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Introduction
Nigeria still craves and seeks unity and nationhood, even in her Dolly Parton’s coat of many colours of diversity. We are today more divided than we have ever been since the January 1, 1914, amalgamation of the Northern and Southern protectorates to form present-day Nigeria. The country’s name “Nigeria” (“Niger-area”) was coined for her in 1897 by Flora Louise Shaw (1852-1929), the young British novelist, journalist and writer. She later got married to Sir Fredrick Lugard (June 10, 1902), the man who brought about the 1914 amalgamation.
I have tried in these series to highlight the achievements of our past national icons, heroes and heroines who midwifed and built modern Nigeria. This is the same country our present-day politicians, elite and their prebendalistic and renteer crowd of collaborators are messing up big time.
I will, in my little way, from my small window, ensure, in the words of our national anthem, that the “labours of our heroes past shall never be in vain.”
Two weeks ago, we concluded our discourse on two Nigerian heroines, Chief (Mrs.) Margaret Ekpo and Hajia Gambo Sawaba. Last week, we took a temporary break to discuss other pressing national issues. This week, we shall beam our searchlight on another great Nigerian patriot, the “Father of Nigerian State,” Chief Anthony Eromosele Enahoro. It is rightly stated that the road to success is dotted with many tempting parking places. For many Nigerians, October 1 of every year marks the celebration of Nigeria’s flag independence from colonialism in 1960. However, the struggle for Nigeria’s freedom from colonial shackles started long before 1960. It started in1953, when Anthony Eromosele Enahoro moved the famous motion for self-government. The name Enahoro, unlike Nnamdi Azikwe, Obafemi Awolowo and Tafawa Balewa, may not ring a loud bell with the younger generation. But students of history and those that were old enough are aware of the key, epochal and historic role he played in Parliament for Nigeria’s attainment of independence.
Early life
Anthony Eromosele Enahoro (22nd July, 1923 – 15th December, 2010), was one of Nigeria’s foremost anti-colonial and pro-democracy activists. He has been described as the “quintessential politician” by Tunde Babawale. He was born the eldest of 12 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 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 youthful 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. As a student then at Kings College, Lagos, Enahoro took part in the turbulent Nigerian liberation struggle against colonial rule in the early 1940s, leading to students’ revolts at the college in Lagos, where he was a student leader. He was very prominent in politics at a time of rapid political change. He was twice jailed for sedition by the colonial government for an article he authored, mocking a former British Governor; and then for a speech allegedly inciting Nigerian troops serving in the British Army. The British marked him as a firebrand but even as he was jailed for a third time, he was beginning to reassess his position.
Chief Enahoro’s arrival on the national scene
A journalist by profession, Chief Enahoro learnt long ago that one is sometimes called upon to pay a price for speaking the truth in the face of authoritarian power. As editor of the Daily Comet (Lagos), he published a key exposé of British colonial misconduct, earning a nine-month jail sentence for the crime of sedition in 1946. In 1947, he again ran afoul of the colonialists with a speech denouncing police violence, for which he received another eight months in jail. His third detention by the British was also in 1949, after he chaired a lecture for the Zikist movement.
Unscathed by these nasty experiences, Chief Enahoro forayed into the murky waters of politics and was elected to the Western House of Assembly and to the transitional Parliament as a member of Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s party, the Action Group (AG).
The freedom fighter had moved a motion on July 22, 1953, for Nigeria to gain her independence by 1956, but the motion suffered a setback in parliament as northern members of parliament blocked it by staging a walkout as a consequence of the motion. It was said then that the North was not yet ready for self-rule. It was Enahoro’s motion that piled on irresistible pressure in the build-up against colonialism and the eventual independence Nigeria attained on October 1, 1960.
