Nnamdi Azikiwe

Azikiwe Family’s residence in Onitsha turned into Zik Mausoleum.

Azikiwe was born on 16 November 1904 in Zungeru, Northern Nigeria. His first name means "my father is alive" in the Igbo language, as his parents were Igbo. His father, Obed-Edom Chukwuemeka Azikiwe[14](1879–3 March 1958), a native of Onitsha, was a clerk in the British Administration of Nigeria,[15] who traveled extensively as part of his job. Azikiwe's mother was Rachel Chinwe Ogbenyeanu (Aghadiuno) Azikiwe (1883–January 1958),[16] who was sometimes called Nwanonaku and was the third daughter of Aghadiuno Ajie.[14][17] Her family descended from a royal family in Onitsha, and her paternal great-grandfather was Obi (Ugogwu) Anazenwu.[17] Azikiwe had one sibling, a sister, named Cecilia Eziamaka Arinze.[17]

As a young boy, Azikiwe spoke Hausa, the regional language.[18] His father, concerned about his son's fluency in Hausa and not Igbo, sent him to Onitsha in 1912 to live with his paternal grandmother and aunt to learn the Igbo language and culture.[19] In Onitsha, Azikiwe attended Holy Trinity School (a Roman Catholic mission school) and Christ Church School (an Anglican primary school).[20] In 1914, while his father was working in Lagos, Azikiwe was bitten by a dog; this prompted his worried father to ask him to come to Lagos to heal and to attend school in the city.[21] He then attended Wesleyan Boys' High School, now known as Methodist Boys’ High School, Broad Street Lagos.[22] His father was sent to Kaduna two years later, and Azikiwe briefly lived with a relative who was married to a Muslim from Sierra Leone.[23] In 1918, he was back in Onitsha and finished his secondary education at CMS Central School.[24] Azikiwe then worked at the school as a student-teacher,[21] supporting his mother with his earnings.[23] In 1920, his father was posted back to southern Nigeria in the southeastern city of Calabar. Azikiwe joined his father in Calabar, beginning tertiary education at the Hope Waddell Training College.[25] He was introduced to the teachings of Marcus Garvey,[10] Garveyism, which became an important part of his nationalistic rhetoric.

After attending Hope Waddell,[26] Azikiwe was transferred to Methodist Boys' High School in Lagos and befriended classmates from old Lagos families such as George Shyngle, Francis Cole and Ade Williams (a son of the Akarigbo of Remo). These connections were later beneficial to his political career in Lagos.[21] Azikiwe heard a lecture by James Aggrey, an educator who believed that Africans should receive a college education abroad and return to effect change.[27] After the lecture, Aggrey gave the young Azikiwe a list of schools accepting black students in America.[23] After completing his secondary education, Azikiwe applied to the colonial service and was accepted as a clerk in the' treasury department. His time in the colonial service exposed him to racial bias in the colonial government.[28] Determined to travel abroad for further education, Azikiwe applied to universities in the U.S. He was admitted by Storer College, contingent on his finding a way to America.[29] To reach America, he contacted a seaman and made a deal with him to become a stowaway.[30] However, one of his friends on the ship became ill and they were advised to disembark in Sekondi. In Ghana, Azikiwe worked as a police officer; his mother visited, and asked him to return to Nigeria. He returned, and his father was willing to sponsor his trip to America.[31]

Azikiwe attended Storer College's two-year preparatory school in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. To fund his living expenses and tuition, he worked a number of menial jobs before enrolling in Howard University in Washington, D.C. in 1927 to obtain a bachelor's degree in political science. In 1929, he transferred from Howard University to Lincoln University to complete his undergraduate studies and graduated in 1930 with a BA in political science.[32][33] Azikwe took courses with Alain Locke.[34] Azikiwe was a member of Phi Beta Sigma.[35] He then enrolled at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania and in the University of Pennsylvania simultaneously in 1930, receiving a master's degree in religion from Lincoln University and a master's degree in anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1932.[36][37] Azikiwe became a graduate-student instructor in the history and political-science departments at Lincoln University, where he created a course in African history.[38] He was a candidate for a doctoral degree at Columbia University before returning to Nigeria in 1934.[39] Azikiwe's doctoral research focused on Liberia in world politics, and his research paper was published by A. H. Stockwell in 1934. During his time in America, he was a columnist for the Baltimore Afro-American, Philadelphia Tribune and the Associated Negro Press.[40] Azikiwe was influenced by the ideals of the African-American press, Garveyism and pan-Africanism.[41]

