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It was Balewa! By The British created and named Nigeria and therefore wresting it from their control gave black men and women in this territory a sense of freedom, nationhood and self-realisation for themselves and the black race. Independence therefore remains the highest peak of our national life and the most desired prize for its achievement. However, those who could claim this singular honour must rely on recorded history without embellishment or economy with the truth. We did not go to war with the British and so our independence struggle was mainly a matter of labyrinthine, constitutional conference negotiations and parliamentary motions.
The race for our Independence was spurred by events in the Gold Coast now Ghana where Kwame Nkrumah had built up a tremendous moment for Ghana's freedom from British colonial rule. The politically aware knew that Nkrumah had been helped and indeed encouraged by our own Nnamdi Azikiwe to seek further education from the United States in 1937. And by 1953, Ghana under Nkrumah was knocking on the doors of Independence while Nigeria was lagging behind.
Therefore, it was predictable that a young radical Turk, Anthony Enahoro, would move the motion in 1953 that Nigeria should have "self rule" by 1956 ñ ahead of the Gold Coast (Ghana). The motion went no further but caused rioting in Lagos and mayhem in Kano and Kaduna. Chief S. L Akintola moved his own motion in 1957, again demanding that Nigeria should be independent by 1957 but was persuaded to change the date to 1959 and the motion was carried. This was the first successful motion for Nigeria's Independence. However, Nigeria did not become independent in 1959 and so the motion lapsed. If no other motion for Independence were moved and carried except that of Chief Akintola Nigeria Nigeria could not become an independent, sovereign state.
The last, final and definitive motion for Nigeria's independence was moved in August 1959 at the House of Representatives by Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and endorsed by his senior cabinet colleague, Raymond Amanze Njoku, Minister of Transport. This motion was carried and the date October 1, 1960 was set for Nigeria's Independence. This is recorded in the Hansard and since Nigeria did indeed become independent on the date set by the motion any dispute about who moved it could only be a mere cavil.
Chief Enahoro's significance is that it was he who had the admirable audacity to move the independence motion first; and Chief Akintola's motion was the first to be successfully moved and carried by a majority in the House of Representatives. But while the former was only a powerful, symbolic warning to the British colonialists, the later lapsed by its date because the country and her colonial masters were not fully ready. Neither motion brought us independence until that moved by Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and endorsed by Raymond Amanze Njoku. October 2001
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