Thread by @RemiAdekoya1

Greetings all! Day 5 of our #NigerianPoliticalHistory sessions based on my thesis research.

Today we'll discuss Nigeria's first general election in 1951 which was particularly nasty in Western Region and is considered by some as the moment ethnic politics came to Nigeria 4 good.

The 1951 campaign for the Western Region was a bitter contest between Zik's NCNC party and Awolowo's Action Group. Zik had decided to contest a seat in Lagos so he could get into the Western Assembly, leaving his party colleagues to try capture the Eastern Assembly.

This vexed many Yoruba intellectuals and others around Awolowo. Awo's Tribune newspaper ran editorials saying Zik running in Lagos was 'an insult to all Westerners' and that he should have run in his home Eastern Region. Zik should leave the West to 'Westerners,' Tribune argued.

In response, Zik launched into Awo. In a November 1951 speech at Obalende Square, he described Awo as a 'mannerless buffoon', 'Satan incarnate', 'tribalist', a 'bigot' full of 'pride and hatred' and was like Hitler. Here are newspaper excerpts from the speech with cited comments.

The 1951 election results revealed a country divided into regional party enclaves: Eastern Region dominated by NCNC, Northern by NPC and Western Region by AG. The Western Region elections were however, a close battle between NCNC and AG and both claimed victory after voting-day.

Most candidates stood without party labels, resulting in a brief period of confusion regarding which party some elected members would represent. When it emerged AG had the majority, NCNC cried foul, claiming some members who pledged allegiance to it before the elections were

lured by AG after the vote via corruption. AG denied this, going on to form a regional government. AG also embarked on a complicated political manoeuvre (masterminded by Awolowo) to ensure Azikiwe wasn’t elected to the central House of Representatives from the Western Region’s

House of Assembly where he had chosen to contest a seat rather than in his native Eastern Region. This successful manoeuvring included turning some elected NCNC members against Azikiwe, forcing their party boss to remain in the Western Region’s assembly as opposition leader

rather than going to the federal legislature to coordinate NCNC from there as planned. The bitter nature of the 1951 Western elections and subsequent scheming to ‘sink Azikiwe in the Western House’ as Awo described it, was bitterly remembered in NCNC and wider Igbo circles.

Some point to the 1951 Western elections as the moment ethnic politics arrived Nigeria for good with the message for Azikiwe essentially being that he return to his Eastern homeland and leave the West to be run by Westerners.

Indeed, a few years later, Zik was forced to return to his home Eastern Region and run from there. Perhaps we shall stop for there today. We'll continue tomorrow with events of 1952-53. Enjoy your Sunday folks😃!