₦airaland Forum

TooNoisy:
CONFIDENTIAL

28th March, 1966

The Supreme Commander and Head of the Federal Military Government, Lagos.

Thro: The Director of Prisons,

Prisons Headquarters Office,

Private Mail Bag 12522,

Lagos.

Sir:

PREROGATIVE OF MERCY: SECTION 101 (1) (a) OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE FEDERATION ACT 1963

1. I am writing this petition for FREE PARDON under Section 101 (1) (a) of the Constitution of the Federation Act 1963, on behalf of myself and some of my colleagues whose names are set out in the Annexe hereto.

2. Before I go further, I would like to stress that the reasons which I advance in support of this petition, in my own behalf, basically hold good for my said colleagues. For they share the same political beliefs with me, and have intense and unquenchable loyalty for the ideals espoused by the Party which I have the honour to lead.

3. There are many grounds which could be submitted for your consideration in support of this petition. But I venture to think that SEVEN of them are enough and it is to these that I confine myself.

(1) In the course of my evidence during my trial, I stated that my Party favoured and was actively working for alliance with the N.C.N.C. as a means, among other things, of solving what I described as ‘the problem of Nigeria’, and strengthening the unity of the Federation. In October 1963 (that is about a month after my conviction and while my appeal to the Supreme Court was still pending), a Peace Committee headed by the Chief Justice of the Federation, Sir Adetokunbo Ademola, made overtures to me through my friend Alhaji W. A. Elias to the effect that if I abandoned my intention to enter into alliance with the N.C.N.C. which, according to the Committee, was an Ibo Organisation, and agreed to dissolve the Action Group and, in co-operation with Chief Akintola (now deceased), form an all-embracing Yoruba political party which I would lead and which would go into alliance with the N.P.C., I would be released from prison before the end of that year. I turned down these terms because I was of the considered opinion that their acceptance would further widen and exacerbate inter-tribal differences, and gravely undermine the unity of the Federation.
TODAY, THE MILITARY GOVERNMENT, OF WHICH YOU ARE THE HEAD, LEAVES NO ONE IN ANY DOUBT THAT IT STANDS FOR NIGERIAN UNITY. BUT IT MUST BE EMPHASISED, IN THIS CONNECTION, THAT IF I HAD PRIZED MY PERSONAL FREEDOM ABOVE THE UNITY OF NIGERIA, I WOULD HAVE BEEN SET FREE IN 1963. IN THAT EVENT, THIS PETITION WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN NECESSARY, AND THE WORK OF CONSOLIDATING THE UNITY OF THE COUNTRY TO WHICH YOU AND YOUR COLLEAGUES NOW SET YOUR HANDS MIGHT HAVE BEEN MADE EXTREMELY MORE INTRACTABLE AND IRKSOME.

As recently as 20th December, 1965, identical peace terms (the only variant being that the alliance with the N.C.N.C. which was now a reality should be broken) were made to me here, in Calabar Prison, by a delegation representing another Peace Committee headed by the self-same Chief Justice of the Federation and purporting to have the blessing of the Prime Minister, with the unequivocal promise that if I accepted the terms my release would follow almost immediately. I rejected the terms for the reasons which I have outlined above.

(2) One of the monsters which menaced the public life of this country up to 14th January, this year is OPPORTUNISM with its attendant evils of jobbery, venality, corruption, and unabashed self-interest. From all accounts, you are inflexibly resolved to destroy this monster. That was precisely what my colleagues and I had tried to do before we were rendered hors de combat since 29th May, 1962.
On two different occasions I was offered, first the post of Deputy Prime Minister (before May 1962), and second that of Deputy Governor-General (in August 1962), if I would agree to fold up the Opposition and join in a National Government. I declined the two offers because they were designed exclusively to gratify my self-interest, with no thought of fostering any political moral principle which could benefit the people of Nigeria. The learned Judge who presided over the Treasonable Felony Trial, commented unfavourably on my non-acceptance of one of these posts and held that my action lent weight to the case of the Prosecution against me. I must say, however, that in all conscience, I felt and still feel that a truly public-spirited person should accept public office not for what he can get for himself — such as the profit and glamour of office — but for the opportunity which it offers him of serving his people to the best of his ability, by promoting their welfare and happiness. To me, the two aforementioned posts were sinecures, and were intended to immobilise my talents and stultify the role of watch-dog which the people of Nigeria looked upon me to play on their behalf, at that juncture in our political evolution.

