Chief Obafemi Jeremiah Oyeniyi Awolowo (; 6 March 1909 – 9 May 1987) was a Yoruba nationalist and Nigerian statesman who played a key role in Nigeria's independence movement (1957-1960). Awolowo founded the Yoruba nationalist group Egbe Omo Oduduwa, and was the first Leader of Government Business and Minister of Local Government and Finance, and first Premier of the Western Region under Nigeria's

parliamentary system A parliamentary system, or parliamentarian democracy, is a system of democratic governance of a state (or subordinate entity) where the executive derives its democratic legitimacy from its ability to command the support ("confidence") of th ...

, from 1952 to 1959. He was the official Leader of the Opposition in the federal parliament to the Balewa government from 1959 to 1963. As a young man he was an active

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

, editing publications such as the Nigerian worker, on top of others as well. After receiving his bachelors of commerce degree in Nigeria, he traveled to

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

to pursue his degree in law. Obafemi Awolowo was the first premier of the Western Region and later federal commissioner for finance, and vice chairman of the Federal Executive Council during the Nigerian Civil War. He was thrice a major contender for his country's highest office.James Booth. ''Writers and politics in Nigeria''. Africana Pub. Co., 1981, p. 52. A native of

Ikenne Ikenne is a Local Government Area in Ogun State, Nigeria. Its headquarters are in the town of Ikenne at . It has an area of 144 km and a population of 118,735 at the 2006 census. The postal code of the area is 121. Wards in Ikenne # Iken ...

Ogun State Ogun State is a state in southwestern Nigeria. Created on 3 February 1976 from the former Western State. Ogun State borders Lagos State to the south, Oyo State and Osun State to the north, Ondo State to the east, and the Republic of Benin to th ...

of south-western Nigeria, he started his career, like some of his well-known contemporaries, as a nationalist in the

Nigerian Youth Movement The Nigerian Youth Movement (NYM) was Nigeria's first genuine nationalist organization, founded in Lagos at Stanley Orogun, with Professor Eyo Ita as the founding father and many others, including Samuel Akisanya. Ernest Ikoli, the first editor of ...

in which he rose to become Western Provincial Secretary. Awolowo was responsible for much of the progressive social legislation that has made Nigeria a modern nation. In 1963 he was imprisoned under the accusations of sedition and was not pardoned by the government until 1966, after which he assumed the role as Minister of Finance. In recognition of all of this, Awolowo was the first individual in the modern era to be named as the leader of the Yorubas ( Yoruba: ''Asiwaju Awon Yoruba'' or ''Asiwaju Omo Oodua'').

Early life

Obafemi Awolowo was born Jeremiah Obafemi Oyeniyi Awolowo on 6 March 1909 in the

Remo Remo Inc. is an American musical instruments manufacturing company based in Valencia, California, and founded by Remo Belli in 1957. Products manufactured include drum kits, drumhead A drumhead or drum skin is a membrane stretched ov ...

town of

, in present-day

of Nigeria. He was the only son of David Shopolu Awolowo, a farmer and sawyer, and Mary Efunyela Awolowo. He had two sisters and one maternal half-sister. Awolowo's father was born to a high chief and member of the Iwarefa, the leading faction of the traditional Osugbo group that ruled Ikenne. In 1896, Awolowo's father became one of the first Ikenne natives to convert to

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

. Awolowo's paternal grandmother, Adefule Awolowo, whom Awolowo adored, was a devout worshipper of the Ifá. Adefule, Awolowo's grandmother, believed that Obafemi was a reincarnation of her father (his great-grandfather). Awolowo's father's conversion to Christianity often went at odds with his family's beliefs. He often challenged worshippers of the god of smallpox, Obaluaye. His father ultimately died on April 8, 1920, of smallpox when Obafemi was about eleven years old. He attended various schools, including Baptist Boys' High School (BBHS), Abeokuta; and then became a teacher in

Abeokuta Abeokuta is the capital city of Ogun State in southwest Nigeria. It is situated on the east bank of the Ogun River, near a group of rocky outcrops in a wooded savanna; north of Lagos by railway, or by water. , Abeokuta and the surrounding a ...

, after which he qualified as a shorthand typist. Subsequently, he served as a clerk at the Wesley College Ibadan, as well as a correspondent for the '' Nigerian Times''. It was after this that he embarked on various business ventures to help raise funds to travel to the UK for further studies. Following his education at Wesley College, Ibadan, in 1927, he enrolled at the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

as an External Student and graduated with the degree of

Bachelor of Commerce A Bachelor of Commerce (abbreviated BComm or BCom; also, ''baccalaureates commercii'') is an undergraduate degree in business, usually awarded in Canada, Australia, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Ireland, New Zealand, Ghana, South Africa, Myanmar, ...

(Hons.). He went to the UK in 1944 to study law at the

and was called to the Bar by the Honorable Society of the Inner Temple on 19 November 1946. In 1949, Awolowo founded the ''

Nigerian Tribune The ''Nigerian Tribune'' is an English-language newspaper published in Ibadan, Nigeria. It was established in 1949 by Obafemi Awolowo and is the oldest running private Nigerian newspaper. In the colonial era, the newspaper served as the mouthpi ...

'', a private Nigerian newspaper, which he used to spread nationalist consciousness among Nigerians.

