Goodluck Ebele AZIKIWE Jonathan; you are no ZIK OF AFRICA On November 16, our Nigerian brethren of Igbo descent celebrated a true of son of Nigeria – the late great Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe who was the first President of Nigeria from 1963-1966. Nnamdi Azikiwe – the celebrated “Zik of Africa” was a nationalist to the core – Born November 16, 1904, in the northern Nigeria town of Zungeru, Niger state, to educated parents, he completed his high school education at Methodist Boys’ High School Lagos. He went on to finish his higher education in the United States, earning an undergraduate degree from Lincoln University, Pennsylvania, and Masters degrees in Political Science and Anthropology from Lincoln University and University of Pennsylvania. After returning from the United States – Zik began his newspaper career in 1934, joining the Ghana’s African Morning Post as editor. Zik was also a mentor to Ghana’s Kwame Nkurumah (Ghana’s first president). On May 15, 1936, courageous Zik published an article entitled “Has the African a God?” written by I. T. A. Wallace-Johnson. For this act he was brought to trial on charges of sedition. He was found guilty and sentenced to six months in prison, but he was acquitted on appeal. Upon return to Nigeria in 1937, Zik founded and edited newspapers. He also became directly involved in politics, first with the Nigerian Youth Movement and later (1944) as a founder of the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC). In 1948, with the backing of the NCNC, Azikiwe was elected to the Nigerian Legislative Council. Azikiwe led the NCNC into the important 1959 federal elections, which preceded Nigerian independence. Finally, the great “Zik of Africa” would become President of Nigeria in 1963. On November 20, 1957 somewhere in the delta region of Nigeria, a set of parents out of their admiration for the great “Zik of Africa”, wishing him all of the blessings only parents could, named their child “Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan”. But this child who also would “accidentally” become Nigeria’s President may bear the name but is NO “Zik of Africa” This “Azikiwe” was born to a family of canoe makers. He attended primary school in Otuoke and attend the Imiringi secondary school before going to the University of Port Harcourt with a Second Class Upper Division in Zoology. He also obtained his Masters degree in Hydrology and Fisheries Biology and thereafter a Doctorate Degree in Zoology – from the same university. This “Azikiwe” entered into politics, presumably because in 1998 politics was the most “lucrative” career in Nigeria. A regionalist (Ijaw man) he was elected along with the governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha as the deputy governor in the first elections in Bayelsa state. This “Azikiwe” did not write articles, did not mentor anyone, and did not shake any trees. In fact, he was a relatively low profile deputy governor. In September 2005, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha was detained in London on charges of money laundering in September 2005. He was found about £1m in cash in his London home and £1.8m ($3.2m) was later found in cash and bank accounts. Bayelsa State Assembly impeached Governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha after the UK money-laundering incident and this “Azikiwe” found himself as the governor of the state. As fate would have it, after a year and a half as governor of Bayelsa – with no notable achievements – this “Azikiwe” found himself as Vice President of Nigeria, As he would be later described, this “Azikiwe” until November 2009, served out his time as a “ low-key deputy from the south of the country to a low-key president from the north” . But again the hands of fate would strike when the “low-key” president from the North died in office and on May 10 2010, this “Azikiwe” found himself President of Nigeria. Back to the late great “Zik of Africa”; A man of Eastern Nigerian origin, born in Northern Nigeria, educated in Western Nigeria, and the United States. “Zik of Africa” was a Nigerian who had lived all over the great country Nigeria, who struggled and fought for Nigeria’s nationalism – and earned his right to become Nigeria’s first president. In the great “Zik of Africa” we find the promise of what Nigerian leadership should be – Nigerian Today, Nigeria has for a President, a man from Otueke – educated all of his life in a 125 kilometer radius – unexposed to the world and accidental in his success. To you sir – we say you are NO “ZIK OF AFRICA”
Posted on: Sun, 07 Dec 2014 17:41:16 +0000
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