(3) This leads me to the third ground. From newspaper reports, it would appear that you and your colleagues — like all well-meaning Nigerians — are anxious that on the termination of the present military rule, Nigeria should become a flourishing democracy. Now, democracy is a political doctrine which is very intimately dear to my heart. It was to the end that it might be accepted as a way of life in all parts of the Federation that I campaigned most vigorously and relentlessly in the Northern Provinces of Nigeria, from 1957 to 1962, to the implacable annoyance of some of my political adversaries. It was to the end that this doctrine might survive the severe onslaught of opportunist and mercenary politics that I refused to succumb to the temptation of the National Government. Many views — some of them well-considered and respectable — have been expressed about the value or disvalue of opposition as a feature of public life in a newly emergent African State. Speaking for my party, I submit that the Opposition which I led did, to all intents and purposes, justify its existence and was acclaimed by the masses of our people as essential and indispensable to rapid- national growth. This was so, because it was unexceptionably constructive. The abrogation of the Anglo-Nigeria Defence Pact was one of the feathers in its cap. Some of the policies which the Government of the day later adopted — such as the creation of a Federal Ministry of Agriculture and the introduction of drastic measures to correct our balance of payments deficit — were among those persistently and constructively urged by the Opposition inside and outside Parliament.
The point I wish to emphasise here is that it was not out of spite or hatred for any one that I chose to remain in Opposition instead of joining the much-talked-of National Government. I did so in order to serve our people to the best of my ability in the position in which their votes had placed my Party, and to ensure that the young plant of democracy grows into a sturdy flourishing tree in Nigeria.

(4) Since the declaration of emergency in the Western Region on 29th May, 1962, political tension has existed in Western Nigeria. My conviction on 11th September, 1963, together with the surrounding bizarre circumstances, has led not only to the heightening of that tension in Western Nigeria but also to its profuse and irrepressible percolation to the other parts of the Federation. The result is that it can be said, without much fear of contradiction, that today the majority of our people are passionately concerned about and fervently solicitous for the release of myself and my colleagues.
The work of reconstruction on which you and your colleagues have embarked demands that all the citizens of Nigeria in their respective callings should give of their maximum best. A state of psychological tension, however much it may be brought under control or repressed, does not and cannot conduce to maximum efficiency. In spite of themselves, people labouring under emotions which this kind of tension automatically generates are bound to make avoidable mistakes which in their turn have adverse effects on national progress.

It is, therefore, in the national interest that this tension should be relaxed, if possible, without further delay.

(5) A petition of this kind is, by its very nature, bound to be replete with self-adulation. I hope and trust that, in the circumstances, this is excusable. It is in this hope and trust that I assert that my colleagues and I have the qualifications and capacity to render invaluable services to our people and fatherland. Every day that we spend in prison, therefore, must be regarded as TWENTY-FOUR UNFORGIVING HOURS OF TRULY VALUABLE SERVICES LOST TO OUR YOUNG COUNTRY. Even my most inveterate enemies have given the following testimony about me: ‘AWOLOWO HAS STILL A GREAT DEAL TO GIVE TO THIS COUNTRY.’
No country however advanced and civilised can afford to waste any of its talents, be they ever so small. Nigeria is too young to bury some of her talents as she was compelled to do under the old regime.

It is within your power to restore my colleagues and me to a position where our fatherland can again rejoice at the contributions which we are capable of making to its progress, welfare and happiness.

(6) Nigeria is now SIXTY-SIX MONTHS old as an independent State. The final phase in the struggle for Nigeria’s independence was initiated by my Party in the historic Self-Government motion moved by Chief Anthony Enahoro and supported by me on 31st March, 1953. IT SHOULD BE REGARDED AS MORE THAN IRONICAL, AND AS PALPABLY TRAGIC, THAT TWO OF THE ARCHITECTS OF THAT INDEPENDENCE AND, INDEED, THE PACE-SETTERS AND ACCELERATORS OF ITS FINAL PHASE SHOULD BE UNFREE IN A FREE NIGERIA.
In precise terms, I have spent FORTY-SIX out of the SIXTY-SIX MONTHS of independence in one form of confinement or another. I happened to know that the leaders of the old civilian regime, in spite of themselves, did not feel quite easy in their conscience about the plight into which they had manoeuvred me in the scheme of things; and I dare to express the hope and belief that you, personally view my present confinement with concern and disapproval.

