AZIKIWE and AWOLOWO: who did more for Nigeria's education?


The problem with writing skewered history is that it equally misinforms its target: Kayode Esho was a great jurist, but Akunne Oputa was the "Socrates" of the Supreme court.
Enahoro was a young editor, but Azikiwe made him that young editor with Osita Agwuna as his assistant, at his paper, the Southern Nigerian Defender in Ibadan, where my own father incidentally started as a rookie before shortly abandoning journalism for the stable berth of the civil service.

The myth of Awolowo as building the first this and that does not match the documented economic history of the period. Between 1954 and 1964, Eastern Nigeria was described as "the fastest growing economy in the world," by the Harvard Review; faster than China, faster than Singapore, and all the so-called "Asian Tigers." Awolowo is often credited with "free education". But no one yet has pointed out any surviving school buildings of the period built by Awo.

But all over the East there were quality schools built by the various communities using the Town Development Unions from 1954, and acessing the matching grants of the Eastern Nigeria Development Corporation. And this was the East with the poorest revenue resources of any of the regions. The Mbaise secondary school exists, the National High School Okigwe exists, the Ngwa High school exists, the Enyiogugu Grammar School exists, etc. These were solid schools built all over the East with matching goverment grants. But where are the buildings of the Modern schools in Western Nigeria? They do not exist.

They were makeshift. The Catholic church forced the Azikiwe government from its scholarship program, but it is also on record, that the Eastern government was the only government in the world that invested 45% of its revenues in education. The East had the highest number of schools; the highest school enrollment; the broadest penetration of medical services; and the best modern road network in west Africa. Indeed if we look carefully, the only public hospitals and most of the schools still standing in the East today, at various stages of run down are the schools and hospitals built by Azikiwe/Okpara.

Every division of the East had a Joint Hospital as part of the Eastern Medical services. So it is often claimed Awo built the first television station; the first sky scraper, and the first Sports stadium, the liberty stadium in Ibadan. Well, these are prestige or white elephant investments. First, the Eastern Outlook, the government paper of Eastern Nigeria was the first newspaper established by any government in Nigeria, and it was of such quality and impact that the literacy level of Easterners, and the depth of public information retailed by Outlook was without compare. This is besides the fact that Western Nigerian Broadcast Services, WNBS-TV founded in 1958 only preceded the ENBC-TV founded in 1959, by only seven months. But Outlook preceded Sketch by about 15 years. Now Azikiwe built the Onitsha Modern market, the first modern mall or trade emporium in West Africa.

Onitsha was effectively Dubai before Dubai. People traveled all over Africa, from as far as the Congo and Sudan and Egypt, to come and buy and trade in Onitsha. The economic impact of this was humonguos. So, give me the vast Onitsha modern market over Cocoa House in Ibadan. Azikiwe built the first Nigerian University at Nsukka with the first School of Law, the first School of Engineering, the first Business School; the first school of journalism, and the first school of music and performance, etc.

By the time its first graduates took the Nigerian civil service exams in 1963, everybody began to raise the cry of "Igbo domination" starting with Akintola and Ayo Rosiji. Give me UNN over Liberty stadium. Azikiwe began the first modern library system in West Africa. The East had a system of city libraries starting with the very modern Ziks Library in Enugu.

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

The great Ibadan historian, Tekena Tamuno, was unambiguous in stating once at NIPPS, Jos, that "the Igbos are the makers of moderm Nigeria. When they abandoned their project, Nigeria collapsed." We must remind Nigerians, particularly Igbo children, daily of these fact, to achieve what Achebe called " a balance of stories." And that also means we must read beyond the surface of things. Babarinsa's Guardian essay is angled carefully to maintain a revisionist narrative. And that is to be always challenged, however innocent it might seem. Even today, most Yoruba think that Awolowo founded the Universities of Ibadan and Lagos. No one has reminded them that it took Azikiwe's pressures for a university for Nigeria, in his meeting with Arthur Richards in 1946, that led to the cobstitution of the Eliot commision and subsequently the founding of the University College, Ibadan. This fact is even clearly conveyed in Michael Crowder's eponymous book, The Story of Nigeria. Nsukka was Azikiwe's critique of what he felt to be the conceptual limitations of Ibadan.


The University of Lagos was the result of NCNC's ideological contributions to the federal policy during the ill fated coalition government with the NPC. UNILAG was an NCNC project, shepherded by Aja Wachukwu as minister for education. Even the great UNILAG in her 50th anniversary failed to mention Prof Eni Njoku as the pioneer Vice Chancellor of the university, a man that layed the solid foundation of what made Unilag is today.
These facts must be made known and put as forcefully accross as possible. Again, until the lion tells his own story, the story of the hunt will belong to the hunter. Kabissa!


