WRITTEN BY ZOR MAXIM UZOATU
Certain issues in Nigeria must tower above partisan politics. Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, the only black Governor-General of Nigeria, the first President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, the only Nigerian whose name appeared in a Constitution of Nigeria, among many other sterling firsts, remains a binding force of togetherness in Nigeria.

As President Muhammadu Buhari undertakes the landmark commissioning of the Zik Mausoleum in Onitsha, it is crucial to celebrate the essence of the feat, instead of dabbling into the country’s political partisanship and divisions.

The Minister of Works, Power and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola, deserves commendation for stressing that the Zik Mausoleum is not being used by President Buhari to woo Igbo people for political support.

According to Fashola, the Buhari administration decided to work on the mausoleum as a mark of honour to the late sage. Nigeria’s foremost nationalist, Nnamdi Azikiwe, universally known as
Zik of Africa, died on May 11, 1996, aged 92. The initial contract for the construction of the Zik Mausoleum was awarded in 1997 to Messrs Lemmy Akakem for three hundred and fifty million naira. It became abandoned and overtaken by weeds until it was re-awarded in 2013 to a French construction company at one point five billion naira.

The Zik Mausoleum consists of the museum housing Zik’s grave and an administrative unit on two floors. The administrative block is made up of a reception, offices, conference halls, VIP lounge, museum-cum-archives, video display room, research, library and documentation section.

Governor Willie Obiano, while inspecting the completed mausoleum recently, stated that the completion was an immeasurable honour to Ndi Anambra and the entire Southeast people. Obiano said that the project was an honour to Zik, who played major roles in shaping the nation. It is so befitting that the Zik Mausoleum now follows in the line of the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, the grave of King Mausolus of Persia, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Zik happens to be a modern wonder.

Politician, poet, author, orator, sportsman, visionary, nationalist, but above all else, a remarkable human being, Zik lived and died as the acclaimed Father of Modern Nigeria. Zik was a quintessential Nigerian. Born in the Hausa-Fulani North of Eastern Igbo parentage,

Zik spent his most productive years in the Yoruba West. He spoke Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo fluently, as well as other Nigerian languages.

A native of Onitsha, Zik was born on November 16, 1904 in Zungeru. He had his early education at the esteemed Hope Waddell Institute, Calabar. After further education in Lagos, he stowed away on an America-bound cargo boat in his dogged search of the fabled Golden Fleece.

He was smoked out of his hiding place and cast overboard off the coast of Accra, Ghana. He refused to accept defeat and still made his way to America, the land of his dreams. When the suffering in the United States got so much, he attempted suicide on a railway line but was saved by a Good Samaritan.

Zik served as a lecturer in his Alma Mater, Lincoln University, before travelling back to Africa, first to Ghana because he wanted to liberate the entire African continent. Forced out of Ghana by the British colonizers with a charge of sedition due to his editorship of the Accra Morning Post, Zik relocated to his native Nigeria to found the West African Pilot. He then joined forces on August 26, 1944 with the venerable Herbert Macaulay to start up the National Council of
Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC).

Zik’s pan-Nigerian vision was such that he made Lagos and the West his base instead of the East. Zik and his NCNC were poised to form the government of the Western House of Assembly in 1951 until the Action Group (AG) turned the table through the infamous carpet-crossing
incident.

Zik then became the Premier of the Eastern Region in 1954. He was in the forefront of Nigeria’s fight for independence, and his NCNC had the highest number of popular votes in the 1959 Independence Elections. He was appointed President of the Senate and shortly after Nigeria’s independence on October 1, 1960, he became the Governor-General of the federation. He became the President of Nigeria in 1963 when Nigeria became a Republic.

The Zikist essence is enshrined in the motto of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, which he founded: “Show the light so that the people can find a way.” A believer in healthy competition, he charged his fellow Igbo people who were lacking in education to go to school.

Zik was the lionized author of books such as Renascent Africa, Liberia in World Politics, My Odyssey etcetera. The great man was equally at home with traditional matters as the Owelle of Onitsha.

Now that a mausoleum has been built in his name, the significance of Zik as Nigeria’s pre-eminent statesman should continue to shine forth.

In inaugurating the Zik Mausoleum, President Buhari has paved the way to go in the Nigerian essence. Zik remains alive even in death as the quintessential Renaissance Man.

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