ZIK,AWO,EGBE OMO ODUDUWA AND ROOTS OF DECADES OLD FEUDS

Quoting he who is known as the Sage of Ikenne- Chief Obafeme Awolowo[I am not vouching for the accuracy of any of his statements on Dr.Nnamdi Azikiwe or Awo's representation of his own motives.I am not adequately informed to do so]


Formation of Egbe Omo Oduduwa

On leaving the shores of Nigeria in August 1944, I resolved that I would have nothing to do with politics until I had finished my studies and made some money. I also resolved that before I again entered into politics I would see to it that the Yorubas evolved an ethnic solidarity among themselves just as the Ibibios and the Ibos had done, in order to ensure a strong and harmonious federal union among the peoples of Nigeria . In less than a year after I reached the United Kingdom I set to work to translate my ideas into realities. A group of Yorubas, mostly students-Dr Oni Akerele, Chief Abiodun Akerele, barrister-at-Law and Member of the House of Representatives, Mr. Akintola Williams, chartered accountant, Chief Ayotunde

Rosiji, Federal Secretary of the Action Group and Member of the House of Representatives and others-and I founded a Yoruba Organisation in London named the Egbe Omo Odu duwa (meaning 'A Society of the Descendants of Oduduwa.

In view of the hostility and controversy which had marked the birth of the Egbe Omo Oduduwa, and of the general mis understanding which has existed ever since about the real intentions of this organisation, I reproduce here in full the aims of the Egbe and its methods of approach as set out in its first constitution which was drafted by me with the collaboration of one of its founders.

The aims of the association are divided into two categories:

( a) Yoruba land
(i) To study fully its political problems, combat the dis integrating forces of tribalism, stamp out discrimination within the group and against minorities, and generally infuse the idea of a single nationality throughout the region;
(ii) To study its economic resources, ascertain its potentials ties, and advise as to the wisest utilisation of its wealth, so as to ensure abundance and prosperity for its people;
(iii) To plan for the improvement of educational facilities both in content and extent, to explore the means of introducing mass education promptly and efficiently and to foster the study of Yoruba language, culture and history;
(iv) To promote the social welfare of Yoruba land combat the canker worm of superstition and ignorance, spread the knowledge of medical relief and stimulate the provision of hospitals, maternity homes and suchlike amenities.

(b) Nigeria
(i) To co-operate in the fullest measure with other regions to see that the aims set out in (a) are applied to the whole country;
(ii) To aid and encourage similar groups in the other regions in every way possible to achieve these ideals.

METHODS OF APPROACH

(a) By studying problems affecting Yoruba land in particular and Nigeria in general through:
(i) Research.
(ii) Lectures:'
(iii) Paper reading, and
(iv) Discussion.

(b) By disseminating the knowledge thus gained and conclusions reached among the people in Yoruba land and Nigeria by the following means:

(i) The propagation of the idea of a modern Yoruba state and a Federal State of Nigeria through the agency of reliable persons who share our ideals.
(ii) The issuing of magazines, booklets, and other publications in English and Yoruba.
(iii) The encouragement of the immediate setting up of Egbe Omo Oduduwa in Yorubaland provided the promoters give an undertaking that the first three years will be devoted to strengthening the organisa tion financially and studying local problems, while refraining from any direct political action.

Before the Egbe was founded in London in 1945, there was already a two-year old branch of the Ibo Federal Union there. Even so the reaction of practically all the students from the Eastern Region and of some from the Western Region to the formation of the Egbe was a hostile one. Being the most prominent among the founders, I was singled out for attack. I was accused of being tribalistic and of having a design to wreck the unity of Nigeria . In the face of the aims and objects of the Egbe which were widely circulated among Nigerian students in the United Kingdom , these accusations did not make any sense to me.

All the same, I seized every opportunity ,that offered itself to explain these aims and objects to my detractors. The Executive Committee of the Egbe also decided to hold a joint meeting with the Executive Committee of the London Branch of the Ibo Federal Union, with a view to making to the latter a full explanation of what the Egbe stood for, and to driving the point home that the Egbe was purely and simply the Yoruba counterpart of the Ibo Federal Union. I made contact with the Chairman of the Ibo Federal Union, Mr Chuba Ikpeazu (a law student) through my friend Mr G. Onyiuke (another law student), and a date for a meeting between the committees was fixed. Somehow, about twenty-four hours before the time of the meeting, Mr Ikpeazu sent a message to say that he and his officers had another important engagement which made it possible for them to attend the proposed meeting. He promised to let us have another date. He was unable to fulfill this promise before we all returned home to Nigeria .

