By Prof Hassan Saliu
Established in 1955 by the former Eastern Regional Government, the University of Nigeria (UNN) started operation in 1960. Like every other university of its age, it has passed through many phases. One of these was an event that happened under the Abacha administration when a Sole Administrator in the person of Prof. Umar D. Gomwalk was appointed for the university. This came about when it appeared that the internal order in the university had broken down. There appeared to be respite afterwards, but the university was again in the news with the appointment of Prof. Ginigeme Mbanefoh as the Acting Vice-Chancellor and later as the substantive Vice-Chancellor of the UNN over certain issues that became controversial in the university. Ever since, the university has enjoyed relative peace.
The UNN has played a significant role in the field of Political Science in Nigeria. Apart from being the university town that hosted the first formal meeting of the NPSA in 1973, it has equally produced two presidents of the Association (Profs. S.O. Olisa and Okwudiba Nnoli), both of whom are celebrity academics and Political Scientists who have walked through the university aisle. Profs. Kalu Ezira, S.O. Olisa, Eme Awa, Humphrey Nwosu, Okwudiba Nnoli, Elo Amucheazi, Obasi Igwe, and others have projected the name of the university in their teachings and writings about the substance of Political Science. These teachers of politics belong to different ideological schools in their teachings and writings. This tribute is to one of them, Prof. Okwudiba Nnoli.
Although IRs has now moved too far away from Prof Hans Morganthau, it must have been a privilege to be taught by him, especially before 1979
Prof. Nnoli was born on March 23, 1939 in Enugu into a family of a railway worker who was ever on the move due to the nature of his job. The young Okwudiba Nnoli had no choice but to be moving with his father on each occasion. Born into a catholic family, he naturally attended St. Brigid’s Catholic Primary School, Asata Enugu. The circumstances of his birth, especially the ravaging poverty which was a shared experience at that point in time and even now, created difficult and trying times for him as his parents could not afford the basic things of life due to their material cost. In an account about him, it is said that:
By any account imaginable, life was very harsh and difficult for him. His mother had the sole responsibility of raising him and her three other children. Consequently, every material wellness came in short supply that even the very poor of today cannot wish such a life for themselves or even their enemies.
This account captures his humble beginning and gives us a window of opportunity to peep into the lives of his contemporaries which were not in any way better. He really struggled to conquer the poverty space for him to become what he is in life.
The young Nnoli fought the reality of his existence as a child by resorting to Catholicism because of the promise that the poor will inherit the kingdom of God. Since his parents were poor, entering the kingdom was a kind of inevitability for his family. He therefore devoted a significant amount of his youthful energy to it. His attention was also focused on soccer as a way of escaping from the grinding poverty of the time. The proceeds from it made life meaningful to him. He played soccer up to the level of Eastern region with a certain level of material reward to show for his participation. For instance, it enabled him to buy a bicycle, a status symbol at the time. The third thing that reduced the impact of poverty in his early life was his involvement in political activism at the primary school level by joining other young lads who were opposed to imperialism, neocolonialism and ultimately supporting Dr. Nnamdi Azikwe who considered his enemies as their enemies and pelted them with stones. Unlike modern day supporters of politicians, they were not being paid a dime for doing that. They were not even known officially as his supporters and patronized as such. This conferred on them some measure of independence in carrying out their activities. This showed when they backed another candidate for the seat of Mayor of Enugu as against the preferred candidate of Dr. Azikwe and their candidate won the seat.
While his later resorts in life and the winning of scholarships indicated an escape route for him from poverty, his too many unfortunate friends and school mates had their ambitions for a promising life cut short due to the crippling poverty. On one occasion, especially after securing a scholarship to proceed to the Government College Owerri, he had to weep profusely for several of his mates who though brilliant were not so lucky to proceed with their education; they were pinned down by poverty.
One argues that it would have been impossible for Prof. Nnoli to be a phenomenon being celebrated today without the opportunity of being offered scholarships at all levels of his educational pursuits. For instance, at the end of his primary education which he completed in flying colours, he was fortunate to be selected for a scholarship to attend Government College, Owerri, for his secondary education. He subsequently won another scholarship that enabled him to attend the Cambridge Higher Education Programme where he offered the science subjects of Physics, Biology and Chemistry. Between when he completed his higher education and university’s admission, Prof. Nnoli devoted more time to playing soccer, a sporting activity that shot his name up and provided the material succour for him at the early stage of his life. Between December 1960 and September 1961, he served as a clerical officer in the Eastern Regional Ministry of Commerce, and later, as a teacher teaching a variety of subjects, in addition to his engagement in football, playing for Enugu and former Eastern region soccer teams. He had the rare privilege of being named as a member of the Nigerian national soccer team by an Isreali coach, Betha Levi.
His journey to Stanford, USA, began with him having to trek to the US consulate office in Enugu to attend a competitive entrance examination for the 99 scholarship slots reserved for the whole of Africa that was organized by the African Scholarship Programme of American Universities (ASPAU). He was lucky to be invited for the interview in Lagos and afterwards, he was awarded a scholarship to study Molecular Genetics at the Stanford University, a university that he had not heard its name before nor familiar with. His journey to Stanford first took him to France to join other awardees from other parts of Africa, including four of his mates from Government Secondary School, Owerri.
