Statecraft & Independence
Peerless
Nnamdi Azikiwe
1904 – 1996
Nigeria's first president and a leading voice for independence
Peerless is level 1 of 4 in the Nigeria Hall of Fame: changed the field itself. Tell the country's story without them and the story breaks. See how the levels work.
Why they are here
Known universally as Zik, he built a newspaper empire into a nationalist movement and became the first president of an independent Nigeria.
Azikiwe was born in Zungeru in northern Nigeria in November 1904, to an Igbo family, and was educated in the United States. He returned to West Africa as a journalist, founding a string of newspapers that carried the argument for self-government to a mass readership and made him the most recognisable nationalist of his generation.
He served as the first president of independent Nigeria from 1963 until the military coup of 1966. He died in Enugu in May 1996.
He served as the first president of independent Nigeria from 1963 until the military coup of 1966. He died in Enugu in May 1996.
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