Nnamdi Azikiwe

Nnamdi Azikiwe

Benjamin Nnamdi Azikiwe, usually referred to as Nnamdi Azikwe, or, informally, as "Zik", (November 16 1904-May 11 1996) was Nigeria's first President. Early in his academic career, Azikiwe attended Storer College, Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, but later enrolled and graduated from Lincoln University in Pennsylvania in 1930, where he became a member of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Inc. Azikwe returned to Nigeria to enter politics, and in 1953 became leader of Nigeria's Eastern Region. Very soon after the granting of Nigeria's independence in 1960 he gained the office of Governor-General, and with the proclamation of a republic in 1963 he became the first and only ceremonial president of Nigeria, while Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa was the Prime Minister. He and his civilian colleagues were removed from power in the military coup of January 15 1966.

During the Biafran (1967-1970) war of secession, Azikiwe became a spokesman for the nascent republic and an adviser to its leader Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu. After the war, he served as Chancellor of Lagos University from 1972 to 1976. He founded the Nigerian People's Party in 1979 and made an unsuccessful bid for the presidency that year and again in 1983. He left politics in 1986.

His time in politics spanned most of his adult life and he was referred to by admirers as "the Great Zik of Africa". His motto in politics was "talk I listen, you listen I talk".

Azikiwe died in 1996 in Nsukka.