Word: zik
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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With scarcely any advance notice, President Nnamdi ("Zik") Azikiwe himself went on the radio to allay the nation's fears. "My fellow countrymen and women," he began, "I would like to acquaint you tonight of steps which have been taken to avert the crisis...
Credit was due both to Zik, the Easterner and Christian, and to Sir Abubakar, the Moslem from the North, for a level of statesmanship seldom found in nations hardly accustomed to peaceful resolution of such weighty matters...
...threats. Any Nigerian who still felt like hailing his own dear native land would have to be quick about it: Nigeria was perilously close to a political breakup. "If Nigeria must disintegrate, then in the name of God, let the operation be short and painless," mourned President Nnamdi ("Zik") Azikiwe in a nationwide radio broadcast, calling on politicians to "summon a round-table conference to decide how our national assets should be divided." Continued Zik: "Should the politicians fail to heed this warning, then I venture the prediction that the experience of the Congo will be child's play...
...Zik himself prepared a speech for broadcast to the nation, threatening to resign rather than form a new government on the basis of the election. Then, at the last minute he cancelled the address, and joined a cabinet meeting in search of some form of compromise. But at week's end, Nigeria's unity still hung by a thread...
After a legal career at home, Wachuku made his way up the political ladder under Eastern Nigeria's remarkable, U.S.-educated Dr. Nnamdi ("Zik") Azikiwe, now Governor General; this is no great political asset these days, since Nigeria is largely in the hands not of the Easterners, but of their rivals, the Moslem Northerners, notably Prime Minister Balewa. But whatever his political future at home, Wachuku in the U.N. revels in the flamboyance that comes naturally to the political firebrands of Iboland...