Chief Obafemi Awolowo Research Articles

Historical Appraisal of Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe’s Contributions to Nigeria’s Journalism

Founding fathers of the Nigerian press have made tremendous contributions to journalism practice in the country. This paper takes a look at the contributions of two towering founding fathers of the Nigerian press- Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, from historical research perspective, digging into archival materials from media historians and evidences from the duo major publications: Nigerian Tribune and The West African Pilot respectively. The work which is anchored on the gatekeeping concept of the media has put in proper perspective the contributions of two media icons of the mid-twentieth century Nigeria’s journalism for academic and professional scrutiny. Lessons from the professional ups and downs of the probed veteran journalists and their relationship with their audience will, in no small measure, justify the social relevance of the discourse. The study recommends among other things that journalism institutions in the country should identify and teach contributions of the founding fathers of the Nigerian press to enable young journalists have a solid foundation in their profession. The study also recommends among other things that modern day journalists in Nigeria should sustain the fire brand journalism practice of the duo which appears to have gone into extinction.

The Man Died: Wole Soyinka’s imprisonment and the Yoruba trickster tale in Femi Euba’s Tortoise!

ABSTRACT Nigerian playwright Femi Euba utilizes the Yoruba trickster tale in his one-act play Tortoise! to satirize the imprisonment of Wole Soyinka during the Nigerian civil war of the 1960s. This essay draws parallels between Euba’s play and Soyinka’s play, The Detainee, which critiques the imprisonment of Chief Obafemi Awolowo by the Nigerian federal government a few years before Soyinka himself fell victim to the same alleged crime of treason. This essay argues that Euba’s use of the trickster tale as a logical genre in theater is grounded in the communal space of Yoruba belief systems that encourage a collective response to social and political crises. The essay also traces modernity’s fraught challenges in the guise of neo-colonial structures, such as the prison system, and the ways in which traditional modes of story-telling become avenues for apprehending, addressing, and contesting global forces at work through the legacies of colonialism.

Gateway to Africa: The History of Television Service in Late Colonial Nigeria

AbstractThe constitutional changes that took place in Nigeria in the decade before independence granted significant authority to the colonial state's three regions. The 1954 constitution gave both the federal and regional governments the authority to legislate on broadcasting issues. In 1959, Western Region leader, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, established the Western Nigeria Television Service (WNTV), a service considered the ‘Gateway to Africa’. This article historicizes the processes and politics of the founding of this station, revealing metropolitan efforts to control the television service's direction in order for it to remain aligned with British cultural and imperial interests. It also shows the BBC's attempts to stall the successful launch of a service that it considered a competitor. The study argues that the broadcasting service's creation was an act of dissent against British colonial rule and its cultural imperialism and sheds light on how the Western Region's political elites embraced emerging public communication technologies to undermine colonialism.

A Comparative Discourse on Media Practice in Colonial and Post-Colonial Nigeria

This is a comparative study on media practice in colonial and post-colonial Nigeria. It covers journalism practice from 1920-2020. The study focuses on journalism practice during the days of nationalism-cum-political journalism era, led by Herbert Macaulay, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Chief Anthony Enahoro, Mr Ernest SeseiIkoli, amongst others. The study adopts journalism during the colonial days, up to the time of independence in 1960, as foundation, and compares it to the modern day journalism practice at the moment. The thesis in the study is anchored on the probing question of establishing changes that have taken place in the profession over a period of 160 years. While providing fresh discussions on the current journalism practice as well as the daunting challenges facing media professionals in Nigeria today, the study provides groundbreaking recommendations to rescue journalism that is almost comatose in Nigeria today. The study uses free press theory as theoretical underpinning, and the key informants interview method.

The Contributions of Chief Obafemi Awolowo to the Growth and the Development of Nigeria During First Republic

This study examines the personality of Chief Obafemi Awolowo in the making of Nigerian nation in the First Republic. The study found out that Chief Obafemi Awolowo was a Nigerian nationalist and statesman who played a significant role in Nigeria’s independence movement during First and Second Republics. The study notes that Chief Obafemi Awolowo was thrice a major contender for Nigeria’s highest office. He was a key player in the intra-party power tussle that erupted in 1962 that led to disturbances in Western Region House of Assembly. Also, the study examines major challenges faced by Chief Obafemi Awolowo and how he eventually became the Federal Commissioner of Finance and the Vice Chairman of the Federal Executive Council in 1966. The study employs primary and secondary source materials including books, journal articles and other scholarly publications to interrogate the study. It concludes that Awolowo was responsible for much of the progressive social legislation that made Nigeria a modern nation today.

