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Biography of Obafemi Awolowo, Chief
Name: Obafemi Awolowo, Chief
Birth Date: March 6, 1909
Death Date: May 9, 1987
Place of Birth: Ikenné, Western State, Nigeria
Nationality: Nigerian
Gender: Male
Occupations: political leader, nationalist
Obafemi Awolowo, Chief
Chief Obafemi Awolowo (1909-1987) was a Nigerian nationalist, a political leader, and a principal participant in the struggle for Nigerian independence.Obafemi Awolowo was born in Ikenné, Western State, Nigeria, on March 6, 1909. He received his early education in the mission schools of Ikenné, Abeokuta, and Ibadan. Often he worked at odd jobs to raise money for tuition fees, and his entrepreneurial spirit continued to express itself in the various careers which he subsequently sampled: journalist, teacher, clerk, moneylender, taxidriver, produce broker. His organizational and political inclinations became evident as he moved to high-level positions in the Nigerian Motor Transport Union, the Nigerian Produce Traders' Association, the Trades Union Congress of Nigeria, and the Nigerian Youth Movement, of which he became Western Provincial secretary.Despite his interest in business ventures, Awolowo wanted to continue his formal education. In 1944 he completed a University of London correspondence course for the bachelor of …showed first 150 words…
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…showed last 150 words…spending should be devoted to development rather than to the military. He resigned in 1971 to protest the government's continuation of military rule, and in 1975, following the overthrow of the Gowon government, issued a press release questioning the country's military spending. In 1979 and 1983 he ran for president as the candidate for the Unity Party of Nigeria, losing to Shehu Shagari. Awolowo returned to private life upon the overthrow of the Shagari government in December 1983. He died in Ikenné on May 9, 1987. Further Reading The most thorough treatment of Awolowo's life is his Awo: An Autobiography of Chief Obafemi Awolowo (1960). An excellent examination of the growth of the Action Group is in Richard L. Sklar, Nigerian Political Parties: Power in an Emergent African Nation (1963).Adekson, J. Bayo, Nigeria in Search of a Stable Civil-Military System (Westview Press, 1981).Metz, Helen Chapin, ed., Nigeria: A Country Study (Federal Research Division, 1992).New York Times (May 11, 1987).
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