

When a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of trying to go it alone and quickly gets back into formation to take advantage of the lifting power of the bird in front.

If we have the sense of a goose, we will stay in formation with those people who are heading the same way we are.

When the head goose gets tired, it rotates back in the wing and another goose flies point. It is sensible to take turns doing demanding jobs, whether with people or with geese flying south.


Geese honk from behind to encourage those up front to keep up their speed. What message do we intend to give when, in traffic, we honk from behind?


Finally - and this is important - when a goose gets sick or is wounded by gunshot, and falls out of the formation, two other geese fall out with that goose and follow it down to lend help and protection. They stay with the fallen goose until it is able to fly or until it dies; and only then do they launch out on their own, or with another formation to catch up with their own group.

If we have the sense of a goose, we will stand by each other like that.

It is a race to determine who is the most stupid.



This is the way it plays out. A bigot from ethnic group B makes a stupid statement about ethnic group A. Someone from ethnic group A sees the statement and, rather than correcting the bigot or taking the higher moral road, he decides to "defend his tribe" and makes a stupid statement about ethnic group B.

What follows is a race to determine who is more stupid.

Available?

Wondering who the "reliable sources" are.

Read more here http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institute_of_technology

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The Fire

A couple, whom we shall call John and Mary, had a nice home and two lovely children, a boy and a girl. John had a good job and had just been asked to go on a business trip to another city and would be gone for several days. It was decided that Mary needed an outing and would go along too. They hired a reliable woman to care for the children and made the trip, returning home a little earlier than they had planned.

As they drove into their home town feeling glad to be back, they noticed smoke, and they went off their usual route to see what it was. They found a home in flames. Mary said, "Oh well it isn't our fire, let's go home."

But John drove closer and exclaimed, "That home belongs to Fred Jones who works at the plant. He wouldn't be off work yet, maybe there is something we could do." "It has nothing to do with us." Protested Mary. "You have your good clothes on lets not get any closer."

But John drove up and stopped and they were both horror stricken to see the whole house in flames. A woman on the lawn was in hysterics screaming, "The children! Get the children!" John grabbed her by the shoulder saying, "Get a hold of yourself and tell us where the children are!" "In the basement," sobbed the woman, "down the hall and to the left."

In spite of Mary's protests John grabbed the water hose and soaked his clothes, put his wet handkerchief on his head and bolted for the basement which was full of smoke and scorching hot. He found the door and grabbed two children, holding one under each arm like the football player he was. As he left he could hear some more whimpering. He delivered the two badly frightened and nearly suffocated children into waiting arms and filled his lungs with fresh air and started back asking how many more children were down there. They told him two more and Mary grabbed his arm and screamed, "John! Don't go back! It's suicide! That house will cave in any second!"

But he shook her off and went back by feeling his way down the smoke filled hallway and into the room. It seemed an eternity before he found both children and started back. They were all three coughing and he stooped low to get what available air he could. As he stumbled up the endless steps the thought went through his mind that there was something strangely familiar about the little bodies clinging to him, and at last when they came out into the sunlight and fresh air, he found that he had just rescued his own children.

The baby-sitter had left them at this home while she did some shopping.

BE CONCERNED. BE SENSITIVE. BE SELFLESS. Have a nice day!

.

*^*

@ Yamakuza: May God continually bless you.

It doesn't take much to create an "us against them" situation in Nigeria.

I've searched all over for the link, but I can't find it (anyone who has a link to that thread should pls pls post it. I'd love to read it again).

Basically, Becomerich was fond of spamming threads with his maps. Beaf got fed up of it and decided to spam Becomerich's threads with cartoons and caricatures of Becomerich depicted as a gangster (mapomeji).

Becomerich declared that he knew Beaf's problem. Apparently, Beaf was demon possessed and Pastor Becomerich decided to conduct a deliverance service for Beaf.

After instructing Beaf to sing a few deliverance songs, he told Beaf to repeat after him...

"I see Jesus!
I see Jesus!
I see Jesus!"

Historically, it was felt that Nigeria had deficiencies in technical knowledge and I guess the polytechnic system was meant to address that.


However, we now have universities of technology, etc. Some have suggested that the system should be merged/unified and indeed that was President Obasanjo's plan (Yabatech had already changed its name to Yaba University of Technology), but the plan was scrapped when he left office.

Polytechnics usually emphasise practical and technical courses such as engineering, fine/applied arts, etc.

Some have suggested that all polytechnics should be converted to universities of technology.