Action Group (Nigeria)
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The Action Group (AG) was a Nigerian nationalist
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 political ideology ...
established in
Ibadan Ibadan (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Oyo State, in Nigeria. It is the third-largest city by population in Nigeria after Lagos and Kano, with a total population of 3,649,000 as of 2021, and over 6 million people within its me ...
on 21st March 1951, by Chief
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 O ...
. The party was founded to serve as the platform for realizing his preliminary objective of mobilizing Western Nigerians to forestall the NCNC control of the Western Region and the subsequent aim of cooperating with other nationalist parties to win independence for Nigeria. It benefited immensely from the relationships developed in the
Egbe Omo Oduduwa Egbé Ọmọ Odùduwà (Yoruba National Movement) is a Nigerian political organisation established in 1945 by Yoruba leaders in London. Its initial purpose was to unite the Yorùbá people in a manner similar to the tenets of the Ibibio State Un ...
formed in Awolowo's days in
London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
as a student.


History


Background

In 1941, Obafemi Awolowo nursed the
Nigerian Youth Movement The Nigerian Youth Movement (NYM) was Nigeria's first genuine nationalist organization, founded in Lagos at Stanley Orogun, with Professor Eyo Ita as the founding father and many others, including Samuel Akisanya. Ernest Ikoli, the first editor of ...
in Ibadan, oriented to educated elites. In 1945, Awolowo formed the group ''Egbe Omo Oduduwa'', now to forge
Yoruba The Yoruba people (, , ) are a West African ethnic group that mainly inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The areas of these countries primarily inhabited by Yoruba are often collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitute ...
unity bringing together traditional and educated elites. ''Egbe'' was advertised as a nonpolitical organization for men and women of Yoruba Nationality to build the Yoruba State of Nigeria. The organization gained wide support in Western Nigeria. In 1950, Macpherson Constitution introduced democratic elections in the country. However, as a cultural organization, ''Egbe'' wasn't able to contest elections. The Action Group was formed as a political arm of ''Egbe''.


Foundation

The Action Group (AG) was established in
Ibadan Ibadan (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Oyo State, in Nigeria. It is the third-largest city by population in Nigeria after Lagos and Kano, with a total population of 3,649,000 as of 2021, and over 6 million people within its me ...
on 21 March 1951. In April 1951, Chief
Samuel Akinsanya Samuel Akisanya, (1 August 1898 – January 1985) was a Nigerian trade unionist and nationalist based in Lagos, Nigeria during the colonial era, one of the founders of the Nigerian Youth Movement. He was also the Oba of Isara, an office which ...
suggested inviting personalities in the Western Region to join the party. Some of the most important chiefs of Western Nigeria participated in a meeting in Ibadan on June 10, 1951, to form the Action Group. However, the meeting was presided by Nigerian doctor
Akinola Maja Chief Akinola Maja was a Nigerian medical doctor, businessman, philanthropist and politician who was president of the Nigerian Youth Movement from 1944 to 1951. He later became president of the Egbe Omo Oduduwa in 1953. Chief Maja held the c ...
, who wasn't a chief. Egbe's chiefs helped Action Group to get popularity in the region.


Elections

The party won regional power in Western Nigeria while Nigeria was still under British colonial rule. It took part in the national elections on the eve of Nigerian independence in 1960 but was able to garner little support outside the Western Region and the Nigerian federal capital city of
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 ...
. A conservative coalition was formed between the northern Muslim-dominated
Northern People's Congress Northern People's Congress (NPC) is a political party in Nigeria. Formed in June 1949, the party held considerable influence in the Northern Region from the 1950s until the military coup of 1966. It was formerly a cultural organization known as J ...
and the
Igbo Igbo may refer to: * Igbo people, an ethnic group of Nigeria * Igbo language, their language * anything related to Igboland, a cultural region in Nigeria See also * Ibo (disambiguation) * Igbo mythology * Igbo music * Igbo art * * Igbo-Ukwu, a ...
National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons The National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC) later changed to the National Convention of Nigerian Citizens, was a Nigerian nationalist political party from 1944 to 1966, during the period leading up to independence and immediately ...
, excluding the Action Group from national power. In the Western Region, the Action Group had launched free primary education and other advances. However, its exclusion from national power, and what some considered a fair share of the national revenue for the Western region, led to internal tensions. Awolowo was arrested on what many considered trumped-up charges of treason, and plotting the overthrow of the federal government. Meanwhile, a pro-government party, the NNDP, was established in power in the Western Region by Chief
Samuel Akintola Chief Samuel Ládòkè Akíntọ́lá, otherwise known as ''S.L.A.'' (6 July 1910 – 15 January 1966), was a Yoruba politician, aristocrat , orator, and a Yoruba Lawyer. He was one of the founding fathers of modern Nigeria, he served as ...
, who left the AG to forge an alliance with the NPC at the center. These tensions and the manipulation of the elections of 1965 were among the factors that led to the 1966 military coups, and the subsequent
Nigerian Civil War The Nigerian Civil War (6 July 1967 – 15 January 1970), also known as the Nigerian–Biafran War or the Biafran War, was a civil war fought between Nigeria and the Republic of Biafra, a secessionist state which had declared its independence f ...
.


