The following is a list of Nigerian historical personalities featured in the “Nigerian Historical Personalities Test” I created.
Samuel Ajayi Crowther: Captured at the age of twelve and sold to Portuguese slave traders. The ship was subsequently captured by a British anti-slavery patrol, and he was released in Freetown, Sierra Leone where he was educated by the Church Missionary Society and baptized in 1825. Worked as a missionary in Badagry and Abeokuta, and was named the first African bishop of the Anglican Church, with his diocese on the river Niger. An African nationalist, he believed that Africa’s future should be the preserve of Africans themselves, and fought against the encroachment of British colonial rule in the late nineteenth century.
S. L. Akintola: Served as editor of the “Daily Service”, the newspaper of the Nigerian Youth Movement, and became involved in nationalist politics, serving as deputy leader of the Action Group from 1955 to 1962, and as premier of the Western Region from 1959 to 1966. Left the AG and founded the United People’s Party (UPP), and later the Nigerian National Democratic Party (NNDP), which formed an alliance with the northern-dominated NPC government and allegedly used the power of incumbency to rig the elections in 1964 and 1965. The chaos in the Western Region from the 1965 elections was one of the factors that led to the military coup of January 15, 1966. He was killed in the coup.
Herbert Macaulay: Cultural nationalist, gifted musician, grandson of Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther who grew up in Lagos before undergoing training in England to become a civil engineer. Became a journalist and founded the first daily newspaper in Nigeria, The Lagos Daily News, that informed Nigerians about the activities of the imposed colonial government. Formed the first political party in Nigeria, the Nigerian National Democratic Party, which won all the seats in the Nigerian Legislative Council until the rise of the Nigerian Youth Movement in the 1930s. Sometimes called ‘‘father of Nigerian nationalism’’.
Obafemi Awolowo: Founder of the Egbe Omo Oduduwa and the Action Group, both Yoruba-dominated organizations that pushed for Nigerian independence and the preservation of Yoruba interests and culture in a federated Nigeria. Studied law and commerce in London in the mid-1940s and returned to Nigeria to practice law and politics. He contested the post of prime minister in the 1959 general election. As the head of the AG, he was one of the leaders that led the push for a federal constitution that materialized in the 1954 Lyttleton Constitution. He was a reformer, and believed Nigeria’s resources should be channeled into education and state-led infrastructural development. He introduced free primary education and free health care for children in the Western Region, and established the first television service in Africa, Western Nigerian Television (WNTV), in 1959. He ran for the presidency of the Second Republic in 1979 and 1983. In 1992, a foundation was established in his name that seeks to continue the work of building a Nigeria united through the ideals that inspired the public and patriotic activities of him.
Josiah Jesse Ransome-Kuti: Father of the Reverend Israel Oludotun Ransome-Kuti and grandfather of the musician Fela. Became a minister at the CMS Training Institute in Lagos and then a music teacher at the CMS School in Ake, Abeokuta. Founded many churches in and around Abeokuta and became well known for setting Christian hymns in the Yoruba language. In 1911 he was appointed pastor of St Peters Cathedral in 1911, the first Church built in Nigeria. In 1922 he was appointed a canon of the Cathedral Church of Christ in Lagos in 1922, and by 1925 released an album containing Yoruba hymns under Zonophone Records (now known as Warner Music Group) with the aid of a gramophone.
Olufunmilayo Thomas: One of the first girls to go to Abeokuta Grammar School in 1914 when it became coeducational. In 1925 she married Israel Oludotun Kuti. She was sent to an English girls’ school in Cheshire, and on her return later became head teacher of the girls’ section of the Abeokuta Grammar School. Established the Abeokuta Women’s Union, promoted women’s rights, and advocated improved representation in local governing bodies and an end to unfair taxes on market women. Described as the “Lioness of Lisabi”. Lead the creation of the Nigerian Women’s Union and the Federation of Nigerian Women’s Societies.
Usman dan Fodio: Born and educated in the Hausa state of Gobir, he was a Fulani Islamic scholar and leader of the Islamic revolution in northern Nigeria in the 19th century. When the king of Gobir refused to institute Islamic reforms and an attempt was made on his life, he and his followers organized a revolution against the king. He declared a jihad against the Hausa rulers and, over a decade, toppled the Hausa dynasties in most states in northern Nigeria and replaced them with Fulani emirs, thus establishing the Sokoto Caliphate that ruled the region for the next century.
Muhammadu Bello: Son of Shehu Uthman Dan Fuduye and one of the leaders of the Islamic revolution that resulted in the establishment of the Sokoto Caliphate. After the death of his father, he took over the reins of government, taking the title of Sultan of Sokoto, and developed an administrative structure that would govern the caliphate. Established ribats (fortresses) throughout the caliphate that served to illustrate the power of the caliph to the emirs and the location population, and which became centers of Islamic culture in the regions. Under him, Islamic politics, justice, education, and culture, began to spread throughout northern Nigeria.