(7) It is usual — almost invariably the case — on the accession of a revolutionary regime, for political prisoners and, indeed, other prisoners of some note, to be released as a mark of disapproval of some of the doings of the old regime, or in token of the new dawn of freedom which comes in the wake of the new regime.
It would be invidious to quote unspecific instances. But in the case of my colleagues and myself, by courageously and adamantly opposing the evils which your regime now denounces in the former civilian administration, I think we are perfectly justified if we expect you to regard us as being in tune with your yearnings and aspirations for Nigeria, and therefore entitled to our personal freedoms under your dispensation.

4. In view of the foregoing reasons which clearly demonstrate

(i) that I have always and, under trying circumstances, steadfastly and unyieldingly

(a) stood for the UNITY OF NIGERIA,

(b) been opposed to POLITICAL OPPORTUNISM with its attendant evils,

(c) fostered the growth of DEMOCRACY in Nigeria;

(ii) that my incarceration

(a) has led to the heightening of political tension among Nigerians, which tension can only be relaxed by my release,

(b) has deprived our fatherland of invaluable services such as we have rendered before, and can still render now and in future, in greater measure; and

(iii) that the evils which my colleagues and I condemned and valiantly refused to compromise with in the old civilian government are what you now quite rightly denounce, and are taking active steps to remove in order to pave the way for national and beneficial reconstruction,

I most sincerely appeal to you to be good enough to exercise, in favour of myself and my colleagues, the prerogative of mercy vested in you by Section 10 (I) (i) (a) of the Constitution of the Federation Act 1963, by granting me as well as each of my colleagues A FREE PARDON. If you do, your action will be most warmly, heartily, and popularly applauded at home and abroad, and you will go down to history as soldier, statesmen, and humanitarian.

Yours truly,

OBAFEMI AWOLOWO

A. THOSE CONVICTED FOR TREASONABLE FELONY

1. THOSE STILL SERVING THEIR TERMS

1. Chief Obafemi Awolowo

2. Chief Anthony Enahoro

3. Mr. Lateef K. Jakande

4. Mr. Dapo Omisade

5. Mr. S.A. Onitiri

6. Mr. Gabby Sasore

7. Mr. Sunday Ebietoma

8. Mr. U.I. Nwaobiala

2. THOSE WHO HAVE ALREADY SERVED THEIR TERMS

1. Mr. S.A. Otubanjo

2. Mr. S.J. Umoren

3. Mr. S. Oyesile

B. THOSE WHO HAVE NOT YET BEEN TRIED

1. Mr. S.G. Ikoku

2. Mr. Ayo Adebanjo

3. Mr. James Aluko

— with Dr.Chukwuma Christopher Osaji, Taiwo Osunsanya, Bello Isiaka and 59 others.


https://ihuanedo.ning.com/m/group/discussion?id=2971192%3ATopic%3A65391

Okay

TooNoisy:
This really shows who this great man was. The best president Nigeria never had, a man that spent his life pursuing the development of our nation and yes he paid a hefty price.

Best president we never had, same thing would have been said if Buhari didn't win the 2015 election cos many people thought he is the messiah Nigerians have been waiting for and here we are.

2016

After kaduna, Ironsi is the second person that ruin this country. Nigeria would have bn such a wonderful country by now.

Awo the backstaber. That was y he killed himself via poison

santino09:
Actually it was Ojukwu that released Awo not Gowon. Try not to re write history to suit your beliefs next time.

Ojuku didn't release Awolowo. Get that into your flattened head.

EazyMoh:
Chai e pain am o!
But the letter sounded like Awo was actually glad Tafawa Balewa and co were murdered he didn't make any attempt to condemn it no toppling of our young democracy. Or does it mean the first coup plotters and Ironsi were in cohorts?
Anyway I'd like to know why despite this romantic letter Ironsi never released him, till Gowon did.

my friend, behave. It was Ojukwu that released the treasonous war criminal awolowo

mightguy:
Awo the backstaber. That was y he killed himself via poison

How did Awo backstab you flatheaded dwarfs?

By changing the currency of your enemies or stopping your enemies from feeding you?

thatigboman:
my friend, behave. It was Ojukwu that released the treasonous war criminal awolowo

You're suffering from inherited foolishness.

Nobody dare releases a traitor....

Awolowo till he died deserves whatever he got......


I wonder why they call a traitor a nationalist.

Eponyeeboz:
How did Awo backstab you flatheaded dwarfs?

