The defeated sage, leader Obafemi Awolowo, a Nigerian nationalist and statesman who played a key role in Nigeria’s independence movement.
Awolowo also played a key role in the first and most recent republics, adding the 30-month civil war. He was prime minister of the now defunct Western Region.
He founded the Action Group in 1951 to combine the political interests of the western region of the time.
In 1949, he founded the Nigerian Tribune, a personal newspaper aimed at reporting on political problems, colonial rule and galvanizing the movement for independence. Awolowo played a major role in the fight for self-government.
The resting position of the last leader Obafemi Awolowo, also known as the Mausoleum Awo, is in Ikenne, Ogun state, where he lived before he died.
When our correspondent visited the site on Thursday, he closed it, indicating that no visitor can simply access it.
Speaking about how the circle of relatives helps maintain the reminiscence of the eminent Nigerian one of his sons, Dr. Tokunbo Awolowo-Dosunmu, told PUNCH on Saturday that they were doing so through the Obafemi Awolowo Foundation.
On 15 January 1966, the prime minister of former northern Nigeria and Sardauna of Sokoto, Sir Ahmadu Bello, was killed in a coup led by Commander Chukwuma Nzeogwu, who overthrew the country’s post-independence government.
It was the army’s first coup that announced the army’s foray into Nigerian politics. Sardauna’s long-time friend, Sir Tafawa Balewa, then prime minister along with some politicians from the north and southwest, was also killed.
Online resources indicated that Hafsat, the late prime minister’s older wife, died with her husband that day. Sarduana had 3 surviving daughters and a woman, Amina, also known as Goggon Kano. Sardauna’s eldest daughter, Inno, followed Aisha and Lubabatu. .
Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, carries its call and its symbol also embelliellies the N200 banknote.
Contrary to the widespread hypothesis that the Prime Minister’s remains were interned at Arewa House, In Kaduna, Zaria or Sokoto, Saturday PUNCH estimated that they had been buried in the Sultan’s space in Ungwar Sarki, Kaduna state.
It has been known that for a new crisis in Sokoto after the assassination of Sardauna, the then Sultan of Sokoto, Sir Abubakar III (KBE, LLD, 1938-1988) pleaded that his remains be buried in the sultan’s space with that of his wife, Hafsat.
Mallam Sai’d Sarkin Gida, who is guilty of the grave, told one of our correspondents that he had visited the place that the defeated Prime Minister had been buried at Ungwan Sarki.
He said that after the discovery of the frame at Arewa House, efforts were made to move the remains for burial in Sokoto, but the army stopped the plan to avoid any crises.
Gida said: “Then they insisted that he be buried in Kaduna and the sultan of Sokoto at the time, he pleaded with him in the sultan’s space in Ungwan Sarki with his overdue wife,” he said.
Saturday PUNCH was unable to talk to any of Saudauna’s youth at the time of writing.
Chef Anthony Enahoro
The last leader Anthony Enahoro was one of Nigeria’s leading anti-colonial and pro-democracy activists. In 1953, he would have been the first to introduce Nigeria’s independence movement, which despite everything granted in 1960 after several political setbacks and defeats in parliament.
Enahoro died on 15 December 2010 and is one of the notable names in Nigerian politics.
During a stopover at their Onewa in Uromi, Edo state, villagers celebrated their contribution to Nigeria.
Although its well-cultivated burial position in the old circle of relatives along the Ubiaja road is maintained through the occupants of the house, much remains to be done to give a face wash to the position as the iron perimeter becomes rustic.
The son of one of Onewa’s network leaders, Joel Ayimere, described Enahoro as one of the other people in the highest esteem through his network and through Uromi in general. He said: “He has a good reputation at all. After his death, no one can update him. He likes an idol for other people. That’s what he is to us.
Ayimere said the other people of Onewa were upset that the defeated sage had not been immortalized despite his contribution to the Nigerian’s emancipation from the colonial hands.
“In fact, the chain is concerned that a guy of its prestige has not been well immortalized.
“Chief Enahoro was my uncle. He was a father to me and many other members of the network. Every time I visited the network, we were able to welcome you. In fact, no one could get the kind of reception. “won from our network and Uromi as a whole.
Frank Akhere, who remains in Enahoro’s family circle, said he was unhappy with the state of Enahoro Cemetery.
Akhere said: “Well, I can say that this is not a state in which one expects him to deserve it. But we expect something bigger to happen. The courtesy granted to expired icons is not presented to him in death. “, I would like your youth to make more scale on the site and give you a younger boost. For me it’s like a deserted position right now, but because we live here, we seek to keep the position clean, especially for those who make a stopover.
“Well, I think the guy will be honored. So far, nothing massive has been done to immortalize it at the federal level.
“In Hisomi, his hometown, there is nothing that bears his name and in the state of Edo. Only the House of the Assembly of Ring Road in the city of Benin is named after him. Ambrose Alli University is named after a wonderful son of the state, so why can they do the same with Chief Anthony Enahoro?
Efforts to talk to one of Enahoro’s vanquished sons, Eugene, failed because he did not answer the calls on his mobile phone.
Nnamdi Azikiwe
Born in 1904, Nnamdi Azikiwe popularly known as Zik and Onitsha Owelle died in 1996. He was born in Zungeru, Niger.
He was a Nigerian statesman and political leader who was Nigeria’s first president from 1963 to 1966 and is considered one of the intellectual authors of the country’s independence.
The Zik Mausoleum in Anambra State is a multimillion-dollar construction built through the federal government in honor of Azikiwe. When PUNCH video on Saturday, the lawn around the construction was covered in weeds while the two buildings that make up the mausoleum were closed. .
A glance through the window showed rodent droppings on the floor of the mausoleum, as spiders spread their internet at the edges and corners of the building. The police officers guarding the compound were nowhere to be found.
The mausoleum of the vanquished statesman at Bromeo Junction on the outskirts of Onitsha, Anambra state, inaugurated in January 1999 through the president, Division General Muhammadu Buhari (retired).
The assignment, introduced in 1997 through General Sani Abacha’s defeated military regime, passed through other administrations and was abandoned in the past. When Buhari’s administration came to force in 2015, he promised to complete the assignment to honor the wonderful African Zik as Azikiwe also called kindly through his admirers.
The mausoleum, in addition to serving as a resting place for Zik, also has 3 convention halls, a library that adds an file/museum. Inside the museum, there are effigies of Zik who represent him as boxer, footballer, educator and politician. But the mausoleum wants quality management.
An employee of the facility who spoke to one of our correspondents on condition of anonymity said he owed him 11 months’ salary.
The employee said: “They said we are under the federal Department of Public Works and Housing, but they pay us salaries. By the end of September, we will have earned a salary for 11 months. “
“No one comes here for work. You haven’t noticed anyone here in months. For me, I’m leaving this position at the end of this year. I’m wasting my time here. “
When asked how Zik’s youth were stopping at the site, the employee replied, “None of them are there. “
Speaking of Zik’s contributions to the Nigerian project, the national president of the wonderful progressive alliance, Chief Victor Oye, said it phenomenal.
He said: “Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe has traversed Nigeria’s political landscape like a colossus. Their contributions to the social, political and economics of our country can never be forgotten. “
“It is their altruism, urbanism, acuity and sagacity that have contributed immeasurably to shape Nigeria’s history.
“He remembers how he came here from Pennsylvania, USA, where he had a paid job, to join the fight for independence. He founded the Morning Post on the Gold Coast (now Ghana) in 1934 and later in 1937 moved newspaper to Lagos and renamed it the West African Pilot, sparking something of a revolution in Nigeria’s burgeoning newspaper industry. “