Aminu Kano: A Fulani educated as a school teacher at Kaduna College and the Institute of Education at the University of London. He became one of the founding members of the Northern People’s Congress, but eventually left and formed the Northern Elements Progressive Union (NEPU), which competed with the NPC for votes among Nigeria’s northern Muslims. He held many positions in the military governments, including federal commissioner of communications (1967–71) and federal commissioner for health (1971–74). He formed the People’s Redemption Party (PRP) to contest elections during the Second Republic, and ran as the party’s presidential candidate in 1979.
Abubakar Tafawa Balewa: Born in Bauchi State, he trained to become a teacher and taught at Bauchi Middle School and, after studying at the Institute of Education at the University of London, he became an education officer for Bauchi province. As a regional legislator under the Macpherson Constitution, he was nominated to Lagos and entered government as a Minister of Works, and later served as a Minister of Transport. One of the founding members of the Northern People’s Congress, which became the largest and most powerful party in northern Nigeria and which won control of the federal legislature in the 1959 general elections. He eventually became the prime minister and governed during the First Republic.
Nnamdi Azikiwe: Born in Zungeru, in northern Nigeria. Trilingual. Studied in the United States and became involved in the Pan-African movement. Became editor-in-chief of the Ghanaian paper “the African Morning Post” in 1934, and in 1937 founded and launched the “West African Pilot” in Lagos. Became a successful journalist and activist in the Nigerian Youth Movement, before breaking away and founding the NCNC (National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons) in 1944. In 1948, with the backing of the NCNC, he was elected to the Nigerian Legislative Council, and he later served as premier of the Eastern region (1954–59). He led the NCNC into the important 1959 federal elections, which preceded Nigerian independence. He later became president of the First Republic.
Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi: Joined the Nigerian army as a private in 1942, was promoted to sergeant major in 1946, received a commission as a second lieutenant in the Royal West African Frontier Force in 1949, and promoted to captain in 1953. Served as an equerry to Queen Elizabeth II on her royal visit to Nigeria in 1956. He was promoted to major in 1958, made commander of the fifth battalion in Kano, Nigeria in 1960, and in the same year was the first African commander of the United Nations peacekeeping force in the Congo crisis. In 1961 he became an attaché to the Nigerian High Commission in London. In 1965, he was promoted to major general and became the general commanding officer of the Nigerian army. After the 1966 coup, he became one of the first military head’s of state of Nigeria.
Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu: Joined the Nigerian Regiment of the West African Frontier in 1957, and completed preliminary training in Ghana in the same year. Attended the Sandhurst Royal Military Academy in the United Kingdom and was commissioned as an infantry officer in 1959. Posted to the 1st battalion in Enugu, and was later posted to the 5th battalion in Kaduna. Served in the Congo crisis in 1961, and became a military intelligence officer of the Nigerian Army Intelligence Corps (NAIC) of the Royal Nigerian Army in 1962. As an intelligence officer, he participated in the felony trial investigations of Action Group party members of the first republic. He was one of the leaders of the coup that ended the First Republic.
Oludah Equiano: Famous abolitionist and author. He was born in Igboland in the 18th century, kidnapped and sold into slavery at about 11 years old, lived as a slave in Virginia and England, and participated in the Seven Years War of 1756–63. After the war, he was sold to a slave trader in the West Indies, from whom he later bought his freedom. He returned to Great Britain in1769 and became an active member of the abolitionist movement. He published his book in 1789, which shed light on slavery and the slave trade through his personal experiences.
Chukwuemeka Ojukwu: Born in Zungeru, in northern Nigeria, to Igbo parents, he was educated at King’s College, Lagos, before studying at Oxford. He returned from the United Kingdom in 1955, joined the Nigerian army in 1957, and served in the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in the Congo. After the coup of January 15,1966, he became the military governor of the Eastern Region. He refused to recognize the second coup of July 29, 1966 that accompanied an anti-Igbo pogrom in the North, and tried unsuccessfully to preserve the military hierarchy that would have installed Babafemi Ogundipe instead of the choice of the counter-coup leaders. After the agreement reached in Aburi, Ghana failed to materialize upon returning to Nigeria, he led the Eastern Region in secession from Nigeria as the sovereign state of Biafra. In January 1970, with Biafran collapse imminent, he left to Ivory Coast. Pardoned in 1982, he returned to Nigeria.
Chukwuemeka (Emeka) Anyaoku: Nigerian diplomat who was the third Commonwealth Secretary-General. In 1959, he joined the Commonwealth Development Corporation; in 1963, he was posted to Nigeria’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York; in 1966, he became Assistant Director of International Affairs of the Commonwealth Secretariat; and in 1975 became Director. In 1977, he was elected Deputy Secretary-General with responsibility for international affairs and the Secretariat’s administration. Became Foreign Minister of Nigeria’s civilian government of 1983, before returning to post as Deputy Secretary-General after the military overthrow of the Second Republic. Amidst international commitments, he still fulfils the duties of his office as Ichie Adazie of Obosi, a traditional Ndichie chieftaincy title.
