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Tribute to Nnamdi Azikiwe
Tribute to Nnamdi Azikiwe
Ezike c.c. Amadi
IN
November every year, the Nigerian nation and, indeed Africans in diaspora, stand
still in respect and in memory of Chief (Dr.) Nnamdi Azikiwe, the proven black
nationalist and pan-Africanist, the founder of the Organisation of African Unity
(OAU), now called African Union (AU), a man who spent his entire active life
fighting against the oppression of the black and for the emancipation of Africa,
the only great African known to have watched his own obituary on television and
read similar tributes on newspapers, a man known throughout Africa and the Black
world simply as, Zik of Africa and locally as the father of the Nigerian nation,
the Owelle of Onitsha. Zik was a colossus whose legendary excellence in diverse
fields makes it difficult to pigeonhole him into any human profession or
describe his life in few words.
As a pan-Africanist, Zik convened
the historic conference of Heads of African and Malagasy states in Lagos,
Nigeria, on 25th January 1962, when he reconciled the warring Monrovia and
Casablanca blocs of African heads of states and ensured the birth of the
Organisation of African Unity (OAU). It thus, became a realisation of his charge
to African leaders at the Carlton Rooms Maida Vale, London on 31st July 1959,
where Zik advocated for "...a United States of Africa to be realised by
social, economic and political integration... which would lead ultimately to
their political emancipation."
As a sporstman, Zik was a
celebrated boxer, athlete, footballer and swimmer in the 1920s. He, through Zik’s
Athletic Club, introduced football to Nigerians in 1944 and formed the first
football club, the Corinthians in 1945. He as the Premier of eastern Nigeria
built the first sports stadium in Nigeria at Enugu which was commissioned by
Queen Elizabeth II of England in 1956. It is now called the Nnamdi Azikiwe
Stadium, Enugu.
As a politician, Zik formed the
African youth Movement which motivated the West African resistance to British
colonial rule respectively in the Gold Coast (now Ghana) in 1934 and in Nigeria
in 1937. Zik and Herbert Macaulay formed the National Council for Nigeria and
Cameroon (NCNC) in 1944 as a political party. Zik led several London
Constitutional Conferences (1947-1959) where Nigerian Independence was fought
for with the support of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Alhajis Ahmadu Bello and Tafawa
Balewa, Chiefs Tony Enahoro, Denis Osadebe, and the independence was finally won
in 1960.
As a statesman, Zik was a member
of the Western and Eastern Nigerian Houses of Assembly (1948-1951) and (1952-1953)
successively; Premier of Eastern Nigeria (1953-1959). First President of the
Senate (1959-1960); first Nigerian-born Governor-General (1960-1963); First
ceremonial President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (1963-1966).
As a university student in the
US, Zik formed the society for Black Emancipation in 1927 of which objectives
were the decolonization of Africa and the liberation of all peoples of African
descent. Zik thereafter lectured at various times at the Universities of
Lincoln, Howard, and Michigan State during which period he undertook a Ph.D
Programme at the Columbia University. He organised various seminars on African
freedom and solidarity of which a campaign culminated in the founding of African
University sited in Liberia. His pro-Negro stance landed Zik in trouble in
America.
Even his Ph.D thesis was withheld
unless Zik deleted his recommendation for independence of African States based
on the Liberian model. Zik refused. He not only resigned his status as lecturer
but also abandoned the Ph.D programme. In June 1934 Zik addressed a great Black
Peoples’ Victory Rally where he announced he was leaving for Africa as a
warrior "to fight for the total de-colonization of Africa from Cairo to the
Cape of Good Hope, to fight poverty and ignorance, to fight deceased and the
oppression of helpless peoples all over Africa."
On that pledge Zik never relented
till death. Zik settled at the Gold Coast in 1934 as a newspaper editor. His
first major act was to publish his Ph.D thesis in 1937 under a new title,
Liberia in world politics which was translated into French, Portuguese, Spanish
and German thus becoming the launching pad for quests for independence by
various peoples in Africa.
As a journalist, Zik was known in
the USA contributions in Afro-American Times; Journal of Negro History and as
the Associate Editor of the Summer Session Times, a house Journal of the
Columbia University. Zik was the Editor of the Gold Coast Spectator (1934-1937)
African Morning Post (1937) and the West African Pilot, Lagos. (1937-1954). He
owned a chain of over ten local and community newspapers in West Africa.
