Nigeria at 60: Rembering those that Fought for Our Independence

Nigeria at 60: Rembering those that Fought for Our Independence

On the 1st of October 1960, Nigeria our Fatherland became free from the direct rule of the Great Britain.

On this day the Union Jack which is the symbol and flag of the British was brought down and the Green and White flag which was the brain-child of Pa Taiwo Akinkunmi was hoisted. This marked the freedom and Independence of Nigeria.

As students of history and Nigerians we are all aware that the road to Nigeria's freedom was not an easy ride. When Chief Anthony Enahoro moved the motion for the Independence of Nigeria there's already some issues of rivalry among the three Regions that made up the country. This event however delayed the Independence of Nigeria from the British rule.

Nigeria a young nation with so much dreams, aspirations, hopes on its leaders and heroes that led to the end of the British colonial rule has a foreign Revenue of only £164 million. And the Federal Government's plans was to embark on a rapid modernisation with about 75 percent of the population being illiterates, our agriculture system still using crude farming tools and process, with only 2 full universities, with about 200 hundred Secondary Schools with a number of Polytechnics and Colleges.

Despite all these constraints the Federal Government, the three Regions as that time made some progress in the development of Nigeria. There were political crisis, rivalry, alignment and realignment between the regions, the Federal Government etc but Nigeria was better from where it was as at then.

Today at 60 Nigeria is more divided than it used to be; before it was a regional rivalry/political rivalry and it has metamorphosed into religious and ethnic rivalry.

Nigeria is faced with kidnapping, banditry, insurgency, ethno-religious crisis, poor educational and health systems, the call for secession etc, no thanks to our corrupt leaders who sees occupying public office as an avenue of enriching themselves and amassing wealth for themselves and their children.

Yes not all of our leaders are corrupt and bad as some of them are worthy of emulation. However our present predicament is caused by bad leadership and bad followership as well.

It is against this background that I am bringing you these heroes of that led the movement for an independent Nigeria:

The journey to a modern Nigeria was not an easy one we are still not there yet after 60 years.

Olayinka Herbert Samuel Heelas Badmus Macaulay was14 November 1864 – 7 May 1946 was a Nigerian nationalist, politician, surveyor, engineer, architect, journalist, and musician and is considered by many Nigerians as the founder of Nigerian nationalism.

Herbert Macaulay

Ernest Sissei Ikoli 

He was 1893–1960 was a Nigerian politician, nationalist and pioneering journalist; he was the first editor of the Daily Times. He was the president of the Nigerian Youth Movement and in 1942, represented Lagos in the Legislative Council.

Ikoli was born in Nembe in present-day Bayelsa State and educated at Bonny Government School, Rivers State and King's College, Lagos. He was the man that began the Nigerian Youths Movement and also fought the British through his Newspaper Publication.

Chief Anthony Eromosele Enahoro was born 22 July 1923 – 15 December 2010. He was one of Nigeria's foremost anti-colonial and pro-democracy activists. He was born the eldest of ten children in Uromi in the present Edo State of Nigeria. His Esan parents were Anastasius Okotako Enahoro (1900-1968) and Fidelia Victoria Inibokun née Ogbidi Okojie (1906-1969). Enahoro has had a long and distinguished career in the press, politics, the civil service and the pro-democracy movement. Educated at the Government School Uromi, Government School Owo and King's College, Lagos, Enahoro became the editor of Nnamdi Azikiwe's newspaper, the Southern Nigerian Defender, Ibadan, in 1944 at the age of 21, thus becoming Nigeria's youngest editor ever. He later became the editor of Zik's Comet, Kano, 1945–49, associate editor of West African Pilot, Lagos, and editor-in-chief of Morning Star from 1950 to 1953.

Chief Samuel Ládòkè Akíntọ́lá, otherwise known as S.L.A. was born on July 6, 1910 – January 15, 1966, was a Nigerian politician, lawyer, aristocrat and orator who was born in Ogbomosho of the then Western Region. In addition to serving as one of the founding fathers of modern Nigeria, he was also elevated to the position of Oloye Aare Ona Kakanfo XIII of the Yoruba.