He applied as a foreign-service official for Liberia, but was rejected because he was not a native of the country.[43] By 1934, when Azikiwe returned to Lagos, he was well-known and viewed as a public figure by some members of the Lagos and Igbo community.[44] He was welcomed home by a number of people, as his writings in America evidently reached Nigeria.[45] In Nigeria, Azikiwe's initial goal was to obtain a position commensurate with his education; after several unsuccessful applications (including for a teaching post at King's College), he accepted an offer from Ghanaian businessman Alfred Ocansey to become founding editor of the African Morning Post (a new daily newspaper in Accra, Ghana).[30][46] He was given a free hand to run the newspaper, and recruited many of its original staff.[21] Azikiwe wrote "The Inside Stuff by Zik", a column in which he preached radical nationalism and black pride which raised some alarm in colonial circles.[47] As editor, he promoted a pro-African nationalist agenda.[30] Yuri Smertin described his writing there: "In his passionately denunciatory articles and public statements he censured the existing colonial order: the restrictions on the African's right to express their opinions, and racial discrimination.[48] He also criticized those Africans who belonged to the 'elite' of colonial society and favoured retaining the existing order, as they regarded it as the basis of their well-being."[49] During Azikiwe's stay in Accra he advanced his New Africa philosophy later explored in his book, Renascent Africa.[50] The philosophic ideal is a state where Africans would be divorced from ethnic affiliations and traditional authorities and transformed by five philosophical pillars: spiritual balance, social regeneration, economic determinism, mental emancipation and risorgimento nationalism. Azikiwe did not shy away from Gold Coast politics, and the paper supported the local Mambii party.[38]

The Post published a 15 May 1936 article, "Has the African a God?" by I. T. A. Wallace-Johnson, and Azikiwe (as editor) was tried for sedition.[30] He was originally found guilty and sentenced to six months in prison, but his conviction was overturned on appeal.[51] Azikiwe returned to Lagos in 1937 and founded the West African Pilot, a newspaper which he used to promote nationalism in Nigeria. In addition to the Pilot, his Zik Group established newspapers in politically- and economically important cities throughout the country.[52] The group's flagship newspaper was the West African Pilot, which used Dante Alighieri's "Show the light and the people will find the way" as its motto. Other publications were the Southern Nigeria Defender from Warri (later Ibadan), the Eastern Guardian (founded in 1940 and published in Port Harcourt), and the Nigerian Spokesman in Onitsha.[53] In 1944, the group acquired Dusé Mohamed Ali's The Comet. Azikiwe's newspaper venture was a business and political tool.[54] The Pilot focused less on advertising than on circulation, largely because expatriate firms dominated the Nigerian economy.[55] Many of Azikiwe's newspapers emphasized sensationalism and human-interest stories; the Pilot introduced sports coverage and a women's section, increasing coverage of Nigerian events compared with the competing Daily Times (which emphasized expatriate and foreign-news-service stories).[56] The Pilot's initial run was 6,000 copies daily; at its peak in 1950, it was printing over 20,000 copies.[57] Azikiwe founded other business ventures (such as the African Continental Bank and the Penny Restaurant) at this time, and used his newspapers to advertise them.[58]

Before World War II, the West African Pilot [59] was seen as a paper trying to build a circulation base rather than overtly radical. The paper's editorials and political coverage focused on injustice to Africans, criticism of the colonial administration and support for the ideas of the educated elites in Lagos.[58] However, by 1940 a gradual change occurred. As he did in the African Morning Post, Azikiwe began writing a column ("Inside Stuff") in which he sometimes tried to raise political consciousness.[60] Pilot editorials called for African independence, particularly after the rise of the Indian independence movement.[61] Although the paper supported Great Britain during the war, it criticized austerity measures such as price controls and wage ceilings.[62] In 1943 the British Council sponsored eight West African editors (including Azikiwe), and he and six other editors used the opportunity to raise awareness of possible political independence. The journalists signed a memorandum calling for gradual socio-political reforms, including abrogation of the crown colony system, regional representation and independence for British West African colonies by 1958 or 1960.[63] The memorandum was ignored by the colonial office, increasing Azikiwe's militancy.[64]

