Obafemi Awolowo
Chief Obafemi Awolowo Jeremiah (Yoruba: Jeremiah Obafemi Awolowo; born March 6, 1909 in Ikenne / British West Africa (now Nigeria ); † May 9, 1987 ) was a Nigerian politician, trade unionist, lawyer and businessman.
Life
Awolowo was born in the coastal region of present-day Nigerian state of Ogun, the son of a farmer. He came from the people of the Yoruba. He received his education by attending the local Methodist and Anglican schools, in 1944 the degree of Bachelor of Commerce High School in Abeokuta. He then studied law in England and earned a degree there. Obafemi Awolowo in Nigeria began his career as a businessman and journalist. End of the 30s he founded the Nigerian Produce Traders Association trading company and became secretary of the Nigerian Motor Transport Union. In politics, he joined the early forties, when he was appointed secretary of the Ibadan branch of the nationalist and anti-colonial Nigerian Youth Organization Youth Movement ( NYM). In 1943 he was co-founder of the Nigerian Trade Union Federation, Nigerian Trades Union Congress.
The following year, Awolowo interrupted his political activities to study law in the UK. On his return he founded in 1951 the Action Group, an anti-colonial party, the same year won the elections in the Western Province of Nigeria under the new constitution of the colony Nigeria, which allowed for a regional self-government. From 1954 to 1959, Awolowo Prime Minister of Western Nigeria. Under him, the Action Group was one of the main negotiator with Britain on the road to independence Nigeria.
After the country's independence in 1960 did not succeed in Action Group to take over the government, and Awolowo was opposition leader. Two years later, after internal political crises and turmoil in Parliament, the Action Group accused of plotting a coup against the government and sentenced to ten years in prison Awolowo. After he was pardoned in 1966, the military dictator, General Yakubu Gowon appointed him as Minister of Finance. A post he held until 1971. In the Second Republic Awolowo founded in 1978, the Nigerian United Party, but the successes of the Action Group was not able to connect.
Importance
Awolowo was the most important politicians dominated by the Yoruba ethnic group southeast Nigeria, before and immediately after the country's independence. As Prime Minister of Western Nigeria and after independence he tried to establish a non-aligned socialist government course. He sat among other things, a free education for the Western Nigeria, which, given the poverty proportion of the population represented a significant advance.
While Awolowo is especially venerated by the Yoruba as one of the founding fathers of the nation, which is believed as a model against the current generation of politicians, is considered his role in other parts of the country often critical. It is particularly accused him, his commitment was not Nigeria, but only of his own ethnic group, the Yoruba counted. The unity of the nation had his work rather harmed.
The famous writer Chinua Achebe, even the Igbo belong, is his book " The Trouble with Nigeria " Awolowo is as greedy millionaire and narrow-minded Yoruba - protectionists, who sought to supply all the resources of his own ethnic group without regard to the interests of the country and the stability the country irresponsibly repeatedly risked. With his constant interventions against the activities of the women's movement West of Nigeria Awolowo has made in his own people not just friends.
Works
- Awo on the Civil War; Memoir, 1981
- Voice of Courage: Selected Speeches of Chief Obafemi Awolowo; Collection of Speeches, 1981
- Voice of Reason: Selected Speeches of Chief Obafemi Awolowo; Collection of Speeches, 1981
- Thoughts on the Nigerian Constitution; Ideological text, Oxford University Press, 1968