- Anonymous

Where are the gladiators, I have served fresh meal.

I will be back with the wine.

Revisionism once again shattered to piece. The old lies are like cobwebs that have to become thick cable wires. Neverthless, they must still be torn down. Lies are lies regardless of how old they have subsisted, 1day, 50 years, 100 years, 1000 years. A lie is a lie.

Facts

In life some people choose to live by the truth and reality,

While

Some others choose to live by lies and propaganda.

Pazienza you are doing God’s work. Chukwu gozie.

Keep restoring our hidden legacy. Our ancestors are proud of you.

Apawicked:
Facts

Thanks for that information. I will save it.

Let me invite yorubahero, helinues, metaphysical, Grayoso, gracchus, sammy7 to come spice up this thread.

”Moreover the Eastern Nigerian Library Board had a sysem of rural and mobile libraries. There was nothing like it anywhere else in Nigeria: kids having library cards and able to borrow or order books from the public library.”

I want us to recreate this system again in Igboland. Very innovative both then and now.

”By the time its first graduates took the Nigerian civil service exams in 1963, everybody began to raise the cry of "Igbo domination" starting with Akintola and Ayo Rosiji.”

Just Like exactly what’s happening today. Ndigbo bu Ndi agoziri agozi.

This thread is dead on arrival. A similar one has already be opened in the past and all this foolish claims were already dealt with by legendhero. Awo is head and shoulder above the zik of aba any day. Case closed.

”Azikiwe built the first Nigerian University at Nsukka with the first School of Law, the first School of Engineering, the first Business School; the first school of journalism, and the first school of music and performance, etc.“

Say it louder for the people in the back.

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

Period.

Ibos and lies. This was the same similar created before. https://www.nairaland.com/5818818/igbo-makers-modern-nigeria-prof
Their lies no work on that thread now they are to try and present same lie again. Shior. First the person that wrote it was a dead person long time ago with no source to back it up. Now all of a sudden the write up is anonymous again with no source to back it up.

I was just here.

PicLtd:
Let me invite yorubahero, helinues, metaphysical, Grayoso, gracchus, sammy7 to come spice up this thread.

Whats biting Ibo this time? Let me read from page1 first.

pazienza:
AZIKIWE and AWOLOWO: who did more for Nigeria's education?


The problem with writing skewered history is that it equally misinforms its target: Kayode Esho was a great jurist, but Akunne Oputa was the "Socrates" of the Supreme court.
Enahoro was a young editor, but Azikiwe made him that young editor with Osita Agwuna as his assistant, at his paper, the Southern Nigerian Defender in Ibadan, where my own father incidentally started as a rookie before shortly abandoning journalism for the stable berth of the civil service.

The myth of Awolowo as building the first this and that does not match the documented economic history of the period. Between 1954 and 1964, Eastern Nigeria was described as "the fastest growing economy in the world," by the Harvard Review; faster than China, faster than Singapore, and all the so-called "Asian Tigers." Awolowo is often credited with "free education". But no one yet has pointed out any surviving school buildings of the period built by Awo.

But all over the East there were quality schools built by the various communities using the Town Development Unions from 1954, and acessing the matching grants of the Eastern Nigeria Development Corporation. And this was the East with the poorest revenue resources of any of the regions. The Mbaise secondary school exists, the National High School Okigwe exists, the Ngwa High school exists, the Enyiogugu Grammar School exists, etc. These were solid schools built all over the East with matching goverment grants. But where are the buildings of the Modern schools in Western Nigeria? They do not exist.

They were makeshift. The Catholic church forced the Azikiwe government from its scholarship program, but it is also on record, that the Eastern government was the only government in the world that invested 45% of its revenues in education. The East had the highest number of schools; the highest school enrollment; the broadest penetration of medical services; and the best modern road network in west Africa. Indeed if we look carefully, the only public hospitals and most of the schools still standing in the East today, at various stages of run down are the schools and hospitals built by Azikiwe/Okpara.

Every division of the East had a Joint Hospital as part of the Eastern Medical services. So it is often claimed Awo built the first television station; the first sky scraper, and the first Sports stadium, the liberty stadium in Ibadan. Well, these are prestige or white elephant investments. First, the Eastern Outlook, the government paper of Eastern Nigeria was the first newspaper established by any government in Nigeria, and it was of such quality and impact that the literacy level of Easterners, and the depth of public information retailed by Outlook was without compare. This is besides the fact that Western Nigerian Broadcast Services, WNBS-TV founded in 1958 only preceded the ENBC-TV founded in 1959, by only seven months. But Outlook preceded Sketch by about 15 years. Now Azikiwe built the Onitsha Modern market, the first modern mall or trade emporium in West Africa.