He had a controlling interest in over 12 daily, African-run newspapers. Azikiwe's articles on African nationalism, black pride and empowerment dismayed many colonialist politicians and benefited many marginalized Africans.[65] East African newspapers generally published in Swahili, with the exception of newsletters such as the East African Standard. Azikiwe revolutionized the West African newspaper industry, demonstrating that English-language journalism could be successful. By 1950, the five leading African-run newspapers in the Eastern Region (including the Nigerian Daily Times) were outsold by the Pilot. On 8 July 1945, the Nigerian government banned Azikiwe's West African Pilot and Daily Comet for misrepresenting information about a general strike.[66] Although Azikiwe acknowledged this, he continued publishing articles about the strike in the Guardian (his Port Harcourt newsletter). He led a 1945 general strike, and was the premier of East Nigeria from 1954 to 1959.[67] By the 1960s, after Nigerian independence, the national West African Pilot was particularly influential in the east. Azikiwe took particular aim at political groups which advocated exclusion. He was criticized by a Yoruba faction for using his newspaper to suppress opposition to his views. At Azikiwe's death, The New York Times said that he "towered over the affairs of Africa's most populous nation, attaining the rare status of a truly national hero who came to be admired across the regional and ethnic lines dividing his country."[68]

Azikiwe became active in the Nigerian Youth Movement (NYM), the country's first nationalist organization.[69] Although he supported Samuel Akisanya as the NYM candidate for a vacant seat in the Legislative Council in 1941, the NYM executive council selected Ernest Ikoli.[70]

Azikiwe resigned from the NYM, accusing the majority Yoruba leadership of discriminating against the Ijebu-Yoruba members and Igbos. Some Ijebu members followed him, splitting the movement along ethnic lines.[71] He entered politics, co-founding the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC) with Herbert Macaulay in 1944. Azikiwe became the council's secretary-general in 1946.[72]

Flag of Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria, 1914-1960.

New Flag of Nigeria designed by Michael Akinkunmi, 1960.

On October 1st, 1960, Nigeria gained independence from the British Colony. The British Union Jack was lowered and replaced by the nation’s Green-white-green flag. A new constitution, establishing a federal system with an elected prime minister and a ceremonial head of state was created. The coalition government of NCNC and NPC was in power when Nigeria attained independence in 1960 with Sir Tafawa Balewa as Prime Minister and Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe as Senate President. Soon after, Azikiwe succeeded Sir James Robertson as the first indigenous Governor-General. However, under the Independent Constitution of Nigeria, the governor-general was only a ceremonial head of state with no executive power. The positions of Governor-General and membership of the Queen’s Privy Council placed Azikiwe above party politics. [96]

Sir Tafawa Balewa delivered a speech at Race Course (now Tafawa Balewa Square) in Lagos at the Independence Ceremony. In his speech he said, "Today’s ceremony marks the culmination of a process which began fifteen years ago and has now reached a happy and successful conclusion. It is with justifiable pride that we claim the achievement of our Independence to be unparalleled in the annals of history. Each step of our constitutional advance has been purposefully and peacefully planned with full and open consultation, not only between representatives of all the various interests in Nigeria but in harmonious cooperation with the administering power which has today relinquished its authority."[97]

During the visit of the British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan to Lagos in early 1960, he convinced the then Nigerian Prime Minister to appoint Azikiwe as Governor General. During Zik’s inauguration in November 1960 as the , he invited some of his colleagues in the Black Atlantic including Poet Langston Hughes, Nina Simone, Dr. Horace Mann Bond,Ralph Bunche, W.E.B. Du Bois and Shirley Graham Du Bois, Amy Jacques Garvey, and George S. Schuyler.[98]

