So I want to continue to reflect on the private lives of some of oir past leaders. How this impacted on governance as at then says a lot.
Obafemi Awolowo was from an average home and lost his father when he was 7yrs. He had to struggle right through school. He got his first degree by correspondence whilst working and saved to be in Lkndon for his Law programme.
Spot the difference. Awo did not make a sing song of his early life nor took advantage of it. He went into politics with set ideas and whilst Premier of the West, made these ideas reality.
Culling from wikipedia 'Awolowo was Nigeria's foremost federalist. In his Path to Nigerian Freedom (1947) – the first systematic federalist manifesto by a Nigerian politician – he advocated federalism as the only basis for equitable national integration and, as head of the Action Group, he led demands for a federal constitution, which was introduced in the 1954 Lyttleton Constitution, following primarily the model proposed by the Western Region delegation led by him. As premier, he proved to be and was viewed as a man of vision and a dynamic administrator. Awolowo was also the country's leading social democratic politician.[6] He supported limited public ownership and limited central planning in government.[7] He believed that the state should channel Nigeria's resources into education and state-led infrastructural development.[8] Controversially, and at considerable expense, he introduced free primary education for all and free health care for children in the Western Region, established the first television service in Africa in 1959, and the Oduduwa Group, all of which were financed from the highly lucrative cocoa industry which was the mainstay of the regional economy'
His free education programme was the the first in Africa. He added the Integrated rural development and free healthcare. He built the first stadium, the first skyscraper in Africa, the first T.V. network etc. All other regions had to start playing catch up.
He was born poor but his love for his the country and sheer discipline and integrity still makes him the most brilliant and most controversial Nigerian politician ever.
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