A Speech delivered by Nnamdi Azikiwe
titled:
“Address to the Ibo People”
at the meeting of the Ibo State Assembly
(ISA) held at Aba, Nigeria, on Saturday,
June 25, 1949.
Harbingers of a new day for the Ibo
nation,
having selected me to preside over the
deliberations of this assembly of the Ibo
nation, I am conscious of the fact that you
have not done so because of any
extraordinary attributes in me. I realize
that
I am not the oldest among you, nor the
wisest, nor the wealthiest, nor the most
experienced, nor the most learned. I am
therefore grateful to you for elevating me
to
this high pedestal.
The Ibo people have reached a cross-road
and it is for us to decide which is the right
course to follow. We are confronted with
routes leading to diverse goals, but as I
see it, there is only one road that I can
safely recommend for us to tread, and it is
the road to self-determination for the Ibo
within the framework of a federated
commonwealth of Nigeria and the
Cameroons, leading to a United States of
Africa. Other roads, in my opinion, are
calculated to lead us astray from the path
of national self-realization.
It would appear that God has specially
created the Ibo people to suffer
persecution and be victimized because of
their resolute will to live. Since suffering is
the label of our tribe, we can afford to be
sacrificed for the ultimate redemption of
the children of Africa. Is it not fortunate
that the Ibo are among the few remnants
of
indigenous African nations who are still
not spoliated by the artificial niceties of
Western materialism? Is it not historically
significant that throughout the glorious
history of Africa, the Ibo is one of the
select few to have escaped the humiliation
of a conqueror’s sword or to be a victim of
a Carthaginian treaty? Search through the
records of African history and you will fail
to find an occasion when, in any pitched
battle, any African nation has either
marched across Ibo territory or subjected
the Ibo nation to a humiliating conquest.
Instead, there is record to show that the
martial prowess of the Ibo, at all stages of
human history, has rivaled them not only
to survive persecution, but also to adapt
themselves to the role thus thrust upon
them by history, of preserving all that is
best and most noble in African culture and
tradition. Placed in this high estate, the Ibo
cannot shirk the responsibility conferred
on it by its manifest destiny. Having
undergone a course of suffering the Ibo
must therefore enter into its heritage by
asserting its birthright, without apologies.
Follow me in a kaleidoscopic study of the
Ibo. Four million strong in man-power! Our
agricultural resources include economic
and food crops which are the bases of
modern civilization, not to mention fruits
and vegetables which flourish in the
tropics! Our mineral resources include
coal, lignite, lead, antimony, iron,
diatomite, clay, oil, tin! Our forest products
include timber of economic value,
including iroko and mahogany! Our fauna
and flora are marvels of the world! Our
land
is blessed by waterways of world renown,
including the River Niger, Imo River, Cross
River! Our ports are among the best
known
in the continent of Africa. Yet in spite of
these natural advantages, which illustrate
without doubt the potential wealth of the
Ibo, we are among the least developed in
Nigeria, economically, and we are so
ostracized socially, that we have become
extraneous in the political institutions of
Nigeria.
I have not come here today in order to
catalogue the disabilities which the Ibo
suffer, in spite of our potential wealth, in
spite of our teeming man-power, in spite
of our vitality as an indigenous African
people; suffice it to say that it would
enable you to appreciate the manifest
destiny of the Ibo if I enumerated some of
the acts of discrimination against us as a
people. Socially, the British Press has not
been sparing in describing us as ‘the most
hated in Nigeria’. In this unholy crusade,
the Daily Mirror, The Times, The
Economist, News Review and the Daily
Mail have been in the forefront. In the
Nigerian Press, you are living witnesses of
what has happened in the last eighteen
months, when Lagos, Zaria and Calabar
sections of the Nigerian Press were
virtually encouraged to provoke us to
tendentious propaganda. It is needless for
me to tell you that today, both in England
and in West Africa, the expression ‘Ibo’ has
become a word of opprobrium.
Politically, you have seen with your own
eyes how four million people were
disenfranchized by the British, for
decades, because of our alleged
backwardness. We have never been
represented on the Executive Council, and
not one Ibo town has had the franchise,
despite the fact that our native political
institutions are essentially democratic—in
fact, more democratic than any other
nation in Africa, in spite of our extreme
individualism.
Economically, we have laboured under
onerous taxation measures, without
receiving sufficient social amenities to
justify them. We have been taxed without
representation, and our contributions in
taxes have been used to develop other