In his inauguration speech, Zik commented on “the need to revive the stature of man in Africa and restore the dignity of man in the world.” Towards the end of his address, Zik expressed contentedness that “those of us, who may be rightly described as the makers of contemporary Nigeria, have ushered freedom into our country and preserved our unity as a nation,” which “history has assigned to me an important part to play in order that this unity may have lasting effects and to bring home to our people the need to maintain it religiously.” He also said “I shall not have consideration for personal comforts or even safety or even life itself, if these are the price I must pay for leadership in order to preserve the freedom and unity of my country.”[98]

On 17 November 1961, in a speech at the University of Nigeria in Nsukka, Zik made public his proposal for Nigeria to adopt a republican constitution while remaining a member of the Commonwealth.[98]

In 1962, Azikiwe urged African leaders to create an organization of African states, while maintaining that each state should not interfere with the affairs of each other. The Lagos Conference drafted a proposed charter for an “Inter-African and Malagasy Organization" under Azikiwe’s chairmanship. The Charter of the Organisation of African Unity, adopted in May 1963, was based on this document.[98][98][99]

Azikiwe previously was the governor-general of Nigeria, with Abubakar Tafawa Balewa as prime minister.

He and his civilian colleagues were removed from office in the 15 January 1966 military coup, and he was the most prominent politician to avoid assassination after the coup. Azikiwe was a spokesman for Biafra and advised its leader, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, during the Biafran War (1967–1970).[100] He switched his allegiance back to Nigeria during the war, and appealed to Ojukwu to end the war in pamphlets and interviews. The New York Times said about his politics, "Throughout his life, Dr. Azikiwe's alliance with northerners put him at odds with Obafemi Awolowo, a socialist-inclined leader of the Yoruba, the country's other important southern group."[68]

After the war, Azikiwe was chancellor of the University of Lagos from 1972 to 1976.

In 1979, at the founding of Nigeria's Second republic, Azikiwe Joined the Nigerian Peoples Party, NPP, and contested for the office of the President. His bid was not successful as Shehu Shagari, a candidate of National Party of Nigeria, emerged as the Winner. Azikiwe would resign from active politics in 1983.

Azikiwe died aged 91 on 11 May 1996 at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital in Enugu after a long illness, and is buried in his native Onitsha.[101] In 2019, President Muhammadu Buhari undertook the landmark inauguration of the Zik Mausoleum in Onitsha, and was declared a National Monument.[102]

Nnamdi Azikiwe is a proponent of Pan Africanism. His political ideology, "Zikism" aimed at decolonizing the minds of young Africans. The five canons of Zikism, as listed by Nnamdi Azikiwe, include: “ Spiritual Balance,” “Social Regeneration,” “Economic Determinism,” “ Mental Emancipation,” and “Political Resurgence.”

Azikiwe was a member of many organisations and societies, including the Anti-Slavery Society for the Protection of Human Rights; Phi Beta Sigma fraternity (Alpha Chapter and Mu Chapter); the Royal Economic Society; the Royal Anthropological Institute; the British Association for the Advancement of Science; the American Society of International Law; the American Anthropological and Political Science Associations; the American Ethnological Society; the Amateur Athletic Association of Nigeria; the Nigerian Olympic Committee and the British Empire and Commonwealth Games Association.[111]

Azikiwe competed in boxing, athletics, swimming, football and tennis.[32]

Football was brought to Nigeria by the British as they colonized Africa.[112] However, any leagues that were formed were segregated. Nnamdi saw this as an injustice and he emerged as a leader in terms of connection sports and politics at the end of the colonial period.[113] In 1934 Zik was denied the right to compete in a track and field event because Nigeria was not allowed to participate. This happened another time because of his Igbo background, and Zik had decided that enough was enough, and wanted to create his own club. Nnamdi founded Zik's Athletic Club (ZAC) which would open its doors to sportsmen and women of all races, nationalities, tribes, and classes of Nigeria.[114] In 1942 the club went on to win both the Lagos League and the War Memorial Cup. After these victories, Nnamdi opened up more ZAC branches throughout Nigeria. During the war years ZAC would go on tours.[115] They would usually play a match in front of a couple thousand fans and after the match, they would speak out about the injustices that was brought about by the British colonization. ZAC matches would happen all over the country, and it made the people of Nigeria feel a sense of unity and nationalism that would help them fight for freedom.[116] In 1949 some ZAC players participated in a tour of England. On the return from the tour they stopped in Freetown, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria defeated the locals by 2 goals. This victory was more than a decade before Nigerian independence, but it marked the birth of Nigeria's National Team.[117] Finally, after years of struggle, in 1959 the last British official left the NFA, and on 22 August 1960, a few weeks prior to its formal independence, Nigeria joined the world football body of FIFA.[118] None of this would have been possible if it was not for Nnamdi Azikiwe. He united Nigeria through sport and brought about a sense of nationalism that was referred to as ‘Nigerian-ness’.[119][120]