As an educationist, Zik
established Africa’s first indigenous university, the University of Nigeria,
Nsukka, several public libraries, many colleges, a Space Research Centre at
Nsukka etc.
As an economist, Zik founded the
African Continental Bank (ACB) and the Universal Insurance Company both being
Africa’s first indigenous in the two economic spheres.
As an author and poet, Zik wrote
over 60 books, including My Odessay, his autobiography, Renascent Africa
and over two hundred (200) poems many of which are on African Nationalism, human
dignity and human rights.
As an environmentalist, Zik as
the Premier of Eastern Nigeria led the African protest to the United Nations,
when France undertook an atomic test in the Sahara Desert. As a linguist and
orator, Zik was at home with Ashanti, Efik, English, French, Fulani, Hausa, Igbo,
Latin, Nupe, Swahili and Yoruba languages.
As a peace maker and man of
compromise, Zik has no equal. When efforts of the British Commonwealth of
Nations, the OAU and even the UN failed to broker peace during the Nigeria-Biafra
War, Zik risked his life and moved into Lagos from Liberia resulting in the
"No-Victor-No-Vanquished" accord of General Yakubu Gowon which brought
peace to Nigeria. After Zik’s retirement from active politics, any political
party or person in any part of Nigeria, who entered his domain and obtained his
blessings or who just mentioned Zik’s name automatically won an election.
Worried by that trend, some wealthy conservatives announced the death of Zik in
the media in November 1989 before the transitional elections of General Ibrahim
Babangida. The obituary was a hoax. Nigeria went wild and hell was let loose. A
team of over a hundred lawyers prepared the legal documents to take the men to
court but Zik in his usual peacemaker stance, restrained them saying, "it
is a rare and unique privilege to watch one’s own obituary on television or
read it in the dailies."
In fact, through the years, Zik
had also been conspicuously listed in world’s Who Is Who as a humanist, an
intellectual, a philanthropist, an entrepreneur, an organist, a philosopher, a
farmer and above all, a mega-awardist who had been recognized for various
honours and doctorate degrees (honouraris causa) by over fifty countries,
international non-governmental organizations, institutes, universities and
foundations in Africa, America, Asia and Europe.
At his alma mater, Lincoln
University, Zik not only has his name enshrined in the Lincoln Hall of Fame but
also has a chair named after him. Zik’s first public award of note was in 1916
when a boy of twelve won the prize for the best all-round pupil in Nigeria in
academics, sports and other activities. His scores were so marvelous that the
Governor-General, Sir, Lord Lugard had to present the prize himself to afford
him the opportunity to see and know the child prodigy.
The Almighty God Himself so
symmetrically designed Zik’s life span that he was born on 16th November at
Zungeru in north Western Nigeria four yeas into the last century of the second
millennium (1904) and he died in 1996, four years to the end of that century and
the close of the millennium. His burial was also on 16th November in the year
1996.
The late Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, the
Owelle of Onitsha, was first and foremost an African through and through. When
Dr. Nelson Mandela was released from prison, he visited Zik and told the mammoth
crowd at the Okpara Square in Enugu on 18th May 1990 that his visit to Nigeria
was to pay his respect to Zik, the doyen of African Liberation, and to thank the
government and people of Nigeria. Mandela was not alone, other great African
leaders like Nkrumah, Tubman, Haile Selessie, Nyerere, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa,
Kaunda, Huphet-Boign, Senghor, Ahidjio, Banda, and others called and respected
Dr. Benjamin Nnamdi Azikiwe as Zik of Africa.
Above all, Zik of Africa, the
Africa of the Second Millennium, that Icon and avatar of Pan-Africanism, true
sportsman and statesman is remembered for his compromise that kept Nigeria going
till date. When his political cohorts protested his insignificant role as mere
ceremonial president, Zik on 1st October 1963 proclaimed;
"I will not score an off
side goal;
I will not hit below the belt;
I will not beat the gun,
In order to become
The Executive President of
Nigeria.
When will Nigeria have another
Zik who will not stake his head and reputation for an office in whatever
capacity? The future of Nigeria will largely depend on having men and women who
will lead the nation as Zikists, otherwise, with the current self-centred
leaders, it does not need the services of a prophet to foresee gloom and doom,
if not a total break up of this nation in a fashion that may not afford the
protagonists the chance to chant, ‘Goodbye Nigeria.’
•AmadI, a veteran broadcaster, lives in Enugu.
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