Abstract
Perhaps more than any other Nigerian politician, Mbadiwe had grandiose hopes and dreams for newly independent Nigeria, and, of course, he saw himself as a major instrument in their realization. However, these dreams were to be seriously challenged by intense and often violent competition for state power on the part of regional and ethnic elites resulting in weakness and instability in the federal government and its demise via a military coup on January 15, 1966. Throughout this period, and against all odds, Mbadiwe consistently and vociferously fought for a strong and effective Nigerian federal government; he used his large reputation and his substantive positions as personal advisor to the president, leader of the National Council of Nigeria and Cameroon (NCNC) Parliamentary Party, the minister of aviation, and the minister of trade toward this elusive end.
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Notes
Federation of Nigeria, Parliamentary Debates, March 27, 1962 (Lagos, Nigeria: Federal Ministry of Information, 1962), 227.
Robin Cohen, Labour and Politics in Nigeria, 1945–71 (1974; repr. London: Heinemann Educational Books, 1981), 86.
West African Pilot, March 22, 1962; James O. Ojiako, Nigeria: Yesterday Today and—? (Onitsha, Nigeria: Africana Educational Publishers, 1981), 125–47.
Federal Republic of Nigeria, Parliamentary Debates, January 10, 1964 (Lagos: Federal Ministry of Information, 1964), 139.
Federal Republic of Nigeria, Parliamentary Debates, May 4, 1965 (Lagos: Federal Ministry of Information, 1965), 979.
Federal Republic of Nigeria, Parliamentary Debates, April 21, 1965 (Lagos, Nigeria: Federal Ministry of Information, 1965), 612.
K. O Mbadiwe, Rebirth of a Nation: Autobiography (Lagos, Nigeria: Fourth Dimension, 1991), 171.
Federal Republic of Nigeria, Parliamentary Debates, April 6, 1965 (Lagos, Nigeria: Federal Ministry of Information, 1965), 536.
Peter Pan, “The House That K. O. Built,” Daily Times, December 22, 1965; Trevor Clark, A Right Honourable Gentleman: Abubakar from Black Rock (London: Edward Arnold, 1992), 752.
Elizabeth Isichei, History of Nigeria (New York: Longman, 1983), 471–73.
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© 2012 Hollis R. Lynch
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Lynch, H.R. (2012). At the Center of the Storm. In: K. O. Mbadiwe. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137002624_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137002624_9
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