Category: History – Political
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Orisadipe Obasa, a pioneer Nigerian physician, one of the last of the eight who qualified as medic in the late 19th century was born in Sierra Leone into a privileged royal family of Ikole-Ekiti and Ikija, Abeokuta on January 1863. In 1878, Obasa joined the Wesleyan Boys High Schol in Lagos where he showed good…
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Theophilus Owolabi Sobowale Benson was a Lagos lawyer and prominent member of Nigeria’s pre and post independence aristocracy. Born in Ikorodu in 1917, Benson lived for 91 years, a life that is remembered for high attainment and personal style. He attended CMS Grammar School, Lagos and after working briefly in the civil service as a…
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Dosunmu, name spelt Docemo in the Victorian Lagos era, Oba of Lagos between 1853 and 1885. He was responsible for the cession of Lagos to the British crown, thereby making Lagos a colony. His denial, two years later, of this August 1861 deal earned him a levy and lost of his pension but more importantly,…
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Imperialism, also called colonialism, refers to the subjugation of a territory under another, especially through military force, hence the political and economic dependence of the subject. Colonialism originally refers to the transfer of a population from one territory to another without a shift in allegiance. As it is in the case of many subject nations…
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Traditional Aristocracy, the political system that trusts power with a limited ruling class in ancient times, existed side by sides with the royal institution and over the centuries, a balance of power between these two was somehow achieved in the region that would constitute the southwestern Nigeria. Hardly was there a monarch who successfully promoted…
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Nigeria National Democratic Party (NNDP), Nigeria’s first political party, founded by Herbert Macaulay in conjunction with Lagos intelligentsias such as Joseph Egerton Shyngle, Eric Moore, C.C. Adeniyi-Jones, and Dr. Adeyemo Alakija, in 1923 out of the need to contest elections into the new Legislative Council. The Nigeria National Democratic Party (NNDP) as a nationalist organization…
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Action Group was the political organization founded by Obafemi Awolowo in 1950 following the dissolution of the Nigerian Youth Movement. In 1948, independent of his effort, Awolowo had realised that leaders like Adeyemo Alakija, Dr. Akinola Maja, Kofo Abayomi, Bode Thomas, Hezekiah Davies and Dr. Akanni Doherty have formed a pan-tribal group called Egbe Omo…
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Obafemi Awolowo was a statesman and philosopher, one of the principal founding fathers of Nigeria, revered like no other in southwest Nigeria politics. Awolowo was born 6 March 1909 in a small town, Ikenne, to Sopolu and Efunyela who were both early Christian converts. The death of his father in 1920 unsettled his life, but…
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Herbert Macaulay is the nationalist figure whose portrait adorn the Nigerian one-naira metal coin. Macaulay was the grandson of the equally notable Samuel Adjai Crowther whose influence was significant in the annexation of Lagos and in the missionary activities across the country. Herbert was also the son of the founder of Nigeria’s first secondary school,…
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National Union of Students was founded October 1939 in Abeokuta Grammar School among students at the urge of the school’s principal, Oludotun Ransome-Kuti. The Union, at inception, sought to establish unity among Nigerian nationalities. The NUS collaborated with the Nigerian Youth Circle in organizing a youth rally in Ojokoro in November 1943, with the likes…