areas, Out of proportion to the incidence
of
taxation in those areas. It would seem that
we are becoming a victim of economic
annihilation through a gradual but studied
process. What are my reasons for
cataloguing these disabilities and
interpreting them as calculated to
emasculate us, and so render us impotent
to assert our right to life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness?
I shall now state the facts which should be
well known to any honest student of
Nigerian history. On the social plane, it will
be found that outside of Government
College at Umauhia, there is no other
secondary school run by the British
Government in Nigeria in Ibo-land. There
is
not one secondary school for girls run by
the British Government in our part of the
country. In the Northern and Western
Provinces, the contrary is the case. If a
survey of the hospital facilities in Ibo-land
were made, embarrassing results might
show some sort of discrimination. Outside
of Port Harcourt, fire protection is not
provided in any Ibo town. And yet we have
been under the protection of Great Britain
for many decades!
On the economic plane, I cannot
sufficiently impress you because you are
too familiar with the victimization which is
our fate. Look at our roads; how many of
them are tarred, compared, for example,
with the roads in other parts of the
country? Those of you who have travelled
to this assembly by road are witnesses of
the corrugated and utterly unworthy state
of the roads which traverse Ibo-land, in
spite of the fact that four million Ibo
people pay taxes in order, among others,
to have good roads. With roads must be
considered the system of communications,
water and electricity supplies. How many
of our towns, for example, have complete
postal, telegraph, telephone and wireless
services, compared to towns in other
areas
of Nigeria? How many have pipe-borne
water supplies? How many have electricity
undertakings? Does not the Ibo tax-payer
fulfill his civic duty? Why, then, must he be
a victim of studied official victimization?
Today, these disabilities have been
intensified. There is a movement to
disregard traditional organization in the
Ibo
nation by the introduction of a specious
system of a form of local government. The
placing of the Ibo nation in an artificial
regionalization scheme has left an unfair
impression of attempted domination by
minorities of the Ibo people. In the House
of Assembly and the Legislative Council
the electoral college system has aided in
the complete disenfranchisement of the
Ibo. As a climax, spurious leadership is
being foisted upon us—a mis-leadership
which receives official recognition, thus
stultifying the legitimate aspirations of the
Ibo. This leadership shows a palpable
disloyalty to the Ibo and loyalty to an alien
protecting power.
The only worthwhile stand we can make
as
a nation is to assert our right to self-
determination, as a unit of a prospective
Federal Commonwealth of Nigeria and
the
Cameroons, where our rights will be
respected and safeguarded. Roughly
speaking, there are twenty main dialectal
regions in the Ibo nation, which can be
conveniently departmentalized as
Provinces of an Ibo State, to wit: Mbamili
in the northwest, Aniocha in the west,
Anidinma and Ukwuani in the southeast,
Nsukka and Udi in the north, Awgu, Awka
and Onitsha in the centre, Ogbaru in the
south, Abakaliki and Afikpo in the
northwest, Okigwi, Orlu, Owerri and
Mbaise
in the east, Ngwa, Bende, Abiriba Ohafia
and Etche in the southwest. These
Provinces can have their territorial
boundaries delimited, they can select their
capitals, and then can conveniently
develop their resources both for their
common benefit and for those of the other
nationalities who make up this great
country called Nigeria and the
Cameroons.
The keynote in this address is self-
determination for the Ibo. Let us establish
an Ibo State, based on linguistic and ethnic
factors, enabling us to take our place side
by side with the other linguistic and ethnic
groups which make up Nigeria and the
Cameroons. With the Hausa, Fulani,
Kanuri,
Yoruba, Ibibio (Iboku), Angus (Bi-Rom),
Tiv, Ijaw, Edo, Urhobo, ltsekiri, Nupe,
Igalla,
Ogaja, Gwari, Duala, Bali and other
nationalities asserting their right to self-
determination each as separate as the
fingers, but united with others as a part of
the same hand, we can reclaim Nigeria
and
the Cameroons from this degradation
which it has pleased the forces of
European imperialism to impose upon us.
Therefore, our meeting today is of
momentous importance in the history of
the Ibo, in that opportunity has been
presented to us to heed the call of a
despoiled race, to answer the summons to
redeem a ravished continent, to rally
forces
to the defence of a humiliated country,
and
to arouse national consciousness in a
demoralized but dynamic nation.
Sources:
Nnamdi Azikiwe, Zik: A Selection from the
Speeches of Nnamdi Azikiwe, Governor-
General of the Federation of Nigeria
formerly President of the Nigerian Senate
formerly Premier of the Eastern Region of
Nigeria (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1961).
• 1886-1960

