By Owei Lakemfa
WHEN as part of the 50th Independence Day commemoration, the Presidency  confered Special Golden Jubilee Awards  on 50 distinguished Nigerians  and friends of the country, it was sad to note that a category of nationalists were left out. With the possible exception of Anthony Enahoro and Aminu Kano who were selected on other platforms,  those who frontally

Those who choose the path of placating the colonialists, who believed in playing the good boy and  engaged in various negotiations were in one category.

These were, of course, the people the colonialists trusted with the leadership of the country. On the other hand, we had  the nationalists who confronted colonialism; demanded independence as a right; who were willing to lay down their lives and were unwilling to accept a client status for the new country.

These were relentlessly persecuted by the colonial masters, dismissed from work, their businesses wrecked and in many instances sent to jail. Amongst the latter was  Osita C Agwuna who made the famous call to revolution and went to jail.  He had publicly argued that “the redemption of Africa  lies in the hands of Africans themselves and must be achieved by either violent revolution or by non-violent revolution”.

Others included    Sa’adu Zungur, who despite ill-health pursued a principled decolonisation agenda and Bello Ijumu who rallied youths in the North against colonialism and for   a united Nigeria. There was  Michael Imoudu, the famous labour leader, who led workers in numerous confrontations against colonialism. He was such  a torn in the flesh of colonialism that the British detained him for most of  the Second World War.

There was  his fellow unionist, Nduka Eze  who while fighting the colonialists on the political level was also engaged in wars against their transnational corporations like UAC.  In mobilising workers for  anti-colonist struggles, Eze argued that “the continued existence of a bureaucratic  and imperialist (British) government constitutes a very grave danger, it impoverished the workers, it dislocated the equilibrium of  Nigerian national economy and… postpones  the unity of the African  people towards the attainment  of political freedom”.

Another was  Kolawole Balogun who at a period was the leader of youths with the agenda to throw the British out of the country. Then there was  the intellectual giant amongst them, Mokwugo Okoye, who while without a post-primary education, has been one of the most prolific writers, especially in politics.

His  books included Storms On The Niger, African Cameos,  Blackman’s Destiny, The Beard Of Prometheus,  African Responses: A Revaluation Of History And Culture, and Embattled Men: Profiles In Social Adjustment.

When the colonialists hauled Okoye before their courts, he refused to take a plea because he did not recognise the right of a foreign government to try him, a Nigerian patriot. He taunted the judge as a lackey of the colonialists. After serving his 33-month jail sentence, Okoye returned fully to his anti colonial activism.

In this rank of courageous and inspiring nationalists is  Mallam Habib Raji Abdallah, a civil servant who in 1945  co-founded in Kano, The African  Anti-Colour Bar Movement. He was the General Secretary of the pan-Northern organisation, the  Northern Elements Progressive Association (NEPA). He linked up with other pro-independence nationalists in the South and became in 1947, the president of the most radical nationalist association, the Zikist Movement.

For his activities, the colonialists sacked him from  work. When  charged with sedition for which he refused to enter a plea, Abdallah  in court made one of the most famous speeches. He told the judge: “We have passed the age of petition. We have passed the age of resolution. This is the age of action-plain, blunt and positive action…

This iniquitous British  Government is determined to keep us as slaves forever and the only way out, as I see it  and as I know it, is for every one of us to declare himself free and independent  and be resolved to stand by that declaration  and damn the consequences. I have nothing against the person of George VI of England.

But I hate the crown of Britain with all my heart because to me and my country men,  it is a symbol of oppression, a symbol of persecution, and in short, a material manifestation of iniquity…I hate the Union Jack  because, save Britain, wherever it goes, far from uniting, it creates a division. It feeds and flourishes  on confusion and dissension. We must, therefore have no more place for it in our hearts-this ugly representation  of that satanic institution, imperialism.” He went to prison for two years and on release became the president of the Freedom  Movement in January 1951.

It is erroneously asserted that our independence was secured “on a platter of gold”. This ahistorical claim ignored Nigerians who were drenched in rivers of blood such as the 1947 Burutu massacres and those of Iva Valley two years later.

It ignores the sacrifices of the heroes mentioned above  and those of men like  Heelas Ugokwe, a postal worker who in the midst  of   a countrywide  crackdown on anti-colonial activists, carried out an assassination attempt on  Colonial Chief Secretary, Hugh Foot.  He stabbed him with a jack-knife from behind but Foot was rescued  by a messenger.

In court, Ugokwe revealed that  his target was the British Governor, but because he could not reach him, he decided to assassinate Foot. He accused the British of carrying out massacres of Nigerians and that if the British  officials  who murdered Nigerian coal miners were free, he saw no reason why he should not be set free. His only regret, he told Justice S.B. Rhodes was that he did not succeed in  assassinating Foot. The judge gave Ugowe the maximum life sentence.

The non-recognition of these uncompromising nationalists is either  a manifestation of a marginal knowledge of our history, or an ideological hangover which banishes from our official thought process, people who frontally confronted the British colonialists and damned the consequences.