ENCORE
It is rightly observed that the road to success is dotted with many tempting parking places. For many Nigerians, October 1, marks the celebration of Nigeria’s independence from colonialism in 1960. However, the struggle for Nigeria’s freedom started long before 1953, when Anthony Eromosele Enahoro moved the famous motion for self-government. On this note, we shall continue and conclude our discourse on Herbert Macaulay, which we started last week. Thereafter, we will beam our searchlight on another great Nigerian patriot, the “Father of Nigeria State”, Chief Anthony Eromosele Enahoro.
Herbert Samuel Macaulay’s unrivalled achievements (continues and concluded).
Macaulay writes of Carr thus: “He has been without any possible doubt whatsoever, the Head Centre, the King Pin, the very mainspring of what his own flatterers choose to call powerful influence or official support behind the renowned articulate minority on whose side Mr. Carr has along flung the whole weight of his official prestige, manifesting thereby an intolerable partisanship…deadly and detestable”.
Twilight years & death
In 1944, Macaulay co-founded the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC) together with Nnamdi Azikiwe and became its President. The NCNC was a patriotic organisation designed to bring together Nigerians of all stripes to demand independence. In 1946, Macaulay fell ill in Kano and later died in Lagos. Macaulay’s reported last words were:
“Tell the National Council delegates to halt wherever they are for four days for Macaulay and then carry on.
Tell Oged to keep the flag flying”.
The leadership of the NCNC went to Azikiwe, who later became the first President of Nigeria. Macaulay was buried at Ikoyi Cemetery in Lagos on 11th May, 1946. Nnamdi Azikiwe delivered a funeral oration at Macaulay’s burial ceremony and Isaac Babalola Thomas, editor and proprietor of the Akede Eko was Executor of the Macaulay’s Last Will & Testament. (Concluded).
Anthony Eromosele Enahoro
Early life
Anthony Eromosele Enahoro (22nd July, 1923 – 15th December, 2010), was one of Nigeria’s foremost anti-colonial and pro-democracy activists. 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 has 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 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 the Kings College, 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 prominent in politics at a time of rapid change. He was twice jailed for sedition by the colonial government, for an article mocking a former 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 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 8 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 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.
The freedom fighter had suggested in his July 22, 1953, motion for Nigeria to gain independence in 1956, but the motion suffered a setback in parliament as northern members of parliament staged a walkout as a consequence of the motion. It was said then that the North was not ready for self-rule. It was Enahoro’s motion that piled on pressure in the build up against colonialism and the eventual independence of Nigeria on October 1, 1960.
Chief Enahoro’s imperishable strides
Chief Enahoro, C.F.R, D.Sc. (Hon.), Adolor of Uromi was an hero of Nigerian independence and leader of NADECO, the major pro-democracy organisation that crusaded for recognition of the June 12, 1993, presidential election won by Moshood Abiola. 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 a dialogue between the democracy movement and the junta. (The same squad murdered Kudirat Abiola later that year.)
He 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 of the first television station in Sub-Saharan Africa, the Western Nigeria Broadcasting service, and the first sports complex in Nigeria, Liberty Stadium. He was a foundation member of the Governing Council of the University of Ife, (now, Obafemi Awolowo University). 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 he was released and joined the Nigerian wartime government as Federal Minister of Information, as well as leader of the Nigerian delegation to the United Nations General Assembly.
The crisis motion for Nigeria’s self-government, opposing the British “go-slow” policy
“A declaration of objective, sir, is important in other respects. We and our people can be likened to builders. We have set out to build a new state. From the multitude of tribes in this country we are striving to build a new and modern structure. Self-government is merely the foundation of that structure. This work of construction is a romantic idea to me, and I am sure that Honourable Members will agree with me that we are all proud and honoured to be the architects and that we should be grateful to Providence that this task has fallen upon our generation.
•This was the genesis of Nigeria’s march towards our flag independence. (Concluded).
Thought for the week
“We must bring unity of spirit and purpose and condemn hatred and division wherever we see it.” (George Osborne).