Onitsha was effectively Dubai before Dubai. People traveled all over Africa, from as far as the Congo and Sudan and Egypt, to come and buy and trade in Onitsha. The economic impact of this was humonguos. So, give me the vast Onitsha modern market over Cocoa House in Ibadan. Azikiwe built the first Nigerian University at Nsukka with the first School of Law, the first School of Engineering, the first Business School; the first school of journalism, and the first school of music and performance, etc.

By the time its first graduates took the Nigerian civil service exams in 1963, everybody began to raise the cry of "Igbo domination" starting with Akintola and Ayo Rosiji. Give me UNN over Liberty stadium. Azikiwe began the first modern library system in West Africa. The East had a system of city libraries starting with the very modern Ziks Library in Enugu.

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

The great Ibadan historian, Tekena Tamuno, was unambiguous in stating once at NIPPS, Jos, that "the Igbos are the makers of moderm Nigeria. When they abandoned their project, Nigeria collapsed." We must remind Nigerians, particularly Igbo children, daily of these fact, to achieve what Achebe called " a balance of stories." And that also means we must read beyond the surface of things. Babarinsa's Guardian essay is angled carefully to maintain a revisionist narrative. And that is to be always challenged, however innocent it might seem. Even today, most Yoruba think that Awolowo founded the Universities of Ibadan and Lagos. No one has reminded them that it took Azikiwe's pressures for a university for Nigeria, in his meeting with Arthur Richards in 1946, that led to the cobstitution of the Eliot commision and subsequently the founding of the University College, Ibadan. This fact is even clearly conveyed in Michael Crowder's eponymous book, The Story of Nigeria. Nsukka was Azikiwe's critique of what he felt to be the conceptual limitations of Ibadan.


The University of Lagos was the result of NCNC's ideological contributions to the federal policy during the ill fated coalition government with the NPC. UNILAG was an NCNC project, shepherded by Aja Wachukwu as minister for education. Even the great UNILAG in her 50th anniversary failed to mention Prof Eni Njoku as the pioneer Vice Chancellor of the university, a man that layed the solid foundation of what made Unilag is today.
These facts must be made known and put as forcefully accross as possible. Again, until the lion tells his own story, the story of the hunt will belong to the hunter. Kabissa!


- Anonymous

Start with the two below. We dont bullshyyte, we bring facts! More to come....

Link takes you to a World Bank report for Nigeria comparing West, MidWest, East, North.

The image is a document that detailed how Western Nigeria civilized your ancestors.

http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/270831468290407047/pdf/multi0page.pdf

Yoruba made Azikiwe, not his roots in Iboland or his birthplace in North.

Whoever in Iboland is your glory, we made them.
Respect Yoruba!

Here are commodity exports and Nigeria's foreign Exchange Earnings by product.

Point to your contribution here. Freak!

horsepower102:
”By the time its first graduates took the Nigerian civil service exams in 1963, everybody began to raise the cry of "Igbo domination" starting with Akintola and Ayo Rosiji.”

Just Like exactly what’s happening today. Ndigbo bu Ndi agoziri agozi.

Chest beating and self praise is good. It helps to reduce depression and suicidal thoughts but when it is taken to a senseless level like this, then it is heading to psychiatric disorders and hallucinations.

When you ask an average Yoruba man that went to school before 80s ,95℅ will tell you It was through Awolowo.

I do tell people if Easterners were to have been in North shoe,they would have been a more worse devil in Nepotism and favouritism than Hausas abd Fulanis.
Ironsi situation is there for all to see,check Diamond banks and many whose MDs are ibos.

They are bunch of hypocrites who practice what they can't preach and if you doubt me check parastatals led by Ibos.

Understanding your destiny matters for growth in live,they often times think they are more smart and intelligent but that is not the case in reality.





Please Nairalanders, the old 35k oil palm for a drum stock has been sold out,Thanks for your patronage.

Available stock now are listed below:

>>Foreign( long grain) at #25000,#24000 (short grain), #21000(local) Naira per bag(50kg) .(discount exist if you are buying more than 10bags+ free delivery within Lagos)

>>Pork at 1,200 Naira per kilogram.

