K. O. Mbadiwe

Kingsley Ozuomba Mbadiwe (1915–1990) was a Nigerian nationalist, politician, statesman and former government minister. He was born in arondizuogu under then Orlu division of present day Imo State and attended the Hope Waddell Training Institute, Calabar for primary education. He then attended Aggrey Memorial College, Arochukwu, of present day Abia State Igbobi College, Lagos and the Baptist Academy Lagos for further studies.

He left Nigeria to study at Columbia and the New York University for collegiate education. There, he helped to establish an African student's association,where he gained the attention of then-First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt,who received him and his organization in the White House.[1]

After returning from the U.S., he started his own business and established a research institute on African Arts. He soon entered the Nigerian political scene and joined the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons. In 1951, he was elected into the Eastern Region House of Assembly,[2] he was re-elected in 1954, and made minister for Lands and National Resources. In 1957, he was made the Minister for Commerce. However, his political success was to undergo a great challenge when in mid-1958 he and Kola Balogun attempted to remove Nnamdi Azikiwe as the leader of N.C.N.C.[3] Mbadiwe set up his own newspaper, The Daily Telegraph, as an organ of protest.[4] He later re-joined the party and was appointed Minister for Trade and Communications[5] and also served as a special adviser to the Prime Minister, advising on African affairs.[6]

[7] He had six children namely Betty, Greg, Paul, Chris, George, and Francis.

He built and inhabited the landmark, The Palace of The People, at Ndianiche Uno commissioned by late Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa in 1965.

References

  1. ↑ The Cambridge history of Africa: From c. 1940 to c. 1975, Michael Crowder, p100, Cambridge University Press, 1985, ISBN 0-521-22409-8, ISBN 978-0-521-22409-3
  2. ↑ Kwame Nkrumah: the years abroad 1935-1947, p54, Marika Sherwood, 1996, University of Michigan, ISBN 9988-7716-0-6, ISBN 978-9988-7716-0-7
  3. ↑ Constitutional developments in Nigeria: an analytical study of Nigeria's constitution-making developments and the historical and political factors that affected constitutional change, Kalu Ezera, p243, California University Press, 1964
  4. ↑ Federalism and nation-building: the Nigerian experience, 1954-1964, Uma O. Eleazu, p183, Stockwell, 1977 ISBN 0-7223-0987-2, ISBN 978-0-7223-0987-2
  5. ↑ The pan-African movement: a history of pan-Africanism in America, Europe and Africa, Imanuel Geiss, p511, Taylor & Francis, 1974, ISBN 0-8419-0161-9, ISBN 978-0-8419-0161-2
  6. ↑ Foreign policy decision-making in Nigeria, Ufot Bassey Inamete, p21-22, Susquehanna University Press, 2001, ISBN 1-57591-048-9, ISBN 978-1-57591-048-2
  7. ↑ Seeing the world in black & white, p16, Linus T. Ogbuji, Africa World Press, 2007, ISBN 159221486X, 9781592214860

Further reading