NIGERIA MY COUNTRY -PART TWO

Nigeria: Among  the  future national leaders was Dr. Benjamin Nnamdi Azikiwe an Ibo. He became editor of the African  Morning Post in Ghana after his studies in the United States of America.

He was deported from Ghana to Nigeria. This is because the British governor in Ghana considered his articles in the African  Morning Post to be dangerous.

Dr. Azikiwe became an active member of the Nigerian  Youth Movement. This was  when he came back in 1937 which started in 1932 by Dr. Ernest Ikoli.

Few years later,  there was disagreement between Dr. Azikiwe and Ikoli.  However, this made Dr Azikiwe and other leaders formed a  new party. The party was The National Council Of Nigeria and Cameroons.

It was later renamed National Convention of Nigerian Citizens  (N.C.N.C). Herbert Macaulay was the first president of this party. Macaulay has for year been fighting for the rights of Africans against colonial rule.

However, when  Macaulay died in 1946, Dr. Azikiwe became  the secretary general of NCNC . And later Zik became the president.

Most importantly,  as an Ibo man, he gained much of his support from the Eastern Province. This was  because southern Nigeria had been divided in 1939 into Western and Eastern Provinces.

In Western province  (Yoruba land), a new movement was formed in 1948.  The Egba  Omo  Oduduwa  (society of the descendants of Oduduwa).

Three years  later, this new movement developed into the Action Group  (A.G). A.G was a strong political party. The first leader of A.G was Chief Obafemi Awolowo.

NCNC wanted a unitary Nigeria while AG wanted a federal system. In the Federal systemic,  each region would have full powers over many issues. Powers  without the interference of the central government.

Above all,  in the North, Alhaji Abubakar  Tafawa  Balewa (the first federal prime minister), and Mallam Aminu Kano in 1949 changed the Bauchi Improvement Association. They changed it  into  a political party called Northern People’s Congress  (N. P. C).

The Sardauna of  Sokoto,  Alhaji Ahmadu Bello,  great grandson of Uthman Dan Fodio was the  leader of NPC.

Two years later,Mallam Aminu Kano and his supporters broke away from NPC. He formed Northern Elements Progressive Union  (N. E. P. U) with it’s headquarters at Kano.

Meanwhile, as the fight for independence thickens, several smaller parties came up. But the  three main political parties were N.C.N.C,  A.G, and N.P.C. The strengths of the  parties were centred in the three regions where they were formed .

He threw a

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NIGERIA MY COUNTRY PART THREE