Politics

Awolowo was Nigeria's foremost federalist. In his ''Path to Nigerian Freedom'' (1947) – the first systematic federalist manifesto by a Nigerian politician – he advocated federalism as the only basis for equitable national integration and, as head of the Action Group, he led demands for a federal constitution, which was introduced in the 1954 Lyttleton Constitution, following primarily the model proposed by the Western Region delegation led by him. As premier, he proved to be and was viewed as a man of vision and a dynamic administrator. Awolowo was also the country's leading social democratic politician. He supported limited

public ownership State ownership, also called government ownership and public ownership, is the ownership of an industry, asset, or enterprise by the state or a public body representing a community, as opposed to an individual or private party. Public ownershi ...

and limited

central planning A planned economy is a type of economic system where investment, production and the allocation of capital goods takes place according to economy-wide economic plans and production plans. A planned economy may use centralized, decentralized, pa ...

in government. He believed that the state should channel Nigeria's resources into education and state-led infrastructural development. Controversially, and at considerable expense, he introduced free primary education for all and free health care for children in the Western Region, established the first television service in Africa in 1959, and the Oduduwa Group, all of which were financed from the highly lucrative cocoa industry which was the mainstay of the regional economy.

More about Obafemi Awolowo

From the eve of independence, he led the Action Group as the Leader of the Opposition in the federal parliament, leaving

Samuel Ladoke Akintola Chief Samuel Ládòkè Akíntọ́lá, otherwise known as ''S.L.A.'' (6 July 1910 – 15 January 1966), was a Yoruba politician, aristocrat , orator, and a Yoruba Lawyer. He was one of the founding fathers of modern Nigeria, he served as ...

as the Western Region Premier. Disagreements between Awolowo and Akintola on how to run the Western region led the latter to an alliance with the Tafawa Balewa-led NPC federal government. A constitutional crisis led to the declaration of a state of emergency in the Western Region, eventually resulting in a widespread breakdown of law and order. Excluded from national government, Awolowo and his party faced an increasingly precarious position. Akintola's followers, angered at their exclusion from power, formed the

Nigerian National Democratic Party The Nigerian National Democratic Party (NNDP) was Nigeria's first political party. Formed in 1923 by Herbert Macaulay to take advantage of the new Clifford Constitution, which succeeded the 1914 Nigerian Council. The NNDP successfully organized ...

(NNDP) under Akintola's leadership. Having previously suspended the elected Western Regional Assembly, the federal government then reconstituted the body after manoeuvres that brought Akintola's NNDP into power without an election. Shortly afterwards Awolowo and several disciples were arrested, charged, convicted (of treason), and jailed for conspiring with the Ghanaian authorities under Balewa to overthrow the federal government.In 1979 and 1983, he contested under the Unity Party's platform as a presidential candidate,but lost to the northern-based National Party of Shehu ShagariLegacy. In 1992, the Obafemi Awolowo Foundation was founded as an independent, non-profit, non-partisan organisation committed to furthering the symbiotic interaction of public policy and relevant scholarship with a view to promoting the overall development of the Nigerian nation. The Foundation was launched by the President of Nigeria at that time, General

Ibrahim Babangida Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (born 17 August, 1941) is a retired Nigerian Army general and politician. He served as military president of Nigeria from 1985 until his resignation in 1993. He rose through the ranks to serve from 1984 to 1985 as C ...

, at the Liberty Stadium, Ibadan. However, his most important bequests (styled Awoism) are his exemplary integrity, his welfarism, his contributions to hastening the process of decolonisation and his consistent and reasoned advocacy of federalism-based on ethno-linguistic self-determination and uniting politically strong states-as the best basis for Nigerian unity. Awolowo died peacefully at his Ikenne home, the Efunyela Hall (so named after his mother), on 9 May 1987, at the age of 78 and was laid to rest in Ikenne, amid tributes across political and ethno-religious divides.

Honours

He is featured in the 100

Naira The naira (sign: ₦; code: NGN) is the currency of Nigeria. One naira is divided into 100 ''kobo''. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is the sole issuer of legal tender money throughout the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It controls the volume ...

banknote since 1999. In addition to a variety of other chieftaincy titles, Chief Awolowo held the title of the ''Odole Oodua'' of Ile-Ife.

Bibliography

*''Path to Nigerian Freedom '' *''Awo – Autobiography of Chief Obafemi Awolowo'' *''My Early Life'' *''Thoughts on the Nigerian Constitution'' *''The People's Republic'' *''The Strategy & Tactics of the People's Republic of Nigeria'' *''The Problems of Africa – The Need for Ideological Appraisal'' *''Awo on the Nigerian Civil War'' *''Path to Nigerian Greatness'' *''Voice of Reason'' *''Voice of Courage'' *''Voice of Wisdom'' *''Adventures in Power – Book 1 – My March Through Prison'' *''Adventures in Power – Book 2 – Travails of Democracy'' *My march through prison *Socialism in the service of New Nigeria *Selected speeches of Chief Obafemi Awolowo *Philosophy of Independent Nigeria *Memorable Quotes from Awo *The Path to Economic Freedom in Developing Country *Blueprint for Post-War Reconstruction *Anglo-Nigerian Military Pact Agreement

References