Introduction

Abstract

Dr. K. O. Mbadiwe, an Igbo, was a central figure in Nigerian political life for more than forty years. Starting in 1936 as a protégé of Nnamdi Azikiwe, then Nigeria’s most renowned nationalist, Mbadiwe by the late 1940s had become a frontline nationalist, and, next to Tafawa Balewa from the north who became prime minister in 1957, Mbadiwe was the most important figure in the Nigerian federal government between 1952 and Nigeria’s first military coup in 1966. During this time he held a succession of important cabinet positions and was the parliamentary leader of the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC), which was in a ruling alliance with the Northern People’s Congress (NPC). In contrast, his older prominent political contemporaries, Azikiwe of the Eastern Region, Igbo leader of the NCNC; Obafemi Awolowo, Yoruba leader of the Action Group; Ahmadu Bello of the Northern Region, and Fulani, leader of the NPC, all carved out their political careers totally or largely at the regional level. Throughout his political career Mbadiwe operated at the national level. It has been stated that Mbadiwe “was one of the founding fathers of the Nigerian State.”¹