Samuel Ladoke Akintola

S.L. Akintola attempted to revisit the motion for Nigeria's independence in 1957 and though his motion was passed by parliament it was not acquiesced to by the British colonial authorities and it therefore failed.

Chief Victor Babaremilekun Adetokunboh Fani-Kayode, Q.C, SAN, CON was born on 1921–1995. He was a leading Nigerian politician, aristocrat, nationalist, statesman and lawyer. He was elected deputy premier of the Western Region of Nigeria in 1963 and he played a major role in Nigeria's legal history and politics from the late 1940s until 1995.

In August 1958, Remi Fani-Kayode revisited Enahoro's motion and the motion was again passed by parliament but its date was not approved by the British. Fani-Kayode's motion had called for independence to be granted to Nigeria on April 2, 1960. Nigeria was granted independence on October 1, 1960.

Nnamdi Benjamin Azikiwe, PC born on 16th November 1904 – 11 May 1996, usually referred to as "Zik", was a Nigerian statesman and political leader who served as the first President of Nigeria from 1963 - 1966. He is considered a driving force behind the nation's independence, he came to be known as the "father of Nigerian Nationalism".

During his days as journalist in Ghana he dedicated a column called "The Inside Stuff by Zik", a column in which he preached radical nationalism and black pride which raised some alarm in colonial circles. As editor, he promoted a pro-African nationalist agenda. His Pilot editorials called for African independence, particularly after the rise of the Indian independence movement.

Azikiwe became active in the Nigerian Youth Movement (NYM), the country's first nationalist organization. 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. Azikiwe resigned from the NYM, accusing the majority Yoruba leadership of discriminating against the Ijebu-Yoruba members and Ibos. Some Ijebu members followed him, splitting the movement along ethnic lines. 

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.

Abubakar Tafawa Balewa was born in December 1912 in modern-day Bauchi State, in the Northern Nigeria Protectorate. Balewa's father, Yakubu Dan Zala, was of Gere ethnicity, and his mother Fatima Inna was of Gere and Fulani descent. His father worked in the house of the district head of Lere, a district within the Bauchi Emirate. 1st Prime Minister of Nigeria from 30 August 1957 – 15 January 1966

In furtherance of the ever recurring Enahoro's Motion, a further motion was proposed to Parliament by Sir Tafawa Balewa in 1959 and it was passed. As a consequence of the sustained pressure, the colonial governor announced the decision of the Queen of England to grant her independence in 1960.

Chief Obafemi Jeremiah Oyeniyi Awolowo, GCFR, Yoruba: Ọbafẹ́mi Oyèníyì Awólọ́wọ̀; born on 6 March 1909 – 9 May 1987, was a Nigerian nationalist and statesman who played a key role in Nigeria's independence movement, the First and Second Republics and the Civil War. The son of a Yoruba farmer, he was one of the truly self-made men among his contemporaries in Nigeria. He was the Premier of Western Nigeria 1st October 1954 – 1 October 1960.

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 and limited central planning in government.

Ahmadu Ibrahim Bello, Sardauna of Sokoto. He was born 12 June 1910 – 15 January 1966, knighted as Sir Ahmadu Bello, was a conservative Nigerian statesman who masterminded Northern Nigeria through the independence of Nigeria in 1960 and served as its first and only premier from 1954 until his assassination in 1960, in which capacity he dominated national affairs for over a decade.

He was also the leader of the Northern Peoples Congress, the ruling party at the time consisting of the Hausa-Fulani elite. He had previously been elected into the regional legislature and later became a government minister. A member of the Sokoto Caliphate dynasty, he made attempts at becoming Sultan of Sokoto before later joining politics.

Credit: Wikipedia, Pinterest

The labour of our heroes past shall never be in vain.