When the Egbe was founded in London , copies of its consti tution were sent to Obas, Chiefs and outstanding Yorubas, with an accompanying letter in which an appeal was made to them to found a similar organisation at home. Apart from His Highness Sir Adesoji Aderomi, the Oni of He and President of the Western House of Chiefs, and three other persons, there was no response from the scores of people to whom we had written, and nothing at all was done at home to start the Egbe or something similar to it.

On my return home, I began in earnest to preach the formation of the Egbe. People listened to me either with concealed indifference or undisguised boredom. Then one day in 1948, I read in the papers that the Egbe Omo Oduduwa had been formed in Lagos by a group of outstanding Yoruba leaders. Sir Adeyemo Alakija, Dr Akinola Maja, Sir Kofo Abayomi, Chief Bode Thomas, Chief H. O. Davies, Dr Akanni Doherty and others too numerous to mention were among the foundation members.

I was jubilant to read this report, and I quickly sent a telegram off elicitations to the Lagos founders of the Egbe. I also took immediate steps to inaugurate a branch in Ibadan . The aims and objects of the newly formed Egbe were identical with those of the one founded in London with but some slight modifications. The new organisation pledged itself

(a) to encourage (especially by means of scholarship awards by the Society) the pursuit of secondary and university education among Yoruba boys and girls,

(b) to recognise and maintain the monarchical and other similar institutions of Yorubaland, to plan for their complete enlightenment and democratization … and

(c) to strive earnestly to cooperate with other ethnical associations in matters of common interest to all Nigerians, so as thereby to attain to unity in federation.

The reaction of Dr Azikiwe and all his supporters to the newly formed Egbe was violent beyond compare. All the leaders of the Egbe were vilified in Dr Azikiwe's newspapers. The high-water-mark of the campaign was reached in the following extract from an editorial article in the Pilot of Sep tember 8, 1948:

But now that the Egbe has made it clear that its battle is not really against Dr Azikiwe personally and even against Ibos as a group, but against the aspirations of the 27 million Nigerians backing up the NCNC, the time has come for real action. . . .

Henceforth the cry must be one of battle against the Egbe Omo Oduduwa, its leaders, at home and abroad, up hill, and down dale, in the streets of Nigeria and in the residence of its advocates. The Egbe Omo Oduduwa is the enemy of Nigeria ; it must be crushed to the

earth. . . . There is no going back, until the Fascist organisation of Sir Adeyemo Alakija has been dismembered.

Apart from newspaper attacks, there were also physical assaults on the persons of the leaders of the Egbe, and damage to the houses and other property of some of them. It was absolutely impossible on nationalist grounds to reconcile Dr Azikiwe's insensate hostility to the Egbe with his presidentship of the Ibo Federal Union and his obvious condonation of the existence of a similar organisation founded in the Northern Region in May 1948 and called Jamiyyar Mutanen Arewa (Northern People's Congress). Besides, in spite of his protesta tions to the contrary, Dr Azikiwe was himself an unabashed Ibo jingoist. And he gave the game completely away when he said inter alia in his presidential address to the Ibo Federal Union in 1949, as follows:

. . . It would appear that the God of Africa has specially created the Ibo nation to lead the children of Africa from the bondage of the ages. . . . The martial prowess of the Ibo nation at all stages of human history has enabled them not only to conquer others but also to adapt themselves to the role of preserver. . . . The Ibo nation cannot shirk its responsibility. . . . Politically, you have seen with your own eyes how you were disfranchised by the British. . . . The Ibo nation has never been represented in the Executive Council. . . .

Economically, the Ibo nation has laboured under onerous taxation measures, without sufficient social amenities to justify same.

We have been taxed without representation, and our contributions in taxes have bet:n used to develop other areas, out of proportion to the incidence of taxation in those areas.

It would seem that the Ibo nation is becoming a victim of econo mic annihilation through a gradual but studied process.

In 1948 another Ibo leader and a member of the Nigerian Legislative Council had declared the domination of Nigeria by the Ibos is a question of time.

It was clear from these statements and from the general political and journalistic maneuvers of Dr Azikiwe over the years that his great objective was to set himself up as a dictator over Nigeria and to make the Ibo nation the master race. It would appear according to his reckoning that the only obstacle in the path of his ambition was the Yoruba intelligentsia, and these must be removed at all cost. A situation in which one ethnic group would dominate the others does not accord with my conception of a united and happy Nigeria . I am implacably opposed to dictatorship as well as the doctrine ofHerrenvolk whether it was Hitler's or Dr Azikiwe's.