Chief Enahoro’s imperishable strides
Chief Enahoro, CFR, D.Sc. (Hon.), Adolor of Uromi, was one of the leading heroes of Nigerian independence. He was later to become leader of NADECO, the major pro-democracy organisation that crusaded for recognition of the June 12, 1993, presidential election clearly won by Moshood Abiola, but which was denied the undoubted martyr of Nigeria’s democracy. In 1996, the same year, Chief Enahoro himself was the target of Abacha’s assassination squad, from which he narrowly escaped. His “offence” was to have offered to help convene dialogue between the democracy movement and the junta. The same squad later murdered Kudirat Abiola that same year. Where are the masterminds of those squads today? Who will not die? The ephemerality of power!
Enahoro served as a delegate to the constitutional talks, which preceded flag-independence. In the Western Regional government led by Chief Awolowo, he became Information and Home Affairs Minister and supervised the construction and launch of the first television station in sub-Saharan Africa, the Western Nigeria Broadcasting Service, (WNBS). He was also, with Awolowo, instrumental to building the first sports complex in Nigeria, the Liberty Stadium, Ibadan. He was a founding member of the Governing Council of the University of Ife (now, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife). When the Western Regional government was subverted in 1964, Chief Enahoro and others were declared wanted and eventually jailed. The story of his own escape to Britain and his eventual extradition back to Nigeria is retold in his 1965 book, “Fugitive Offender.” Eventually, Enahoro was released, and he joined the Nigerian war-time government as Federal Minister of Information, as well as leader of the Nigerian delegation to the United Nations General Assembly.
The historic motion for Nigeria’s self-government: opposing the British ‘go-slow’ policy
Below is the famous motion that was read on the floor of the Parliament in 1953, to set the ball rolling for Nigeria’s freedom and independence from colonial governance. Because of the significance of this epochal motion, which severed Nigeria’s umbilical cord of master-servant relationship with the British, permit me to quote it all. Enahoro was barely 30 years old when he masterfully path-found Nigeria’s future and destiny. Here, the full motion:
“Mr. President, sir, I rise to move the motion standing in my name, that this House accepts as a primary political objective the attainment of self-government for Nigeria in 1956.
“Sir, this motion is an invitation to the Honourable Members of this House to associate the highest legislature of our land with the expressed desire of the peoples of this country, whose views we all represent, for political autonomy in 1956. It seeks to provide representatives from all parts of the country with an opportunity to exchange views on the most burning question of our time. It is an invitation to this House to make a declaration of objective with regard to Nigerian freedom. I do not propose, sir, to go into the arguments for self-government because I am satisfied that it is generally accepted on all sides of the House that self-government for this country at some future date is desirable. Therefore, I propose to deal with this motion in two main parts and very briefly – namely, of what significance is such a declaration of objective and secondly, why should the objective be 1956?
“Sir, I believe that a declaration of objective by this House has become a matter of supreme importance in our march towards self-government. For the time being, this Legislature is the supreme voice of the people of this country, although not all majority decisions which have been taken in this House in the past could hope to survive the test of a referendum. It is essential, in my view, to assess why a formal motion of this nature the honest feelings of various sections of the House and to discover to what extent these feelings may truly reflect the aspirations of the politically conscious citizens of this country. Self-government is after all, sir, a subject on which it is of the first importance that people should believe rightly, and I cannot overstress the great inspiration and succour which various political parties in this country would derive therefrom if the demand for self-government in 1956 were to enjoy the full force of the backing of the highest legislature of the country. Some Honourable Members may feel that the issue of self-government is not one for these House to decide. It may be argued that it has very little to do with the present administration of this country, but speaking for this side of the House, sir, we have always felt that the House of Representatives should serve a dual purpose in our political progress. Firstly, that it is our duty to utilize the powers which we now enjoy in this House to further the expansion of our economy and of our social services and to remove obstacles on the road to freedom; but secondly, and perhaps even more important, we must use this House Representatives itself to continue the fundamental struggle for national freedom…”. – Contents of Enahoro’s motion for Nigeria’s independence
Thought for the week
“No matter how good you think you are as a leader, my goodness, the people around you will have all kinds of ideas for how you can get better. So, for me, the most fundamental thing about leadership is to have the humility to continue to get feedback and to try to get better – because your job is to try to help everybody else get better”.
(Jim Yong Kim).
