Chief Anthony Enahoro


How old are you?'' he asked one of the editors. When the editor said he was in his 30s, 
Enahoro paused for some moments and said: "you are certainly not old enough to understand what I am going to say about the Lagos of the 50s, where water flowed in the taps, where the streets were clean and lit and the gutters flowed and the bus services ran as they do in London''. "I am not cursing your generation, but it is clear that you will not enjoy life the way we enjoyed it in this country. Your generation will never see the good times again,'' he added.

Interestingly, Chief Enahoro's life was devoted to ensuring that the younger generation inherited a better country. His life was devoted to one political struggle or the other and until his death, he was the leading advocate of the need for the political restructuring of Nigeria, after the meeting of all the ethnic nationalities. For his political beliefs, Chief Enahoro suffered a lot of tribulations. He was jailed by the colonialists. He became a fugitive, following allegations that he and his political associates in the Action Group, planned to commit treason and topple the civilian government of Tafawa Balewa. Under the Abacha dictatorship, Enahoro was also jailed and later left the country for exile in the United States of America. He returned to the country following the restoration of democracy in 1999.

Born 22 July, 1923, Enahoro was eminently one of Nigeria's foremost anti-colonial and pro-democracy activists. He was born the eldest of twelve children in Uromi in the present Edo State of Nigeria, to Esan parents, Anastasius Okotako Enahoro and Fidelia Inibokun n�e Okoji . Chief Enahoro had a long and distinguished career in the press, politics, the public service and the pro-democracy movement. Educated at the Government School Uromi, Government School Owo and King's College, Lagos.

Chief Enahoro became the editor of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe's newspaper, the Southern Nigerian Defender, Ibadan, in 1944 at the age of 21, thus becoming Nigeria's youngest editor ever. He later became the editor of Zik's Comet, Kano, 1945-49, also associate editor West African Pilot, Lagos, editor-in-chief Morning Star, 1950-53.

Chief Enahoro became a foundation member of Chief Awolowo's Action Group party; secretary and chairman, Ishan Division Council; member Western House of Assembly; and later member, Federal House of Representatives in 1951. He later became Minister of Home Affairs in the old western region. He was the Opposition spokesman on Foreign Policy and Legislative Affairs in the Federal House of Representatives, 1959-63; and attempted to move the motion for the independence of Nigeria. Although the motion was defeated, Chief Enahoro was unrelenting in his campaign for Nigeria's emancipation from the vice-grip of the colonial overlords. He was a a delegate to most of the constitutional conferences leading to the independence of Nigeria in 1960.



Courtesy Village square