The United National Independence Party (UNIP) was a

Nigerian Nigerians or the Nigerian people are citizens of Nigeria or people with ancestry from Nigeria. The name Nigeria was taken from the Niger River running through the country. This name was allegedly coined in the late 19th century by British jo ...

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

formed in the mid-1950s. It was made up of a group of N.C.N.C members who were opposed to some of the policies of

Nnamdi Azikiwe Nnamdi Benjamin Azikiwe, (16 November 1904 – 11 May 1996), usually referred to as "Zik", was a Nigerian statesman and political leader who served as the first President of Nigeria from 1963 to 1966. Considered a driving force behind the n ...

and had formed the National Independence Party. In 1954, the National Independence Party merged with

Alvan Ikoku Alvan Azinna Ikoku (August 1, 1900–November 18, 1971) was a Nigerian educationist, statesman, activist and politician. Life Born on August 1, 1900, in Amanagwu Arochukwu, present-day Abia State, from 1911 to 1914, he was educated at the Aro ...

's United National Party to form the United National Independence Party. The party was one of the few prominent and fairly popular groups that emerged to challenge Azikiwe and N.C.N.C in the

Eastern region of Nigeria The Eastern Region was an administrative region in Nigeria, dating back originally from the division of the colony Southern Nigeria in 1954. Its first capital was Calabar. The capital was later moved to Enugu and the second capital was Umuahia. T ...

. Before the formation of UNIP, the Eastern Region was free from political competition, unlike its counterparts in the West and North, which had formidable foes to contend with.

References

Ronald Segal Ronald Michael Segal (14 July 1932 – 23 February 2008) was a South African activist, writer and editor, founder of the anti-apartheid magazine '' Africa South'' and the Penguin African Library.Denis Herbstein"Ronald Segal"(obituary), ''The Gua ...

, Catherine Hoskyns,

Rosalynde Ainslie Ros de Lanerolle (22 January 1932 – 23 September 1993),Haward, Pat, "Jennifer Rosalynde de Lanerolle 1932–1993" (obituary), ''History Workshop Journal'' (1994), 37 (1):261–266, Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/hwj/37.1.261. also known ...

, ''Political Africa: A Who's Who of Personalities and Parties'', Frederick A. Praeger, 1961 {{Authority control Defunct political parties in Nigeria Political parties established in the 1950s