VIDEO: How Obafemi Awolowo was Jailed and Released from Prison in 1966

 

In 1950–51 he founded a political party, the Action Group, with some of the Egbe’s members as its nucleus, and in the process became the party’s first president. The party called for an immediate end to British rule and for the development of several social welfare programs. In 1951 the party won the first elections held in the Western Region, one of the colony’s three administrative divisions, and Awolowo later served as leader of government business and minister for local government structure, the latter for which he established elective councils. From 1954 to 1959, as premier of the Western Region, Awolowo worked to improve education, social services, and agricultural practices, implementing many progressive policies. Notably, his administration introduced programs that provided free health care for children and free universal primary education. The first television station in Africa was established in the Western Region by his administration as well.

From the eve of independence, he led the Action Group as the Leader of the Opposition in the federal parliament, leaving Samuel Ladoke Akintola as the Western Region Premier. Disagreements between Awolowo and Akintola on how to run the Western region led the latter to an alliance with the Tafawa Balewa-led NPC federal government. A constitutional crisis led to the declaration of a state of emergency in the Western Region, eventually resulting in a widespread breakdown of law and order.

Excluded from national government, Awolowo and his party faced an increasingly precarious position 

Akintola's followers, angered at their exclusion from power, formed the Nigerian National Democratic Party (NNDP) under Akintola's leadership. Having previously suspended the elected Western Regional Assembly, the federal government then reconstituted the body after manoeuvres that brought Akintola's NNDP into power without an election. Shortly afterwards Awolowo and several disciples were arrested, charged, convicted (of treason), and jailed for conspiring with the Ghanaian authorities under Balewa to overthrow the federal government.

When the January 15, 1966 coup brought Ironsi into power, Chief Obafemi Awolowo was spending term in Calabar Prison. He was jailed by the Tafawa Balewa Government for alleged treasonable felony. He sent a letter of pardon to ironsi but ironsi seem uninterested. Awolowo thought that the new regime would release him. But that did not happen.

The 1966 Nigerian counter-coup, or the so-called "July Rematch", was the second of many military coups in Nigeria. It was masterminded by Lt. Colonel Murtala Muhammed and many northern military officers. The coup began as a mutiny at roughly midnight on July 28, 1966 and was a reaction to the killings of Northern politicians and Officers by mostly Igbo soldiers on January 15, 1966 (see 1966 Nigerian coup d'état). The July mutiny/counter coup resulted in the murder of Nigeria's first military Head of State General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi and Lt Colonel Adekunle Fajuyi (who was hosting a visiting Aguiyi-Ironsi) in Ibadan by disgruntled northern non-commissioned officers (NCOs). Upon the termination of Ironsi's government, Lt. Colonel Yakubu Gowon was appointed Head of State by the July 1966 coup conspirators.

With Government Notice No. 1207/1966, Yakubu Gowon released Awolowo on August 2, 1966 with a full Pardon. Yakubu Gowon also went to meet Awolowo at the Airport, welcoming with the now famous statement, "we need you for the wealth of your experience."

Awolowo was welcomed with a mindblowing celebration in the west.