By changing the currency of your enemies or stopping your enemies from feeding you?

he destroyed Nigeria u cone head loyal to the caliphate

EazyMoh:
GTFOH he was imprisoned for treason a federal offense, hence only federal government could release him. OK why didn't he address this particular letter if then governor of Eastern region could release him?

Whether you believe it or not Ojukwu release Awolowo for a reason which he @Awolowo betrayed.

TooNoisy:
This really shows who this great man was. The best president Nigeria never had, a man that spent his life pursuing the development of our nation and yes he paid a hefty price.

Shut up! ! ! You are too noisy like your name

agabusta:
Ironsi should have released him. But trust Africans, they can be very greedy when in power.

He knew if he released him, Awo will never back down on calls for return to democracy. In fact, Awo even made mention of his democratic ideals in this letter, and that definitely sealed his fate on getting pardon from Ironsi.

Ironsi gave Nigeria the present day problematic unitary system with so much power concentrated at the centre.

The man that couldn't deliver swift justice to mutineers in the Army will grant pardon to a political prisoner?? Never.

I'm sure Awo is smart enough to realise this and his letter may be based on pressures from his men and for the sake of posterity (us ).

You cant totally place the responsibility of the concentration of power at the center on Ironsi alone. Remember that the structural hierarchy of the military and its command structure is highly centralized. I doubt if there has been any military government in modern times that can operate a government with a weak center

afonja hypocrites, ojukwu ,not gowon, released awo

When did he wroted this long letter

santino09:
Actually it was Ojukwu that released Awo not Gowon. Try not to re write history to suit your beliefs next time.

This is not true

Ioannes:
They don't make them like this anymore.

This man called Awolowo was a great personality who lived before his time.

The best President Nigeria never had. Just compare his thoughts and ideology with that of present day politicians like Saraki, Dino and Obasanjo.

Lalasticlala this is history material for front page.

You called this letter( trash) a history material.......so u want our schools to educate our children that one certain man who died by rat poison (committing suicide) wrote a letter to be released.....Imagine....

Please my children will not undertake such a history and whichever curriculum that will bear such......


Teaching innocents minds what suicide means....and that awolowo drank rat poison and died....

No one will put the future of his/her child in jeopardy with such history.

APC is a jihadist party.

Muslims see Buhari as an islamic jihadist leader and not as a Nigerian. Nigeria is a British gift to Islamic North and so the muslims are scared whenever they hear anything like " breakup" or "referendum". To them, an infidel cannot rule Nigeria in peace. No muslim can support a christian. The only christian they can support is one that hates his people. The one that does not have the interest of his people at heart.

The only non muslims who support APC are RCCG members and some Southern Christians who hate themselves and hate their people. The ones that cannot speak their language and the ones that are slaves at heart. RCCG is a confirmed Islamic church....corrupt to the core. Erastus Akingbola, former intercontinental bank head, was a crook and a pastor of the church. Mallam Usman Osunbade is a crook and a pastor of the church. Hajiya Tinubu is also a crook and a pastor of the church. Not to talk of other DSS snipers and other crooks in government.

Tou can never see a southern freedom fighter who supports APC. You cannot see a proponent of resource countrol or referendum that supports APC because the party is built up for terrorist parasistes and they need Niger delta money for their islamic jihad.

Yoruba muslims.all aboard. Not one yoruba muslim has the brain to oppose APC. Once I see the name, I know I can expect zero independent reasoning.

Nigerian muslims are terrorised by the following names/words

"FREEDOM", "REFERENDUM", "BIAFRA", NNAMDI KANU",

Ojukwu released Awolowo and that's 100% fact!

IslamicRebel01:
APC is a jihadist party.

Muslims see Buhari as an islamic jihadist leader and not as a Nigerian. Nigeria is a British gift to Islamic North and so the muslims are scared whenever they hear anything like " breakup" or "referendum". To them, an infidel cannot rule Nigeria in peace. No muslim can support a christian. The only christian they can support is one that hates his people. The one that does not have the interest of his people at heart.

The only non muslims who support APC are RCCG members and some Southern Christians who hate themselves and hate their people. The ones that cannot speak their language and the ones that are slaves at heart. RCCG is a confirmed Islamic church....corrupt to the core. Erastus Akingbola, former intercontinental bank head, was a crook and a pastor of the church. Mallam Usman Osunbade is a crook and a pastor of the church. Hajiya Tinubu is also a crook and a pastor of the church. Not to talk of other DSS snipers and other crooks in government.