Zik is a dead meat. He was no visionary. Our earlier leaders were thieves n disillusioned. They sold us into suffering n mental slavery.

Too long , can someone read it to me ?

Great Zik was the Africa's most educated and visionary leader.

He is Africa's finest in the mold of Mandela, Nkruma, etc

Zik was a demagogue, whose fiery rhetorics were misconstrued by the British for substance. He needlessly attracted undue attention from the British to himself and so was marked for destruction.

The British were not handing over power to this man nor to any other southerner for that matter! At the end of the day Zik was found out as nothing more than an armchair activist, for he loathed any risk to personal injury! The British saw that weakness and exploited it to the max.

If Zik had been a much wiser nationalist, Nigeria would have developed more than this. The above speech for instance was lacking in wisdom and strategic thinking, even though it moved its listeners into a frenzy.

Schematics:
Great Zik was the Africa's most educated and visionary leader.

He is Africa's finest in the mold of Mandela, Nkruma, etc

Not close at all to these giants. Not even by a million miles!

Stop deceiving your self. Great Zik of Africa was the first president of this country and foremost Nigerian nationalist.

He singledhandedly championed the independence of this country.

The only African that can be compared to Zik of Africa were Mandela and Nkruma.

Go and read up about great Zik to cure your ignorance.

Volksfuhrer:


Not close at all to these giants. Not even by a million miles!

Schematics:
Stop deceiving your self. Great Zik of Africa was the first president of this country and foremost Nigerian nationalist.

He singledhandedly championed the independence of this country.

The only African that can be compared to Zik of Africa were Mandela and Nkruma.

Go and read up about great Zik to cure your ignorance.

Sorry, Zik was overrated! He was only good at hiding behind his speeches, pretending to be courageous!

Foremost nationalist? Say something else. Someone that the British saw merely as a nuisance does not deserve such appellation. Zik that the British had already caged long before independence is what you call foremost nationalist!

Like as I said keep deceiving your sorry self.

Great Zik singlehandedly led the way for Nigerian independence and subsequently became the first president of Nigeria. It didnt happen by chance my friend. Lol

Being courageous is not about physical fight. Zik floated the first newspaper in West Africa the West African Pilot to fight the British to a standstill.

Great Zik was among the first educated Africans to study in America. Zik influenced even Nkruma to go study in Lincoln University--America.

Zik can only be rated among firebrands as Mandela, Nkruma etc.

Great Zik was Nigeria's number one nationalist and among first 3 in Africa.

There are few in Africa that are in his class.

Volksfuhrer:


Sorry, Zik was overrated! He was only good at hiding behind his speeches, pretending to be courageous!

Foremost nationalist? Say something else. Someone that the British saw merely as a nuisance does not deserve such appellation. Zik that the British had already caged long before independence is what you call foremost nationalist!

Schematics:
Like as I said keep deceiving your sorry self.

Great Zik singledhandedly led the way for Nigerian independence and subsequently became the first president of Nigeria. It didnt happen by chance my friend. Lol

Being courageous is not about physical fight. Zik floated the first newspaper in West Africa the West African Pilot to fight the British to a standstill.

Great Zik was among the first educated Africans to study in America. Zik influenced even Nkruma to go study in Lincoln America.

Zik can only be rated among firebrands as Mandela, Nkruma etc.

Great Zik was Nigeria's number one nationalist and among first 3 in Africa.

There are few in Africa that are in his class.

By 1956, Zik was already toothless. The British no longer took him seriously for his vanity and lack of moral courage.

From your submissions, it's obvious you know very little about that period.

Go and read up your history. I am done with this back and forth with a toddler.

Volksfuhrer:


By 1956, Zik was already toothless. The British no longer took him seriously for his vanity and lack of moral courage.

