Why we’rebringingmillennial
edition of Zik’sbiography - Andrew Ikeotuonye
By Chidi Obineche
Friday, July 16, 2004
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• Dr. Nnamdi
Azikiwe (left) with biographer V. C. Ikeotuonye |
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‘It is a flashback to the past and a telescope
to the future’
As preparations switch into top gear for the relaunching of
the millennial edition of the biography of the late Dr Nnamdi
Azikiwe (Zik) in August, the son of the biographer Mr. Andrew
Briggs Ikeotuonye has said "it is a flashback to the
past and a telescope to the future."
Reviewing Zik’s odyssey, he contends that the black
world owes him a debt of gratitude for his path-finding politics
and for liberating the "black Africans before he became
a Nigerian politician”.
"He was the black African liberator before he became
a Nigerian politician. He was celebrated by the British West
African continent before nationality boxed him into Nigeria.
He was the black African civil rights leader of the forties
and fifties, having passed through the same American fire
as the likes of Martin Luther King Jnr. Recordings of his
speeches show that he could also lambast colonial oppressors
with the same tongue, fire and zeal as the black American
civil rights leaders who fought white-supremacists. The Zik
who returned from America in 1963 as a university lecturer
and author of two already controversial books was black America’s
contribution to the cause of freedom in black Africa."
Ikeotuonye describes Zik as the star others tried to emulate,
arguing that his writings and speeches "inspired Kwame
Nkrumah, Obafemi Awolowo, Ahmadu Bello, Aminu Kano and the
host of their countrymen and followers". He further compares
him to Mahatma Gandhi for winning independence for Nigeria
without ruling the country.
He delineated those who are indebted to him to include "those
who live in GRAs today where their colonial masters once lived
and their fathers could not, those who rage for a constitutional
conference, those who serve in government from Aso Rock to
the council boys who collect levies on the streets, those
who enjoy every conceivable dividends of democracy and Nigeria’s
sovereignty."
Burden of gratitude
From President Olusegun Obasanjo to the last citizen on the
street, everyone owes Zik a debt of gratitude. Of course,
nationalist minded personages such as the president always
remember this. Alas! To the greater majority of our countrymen,
gratitude is a short-lived emotion. Besides, tribalism and
an amazing persistence of ignorance have served over the years
to diminish this debt of gratitude in the mind of many Nigerians.
There is a tendency now to see Zik as the historical leader
of the Ibos, just as the reverred Pa Obafemi Awolowo was the
Yoruba leader, and the Sarduana Ahmadu Bello at the pinnacle
of core Northern political power. This view does Zik great
injustice, though all the above named legends were certainly
outstanding founding fathers of the Nigerian federation. There
was also the pioneer Herbert Macauley, the first president
of the NCNC. There was Aminu Kano of the NEPU, Prof. Eyo Ita,
Ernest Ikoli and a host of others. Zik was the star that others
tried to emulate.
Glimpses
He was not the first Nigerian to obtain a university education.
Indeed as the upcoming millennial edition of his biography
shows, there were doctors and lawyers in Lagos in 1911 while
Zik was in primary school. But these pioneers were basically
Lagosians, a privileged class, long time exposed to European
manners but really men without the Nigerian identity. They
were basically gentlemen of the British Empire, certainly
unburdened by the question of Nigerian freedom beyond the
urgencies of cosmopolitan colonial Lagos.
Their politics was the colonial politics of Lagos and not
even the great Herbert Macauley could escape from that insularity
and colonial mentality. Nigerian self-government, totally
independent of British rulers was unthinkable until Zik returned
to Nigeria in 1936 and commenced his journalistic sallies
for the liberation of black Africa with Accra, Ghana as his
first base.
Inspiration
Zik’s writings and speeches inspired Kwame Nkrumah,
Obafemi Awolowo, Ahmadu Bello, Aminu Kano and the host of
their countrymen and followers. Some would resist his political
ambition in Nigeria. All recognised his outstanding role as
a liberator. The Oba of Benin in his autobiography describes
Zik in 1953 as an international figure. There had never been
anything like him in black Africa.
He was already at the height of his influence and powers
before partisan politics, corruption and tribalism began to
decelerate Nigerian renaissance. Without diminishing the roles
played by others, Zik was the leader of the Nigerian struggle
for nationhood. For there could be no nation without self-government,
Nigerian independence or freedom was Zik’s highest achievement.