Tou can never see a southern freedom fighter who supports APC. You cannot see a proponent of resource countrol or referendum that supports APC because the party is built up for terrorist parasistes and they need Niger delta money for their islamic jihad.

Yoruba muslims.all aboard. Not one yoruba muslim has the brain to oppose APC. Once I see the name, I know I can expect zero independent reasoning.

Nigerian muslims are terrorised by the following names/words

"FREEDOM", "REFERENDUM", "BIAFRA", NNAMDI KANU",

You are sick!!!

HypocriticalMod:
Ojukwu released Awolowo and that's 100% fact!

Just as Trump is buying fighter jets from Aba.

100% fact!

Roger3D:
This is not true

that is true

mightguy:
he destroyed Nigeria u cone head loyal to the caliphate

But you guys are already licking Saraki and Atiku's butt, and also your traditional rulers are begging a Northern governor to accept your filthy traditional title.

Juliusmalema:
Nobody dare releases a traitor....

Awolowo till he died deserves whatever he got......


I wonder why they call a traitor a nationalist.

and all the flat headed ipod miscreants that oju iku wasted their miserable lives deserved more than death. funny enough ipod miscreants are still dying in numbers out of foolish.ness, gullibility, envy, hatred and ignorance.

tyson99:
Sharap I am Yoruba and honestly this man led us to where we are today he could have allowed us to split then but greediness won't and he swindled money too so not moved




I am waiting for bashing

so after he fought hard with his blood and sweat to make sure Nigeria gainher independence and Ironsi abandoning him in the prison for no reason, you expect him to join forces with Ojukwu to split the country he sweat blood to help gain independence? And to support a certain tribe that abandoned him in prison against the one that set him free? You sure knows nothing. Why didn't Nnamdi Azikwe and Alvan Ikoku also do everything to support their kinsmen in their fight that year?

what did he do when Ojukwu released him,if not doing what his tribe is know for,

Thank God he later paid with his life.

tishbite41:
afonja hypocrites, ojukwu ,not gowon, released awo

Based on Radio biafra news right. ?

fk001:
You are sick!!!

E pain the sophosticated Afonja back stabber.

Take rat poison like the cowardly Awolowo.

EazyMoh:
GTFOH he was imprisoned for treason a federal offense, hence only federal government could release him. OK why didn't he address this particular letter if then governor of Eastern region could release him?

He didn't address it to Col. Ojukwu then because Gowon and his gang of usurpers have not taken power illegitimately.

We'll keep saying it for 500th time. Ojukwu was Governor of the Eastern region including calabar where Awo was held, he never recognized gowon and therefore could not have taken orders from Gowon. Stop being ungrateful, Ojukwu RELEASED Awo. Even Governors today in less federated nigeria have the power to give clemency to prisoners talkless of powerful regional governors of those days.

.....By the very decree establishing the National Military Government under Ironsi, the Governor of the Eastern Group of provinces was a member of the Supreme Military Council, and the Chief agent of the federal government in the East. All federal institutions, including the Federal Prison Services, were under his jurisdiction and authority. That is one. As at August 3 1966, with a coup in evolution which had not succeeded in the East, the laws of the federation ceased to exist in the East. The only laws that existed in areas under Ojukwu's command were the emergency laws that he assumed. No tributes, declarations or orders by any other authority outside of the East under any guise of law could be enforced in the East. Basically, Nigeria temporarily ceased to exist. That is two.

Finally, Awo was not in a position to refuse his own release. In fact, he was not in any position to discuss the terms of his own release. As at July 1966 Awo was politically, perhaps not irrelevant, but inconsequential. He had begged to be released, and out of pure humanitarian consideration, and following the fervent advocacy of Francis Adekunle Fajuyi at the SMC, the highest body in the land voted to release him, and had set Awo's release in motion. It was no longer a question of when or how to release him. It was a question of what time and by what means he'd get to Lagos on July 29. Fajuyi's persistence earned him the perjorative, "Action Grouper" by Hassan Kastina, and in fact as George Kurubo who was Secretary of the Supreme Military Council once confirmed to me, when the votes to release Awo were taken, only Hassan Usman Kastina, of the four governors declined. Awo was certainly to be placed in transitional housing. So what? Mandela was kept in transitional housing before his full debriefing took place. It does not remove the facts of his release." - Obi Nwakanma