From your submissions, it's obvious you know very little about that period.

Schematics:
Go and read up your history. I am done with this back and forth with a toddler.

accept it or not.....ZIK was a CHEAT!!!
mention one single human development legacy he left behindand u are a bloody liar to relate zik with Nigeria and independence,was he the one that move the motion or where in the place in history he fought for independent, when the western region of this country was the one that first gained independent that they called self independent,before the eastern region follow?please u better go back to ur history....ZIK was an errand boy to the northern oligarchy and was only fighting for his own self glorification! !!

Great Zik of Africa was the first president of Nigeria after laying the foundation of Nigeria. Its something nobody has achieved ahead of him.

Zik is number one and foremost nationalist out of Nigeria and among the best out of Africa. Deal with it. Lolzz

Ayus34:

accept it or not.....ZIK was a CHEAT!!!
mention one single human development legacy he left behindand u are a bloody liar to relate zik with Nigeria and independence,was he the one that move the motion or where in the place in history he fought for independent, when the western region of this country was the one that first gained independent that they called self independent,before the eastern region follow?please u better go back to ur history....ZIK was an errand boy to the northern oligarchy and was only fighting for his own self glorification! !!

Schematics:
Go and read up your history. I am done with this back and forth with a toddler.

You know a lot about the period yet you have not been able to show Zik's contribution to national development or present his personal sacrifices. He was first "Governor General," first "President," and so what! What did he do more with such positions than to receive and entertain foreign VIPs. That is what you call achievement!

His nationalism could not even persuade a part of Cameroon to remain with Nigeria despite inheriting a party supposedly caring for them: that is your achievement as foremost nationalist!

I'm sorry, you are the toddler here who doesn't know what he's talking about!

Great Zik of Africa was the first president of Nigeria and the foremost nationalist out of Nigeria and among the finest out of Africa. Such positions are not for the fools. Deal with it or you can keep crying.

Volksfuhrer:


You know a lot about the period yet you have not been able to show Zik's contribution to national development or present his personal sacrifices. He was first "Governor General," first "President," and so what! What did he do more with such positions than to receive and entertain foreign VIPs. That is what you call achievement!

His nationalism could not even persuade a part of Cameroon to remain with Nigeria despite inheriting a party supposedly caring for them: that is your achievement as foremost nationalist!

I'm sorry, you are the toddler here who doesn't know what he's talking about!

In a nutshell, Zik was preaching for resource control decades back. Every tribe in Nigeria wants total resource control except hausa / fulani. Now they are back once more to complete the balkanization of Nigeria which they started a long time ago.

janus05:
In a nutshell, Zik was preaching for resource control decades back. Every tribe in Nigeria wants total resource control except hausa / fulani. Now they are back once more to complete the balkanization of Nigeria which they started a long time ago.

What makes you think Hausa/Fulani don't want resource control?

AhmedMustapha:

What makes you think Hausa/Fulani don't want resource control?

Don't mind him. He doesn't know the hausa-fulani wants to control the oil in the south!

Heck, they say it is even their own. So which kain resource control pass that one?

papaejima1:

Don't mind him. He doesn't know the hausa-fulani wants to control the oil in the south!

Heck, they say it is even their own. So which kain resource control pass that one?

You have to understand that all states in the country are blessed with mineral resources. The failure of government in harnessing these resources has led to the over-dependence of the Nigerian Oil

Zik oh zik why d.......

Schematics:

Great Zik of Africa was the first president of Nigeria after laying the foundation of Nigeria. Its something nobody has achieved ahead of him.

Zik is number one and foremost nationalist out of Nigeria and among the best out of Africa. Deal with it. Lolzz

stop beating around the bush....name one single socio developmental project or program ZIK achiever when he was alive
a ceremonial president is not achievement,especially when u are made non functional as a president under a northern hierarchy!

Hate it or love it, Zik still remains the most revered Nigerian nationalist. No other person comes close.

Great Zik of Africa was the first president of Nigeria. Being the first president of Nigeria is so unique. Its a fact known all over the world. Some people even wanted to be president for just one day but they never succeeded. Stop crying and face the reality.

