Thread by @RemiAdekoya1

Morning All😃! Day 3 of our #NigerianPoliticalHistory sessions based on my PhD research into constructions of sub-national identities by Obafemi Awolowo, Nnamdi Azikiwe and Ahmadu Bello.

Today, we'll discuss some major events in late 1940s, including the 1948 'Lagos Press War.'

Ethnic and regional identities had begun to solidify and become politically meaningful in Nigeria by the 1940s along with the expansion of various ethnic unions and organizations. In 1945, while a student in London, Obafemi Awolowo co-founded the Egbe Omo Odùduwà.

It was a pan-Yoruba organization meant to foster unity and a sense of one-ness among Yoruba-speaking peoples who had historically identified with their city of origin rather than as 'Yorubas.' However, all agreed descent from 'Odùduwà', hence the chosen name as a unifying factor.

Meanwhile, the Ibo Federal Union had been established in 1944, also with a view to engendering pan-Igbo unity. In the North, the Bauchi General Improvement Union was established in 1943. This later morphed into Ahmadu Bello's Northern People’s Congress (NPC)party in 1949.

NPC aimed to promote Northern unity in the fight to maintain regional autonomy for the North to stave off the Southern domination its members feared. NPC was conservative and did not wish to challenge the authority of existing colonial structures as Southern political groups did.

The majority of Northern leaders considered the main enemy to be the better-educated condescending Southern Nigerian, not the British colonialist. For all these ethnic and/or regionally-based organizations, the regionalism of the Richards’ Constitution was a positive development

as the regional Houses of Assembly created by it strengthened ethnically-based organizations by giving them something specific and tangible to fight for on a regional level. Meanwhile, Nigeria got a new Governor-General, John Macpherson, in April 1948.

Macpherson arrived at a critical moment. Two months earlier, serious rioting had broken out in Accra. This led to a decision by British colonial authorities to change Ghana's (then Gold Coast’s) constitution to give its citizens a greater role in administering their nation.

A subsequent 1949 report suggested introducing ministerial government with African-run government departments; by February 1951 Kwame Nkrumah was leader of government business in the Gold Coast and the colony was heading towards independence.

These developments made it difficult, if not impossible to delay change in Nigeria. It was too easy for Nigerian leaders to point to developments in their near neighbour and argue for the application to Nigeria of similar measures.

Add to that British fears of communist (Soviet) infiltration within the ranks of labour and of a more radical brand of nationalism and we see how the stage was set for further constitutional and political development in Nigeria towards independence.

A significant event deserving special attention during the Richards’ Constitution-era was the ‘Lagos Press War’ of 1948 between Azikiwe’s newspapers, in particular the West African Pilot and the Daily Service, which had by now become the mouthpiece of the Yoruba Egbe Omo Odùduwà.

From the inception of the Egbe in Nigeria (with Awolowo as Secretary-General) it faced accusations from Azikiwe and his media of ethnicizing politics. The latter chose to ignore the fact an Ibo Federal Union with very similar objectives for Igbos already existed at the time.

For most of 1948, the rival papers were involved in a bitter war of words involving personal attacks often tainted with ethnic undertones. Egbe leaders were furious when Azikiwe supported the establishment of a rival Yoruba socio-cultural organization: the Yoruba Federal Union.

June 1948, a Daily Service editorial was published titled: ‘Nnamdi Azikiwe is warned not to strain the patience of Yoruba people.’ The (Yoruba) author stated:

"The picture that leaves me bewildered is that of Zik, an out-and-out Ibo inaugurating a Yoruba Federal Union!...

..It may be said in mitigation that he had but the poorest materials out of which to erect the Yoruba Federal Union, having only managed to scrape together the waifs and strays of the Yoruba race…he had no Yoruba unions to ‘federate’ for no Yoruba Union would submit to

the degradation of being federated by Zik. Nevertheless, the daring of the man is staggering…by attempting so openly to create divisions among the Yorubas, he is approaching the zero hour of his chequered political career. He is playing with the trigger of a loaded gun,

the muzzle of which is pointed ominously toward his own forehead. Can anyone imagine a Yoruba man in Onitsha or Nnewi organizing an Ibo Federal Union?"

By September 1948, Yoruba-Igbo hostilities had escalated to such an extent, colonial authorities feared there was real danger

of actual physical violence between Igbos and Yorubas. These fears were intensified by news radicals from both sides had started buying up all the available cutlasses in Lagos in readiness for clashes and police presence was increased on the streets of the city.

In response to alarms raised about mass cutlass purchases by Igbos, Azikiwe declared the ‘brandishing of cutlasses and machetes were only for propaganda purposes', a rather unconvincing explanation.

By September 8, hostilities had reached a fever pitch, with a Pilot editorial arguing that:

"Henceforth the cry must be one of battle against the Egbe Omo Odùduwà, its leaders, at home and abroad, uphill and down, in the streets of Nigeria and in the residence of its advocates.

The Egbe Omo Odùduwà is the enemy of Nigeria; it must be crushed to the earth…There is no going back, until the Fascist organization of Sir Adeyemo Alakija [leader of Egbe] has been dismembered," argued West African Pilot.

At a mass meeting of Igbos in Lagos, it was declared personal attacks on Azikiwe would be considered attacks on the ‘Igbo nation’. The situation calmed down towards the end of 1948 after the intervention of the colonial government.

Historian James Coleman asserted:

"The most significant outcome of the press war was the politicization of the Ibo Federal Union and the Egbe. In December 1948, the Igbo Federal Union morphed into the Ibo State Union to organize the ‘Igbo linguistic group into a political unit

in accordance with the NCNC freedom charter’…. Azikiwe was elected Igbo State Union president. Azikiwe was elected Igbo State Union president."

This opened Azikiwe up to accusations from his detractors, including Awolowo, that he was in fact, first and foremost, an Igbo leader

and not the Pan-nationalist he was claiming to be and that his NCNC party was essentially an Igbo-dominated outfit. Attempting to shed light on the psychological factors driving Igbo-Yoruba rivalry at the time, Coleman pointed to Yoruba elite resentment against the rising status

of Igbos in the 1940s. Due to the early educational advantages of the Yorubas, up until the mid-1930s, a disproportionate amount of the higher positions in the civil service and business were held by Yorubas.

Additionally, until Azikiwe and his NCNC emerged, Yorubas had dominated political activity in Lagos. But by the late 1940s, the Igbos were fast eliminating the educational gap and becoming increasingly assertive in business and [Lagos] politics. This vexed many Yoruba elites.

As for North-South tensions, we have mentioned the fear Northern elites had because of the educational and socio-economic gap between their region and the South. The Northern People’s Congress (NPC) leadership believed the North could only be saved by Northerners.

Common opposition to the more advanced Southerners, perceived as arrogant and aggressive, created a Northern unity that transcended social class. It is against this background of North-South and Yoruba-Igbo tension that we must view the post-1948 shift to regional separatism.

Perhaps, we'd stop there for today folks. Have a great day and see you tomorrow! Perhaps a bit later on in the morning as its weekend😃!