Chief
Chief may refer to:
Title or rank
Military and law enforcement
* Chief master sergeant, the ninth, and highest, enlisted rank in the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force
* Chief of police, the head of a police department
* Chief of the boa ...
Hannah Idowu Dideolu Awolowo (; 25 November 1915 – 19 September 2015), popularly known as HID, was a Nigerian businesswoman and politician.
Biography
Born to a modest family in the small
Ikenne
Ikenne is a Local Government Area in Ogun State, Nigeria. Its headquarters are in the town of Ikenne at .
It has an area of 144 km and a population of 118,735 at the 2006 census.
The postal code of the area is 121.
Wards in Ikenne
# Iken ...
community of
Ogun State
Ogun State is a state in southwestern Nigeria. Created on 3 February 1976 from the former Western State. Ogun State borders Lagos State to the south, Oyo State and Osun State to the north, Ondo State to the east, and the Republic of Benin to the ...
in Nigeria, she attended
Methodist Girls' High School
Methodist Girls' High School is a secondary school for girls located in Yaba, Lagos, Nigeria
Lagos (Nigerian English: ; ) is the largest city in Nigeria and the List of cities in Africa by population, second most populous city in Africa, ...
in
Lagos
Lagos (Nigerian English: ; ) is the largest city in Nigeria and the List of cities in Africa by population, second most populous city in Africa, with a population of 15.4 million as of 2015 within the city proper. Lagos was the national ca ...
. She was married to politician
Obafemi Awolowo
Chief Obafemi Jeremiah Oyeniyi Awolowo (; 6 March 1909 – 9 May 1987) was a Yoruba nationalist and Nigerian statesman who played a key role in Nigeria's independence movement (1957-1960). Awolowo founded the Yoruba nationalist group Egbe Om ...
from 26 December 1937 to his death in 1987. He famously referred to her as his "jewel of inestimable value". She was also a successful businesswoman and astute politician. She played an active role in the politics of
Western Nigeria
The former Western State of Nigeria was formed in 1967 when the Western Region was subdivided into the states of Lagos and Western State. Its capital was Ibadan, which was the capital of the old region.
In 1976, the state was subdivided into thre ...
. She stood in for her husband in the alliance formed between the
NCNC and the
AG, called the
United Progressive Grand Alliance (UPGA), while he was tried and in jail.
The plans were that she would contest the elections, and if she won, would step down for her husband in a by-election. To fulfil his dream of becoming president in the
Second Republic, she toured the length and breadth of the country with her husband campaigning. She also coordinated the women's wing of the party and was always present at all party caucuses. A successful businesswoman, she became the first Nigerian distributor for the
Nigerian Tobacco Company Nigerian Tobacco Company was a cigarette manufacturing, distribution and marketing company that was owned by the Nigerian government and British American Tobacco. The company operated factories in Ibadan, muchia Zaria in kaduna and Port Harcourt. Th ...
(NTC) in 1957. She was the first to import
lace
Lace is a delicate fabric made of yarn or thread in an open weblike pattern, made by machine or by hand. Generally, lace is divided into two main categories, needlelace and bobbin lace, although there are other types of lace, such as knitted o ...
materials and other textiles into Nigeria. In addition to a variety of other titles, she held the chieftaincy of the ''Yeye Oodua'' of
Yorubaland
Yorubaland () is the homeland and cultural region of the Yoruba people in West Africa. It spans the modern-day countries of Nigeria, Togo and Benin, and covers a total land area of 142,114 km2 or about 60% of the land area of Ghana. Of this ...
. On 19 September 2015, she died at the age of 99 just over 2 months short of her 100th birthday. She was buried beside her husband in Ikenne on 25 November 2015. The
Vice President of Nigeria
The vice president of Nigeria is the second-highest officer in the executive branch of the federal government of Nigeria, after the president of Nigeria, and ranks first in the presidential line of succession. Officially styled vice president ...
,
Yemi Osinbajo
Oluyemi Oluleke Osinbajo (born 8 March 1957) is a Nigerian lawyer, professor, and politician who is the 14th and current Vice President of Nigeria since 2015. A member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), he previously served as Attorney Ge ...
, is married to her granddaughter,
Dolapo Soyode.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Awolowo, Hannah
1915 births
2015 deaths
20th-century Nigerian businesswomen
20th-century Nigerian politicians
20th-century Nigerian women politicians
Hannah
Burials in Ogun State
Methodist Girls' High School alumni
Nigerian Christians
People from Ogun State
People of colonial Nigeria
Spouses of Nigerian state governors
Yoruba women in business
Yoruba women in politics