He didn't achieve anything in your poisoned mind but he is the most honored nationalist in Nigeria; the most important airport is named after him, Nigeria's highest denomination has his image, all the major cities from Abuja, Lagos, PH, Onitsha, Kano, kaduna, etc has major roads named after him. FG built mausoleums in his honor at his birth place in Zungeru and in Onitsha where he was buried.

Fools, coup plotters and non achievers are not honored in such a powerful manner. Keep whining and crying because its justified, you have every reason to be crying.

Ayus34:

stop beating around the bush....name one single socio developmental project or program ZIK achiever when he was alive
a ceremonial president is not achievement,especially when u are made non functional as a president under a northern hierarchy!

Schematics:
Great Zik was the Africa's most educated and visionary leader.

He is Africa's finest in the mold of Mandela, Nkruma, etc

Na wa oo.

Schematics:
Great Zik of Africa was the first president of Nigeria. Being the first president of Nigeria is so unique. Its a fact known all over the world. Some people even wanted to be president for just one day but they never succeeded. Stop crying and face the reality.

He didn't achieve anything in your poisoned mind but he is the most honored nationalist in Nigeria; the most important airport is named after him, Nigeria's highest denomination has his image, all the major cities from Abuja, Lagos, PH, Onitsha, Kano, kaduna, etc has major roads named after him. FG built mausoleums in his honor at his birth place in Zungeru and in Onitsha where he was buried.

Fools, coup plotters and non achievers are not honored in such a powerful manner. Keep whining and crying because its justified, you have every reason to be crying.

Zik was truly great.
Zik of Africa!

Volksfuhrer:
Zik was a demagogue, whose fiery rhetorics were misconstrued by the British for substance. He needlessly attracted undue attention from the British to himself and so was marked for destruction.

The British were not handing over power to this man nor to any other southerner for that matter! At the end of the day Zik was found out as nothing more than an armchair activist, for he loathed any risk to personal injury! The British saw that weakness and exploited it to the max.

If Zik had been a much wiser nationalist, Nigeria would have developed more than this. The above speech for instance was lacking in wisdom and strategic thinking, even though it moved its listeners into a frenzy.

This can only come from the sanguinary lips of an Ojukwuist.

Personal Injury? what do you mean by that? Zik is towing the path of diplomacy, exactly 11yrs from this speech, Nigeria gained independence without firing a shot!! same for most countries of the world, so what is the "bodily harm" for?

The British handing over to the north, does it signify that Tafawa Belewa or Ahmadu Bello was ready to take bodily harm?
Most of you have serious erosion of cognitive reasoning.

Zik was only trying to convince his people to support him to push for an independent Nigeria, he made them see objectively how the British hegemony isn't to their favor hence proffered a solution, by 1957, Zik has inaugurated the NCNC (National council of Nigerians and Cameroon) to drive his point home.
Is that what you call arm chair critic?

The ibos today are lacking serious direction in leadership, even a blind person can see that the PDP government was never in favour of the Ibos, their inability to allign with their interest today was what Zik bemoaned in 1949, was he wrong? ?

Let us emphasize more on Personal injury, it was the wisdom of the likes of Zik and Nkrumah that saved Africa a lot of blood shed and positioned the compass of our beginning on a high moral pedestal you should be grateful for that.

If you got your independence at the blood cost to the Americans, I am sure you will be more circumspect in spewing rubbish.

If they were anything like Ojukwu, you and I will not be here, the British was a bigger and superior Enemy to the Nigerian Army. Our case would have been worse than Apartheid SA. With pen/wisdom, Zik brought down a Goliath, with Gun, Emperor Ojukwu's March to liberation was crushed.

Learn from History.

Volksfuhrer:


Sorry, Zik was overrated! He was only good at hiding behind his speeches, pretending to be courageous!

Foremost nationalist? Say something else. Someone that the British saw merely as a nuisance does not deserve such appellation. Zik that the British had already caged long before independence is what you call foremost nationalist!

A coward and a nuisance by your psychotic standard, yet the British abandoned a tax paying, resource laden empire for his sake and ran away right?

Let me even assume for the sake of arguement that you are not a historic Nincompoop, A speech like this in the late 40's can land you in a gas chamber anywhere in Eastern Europe let alone Africa.


Do you know the definition of treason in 1940? "Any action or thought that embarases the emperor" in this case the queen of England. Zik just incited his people to civil disobedience and self determination under the watch of the Emperor and you dare call him a coward?