>>High quality Palm oil at:
10,500 per 25 litres.(free delivery within Lagos if you are buying more than Ten 25 litre kegs or more)

If you are interested(serious buyers only) reach me on 08137297425.
You come ,see what you are buying,pay,and transport it

Note:All transportation is by pick up except you are buying in bulk at the stipulated quantity above for delivery

Why are you guys running from pillar to post just to rewrite history...lol
Regurgitating a sourceless article over and over again won't change the facts. How can you compare a dog to a lion?
If the education in the east was top-notched then how do you explain why most Igbos notable leaders schooled in the West, while I'm yet to see a Yoruba leader that had his/her education in the east.
The east is heaven but Nnamdi Azikiwe himself will rather choose to reside in Ibadan and set up his newspaper company there. The guyman even prefer to kill himself to become the premier of the West rather than go to the East.

Awo achieved within 5 years a string of "Firsts" in the history of Africa. Between 1954 and 1959, his government­

* Evolved, and was served by, the most efficient Civil Service in Black Africa;

* Introduced and successfully implemented the first Free Primary Education programme in Africa;

* Introduced and successfully managed the first Free Medical Service programme in Nigeria - for children up to the age of 18;

* Established the first Television Station in Africa;

* Built the Liberty Stadium, the first such modem sports facility in Nigeria;

* Introduced and successfully implemented the first minimum wage policy in Nigeria and actually paid to Western Nigerians from October 1954 a minimum wage that was double the amount paid to workers of the same level in some other parts of Nigeria;

* Set up Nigeria’s first industrial complex at Ikeja;

* Set up Nigeria's first commercial Housing Estates at Ikeja and Bodija, Ibadan.

* Laid the foundation for development in commerce and industry by creating an efficient
Western Nigeria Development Corporation, the ancestor of the present-day O'dua Investment Company;

*Taken successful bold steps to revolutionise the production and marketing of cocoa by farmers in Western Nigeria; and                   .

*Created the infrastructure for rural development by promoting 900 cooperative societies in about 3 years and by providing within 5 years almost 10 times as many miles of road as he inherited from the British administration.

Even his transducers like Ojukwu called him "the best president Nigeria never had" while Ojukwu detest Nnamdi Azikiwe with all vigour.
While Obafemi Awolowo was widely known to champion the course of his people, Azikiwe is generally known as a saboteur by his people who will trade and betray his people for a pot of porridge.

Nnamdi Azikiwe was to Igbos a Saboteur while Awo is a demi god of the Yorubas.

Even in death, while the lineage of Zik are no where to be found, Awo's granddaughter today is your nation Second lady and his son-in-law is your vice president and president in waiting...

Until the Anonymous is able to reveal himself, this story remains An Ipob / Igbo Epistle of Wails & Woes.

pazienza:
AZIKIWE and AWOLOWO: who did more for Nigeria's education?

- Anonymous

pazienza:
AZIKIWE and AWOLOWO: who did more for Nigeria's education?


The problem with writing skewered history is that it equally misinforms its target: Kayode Esho was a great jurist, but Akunne Oputa was the "Socrates" of the Supreme court.
Enahoro was a young editor, but Azikiwe made him that young editor with Osita Agwuna as his assistant, at his paper, the Southern Nigerian Defender in Ibadan, where my own father incidentally started as a rookie before shortly abandoning journalism for the stable berth of the civil service.

The myth of Awolowo as building the first this and that does not match the documented economic history of the period. Between 1954 and 1964, Eastern Nigeria was described as "the fastest growing economy in the world," by the Harvard Review; faster than China, faster than Singapore, and all the so-called "Asian Tigers." Awolowo is often credited with "free education". But no one yet has pointed out any surviving school buildings of the period built by Awo.

But all over the East there were quality schools built by the various communities using the Town Development Unions from 1954, and acessing the matching grants of the Eastern Nigeria Development Corporation. And this was the East with the poorest revenue resources of any of the regions. The Mbaise secondary school exists, the National High School Okigwe exists, the Ngwa High school exists, the Enyiogugu Grammar School exists, etc. These were solid schools built all over the East with matching goverment grants. But where are the buildings of the Modern schools in Western Nigeria? They do not exist.

They were makeshift. The Catholic church forced the Azikiwe government from its scholarship program, but it is also on record, that the Eastern government was the only government in the world that invested 45% of its revenues in education. The East had the highest number of schools; the highest school enrollment; the broadest penetration of medical services; and the best modern road network in west Africa. Indeed if we look carefully, the only public hospitals and most of the schools still standing in the East today, at various stages of run down are the schools and hospitals built by Azikiwe/Okpara.