• Zik (1961)
• My Odyssey: An Autobiography (1971)
• Renascent Africa (1973)
• Liberia in World Politics (1931)
• One Hundred Quotable Quotes and Poems of the Rt. Hon. Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe (1966). ISBN 978-2736-09-0
• Political Blueprint for Nigeria (1943)
• Economic Reconstruction of Nigeria (1943)
• Zik: A Selection of the Speeches of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe (1961)
• Assassination Story: True or False? (1946)
• Before Us Lies the Open Grave (1947)
• The Future of Pan-Africanism (1961)
• The Realities of African Unity (1965)
• Origins of the Nigerian Civil War (1969)
• I Believe in One Nigeria (1969)
• Peace Proposals for Ending the Nigerian Civil War (1969)
• Dialogue on a New Capital for Nigeria (1974)
• Creation of More States in Nigeria, A Political Analysis (1974)
• Democracy with Military Vigilance (1974)
• Reorientation of Nigerian Ideologies: lecture on 9 December 1976, on the eve of the launching of the UNN Endowment Fund (1976)
• Our Struggle for Freedom; Onitsha Market Crisis (1976)
• Let Us Forgive Our Children. An appeal to the leaders and people of Onitsha during the market crisis (1976)
• A Collection of Poems (1977)
• Civil War Soliloquies: More Collection of Poems (1977)
• Themes in African Social and Political Thought (1978)
• Restoration of Nigerian Democracy (1978)
• Matchless Past Performance: My Reply to Chief Awolowo's Challenge (1979)
• A Matter of Conscience (1979)
• Ideology for Nigeria: Capitalism, Socialism or Welfarism? (1980)
• Breach of Trust by the NPN (1983)
• History Will Vindicate The Just (1983)

• African nationalism
• Zikist philosophy

• Orji, John (2013). "Chapter 2: The Triumph of Knowledge". In Chuku, Gloria (ed.). The Igbo Intellectual Tradition: Creative Conflict in African and African diasporic thought. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 67–89.
• Tonkin, Elizabeth (1990). "Chapter 2: Zik's Story". In Chuku, P. F. de Moraes (ed.). SelfAssertion and Brokerage: Early Cultural Nationalism in West Africa. Birmingham University African Studies Series. pp. 35–45.
• Idemili, Samuel Okafor (1980). The West African Pilot and the Movement for Nigerian Nationalism, 1937–1960 (Thesis). University of Wisconsin-Madison.
• Olusanya, Gabriel (1964). The impact of the Second World War on Nigeria's political evolution (PhD Thesis). University of Toronto.

• Igwe, Agbafor (1992). Nnamdi Azikiwe: The Philosopher of Our Time. Enugu, Nigeria: Fourth Dimension Publisher. ISBN 978-978-156-030-9.
• Ikeotuonye, Vincent (1961). Zik of New Africa. P.R. Macmillan.
• Jones-Quartey, K. A. B. (1965). A Life of Azikiwe. Baltimore: Penguin.
• Olisa, Michael S. O.; M., Ikejiani-Clark, eds. (1989). Azikiwe and the African Revolution. Onitsha, Nigeria: Africana-FEP. ISBN 978-978-175-223-0.
• Ugowe, C. O. O. (2000). Eminent Nigerians of the Twentieth Century. Lagos: Hugo Books.

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• Nnamdi Azikiwe: Respect for Human Dignity: an Inaugural Address at World Digital Library