Obafemi Awolowo

Chief Jeremiah Obafemi Awolowo ( Yoruba : Jeremiah Obáfẹ́mi Awólọ́wọ̀ ; born March 6, 1909 in Ikenne / British West Africa (now Nigeria ); † May 9, 1987 ibid) was a Nigerian politician, trade unionist , lawyer and businessman.

Life

Awolowo was born in the coastal region of what is now the Nigerian state of Ogun, the son of a farmer. He came from the Yoruba people . He received his education by attending local Methodist and Anglican schools, in 1944 the degree of Bachelor of Commerce at the high school in Abeokuta . He then studied law in England, where he graduated. Obafemi Awolowo began his career as a businessman and journalist in Nigeria. In the late 1930s he founded the Nigerian Produce Traders Association and became secretary of the Nigerian Motor Transport Union. He entered politics in the early 1940s when he became secretary of the Ibadan branch of the nationalist and anti-colonialist youth organization Nigerian Youth Movement (NYM). In 1943 he co-founded the Nigerian Trade Union Confederation, Nigerian Trades Union Congress .

The following year, Awolowo suspended his political activities to study law in Great Britain . On his return he founded the Action Group in 1951 , an anti-colonialist party that won the elections in the western province of Nigeria that same year under the new constitution of the colony of Nigeria, which allowed regional self-government. Awolowo was Prime Minister of Western Nigeria from 1954 to 1959. Under him, the Action Group was one of the most important negotiators with Great Britain on the road to Nigeria's independence.

After the country gained independence in 1960, the Action Group failed to take over the government and Awolowo became the opposition leader. Two years later, following domestic political crises and tumults in Parliament, the Action Group was accused of planning a coup against the government and Awolowo was sentenced to ten years in prison. After he was pardoned in 1966, the military dictator General Yakubu Gowon appointed him finance minister. He held this post until 1971. In 1978, in the second republic, Awolowo founded the Nigerian United Party , but it could no longer follow on from the success of the Action Group.

meaning

Awolowo was the most important politician for the Yoruba ethnic group dominated southwest Nigeria , before and immediately after the country's independence. As Prime Minister of West Nigeria and after independence, he tried to establish a non-aligned socialist government course. Among other things, he implemented free schooling for western Nigeria, which, in view of the poverty of large parts of the population, meant considerable progress.

While Awolowo is especially revered by the Yoruba as one of the founding fathers of the nation, who is held as a role model against today's generation of politicians, his role is often viewed critically in other parts of the country. He is particularly accused of having committed not to Nigeria, but only to his own ethnic group, the Yoruba. The unity of the nation was rather damaged by his work.

The well-known writer Chinua Achebe , himself a member of the Igbo , portrays Awolowo in his book "The Trouble with Nigeria" as a greedy millionaire and narrow-minded Yoruba protectionist who, regardless of the interests of the country, tried to bring all available resources to his own ethnic group and to ensure stability of the country in irresponsible ways. With his constant interventions against the activities of the women's movement in Western Nigeria, Awolowo has not only made friends among his own people.

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

literature

• Obafemi Awolowo , in: Historical dictionary of the British empire , Vol. 1, ed. by James Stuart Olson , Robert Shadle

Web links

• Obafemi Awolowo: The man with a plan - an obituary