The Awolowo – Akintola Leadership Tussle: A Reinterpretation

The underlying causes and consequences of the Awolowo–Akintola leadership tussle which began in the defunct Western Region and spilled to other parts of Nigeria have attracted quite a great deal of deliberate and inadvertent misinterpretations and falsehoods. While the principal actors and their disciples struggled to swing the pendulum of justification and ‘truth’ to their respective sides; most of the inferences, references, rebuttals and conclusions of scholars on the underlying causes of the rift are not consistent with facts. Ostensibly, the rift was the outcome of Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s reluctance to hand over to Ladoke Akintola as Premier of Western Nigeria following the former’s resolve to contest the 1959 federal elections into the Central Legislature; Akintola’s desire to be the de jure Premier of Western Nigeria; his pointed opposition to the Action Group’s adoption of a socialist ideology on the eve of independence, the so called ‘Coca-Cola War’ between the wives of the duo as well as Akintola’s interface with the Northern People’s Congress, NPC. The last was Akintola’s supposed gravest offence. While scholars have almost over-flogged the other causes of the Akintola–Awolowo leadership tussle, there is paucity of literature, or at best parried accounts, on the epicentre of the crisis – Akintola’s political interface with Northern Nigeria political leaders. This paper intends to fill this gap by attempting a reinterpretation of some of the factors that may have influenced the political rapport between Akintola and NPC leaders.

Cultural Reawakening and Religion Since Independence

The shape of events began to turn in Africa’s favour towards the end of 1950s when Ghana became one of the first African countries in south of the Sahara to gain her independence from the British imperialism. In fact, Ghana paved the way for other African countries. However, this did not mean that there were no agitations in other African countries colonized by foreign powers for freedom. Liberia and Ethiopia were already freed from foreign domination. But the independence of Ghana was a watershed in the history of African continent and this definitely paved the way for other African countries that were still not free.However, with the colonization of Nigeria by the British and indirect rule, there was a gradual awakening of political consciousness by the people, particularly the educated elite. The introduction of local government system later heightened this consciousness. Nigeria also did not close her eyes to the events taking place in other African countries, notable Ghana. Naturally, as the south had more educated people than the north, the struggle was spearheaded by the politicians in the south.For instance in 1930s, there had sprung up two political parties, the Nigeria youth movement and the Nigeria National Democratic party (NYM and NNDP) respectively. The two parties fought for the Africanisation of the civil service and for the abolition of discriminative practices against Africans which were then rampant in the governmental and commercial life of the country during the colonial era. It must be pointed out at this stage that neither party was a sectional nor regional in base, but nationalistic in ideology and had a wide following particularly in south and in middle belt of the north. Dr Azikwe brought with him a propaganda technique which was new in politics and journalism in Nigeria youth movement (NYM) and disarrayed its opponents.Nationalists who struggle for Nigeria independence included Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Nnamdi Azikwe. Chief Awolowo as a student in the United Kingdom founded the “Egbe omo oduduwa” whose aim among other things was to improve the condition of the people of Yoruba in particular and Nigeria in general. The action group (party) which was founded later was also led by Chief Awolowo. In the later years, both Dr Azikwe’s party, the National Council of Nigeria and Cameroon (NCNC) and the Action Group joined forces together to fight for Nigeria independence which was achieved in October, 1960.

Ethnic Consideration in Political Coverage By Nigerian Media

Two cardinal rules in journalism ethics are that, (1) journalists should be objective in their reportage, that is news reporting should devoid of the journalist’s biases, opinions and views; (2) journalists should not originate materials which encourage discrimination on grounds of race, colour, creed, gender or sexual orientation or use the media for axe-grinding or settling scores. It is often discovered that many journalist find it difficult abiding by these rules. Besides this, journalists are pressured by ownership factor, which appear in form of house style; editorial policy and primordial attachment to set aside ethical injunction by putting sentiment into consideration in their reportage. This is why this paper throws its search light on examining ethnic consideration in political reporting by Nigerian media. In a country of 250 ethnic groups, the paper found that journalists are at times propelled by ethnic affiliation and ownership factor in reporting politics. The paper also traced the historical background of incursion of ethnicity into Nigerian politics to the founding fathers of Nigerian independence, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, Chief Obafemi Awolowo and the Sardauna of Sokoto, Sir Ahmadu Bello. The paper says ethnicity found its way into Nigerian politics in 1934 when Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe and his Igbo supporters angrily left Nigerian Youth Movement and that ethnicity took root in the 1950s when each of the aforementioned nationalists and politicians formed political parties of ethnic (tribal) colouration. From then till 1983, political parties and elections were largely, ethnically based. Worse still, many of the politicians were also newspaper proprietors who turned their newspapers to megaphone of the political parties.

