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Today marks exactly Twenty-Eight Years, Chief Jeremiah Obafemi Awolowo, who is arguably Nigeria's foremost nationalist departed to the great beyond. He died on May 9, 1987. Awo as he was and is still fondly called by his followers was a Nigerian politician and leader, a Yoruba Chief, and native of Ikenne in the Ogun State born March 6, 1909.
Awo was an active journalist and trade unionist as a young man who start out as a regional political leader in the old Western Nigeria. He was a founding father of Nigeria and many organizations, like the Egbe Omo Oduduwa, the Trade Unions Congress of Nigeria and the Action Group political party.
He was a lawyer by training and one of the Nigerian delegation to the Constitutional conference that took place in Great britain in 1957. He was the first Premier of the Western Region under Nigeria's parliamentary system from 1954 to 1960, and was the official Leader of the Opposition in the Federal parliament to the Balewa government from 1960 to 1963.
Chief Awolowo was a leader who believed that the state should channel Nigeria's resources into education and state-led infrastructure development. Controversially, and at considerable expense, he introduced free primary education for all in the Western Region, established the first television service in Africa in 1959, and expanded electrification projects in the region using proceeds from the highly lucrative cocoa export industry.
While giving a speech to Western leaders of thought in Ibadan, on May 1, 1967, Awolowo said the aim of a leader should be the welfare of the people whom he leads. Awo was extremely popular among the Yorubas in western Nigeria, his left-leaning but superior politics made him unpopular with the nation's (supposedly) largest political bloc—the northern Muslim, Northern People's Congress (NPC), which many Nigerians believed were being directed by the British government. Unlike Nnamdi Akikwe of the NCNC who became Nigeria's first President in 1963, Awolowo favoured autonomy based on "ethnolinguistic" identity.
He was imprisoned in 1963 on a charge of sedition, but pardoned and freed by the military government in 1967. Where hence he was made Minister of Finance from 1967 until 1971. During his time as the Federal Commissioner of Finance under the Military Government of General Yakubu Gowon, Awo can be credited with coining the name "Naira" for Nigeria 's currency (formerly known as the Nigerian Pound).
He unsuccessfully made efforts to lead the country in 1979 and 1983 when he contested a presidential candidate under Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN). Despite his loss, Free Health care and and the widely acclaimed free Education were carried out through out all the states controlled by his party, the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN).
Today, he is remembered by many Nigerians and non-Nigerians as the best Nigerian president that never ruled. Aside pioneering Free Education in the country, Chief Awolowo can be remembered for building the first stadium in west Africa; Liberty Statium in Ibadan, first television station in Africa; WNTV(now NTA) and for running the best civil service in Africa at the time (in the Western Region).
Awolowo was an accomplished author with insightful publications on the political structure and future prospects of Nigeria. Amongst which are; Path to Nigerian Freedom(London, 1947), Thoughts on the Nigerian Constitution (Lagos 1966), The People's Republic (Ibadan, 1968), The Strategy and Tactics of the People's Republic of Nigeria (London, 1970), Path To Nigeria's Greatness etc.