Background
His first name, Obafemi, means 'The king loves me' and the surname, Awolowo, the source of his nickname, Awo, means 'The mystic (or mysticism) commands honour (or respect)'.
His first name, Obafemi, means 'The king loves me' and the surname, Awolowo, the source of his nickname, Awo, means 'The mystic (or mysticism) commands honour (or respect)'.
He attended various schools, and then became a teacher in Abeokuta (Nigeria), after which he qualified as a shorthand typist.
he started his career,like some of his notable contemporaries, as a nationalist in the Nigerian Youth Movement of which he became Western provincial secretary, and was responsible for much of the progressive social legislation that has made Nigeria a modern nation. He was an active journalist and trade unionist as a young man, editing The Nigerian Worker amongst other publications while also organizing the Nigerian Produce Traders Association and serving as secretary of the Nigerian Motor Transport Union. After earning a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Nigeria from a London University through correspondence, he went to the UK where he earned a law degree as an external student. While there, he founded the Egbe Omo Oduduwa, a pan-Yoruba cultural society, which set the stage for the formation of the Action Group, a liberal nationalist political party. As Leader of the Group, he represented the Western Region in all the constitutional conferences intended to advance Nigeria on the path to independence. He was the first Leader of Government Business and Minister of Local Government and Finance and first Premier of the Western Region under Nigeria's parliamentary system, from 1952 to 1959, and was the official Leader of the Opposition in the federal parliament to the Balewa government from 1959 to 1963. In addition to all these, Awolowo was the first individual in the modern era to be named Leader of the Yorubas (Yoruba: Asiwaju Omo Oodua), a title which has come over time to be conventionally ascribed to his successors as the recognized political leader of the Yoruba peoples of Nigeria.
He was responsible for many of the progressive social legislations that have made Nigeria a modern nation. He represented the Western Region of Nigeria in all the constitutional conferences intended to advance Nigeria on the path to independence. At considerable expense, Awolowo pioneered free health care till the age of 18 and also free and mandatory primary education for all in the Western Region of Nigeria, established the first television service in Africa in 1959, and the Oduduwa Group, all of which were financed from the highly lucrative cocoa industry which was the mainstay of the regional economy. Although, Awolowo failed to win the 1979 and 1983 presidential elections of the Second Republic, he polled the second highest number of votes and his polices of free education and health were carried out throughout all the states controlled by his party, the Unity Party of Nigeria.
Awolowo is remembered for his remarkable integrity, ardent nationalism, principled and virile opposition and dogged federalistic convictions. His party was the first to move the motion for Nigeria's independence in the federal parliament and he obtained internal self-government for the Western Region in 1957. He is credited with coining the name 'naira' for the Nigerian standard monetary unit and helped to finance the Civil War and preserve the federation without borrowing. He built the Liberty Stadium in Ibadan, the first of its kind in Africa; established the WNTV, the first television station in Africa; erected the first skyscraper in tropical Africa: the Cocoa House (still the tallest in Ibadan) and ran a widely-respected civil service in the Western Region.
Awolowo was reputedly admired by Ghana's Kwame Nkrumah, and some of his disciples in the South-West have continued to invoke his name and the policies of his party, the Action Group, during campaigns, while his welfarist policies have influenced politicians in most of the other geopolitical zones of the nation.
However, his most important bequests are his exemplary integrity, his welfarism, his contributions to hastening the process of decolonization and his consistent and reasoned advocacy of federalism-based on ethno-linguistic self-determination and uniting politically strong states-as the best basis for Nigerian unity.
in 1940s he was affiliated to the Nigerian Youth Movement. While studying in London, in 1945 he founded the Egbe Omo Oduduwa, a pan-Yoruba cultural society, and in 1951 on its base - he founded an anti-colonial, liberal and nationalist political party "the Action Group".
And he also was a leader of the Unity Party of Nigeria from 1978 till 1983.
Awolowo was Nigeria's foremost federalist and the country's leading social democratic politician. He supported limited public ownership and limited central planning in government. He believed that the state should channel Nigeria's resources into education and state-led infrastructural development.
A farmer's son, Awolowo tried various trades, including teaching and journalism, before receiving a degree in commerce by correspondence from the University of London in 1944.
