Nnamdi Azikiwe
Nnamdi Azikiwe was the first president of Nigeria and one of the founders of West African nationalism. Born in Zungeru in northern Nigeria in 1904 to Igbo parents — his father was a clerk in the colonial civil service — he grew up speaking Hausa as well as Igbo and English, a background that shaped his belief in a united Nigeria. He stowed away to the United States in 1925 and worked as a coal miner, dishwasher and boxer while studying at Storer College, Howard, Lincoln University and Pennsylvania, taking degrees in political science and anthropology. He was influenced by Marcus Garvey and by the black American intellectual tradition. He returned in 1934 and became a journalist, editing the African Morning Post in Accra, where he was tried for sedition, and founding the West African Pilot in Lagos in 1937. His chain of newspapers was the most effective nationalist instrument in the region, and he trained a generation of Ghanaian and Nigerian politicians, Kwame Nkrumah among them. He co-founded the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons in 1944 and led it, becoming premier of the Eastern Region in 1954. He argued consistently for a single Nigerian nationality rather than regional or ethnic politics, and was progressively drawn into the regional bargaining the constitution created. At independence in October 1960 he became governor-general, and president when Nigeria became a republic in 1963 — a ceremonial office, with Abubakar Tafawa Balewa as prime minister. The military coup of January 1966 removed him. He supported Biafra during the civil war, then returned to national politics, running unsuccessfully for president in 1979 and 1983. He died in 1996.
- Lived: 1904 CE – 1996 CE
- Nationality: Nigerian
- Roles: head_of_state, independence_leader
