Nnamdi Azikiwe

About the Nnamdi Azikiwe

Nnamdi Benjamin Azikiwe (16 November 1904 – 11 May 1996), commonly referred to as Zik of Africa, was a Nigerian politician, statesman, and revolutionary leader who served as the 3rd and first black governor-general of Nigeria from 1960 to 1963 and the first president of Nigeria during the First Nigerian Republic (1963-1966). He is widely regarded as the father of Nigerian nationalism as well as one of the major driving forces behind the country’s independence in 1960.

Born in Zungeru in present-day Niger State to Igbo parents from Onitsha, Anambra State, Azikiwe learned to speak Hausa which was the main indigenous language of the Northern Region. He was later sent to live with his aunt and grandmother in his hometown Onitsha, where he learnt Igbo language. Living in Lagos State exposed him to learning the Yoruba language, and by the time he was in college, he had been exposed to different Nigerian cultures and spoke three languages.

Azikiwe was well travelled. He moved to the United States where he was called Ben Azikiwe, and attended Storer College, Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania and Howard University. He contacted colonial authorities with a request to represent Nigeria at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics since he was also an athlete. He returned to Africa in 1934, where he started working as a journalist in Gold Coast (present day Ghana). During the British West Africa, Azikiwe advocated as a political activist and journalist, for Nigerian and African nationalism.