A Speech Act Analysis of the Acceptance of Nomination Speeches of Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Chief M.K.O. Abiola

This study investigates the role of language in the communication and interpretation of intentions by examining selected political speeches as pieces of discourse with specific goals. It presents and documents some of the significant illocutionary acts that convey the intentions of speakers in the acceptance of nomination speeches of presidential candidates in Nigeria. The acceptance of nomination speeches of Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Chief M.K.O. Abiola form the bulk of our data. The study is based on insight from J.L. Austin (1962) speech act theory. Five categories of speech acts identified by Searle’s (1969, 1976) are significant in the speeches. They include assertive acts (27.3%), expressive acts (22.70%), commissive acts (22.70%), directive acts (18.2%) and declarative acts which account for 9.1% of the total data. The study has revealed that the acceptance of nomination speeches are characterised by illocutionary acts that are used to achieve persuasion. Hence, the data are characterised by a preponderance of assertive, expressive and commissive acts that are mostly used as mobilization strategies, especially in political campaigns, where it is essential for candidates to persuade their listeners to win elections. The acts performed in the speeches examined are essentially similar; however, they were encoded more explicitly by Chief Abiola than Chief Awolowo.

The cult of Awo: the political life of a dead leader

ABSTRACTThis essay examines the ‘posthumous career’ of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the late leader of the Yoruba of Nigeria. It focuses on why he has been unusually effective as a symbol in the politics of Yorubaland and Nigeria. Regarding Awolowo as arecentancestor, the essay elaborates why death, burial and statue are useful in the analysis of the social history of, and elite politics in, Africa. The Awolowo case is used to contest secularist and modernist assumptions about ‘modernity’ and ‘rationality’ in a contemporary African society.

Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria - New Library Building

Ahmadu Bello University's new Kashim Ibrahim Library was officially opened on 10th December 1976 by Sir Kashim Ibrahim, Chancellor of the University of Lagos and former Governor of Northern Nigeria. The Chancellor, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Iya Abubukar, the Emir of Bedde and many distinguished guests attended the ceremony.The new library building is one of the largest in tropical Africa. It has an area of 140,000 sq.ft. and a capacity for 2,000 readers and half a million books.New staff took up appointments during 1976: Hajji Khalil Mahmud, University Librarian and Mr. Sam E. Ifidon, Deputy University Librarian. The administration of the library has been re-organised and a programme to increase the book stock (at present approximately 150,000 volumes) is under way.

Ethnic Identity, Political Integration, and National Development: the Igbo Diaspora in Nigeria

In his Path to Nigerian Freedom – the blueprint for the nation-state he had envisioned – Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the man who later came to be one of the leading figures on the Nigerian political scene, stated categorically in 1947:Nigeria is not a nation. It is a mere geographical expression. There are no ‘Nigerians’ in the same sense as there are ‘English’ or ‘Welsh’ or ‘French’. The word ‘Nigeria’ is merely a distinctive appellation to distinguish those who live within the boundaries of Nigeria from those who do not.

Obafemi Awolowo, AWO: The Autobiography of Chief Obafemi Awolowo.

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewsObafemi Awolowo, AWO: The Autobiography of Chief Obafemi Awolowo.Edward K. WeaverEdward K. Weaver Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Volume 46, Number 3July 1961 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.2307/2716051 Journal History This article was published in The Journal of Negro History (1916-2001), which is continued by The Journal of African American History (2002-present). Copyright 1961, 1969 The Association for the Study of African American Life and HistoryPDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Awo: The Autobiography of Chief Obafemi Awolowo

Journal Article Awo: The Autobiography of Chief Obafemi Awolowo Get access Awo: The Autobiography of Chief Obafemi Awolowo. Cambridge at the University Press, 1960. xii + 316 pp. Clothbound 25s. Paperbound 15s. L. P. Mair L. P. Mair Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar International Affairs, Volume 37, Issue 1, January 1961, Page 70, https://doi.org/10.2307/2611514 Published: 01 January 1961

BOOK REVIEWS

BOOK REVIEWS Get access Awo, the Autobiography of Chief Obafemi Awolowo. Cambridge University Press, 1960. 316 pp. 253. Constitutional Developments in Nigeria. Kalu Ezera. Cambridge University Press, 1960. 274 pp. 30s. W. S. STEER W. S. STEER Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Parliamentary Affairs, Volume XIV, Issue 1960sep, September 1960, Pages 128–131, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.pa.a053676 Published: 01 September 1960