Remembering the day Zik pushed UI student out of his car and why- Mabogunje

In 1951, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, the Great Zik of Africa and chief of the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC), was invited to give a lecture at the University of Ibadan.

Akin Mabognje, who later became a Professor of Geography, was asked to write to Zik as the secretary of the Progressive Party on campus. Yes, he did. Bola Ige, Caleb Olaniyan, Julius Lanrewaju, and Michael Ifaturoti were among Mabogunje’s classmates at the time.

Another faction, the Dynamic Party, whose leaders were mostly Igbo youths, decided to invite Zik as well.

On the day of the lecture, the two groups formed two parallel lines on both sides of the paths! After presenting himself, Mabogunje, who had written the message, boarded Zik’s car. Pronto, an Igbo student from the Dynamic Group, jumped into the same car as Dr. Azikiwe and began speaking to him in Igbo.

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After realizing what was going on, Mabogunje wrote, “[Azikiwe] told [the student]: ‘Speak the language the other person understands!'” ‘Then [Azikiwe] shoved him out of the car.”

The dispute was resolved when the warden persuaded the students to accept that the lecture would be given under the auspices of the University College Ibadan Student Union.

The story is told in Mabogunje’s autobiography, A Measure of Grace (BookBuilders, 2011), on pages 86-87. It was published on Ugo Ezeh’s Nigerian Nostalgia, 1960-1980 project.

My encounter with Zik

“The year 1951 was memorable in the political history of the country as the year for the implementation of the MacPherson Constitution. This Constitution accepted the 1946 Richards Constitution’s division of Nigeria into three regions, each governed by a lieutenant governor.

The major difference was that the houses of assembly would now have a majority of elected representatives of the people, unlike the former Richard’s Constitution, where the majority comprised unelected, official members.

The elections to the houses of assembly, however, was to be conducted through electoral colleges comprising representatives from different political divisions of each region.”

“From 1950, therefore, there were a lot of political activities in the country. As students of the premier tertiary institution in the country [University College Ibadan], we wanted to be better informed as to what our leaders were thinking on the political and constitutional issues of the moment.

Consequently, as secretary of the Progressive Party, I was asked to write to invite the Rt. Honorable Nnamdi Azikiwe, the leader of the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC) to come and deliver a lecture to the students.

This I did, and ensured that the letter was delivered in Lagos and we received the assurance that the invitation was accepted.”

“It later transpired that the leaders of the Dynamic Party, who were mainly comprised Igbo youths, decided that they could not be left out in an invitation bringing the Great Zik to the campus and quickly forwarded another letter of invitation to him. On the evening on which the lecture was scheduled, at the gate to the campus, representatives of both parties lined both sides of the street.

As soon as the motorcade arrived, I went to the car conveying Dr. Azikiwe and introduced myself as the representative of the Students’ Progressive Party that had invited him to give the lecture. An Igbo student, representing the Dynamic Party, jumped into the car and started talking to Dr. Azikiwe in Igbo.”

“Realizing what was happening, [Azikiwe] told [the student]: ‘Speak the language the other person understands!’ Whereupon, [Azikiwe] pushed him out of the car. But by then it was clear that there was a minor crisis as to under whose auspices the lecture was to be delivered. The warden then stepped into the matter and got us to agree that the lecture would be delivered under the auspices of the Student Union [of the University College Ibadan].”