This he achieved along with all the other nationalists, giants
like Awo, Sarduana, Bello, Aminu Kano, Michael Okpara, and
a host of others including Enahoro, Tai Solarin and my father.
Zik’s declining fortunes after winning the battle for
Nigerian freedom in no way diminished his place in history
as Nigeria’s liberator just as Mahatma Gandhi was never
diminished by not ruling India.
Zik’s subsequent political jousts with the super planner
Awolowo for the soul of Southern Nigeria served to set a standard
of political formidability for both the West and East that
is yet to be matched. Sadly, it also unchained the primordial
political beast of tribalism. The NCNC failed in its bid to
capture the West because of Awolowo and Awolowo never ruled
Nigeria because of Zik. However both giants remain unmatched
in the political history of Nigeria, along with their northern
counterpart Gamji Ahmadu Bello. And the redoubtable Obafemi
Awolowo once confessed in a moment of magnanimity that there
was only one person he would ever concede leadership to in
Nigeria. Of course, he was referring to the Zik of New Africa.
From Zik of Africa to Owelle of Onitsha
Perhaps, mindful of Zik at his apogee, when even the British
empire panicked at his broad sides, our current president,
himself a nationalist of no mean standing made that oft repeated
lament of how the great Zik of Africa had retreated to be
the Owelle of Onitsha. Perhaps OBJ was misunderstood. Some
people make a living out of misunderstanding OBJ. Anyway,
since the great Obasanjo of Nigeria has since also become
a prime chief of Owu, one needs no further proof that our
current leader fully understands the actions of his predecessor
and first indigenous commander in chief. Tradition is one
thing and politics another.
Because Zik unchained the Nigerian spirit, freedom and enterprise,
through the struggle for self government and emancipation,
those who live in GRAs today where their colonial masters
once lived and their fathers could not, those who rage for
a constitutional conference, those who serve government from
Aso Rock to the council boys who collects levies on the streets,
those who enjoy every conceivable dividend of democracy and
Nigerian sovereignty, they all owe Zik a debt of gratitude.
In 1936, my father, the late V.C Ikeotuonye was probably among
the boys who watched Zik disembark from the Shanaham, that
ferry boat which brought people and cars across from Asaba,
because the Niger bridge was not yet there. Zik’s return
from America on that day inspired my father to become the
first president of the Onitsha branch of the Zikist movement,
attend Zik’s alma mater, Lincoln University in West
Virginia U.S.A. from where he returned in 1948 to build the
famous Zixton Grammar School, become an NCNC member of parliament,
and evolve into a political leader of his people right up
to the time of his demise in 1988. In 1961, he had preserved
for posterity a portrait of Zik at the height of his powers.
It remains the most definitive biography and account of Zik
in his prime.
The oldies are going.
Today, Nigeria faces a growing danger of misinformation and
disillusion. Those who were there in the fifties and sixties
are getting fewer. A new generation of leaders stands at the
threshold. Some were babies at independence. Knowledge of
the past is getting dimmer. In more enlightened climes this
would not be so. Americans have carefully preserved the account
of their Washingtons, Jeffersons, Adamses and Franklins. Even
the Clintons are now telling.
Britons can remember facts as far back as William the Conqueror
(11th century A.D). The future is endangered without knowledge
of the past. The book which remembers the bygone days of thunder
is a guide for today and for posterity. It is easier to identify
the charlatans of today when we remember the heroes of yesterday.
Our culture is pauperized by the loss of these accounts. A
poor culture is the foundation of a poor nation. Any leader
is a forgotten leader who does not leave his prints proverbially,
in the sands of time.
Zik of new Africa Revisited, the millennial edition of the
Zik biography to be launched in August avails current generations
of Nigerians with the chance to see our Nigerian journey so
far with the benefit of hindsight through the prism of Zik’s
struggles. His struggles were against corruption, miseducation,
tribalism and oppression, the very evils, which still confront
us today. Zik of New Africa Revisited, is a flashback to the
past. It is a telescope to the future. It is unmistakably
nationalistic, looking forward to the nation of our dream,
respecting diversity, and preserving unity in truth. It is
for patriots.
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