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After a period of self-rule under the British Crown from 1954, Nigeria became fully independent in 1960. After the enacting of a new constitution, Nigeria became a republic in 1963.

First prime minister of Nigeria, Nnamdi Azikiwe, 1963
Source: Author unknown, official portrait, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

In a lecture on Nigerian political developments leading up to the movement for an independent Nigeria, Nnamdi Azikiwe, who would become the nation’s first prime minister, recollected:

“The main issue which the NCNC [National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons] tackled as soon as it was founded was that of self-government. At all its meetings since 1944 it has preached the doctrine that Nigeria is ready for self-government, and has spotlighted any statements which favour this point of view, whilst it attacks opposing views. In the early years of the NCNC, Mr J. V. Clinton, O.B.E., the Editor of the now defunct Nigerian Eastern Mail, used to gun for nationalists who demanded self-government. He claimed that Nigeria was too backward either to appreciate it or to be worthy of this political honour. This followed the forthright statement in 1944 of Mr Henry Wallace, former Vice-President of the United States, challenging Britain to indicate a time-limit for setting colonial peoples free, as an earnest of her constructive peace aims. The Labour Opposition in the House of Commons had tackled the Secretary of State for India (Leopold M. Amery) at this time and demanded the relase of Mahatma Gandhi and Pandit Nehru from prison. Mr Amery prevaricated, and on being requested to state categorically what India wanted, Mahatma Gandhi said that Indian nationalists demanded from Britain self-government for India and for the people of Africa.

Following the stand taken by WASU [West African Students’ Union] in London over the issue of self-government, and the views expressed by the West African Press Delegation to London, Mr Reginald Sorensen, M.P., advocated that Britain should indicate a time-limit of ten to fifteen years to enable British West Africa to be self-governing. ‘I believe that if the Colonial Secretary would announce such action in our colonial empire, particularly in West Africa,’ Mr Sorensen appealed, ‘he would strike a stronger blow for the principles for which men are dying today than by anything which he had said before.’ Not only was Mr Sorensen’s plea played down by the British press, but it was suppressed by the Public Relations Department of Nigeria. It was left to the West African Pilot and the Daily Service to publicize and support Mr Sorensen’s timely statement.”

Source: Nnamdi Azikiwe, ‘Zik on the Development of Political Parties in Nigeria, an address delivered at Rhodes House, Oxford University, on June 11, 1957, under the chairmanship of Sir David Keir, Master of Balliol College, Oxford’ cited in Zik, A Selection from the Speeches of Nnamdi Azikiwe (Cambridge University Press: Aylesbury and Slough, 1961), p. 315-16

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