Obafemi Awolowo's Political Thought

Awolowo is a pioneer of Nigerian independent movements,he enjoys an important status in Nigerian history.As a famous Nigerian political leader,Awolowo is regarded as "the best president Nigeria ever had";his political thoughts is amiably called "Awoism".The paper tries to systematically analyze the fundamental content,features and significant influence of Awolowo's political thoughts.The paper consists of three main parts,separately are introduction,body content and conclusion,the body part is divided into the following four chapters:The first chapter mainly talks about the times at which Awolowo was and his personal experiences.The chapter analyzes the historical background under which Awolowo's political thoughts were formed from the perspectives like Britain's colonial rule,Nigerian national movements,Biafra civil war and stratocracy.Also,it analyzes Awolowo's personal experiences which molded his political thoughts from the perspectives like family background,education,work and political experiences.The second chapter mainly discusses Awolowo's political philosophical thoughts.The political philosophical thoughts of Awolowo is a crucial component of his political thoughts,it plays a leading role in Awolowo's whole system of political thoughts."People" are the core element of Awolowo's political thoughts,it penetrates through Awolowo 's political thoughts from start to the end.Awolowo thinks that the most critical feature of people is "liberty",people form families and societies in order to keep liberty.Since the society is unequal and full of paradoxes and conflicts,people unity together and establish a country.Therefore,the main functions of a country are to defend enemies,maintain order and realize the liberty and well-being of its people.The third chapter mainly talks about Awolowo's specific political claims.The specific political claims are the main body of his political thoughts and have plentiful connotations.(1)Independence.Awolowo claimed that Nigeria must get independence,Nigeria had the legitimacy of both theory and history to achieve independence.In terms of the ways to get independence,Awolowo stressed that Nigeria was supposed to get independence from striving for autonomy first,and thought political training was the key to independence.After getting independence,Awolowo claimed that Nigeria should strive for diplomatic and economic independence in order to realize a true kind of independence.(2)African Unity.Awolowo claimed that Africa must unite together,he suggested that African solidarity arouse from common historical experiences and realistic demands.As far as Awolowo was concerned,African solidarity could help the whole Africa achieve total liberation and realize economic independence and development.Awolowo thought the most goal of African solidarity was the unity of Africa.(3)Federation Unity.Awolowo proposed that Nigeria should adopt federalism,he thought only true federalism could unite Nigeria.After the break-out of Biafra civil war,Awolowo was strongly against separation,he insisted that Nigeria must keep unity.During the period of country reconstruction after war,Awolowo stresses the needs to forgive the Igbo and concentrate on spiritual reconstruction of Nigeria.In order to keep the federation steady and prevent the tragedy of civil war from happening again,Awolowo put forward a detailed plan of creating states and pointed out that the principles of language and capability were the two main pillars to create states.(4)Society Development.Awolowo put great emphasis on the development of Nigerian society,he thought that Nigeria should realize the economic modernization,political democracy and social well-being.Economically,Awolowo claimed that Nigerian agriculture should achieve modernization by introducing agricultural cooperative,the industry should get modernization by means of nationalization.Politically,Awolowo proposed that Nigeria should be governed by people through transferring political power to a civilian regime,and the society would keep steady by adopting the tripartite political system.And finally,regarding people's livelihood,Awolowo claimed that Nigeria should build a welfare society,especially realize full employment,free education and medicare.The fourth chapter mainly talks about the features,meaning and limitations of Awolowo's political thoughts.In terms of features of Awolowo's political thoughts,his thoughts contained both the considerations on issues in different periods of times and the exploration of eternal values in human beings's society;Awolowo's political thoughts possessed not only idealism factors but also realistic spirit.Therefore,integration of times and perpetuation,entanglement of idealism and realism are the basic features of Awolowo's political thoughts.With regard to the influence of Awolowo 's political thoughts,they not only were of great significance to the independence,unity and development of Nigeria but also was of huge importance to the solidarity and unity of the whole Africa.Of course,there are two drawbacks like conservatism and local nationalism existing in Awolowo's political thoughts as well.In conclusion,there were plentiful connotations,distinctive features,and far-reaching influences behind Awolowo's political thoughts,just as Mallam Sumaila Rabiu had said:"His main ideas have become the creed of modern Nigeria,accepted by right-thinking people as the keys to national progress."...