Compilation of 15 most powerful Obafemi Awolowo quotes.
Obafemi Awolowo was born on March 6, 1909, and died on May 9, 1987. He was a Nigerian patriot and a statesman who was instrumental in the country’s independence campaign. He was an active journalist as a young man, editing periodicals such as the Nigerian Worker, among others.
He went to London to study law after earning his bachelor’s degree in commerce in Nigeria. Obafemi Awolowo was the Western Region’s first premier, as well as the federal commissioner for finance and vice chairman of the Federal Executive Council.
From 1959 until 1963, he was the official Leader of the Opposition in the federal parliament, opposing the Balewa government.
Obafemi was imprisoned in 1963 on charges of sedition and was not pardoned by the government until 1966.
In acknowledgment of all of this, Awolowo was the first person in the modern era to be named as the Yorubas’ leader.
Obafemi Awolowo Quotes
- “I will, more than ever before, subject myself to severe self- discipline. Only men who are masters of themselves become easily masters of others. Therefore, my thoughts, my tongue, and my actions shall be brought under strict control always.”
2. “Any system of education which does not help a man to have a healthy and sound body and alert brain, and balanced and disciplined instinctive urges, is both misconceived and dangerous.”
3. “After rain comes sunshine; After darkness comes the glorious dawn. There is no sorrow without its alloy of joy; there is no joy without its admixture of sorrow. Behind the ugly terrible mask of misfortune lies the beautiful soothing countenance of prosperity. So, tear the mask!”
4. “A greedy, corrupt, and evil administration is bound to wither, sooner or later, in the face of obsessive desire and mounting clamour on the part of the masses of the people for a welfare regime which will benefit all equally. In the course of time there will be a clash of desires and wills between the exploiters and the exploited. These clash of desires and wills will stir the universal mind into action, and a situation will then arise which will bring about the termination of or radical change in the greedy, and evil regime.”
5. “The rich, and the highly-placed in business, public life, and government, are running a dreadful risk in their callous neglect of the poor and down-trodden.”
6. “It is, I think, enough for me to say that life itself is, from the cradle to the grave, a series of unbroken risks. I make no boast about this, but those who know me intimately will testify to the fact that I have never, at any time, shrunk from taking my full share of the risks which life, with its unending opportunities and vicissitudes, offers.”
7. “Any people that is starved with books, especially the right type of books, will suffer intellectual malnutrition, stagnation and atrophy.”
8. “A man whose personality is fully developed never fears anything; he cringes not, and never feels inferior to anyone; His breadth of mind enables him to exercise his freedom in such a manner as not to endanger the interests and freedom of others. He is a citizen of the world – free from narrow prejudices. He is what he is because the three main constituents of his entity – his body, brain, and mind – are fully developed. Mens Sana in Corpore Sano!”
9. “Violence never settles anything right: apart from injuring your own soul, it injures the best cause. It lingers on long after the object of hate has disappeared from the scene to plague the lives of those who have employed it against their foes.”
10. “Those of us placed in a position of leadership must be prepared to grasp the nettle if we unite in doing so, and if, in addition, we set a worthy example and a marat on pace in probity, unselfishness, and self-sacrifice, the people will follow, all too readily, in our footsteps.”
11. “I have come to learn, from personal experience, that failure and defeat always serve as springboards for greater achievements for I, whom who never acknowledges their potency, and who is prepared to meet the challenges posed by’ them – for they always pose challenges.”
12. “The gloom of the world is but a shadow, and there is radiance in the darkness, if we could but see. To be able to see this radiance, all you need to do is to cultivate the courage to look, and the insight to apprehend the light which shines, at all times and in all places, for those who make Truth the object of their daily pursuit.”
13. “I must take the world as I find it: with its sprinkling of saints and its multitude of evil-doers, … ; with its source of happiness and its tons of sorrow. My duty, therefore, is to view anything that may happen to me in this world with Christ- like calm and equanimity and to do all in my power to promote the progress and advancement of mankind.”
14 “It appears to me that the causes of the last Civil War lie embedded in the nether realms of such degrading and depraving evils as unemployment; mass ignorance; endemic and debilitating diseases; low productivity; abuse and misuse of power, bribery and corruption; favouritism and nepotism; ethnocentricity and tribalism; much poverty and much discontent.”
15. “You can unite but can never succeed in unifying peoples whom language has set distinctly apart from one another; the more educated a linguistic. group becomes, the stronger it waxes in its bids for political self-determination and autonomy, unless it happens to be the dominant group.”
My favorite Obafemi Awolowo quotes are “The rich, and the highly-placed in business, public life, and government, are running a dreadful risk in their callous neglect of the poor and down-trodden.” and “Any people that is starved with books, especially the right type of books, will suffer intellectual malnutrition, stagnation and atrophy.”