The Pervasive Lie Against Chief Obafemi Awolowo -By Abiola Oladimeji

One can not continue to ignore the perennial misrepresentation of Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s popular quote: “Nigeria is not a nation. It is a mere geographical expression”. The late statesman truly wrote in his 1947 book Path to Nigerian Freedom that: “If rapid political progress is to be made in Nigeria it is high time we were realistic in tackling its constitutional problems. Nigeria is not a nation. It is a mere geographical expression. There are no ‘Nigerians’ in the same sense as there are ‘English’, ‘Welsh’ or ‘French” (P. 47-48, italics mine).

As we can see from the above, Chief Awolowo was concerned about the constitutional problems of Nigeria. In the chapter that contains this quote, the Chief clearly argued for a federal constitution. Contrary to the popular interpretation, he did not reject the idea of Nigeria as a country. The title of the chapter in question (“Towards Federal Union”) makes it clear that he was an advocate of a federal constitution and not a secessionist. Unfortunately, the popular quote is usually misrepresented as a call for the disintegration of Nigeria.

This propagation of falsehood, deliberate or not, has to stop now.

Secessionists, especially on social media, can hardly do without invoking the quote (“Nigeria is not a nation. It is a mere geographical expression”). This always raises the questions: did Chief Awolowo write these lines to demand secession? Have these people ever read or checked the book they are quoting?

Scholars are also not left out of this. Bonny Ibhawoh, a historian, on page 163 of his award winning book, Imperialism and Human Rights, cited the qoute for his claim that Chief Awolowo: “…even questioned the viability and desirability of a Nigerian nation.” If this Nigerian is guilty of intellectual immorality, what can we expect from the so called Western experts on Africa. One of such experts being Professor Crawford Young, who also used this quote in the November/December 1996 Issue of Foreign Affairs to claim that Chief Awolowo “expressed doubts about preserving Nigeria as one country”.

This propagation of falsehood, deliberate or not, has to stop now.

Abiola Oladimeji can be reached via am_oladimeji@yahoo.com or on Twitter via @am_oladimeji.