Nnamdi Azikiwe

The Right Honourable
Nnamdi Azikiwe
GCFR PC
A picture of Nnamdi Azikiwe in circa 1963
Azikiwe c. 1963
1st President of Nigeria
In office
1 October 1963 – 16 January 1966
Prime MinisterAbubakar Tafawa Balewa
Senate PresidentNwafor Orizu
Preceded byPosition established (Elizabeth II
as Queen of Nigeria)
Succeeded byJohnson Aguiyi-Ironsi
(as Military head of state)
3rd Governor-General of Nigeria
In office
16 November 1960 – 1 October 1963
MonarchElizabeth II
Preceded byJames Robertson
Succeeded byPosition abolished
1st President of the Senate of Nigeria
In office
1 January 1960 – 1 October 1960
Preceded byPosition established
Succeeded byDennis Osadebay
Premier of Eastern Nigeria
In office
1 October 1954 – 1 October 1959
Preceded byEyo Ita
Succeeded byMichael Okpara
2nd President of National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons
In office
May 1946 – November 1960
Preceded byHerbert Macaulay
Succeeded byMichael Okpara
Chancellor of University of Nigeria
In office
1961–1966
Chancellor of University of Lagos
In office
1972–1976
Personal details
Born
Nnamdi Benjamin Azikiwe

(1904-11-16)16 November 1904
Zungeru, Northern Nigeria Protectorate
Died11 May 1996(1996-05-11) (aged 91)
Enugu, Enugu State, Nigeria
Political party
Spouses
  • ​
    ​
    (m. 1936; died 1983)​
  • ​
    (m. 1973)​
    [1]
Children7 including Chukwuma Azikiwe
Parents
  • Rachel Chinwe Ogbenyeanu (mother)
  • Obed-Edom Chukwuemeka Azikiwe (father)
Alma mater
OccupationPolitician, lawyer, journalist, athlete, statesman

Nnamdi Benjamin Azikiwe (16 November 1904 – 11 May 1996),[2] commonly referred to as Zik of Africa, was a Nigerian politician, statesman, and revolutionary leader who served as the 3rd and first black governor-general of Nigeria from 1960 to 1963 and the first president of Nigeria during the First Nigerian Republic (1963–1966).[3] He is widely regarded as the father of Nigerian nationalism as well as one of the major driving forces behind the country's independence in 1960.[4][5][6]

Born in Zungeru in present-day Niger State to Igbo parents from Onitsha, Anambra State, Azikiwe learned to speak Hausa which was the main indigenous language of the Northern Region. He was later sent to live with his aunt and grandmother in his hometown Onitsha, where he learnt Igbo language.[7] Living in Lagos State exposed him to learning the Yoruba language, and by the time he was in college, he had been exposed to different Nigerian cultures and spoke three languages.[8]

Azikiwe was well travelled. He moved to the United States where he was called Ben Azikiwe, and attended Storer College, Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania and Howard University. He contacted colonial authorities with a request to represent Nigeria at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics since he was also an athlete.[9] He returned to Africa in 1934, where he started working as a journalist in Gold Coast (present day Ghana). During the British West Africa, Azikiwe advocated as a political activist and journalist, for Nigerian and African nationalism.[10]

  1. ^ Nuhu Musa, Jamila. "Flora Azikiwe: Nigeria' maiden First Lady at a glance". People's Daily. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 15 July 2015.
  2. ^ "Nnamdi Azikiwe | president of Nigeria | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Britannica. Retrieved 26 March 2022.
  3. ^ French, Howard W. (14 May 1996). "Nnamdi Azikiwe, the First President of Nigeria, Dies at 91". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 6 December 2023.
  4. ^ "Heroes of the struggle for Nigeria's independence/pioneer political". The Guardian. 1 October 2020. Retrieved 24 May 2022.
  5. ^ "On this day in 1904 Dr. Benjamin Nnamdi Azikiwe, was born in Zungeru, Niger State, North-Central Nigeria". Jay FM. 16 November 2017. Archived from the original on 5 August 2020. Retrieved 29 May 2020.
  6. ^ Crowcroft, Barnaby (2020), Kumarasingham, H. (ed.), "The Radical Nationalist as Constitutional Head of State: Nigeria, 1960–66", Viceregalism: The Crown as Head of State in Political Crises in the Postwar Commonwealth, Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies Series, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 179–202, doi:10.1007/978-3-030-46283-3_7, ISBN 978-3-030-46283-3, S2CID 226564363
  7. ^ chuku, gloria (1 January 2011), "Azikiwe, Benjamin Nnamdi", Dictionary of African Biography, Oxford University Press, doi:10.1093/acref/9780195382075.013.0239 (inactive 1 November 2024), ISBN 978-0-19-538207-5, retrieved 13 December 2023{{citation}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of November 2024 (link)
  8. ^ Aguolu, C. C.; Aguolu, L. E. (1997). "Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, 1904-1966, First President of Nigeria: A Force in Library Development in Nigeria". World Libraries. 7 (2). ISSN 2155-7896.
  9. ^ Flint, John E. (1999). "'Managing nationalism': The colonial office and Nnamdi Azikiwe, 1932–43". The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History. 27 (2): 143–158. doi:10.1080/03086539908583061.
  10. ^ "Azikiwe fights for Africa". New York Amsterdam News. 7 January 1950 – via ProQuest.