Michael Iheonukara Okpara: Completed medical studies at the Nigerian School of Medicine, worked briefly as a government medical officer before returning to Umuahia to set up a private practice. Developed an interest in the Zikist Movement, and after the granting of internal self-rule in 1952, he was elected into the Eastern Nigerian House of Assembly on the NCNC platform. In 1960, he was elected leader of the NCNC and later became Premier of Eastern Nigeria during the First Republic, from 1959 to 1966. Believing that Nigeria’s salvation depended on a revolution in agriculture, he acquired and managed a large farm called Umuegwu Okpuala Mixed Farms, which inspired many Eastern Nigerian leaders to follow suit. He also championed the educational and infrastructural development of Eastern Nigeria.
King Ja Ja of Opobo: A merchant prince and one of the most famous resistors of the British colonial takeover of Nigeria. Born in the Igboland village of Umuduruoha in 1821, he was sold as a slave at the age of twelve to a chief in Bonny. He obtained wealth and political influence through the palm oil trade and became head of an influential canoe-house. Due to a dispute with a rival canoe-house, he moved and established a new wealthy island trading community he named Opobo. He monopolized the palm oil trade in the region, and initially signed a treaty of protection with the British guaranteeing them free trade in his realm. However, by 1884, the relationship deteriorated, and in 1887 the acting British consul, Harry Johnston, tricked him onboard a gunboat where he was arrested and taken to Accra, then banished to the West Indies. He was allowed to return to Opobo in 1891, but died on the voyage home.
Koko Mingi VIII: Ruler of the Nembe kingdom in the Niger Delta that, during the late 19th century, arbitrarily found itself included in the area declared by the British as the Oil Rivers Protectorate; as an outcome of the Berlin Conference in 1884. He became Christian convert and schoolteacher before Nembe chiefs chose him to succeed King Ockiya. When the Royal Niger Company began encroaching to make Nembe a trading post (being the center of important trade in palm oil), and through monopolistic practices sought to bring all trade in the area into its control, he renounced Christianity and led an attack on the RNC’s station at Akassa with an army of Brass people, taking hostages. When his attempts to negotiate a reinstatement of Nembe access to the free markets they once enjoyed failed, the RNC counterattacked with British military support, destroying Nembe. After he rejected a settlement offered by the colonial office after an investigation into the complaints of the Brass people, he was declared persona non grata. He never surrendered and fled to Etiema, where he died in 1898.
Nwanyeruwa Ojim: Credited with sparking the protest popularly called “women’s war” (Ogu ndom or Ogu Umunwanyi) that was a frustrated response to a belief that the British administrators through their warrant chiefs were planning to impose a special tax on Igbo market women in 1929. When a dispute occurred between her and Mark Emereuwa (a census taker), she went to communicate the incident to other women who, believing the census meant they would be taxed, gathered and started protesting. Eventually thousands of other women joined from the Owerri and Calabar provinces. She played an important role alongside the “Oloko Trio” in developing the strategy and tactics used in the revolt. Though the British forcefully responded, the pressure eventually compelled them to introduce reforms to native courts that ended the imposition of warrant chiefs. In addition, women could not be elected as members of the newly constituted native courts.
Nana Asma’U: Daughter of the founder of the Sokoto Caliphate. She was a princess, poet, teacher, active in politics, education, and social reform. She managed a household of several hundred. Throughout the period of the Sokoto jihad, she was a teacher of both men and women. She was quadralingual (Arabic, Fula, Hausa, and Tamachek) and a member of the Islamic Quadiriyya order. A major theme in her writings was the Sunna (writings based on the words and actions of Muhammad). She setup educational programs for women, especially those in the purdah, and sent elderly women to do in-house teaching. She was a respected scholar throughout the sub-Saharan African Muslim world. She sought to serve through teaching, preaching, and practical work, and focused on a spiritual life in the world, while rejecting materialism.
~Dr. Ikenna Q. Ezealah
I would like to give credit to the following sources that primarily shaped the information in this list, with special recognition to the starred one.
Primary References:
Bourne, R. (2015). Nigeria: A new history of a turbulent century. Zed Books Ltd.
*Falola, T., & Heaton, M. M. (2008). A history of Nigeria. Cambridge University Press.*
Falola, T., Genova, A., & Heaton, M. M. (2018). Historical dictionary of Nigeria. Rowman & Littlefield.
Etim, J., & James. V. U., (1999). The feminization of development processes in Africa: Current and future perspectives. Greenwood Publishing Group.
Keazor, E. E., (2014). Nigeria and the Royal Niger Company: The real story. Academia.edu
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