Nnamdi Azikiwe is known widely as the father of modern Nigerian Nationalism.He was born on November 16,1904 at Zungeru in Northern Nigerian.He grew up and was brought up by the Church Missionary Society .
He attended schools at Onitsha and between 1921 and 1925 he worked as a clerk at the Treasury in Lagos.Zik travelled to USA and studied there with his father’s encouragement.
He also studied in USA at Storer College West Virginia,Horward University and Lincoln University USA.in USA he worked as a miner,dish-washer and a boxer to support his career.After his postgraduate stdies he returned to West Africa to establish West Africa Pilot in 1937.
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Zik was not only a journalist,but an author ,a politician and a business man.Zik’s newspaper West Africa Pilot was an organ of his party and a tool against colonial rule.He championed the cause for African independence.He agitated for Nigerian independence by joining Nigerian Youth Movement in 1937.
He used his newspaper as a weapon for his campaign.In 1944 when Herbert Macaulay,founded National Council of Nigerian ana Cameroons,Zik was made secretary of the party.He became the leader of NCNC at the death of Herbert Macaulay in 1946.He formed his Zikist movement in 1946 with Mllam H.R Abdullah as its president.
Zik became an opposition in the Western Regional House of Assembly when he won rrgional election in Lagos.
NCNC won a sweeping victory in eastern Nigeria,although Zik was schemed out of western region.
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He was made Chief Minister and later Premier of Eastern Region.Following the allegations of improper investment of public fund,in African Continental Bank in 1956,Forster Sutton tribunal found Zik’s conduct short of expectation of honest,reasonable people.
However his popularity remained strong in Nigerian politics.
Following the 1959 Federal election,in which NCNC merged with NPC and other parties,Zik accepted the post of Governal General for Nigeria in 1960.Misunderstanding and general dissatisfaction among political parties in government and opposition grew after 1960.
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The military seized the opportunity and over threw the government on January 15, 1966. Howerver, misconceptions led to the second coup on July 29, 1966. The second military coup among other-things resulted into the Nigerian civil war in which Zik played a significant role.He was a member of Igbo Consultative Assembly.
In 1968 he wrote a poem “Be still my soul” which was adopted as Biafran National Anthem. After desperate efforts to end the Nigerian war Zik proposed a peace plan and returned to Nigeria on Febuary 1969. He came to terms with General Gowon and made a speech calling for a just settlement under one umbrella of one Nigeria.
Zik was a strong advocate of diarchy,a form of government where soldiers and civilians should share power. In 1978 he became the leader of Nigeria peoples party, one of the five political parties that contested election in 1979.
In the African politics, Zik advocated for a gradual approach to African Unity.
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Zik of Africa, has variously been described as a politician who believed in dialogue and peaceful settlement of misunderstanding. This attitude has made people to believe in one Nigeria and that every compromise to retain the existence of one Nigeria is not poor political approach. Zik was a journalist having participated in writing editorials for Renaissance, West African Pilot, and other newspapers.
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He was a teacher, a politician, a sportsman and a states man, Although the true Nigeria which Zik had in mind eluded most of those who believed in that philosophy, some of his political speeches remain a land mark in Nigeria political history. He died on May 11, 1996.