Political Orientation

The Action Group was a liberal and, later, left-leaning political party which was supported largely by the peoples of the then Western Region of Nigeria. It also had appeal in the later South-South and Middle Belt regions of the country. Consequently, Chief Awolowo led the party as Leader of the Opposition in the First Republic and the party was renowned for in-depth policy analysis and intense debates on the floor of the Federal Parliament in Lagos. Although pro-socialist, the party was regarded in some establishment circles as supporting Communism, and was viewed with suspicion by the West, even though the leadership denied this claim. In 1951, the Action Group's ideology was lack of coherence due to the diversity of members. The party promised educational improvements for liberating the Yoruba society from slavery, economic exploitation, and ignorance. Action Group adopted
Democratic socialism Democratic socialism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing political philosophy that supports political democracy and some form of a socially owned economy, with a particular emphasis on economic democracy, workplace democracy, and workers' self- ...
as its official ideology and defended
Federalism Federalism is a combined or compound mode of government that combines a general government (the central or "federal" government) with regional governments (Province, provincial, State (sub-national), state, Canton (administrative division), can ...
as the better form of government in Nigeria in 1959. Members of Action Group also defended the
Welfare State A welfare state is a form of government in which the state (or a well-established network of social institutions) protects and promotes the economic and social well-being of its citizens, based upon the principles of equal opportunity, equitabl ...
due to the belief that it would mitigate poverty, ignorance, and disease.


The

Unity Party of Nigeria The Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) was a Nigerian political party that was dominant in western Nigeria during the second republic (1978-1983). The party revolved around the political leadership of Obafemi Awolowo, a sometimes polemical politician ...
in the Second Republic.

It is often claimed that it was the
Egbe Egbe Mekun, popularly called Egbe, is a historic town located in the Yagba West local government area of Kogi State, Nigeria, West Africa. History This town is an ancient town bordering Kogi and Kwara States. It is surrounded by some undulating ...
Omo Oduduwa Omo or OMO may refer to: Geography Ethiopia * Omo River (Ethiopia), in southern Ethiopia is the largest Ethiopian river outside the Nile Basin and namesake for all the topics below * Omo Nada, one of the woredas in the Oromia Region of Ethiopia ...
that was converted to the Action Group. This is an exaggeration of the connection between the Egbe and the Group; the Egbe continued to exist after the formation of the Action Group as a separate organisation, just as the
Ibo State Union Ibo or IBO may refer to: Places * Ibo, Mozambique, one of the Quirimbas Islands * Ibo District, Hyōgo, a district of Hyōgo Prefecture in Japan * Ibo River, a stream in Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan * Igboland, the traditional lands of the Igbo peop ...
was at first separate from the largely Ibo NCNC. Secondly, it is not true that the NCNC "initially" won a majority in the election that brought the AG to power in the West. The situation at the end of the critical election in the West was similar to the one that brought the NPC to power at the national level on the eve of Nigerian independence. Three major parties participated in the election, including an Ibadan communal party. By the end of the election, the AG had won a plurality just like the NPC at the national level. To obtain a majority, the AG entered into negotiations with the Ibadan local party, some of whose members thereafter defected to the AG; the Ibadan party was a separate and independent political organisation, although it had been viewed by the NCNC as its ally.


References

{{Nigerian political parties 1951 establishments in Nigeria Defunct political parties in Nigeria Defunct social democratic parties Political parties established in 1951 Political parties with year of disestablishment missing Social democratic parties in Nigeria