Every division of the East had a Joint Hospital as part of the Eastern Medical services. So it is often claimed Awo built the first television station; the first sky scraper, and the first Sports stadium, the liberty stadium in Ibadan. Well, these are prestige or white elephant investments. First, the Eastern Outlook, the government paper of Eastern Nigeria was the first newspaper established by any government in Nigeria, and it was of such quality and impact that the literacy level of Easterners, and the depth of public information retailed by Outlook was without compare. This is besides the fact that Western Nigerian Broadcast Services, WNBS-TV founded in 1958 only preceded the ENBC-TV founded in 1959, by only seven months. But Outlook preceded Sketch by about 15 years. Now Azikiwe built the Onitsha Modern market, the first modern mall or trade emporium in West Africa.

Onitsha was effectively Dubai before Dubai. People traveled all over Africa, from as far as the Congo and Sudan and Egypt, to come and buy and trade in Onitsha. The economic impact of this was humonguos. So, give me the vast Onitsha modern market over Cocoa House in Ibadan. Azikiwe built the first Nigerian University at Nsukka with the first School of Law, the first School of Engineering, the first Business School; the first school of journalism, and the first school of music and performance, etc.

By the time its first graduates took the Nigerian civil service exams in 1963, everybody began to raise the cry of "Igbo domination" starting with Akintola and Ayo Rosiji. Give me UNN over Liberty stadium. Azikiwe began the first modern library system in West Africa. The East had a system of city libraries starting with the very modern Ziks Library in Enugu.

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

The great Ibadan historian, Tekena Tamuno, was unambiguous in stating once at NIPPS, Jos, that "the Igbos are the makers of moderm Nigeria. When they abandoned their project, Nigeria collapsed." We must remind Nigerians, particularly Igbo children, daily of these fact, to achieve what Achebe called " a balance of stories." And that also means we must read beyond the surface of things. Babarinsa's Guardian essay is angled carefully to maintain a revisionist narrative. And that is to be always challenged, however innocent it might seem. Even today, most Yoruba think that Awolowo founded the Universities of Ibadan and Lagos. No one has reminded them that it took Azikiwe's pressures for a university for Nigeria, in his meeting with Arthur Richards in 1946, that led to the cobstitution of the Eliot commision and subsequently the founding of the University College, Ibadan. This fact is even clearly conveyed in Michael Crowder's eponymous book, The Story of Nigeria. Nsukka was Azikiwe's critique of what he felt to be the conceptual limitations of Ibadan.


The University of Lagos was the result of NCNC's ideological contributions to the federal policy during the ill fated coalition government with the NPC. UNILAG was an NCNC project, shepherded by Aja Wachukwu as minister for education. Even the great UNILAG in her 50th anniversary failed to mention Prof Eni Njoku as the pioneer Vice Chancellor of the university, a man that layed the solid foundation of what made Unilag is today.
These facts must be made known and put as forcefully accross as possible. Again, until the lion tells his own story, the story of the hunt will belong to the hunter. Kabissa!


- Anonymous

Smh! Una go heal one day sha.

Would this beautiful nonsense make $1=N1 today?

West:
University of Ibadan
University of Lagos
University of Ife

East:
University of Nigeria

North:
Ahmadu Bello University

With the sterling Achievements of Awolowo with his Education Policies of Free Education, the North brought Awolowo to become Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. That was the period ABU expanded so widely to become largest University African South of Sahara.

You know why Yoruba and people of original western Nigeria(including Delta and Edo) have been doing well in Commerce(not trading), Corporate World is due to earlier educational policies of Awolowo.

Pazienza is in serious trouble this morning. Metalphysical on the wheels of steel.

Propaganda from ipob to attack Yorubas

Well when I am ready I would attack Zik and Eastern region

And no mod should block my post please.

Years of propaganda and falsehood being beamed under the search lght...

Not gonna be funny...

The damage this country faced was as a result of many years of propaganda from the Lagos - Ibadan express rumour mill which nobody had time to challenge back then.

The Internet has just exposed all the lies. Thank you Pazienza

MetaPhysical:
Here are commodity exports and Nigeria's foreign Exchange Earnings by product.

Point to your contribution here. Freak!

After 1954, cocoa bean fall. While palm kernel and pap oil kept rising...


From the picture below, you can see that, as at 1914, Britain was literally sustaining and developing Lagos with proceeds from oil palm export. Oil palm proceeds alone was more than a combination of proceeds from all other commodities

FG FG

successmatters:
The damage this country faced was as a result of many years of propaganda from the Lagos - Ibadan express rumour mill which nobody had time to challenge back then.

The Internet has just exposed all the lies. Thank you Pazienza

This one is yet to smell the coffee, you need to wake up.
Coming online to recreate history CAN'T change facts that are already set in stones.