Do you know that as early as 1893, not saying "God bless the queen" can land your head on a spike?

I don't expect an academically inept generation to know that.

jpphilips:


A coward and a nuisance by your psychotic standard, yet the British abandoned a tax paying, resource laden empire for his sake and ran away right?

Let me even assume for the sake of arguement that you are not a historic Nincompoop, A speech like this in the late 40's can land you in a gas chamber anywhere in Eastern Europe let alone Africa.


Do you know the definition of treason in 1940? "Any action or thought that embarases the emperor" in this case the queen of England. Zik just incited his people to civil disobedience and self determination under the watch of the Emperor and you dare call him a coward?

Do you know that as early as 1893, not saying "God bless the queen" can land your head on a spike?

I don't expect an academically inept generation to know that.

Sorry, the speech was empty, mere hype, nothing more.

And please stop overrating Zik. Just stop this nonsense! There were incendiary nationalists too before Zik, why weren't those hanged? or gassed? or guillotined? Or did you think our constitutional development began with Zik? Your post reeks of ignorance.

Thank you for thoroughly schooling the unlettered nuisance.

jpphilips:


A coward and a nuisance by your psychotic standard, yet the British abandoned a tax paying, resource laden empire for his sake and ran away right?

Let me even assume for the sake of arguement that you are not a historic Nincompoop, A speech like this in the late 40's can land you in a gas chamber anywhere in Eastern Europe let alone Africa.


Do you know the definition of treason in 1940? "Any action or thought that embarases the emperor" in this case the queen of England. Zik just incited his people to civil disobedience and self determination under the watch of the Emperor and you dare call him a coward?

Do you know that as early as 1893, not saying "God bless the queen" can land your head on a spike?

I don't expect an academically inept generation to know that.

Volksfuhrer:


You know a lot about the period yet you have not been able to show Zik's contribution to national development or present his personal sacrifices. He was first "Governor General," first "President," and so what! What did he do more with such positions than to receive and entertain foreign VIPs. That is what you call achievement!

His nationalism could not even persuade a part of Cameroon to remain with Nigeria despite inheriting a party supposedly caring for them: that is your achievement as foremost nationalist!

I'm sorry, you are the toddler here who doesn't know what he's talking about!

You are just a cheap Lout, do you know what a Governor General means? ?
post independent Govt left the position of the Emperor still active.

1963 when Nigeria became a Republic, the position of the Emperor was renamed Governor General and given to Zik. Zik literary replaced the queen of England in Nigerian politics. Bros go and hide, your ignorance stink!!

Someone who was instrumental to an independent Nigeria you ask what he contributed?

Do you know how it feels for example the Govt of Cameroon to deduct your salary and allowance in form of tax and you cannot cough?
That is what Zik saved you from, you cursed brain.

If you drink local Gin distilled from Tombo you will spend 5yrs in prison, that is what Zik saved you from.

People in Enugu dig coal, most times die from mine explosion, they load it in a train and the proceed is paid to the British government, whether Enugu people lived or died Britain doesn't care, dey still return to tax the meager allowance they are paid. That is what Zik saved you from.


Nigeria is not supposed to have an army, the protectorate of Nigeria is protected by the Royal army, that is what Zik saved you from.

Nigeria can sell crude oil today is the effort of Zik and his cohorts.

Nigeria can fly a flag with coat of arm and sit amongst the committee of Nations is the making of Zik and his cohorts.

If not for Zik and his cohorts, you will assume no citizenship till date

Nigeria has a president today is their making too, You are a mere political mosquito who knows nothing, go and hide.

janus05:
In a nutshell, Zik was preaching for resource control decades back. Every tribe in Nigeria wants total resource control except hausa / fulani. Now they are back once more to complete the balkanization of Nigeria which they started a long time ago.

Zik was not pushing for Ibos to control their resources, he was pushing for Nigeria to control her resources.
That speech was where the Journey to an independent Nigeria began.

AhmedMustapha:

You have to understand that all states in the country are blessed with mineral resources. The failure of government in harnessing these resources has led to the over-dependence of the Nigerian Oil

Wrong!! The Nigerian state invested heavily in oil at the expense of other resources, it was not a failure but an economic priority.