Former Governor Mu’azu Aliyu has stated that one of Nigeria’s founding fathers, Nnamdi Azikiwe, made significant political compromises to ensure the nation’s survival and unity.

Mr Aliyu said this at Mr Azikiwe’s sixth Annual Award Lecture 2025 (121-posthumous birthday celebration) in Abuja.

Mr Aliyu, who was the chairman of the national planning committee of the lecture, said that the early years of Nigeria’s independence were fraught with existential tensions, and Zik’s pragmatic decisions helped steer the fragile federation away from potential disintegration.

“Zik was a Nigerian even before Nigeria gained its independence. Zik was at the forefront of the independence of Nigeria. And you could see that he could, as a realist, compromise to ensure the survival of the nation.

“If we were to choose where to be born, probably many people may not want to be born in Nigeria. But since it was not a choice, your creator chose that you should be born here. It is only natural that you should be proud and love your country,” said Mr Aliyu.

According to Mr Aliyu, in all the religious dicta, it is part of the principles that loving one’s country is important; and this, Azikiwe has taught Nigerians.

The keynote speaker, Mainasara Umar-Kogo, chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal, called for moral rebirth and Pan-African unity.

Mr Umar-Kogo argued that, despite the groundwork laid by founding giants such as Mr Azikiwe, Kwame Nkrumah, and Nelson Mandela, among others, the continent remained shackled by failures of leadership, corruption, and disunity.

He noted that the ideals of the 20th-century liberation struggle have been betrayed in practice.

Mr Umar-Kogo explained that unity cannot be built on injustice, adding that Pan-Africanism, which Zik stood for, was not only an economic project but a political project that Nigerians should continue to pursue.

He warned that leaders obsessed with wealth and power have replaced those who once saw leadership as a sacred trust to be accounted for “before God and history”.

Chineme Onyeke, the director-general of the annual award, said the lecture was organised out of a noble conviction that nations should not merely remember their heroes, but renew and sustain the dreams they inspired.

Mr Onyeke said this year’s lecture theme was timely, positioning Nigeria to lead the rise of the African continent in solidarity.

He said that beyond the lecture, the group hoped to establish the Zik Centre for Leadership and African Studies ,a citadel of learning and research designed to inspire new generations of Nigerians and Africans to lead with wisdom, courage, and compassion.

(NAN)