Word: obafemi
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...political state. It produced $250 million worth of crude oil last year and also exports coal and palm-oil products. Gowon faces no mean task in forcing the rebel regime back into the union, especially since leaders in both his Mid-Western and Western regions, including the influential Chief Obafemi Awolowo, have shown no enthusiasm for military action against the East-or for a strong central government...
Gowon apparently hopes to turn the government over to civilians "as soon as it can be arranged," and one of his first acts in office was to release from detention one of Nigeria's most respected-and controversial-political leaders, Yoruba Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the deposed premier of the Western Region. "We need you for your wealth of experience," he told Awolowo. His release was greeted by mobs of jubilant Westerners. In Lagos, Yoruba motorists drove through the streets shouting "Awo! Awo!" and a traffic jam seven miles long converged on Awolowo's home town of Ikenne...
...Kwame Nkrumah's brash brand of African nationalism. But many of the men in his government, especially the northerners, ran roughshod. The government was widely suspected of tampering with the 1963 census figures to ensure northern control in the federal parliament. In 1962, it jailed Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the anti-north Premier of the Western Region, and installed its own man, Chief Akintola, in his place. So blatantly did it rig the 1964 national elections that the leading Western Region party boycotted them and the Eastern Region threatened to secede...
...scarcity of sophisticated military governors in Nigeria and the surfeit of lawyers, Cabinet ministers, journalists and savvy tribal chieftains would suggest that a constitutional structure may be the best means for carrying out this political task. So perhaps in time President Azikiwe will be recalled from London, Chief Obafemi Awolowo (the West's most popular Yoruba leader), will be released from Federal prison, and a new Federal Constitution will be drawn up to meet civilian demands...
...most strategic holds was in Nigeria's Western region, where Chief Samuel Akintola's pro-North government faced apparently overwhelming opposition. Akintola himself had little popular support; he had been appointed Premier three years ago after a blatant power play that sent anti-North Chief Obafemi Awolowo to jail. But when regional assembly elections rolled around last month, Akintola showed that there was more than one way to win the West. To the surprise of hardly anyone, he rigged the elections...