At the university, he came under the tutelage of leading scientists in Microbiology and Biochemistry who were Nobel laureates: Profs. Konberg and Lederberg. As a young man who treasured exploring the world, he took the advantage of the policy of making students at Stanford to explore non-scientific disciplines by venturing into exploring Political Science. Prof. Nnoli also took the advantage of the Stanford-in-France progrmme to improve his level of proficiency in the French language. His involvement in football got boosted at Stanford where he captained the schoool’s soccer team for three years until he graduated from the university in 1964.
Prof. Nnoli enrolled for his PhD programme in Political Science in 1965 after blending well with the discipline on departmental scholarship, specialising in International Relations. Later, he won other scholarships that facilitated his severing relation with the sciences to fully embrace Political Science for his Master’s and doctoral degrees in International Relations. His conversion was not a happenchance, he really worked hard for it, meeting all the stringent conditions set for the switch, including meeting a high reading speed requirement.
He is therefore of many parts: footballer, cricket player, scientist, academic, political scientist, teacher, debater, artiste, activist and others. He participated in all activities that presented themselves and those that caught his fancy in his growing up years. Not surprisingly, he is a rounded scholar who is thorough and always weigh in on methodology perhaps because he remains a scientist. Before his quest for higher education that took him outside the country, he was a notable footballer who was once invited to the national team. His love for education and Stanford University, USA, established in 1885, the ivory tower that was also attended by Prof. Jonah Elaigwu, an elder and fellow of our Association, could not, however, make him answer the national call which came officially after reporting at Stanford for studies.
I first encountered him in Port Harcourt in 2000 at a programme on conflict resolution that was organised by the Office of Transition Initiative (OTI), for which both of us were invited. At the programme in Port Harcourt, I found him to be profound, deep, and courageous with strong convictions. He told me stories about the discipline of Political Science, especially his experiences as a Professorial assessor. It was at Port Harcourt that I learnt that he retired in 1995 from UNN.
Prof Nnoli makes the third known academic to leave UNN because they just couldn’t cope with the emergent ethical universe students anymore. Prof Asobie left for the same reason and a third is on his way out!
Before coming back to Nigeria as a patriot, he was involved in teaching at the Universities of Chicago and Dar Es Salam where, to my mind, his character was formed as an academic. The experience of the Civil War in Nigeria and its handling was an unfortunate happening that somehow affected his fate in the country. This caused his having to drop his other Nigerian names such as Adeola and Abdullahi and even his English name, Albert in protestation of British role in the war.
He held the belief that the occurrence of the Civil War was a setback for the kind of idealistic vision he had for the country that made him to switch over from biology to Political Science and make his contribution to nation-building. He strongly believed that all the good lessons he had learnt in Stanford, Chicago and Dar es Salam would be good for Nigeria but only for the Civil War to occur.
At the various universities he was associated with and after, he has remained a reference point in scholarship with doubts in capitalism to effect a change in altering the entrenched worsening conditions of living of the people. In his admission, he loves teaching but he is on a higher scale on research and perhaps activism. Nothing therefore thrills him like research. He is always concerned with rigorous methodology undertakings.
A companion of Walter Rodney, the author of How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, whose book has been reprinted several times even after his death, I once heard him saying that he contributed significantly to the valuable book by Rodney when he was in Tanzania with him. That relationship, no doubt, firmly established him as a notable scholar.
The foundation for that was when he took up a teaching job at the Dar es Salam University, Tanzania, courtesy of one of his senior colleagues, and friend, Prof. Carl Rosberg, who was appointed straight from the California University to head the Department of Political Science at Dar es Salam. He was beckoned on and Prof. Nnoli responded by agreeing to be appointed as Lecturer Grade 1 to teach International Relations, the branch of Political Science that he started off with at Stanford and Chicago universities. I must say that the decision to relocate to Tanzania was not an easy one for him to make due to the pressure mounted on him not to leave Chicago by his senior colleagues at both Stanford and Chicago, the latter being where he was before he crossed over to Dar es Salam University. While there, he found the environment too conducive for the kind of revolutionary teachings that thrilled him. Tanzania at that point in time had a big ideological tree to lean on. President Nwalimu Nyerere of blessed memory was at his best, providing sanctuary for up-coming scholars who were carrying on preachment for a new social order. In his words: ‘’Dar es Salam was the happening place in Political Science.’’ He continued: “Dar es Salam was as he had heard: academically vibrant, dedicated, committed, creative, rigorous, deep-thinking, cosmopolitan, entangled in an academic that gave no quarters and took no prisoners.’’
Prof. Nnoli later relocated to the University of Nigeria, Nsukka as a Senior Lecturer in 1974 apparently to impact on the university environment after an exciting teaching and research experience in Dar es Salam. He started his ideological class at Nsukka with a sizeable number of students in cultivating in the youths elements of critical thinking. He was promoted a Reader in 1976 at Nsukka and became a full Professor in 1979 at the same University.
He is a celebrity political scientist whose lectures at Nsukka were like a magnet that attracted students, including non-Political Science students to him. He has dominated the scholarship landscape in the last six decades or so in Nigeria and elsewhere, even after his voluntary retirement in 1995, leaving behind worthy legacies in its trail. His early retirement after putting in 21 years in the service of UNN is still a big surprise to many for the simple reason of it being premature. It happened at the age of 56 years.
However, in the interviews he has granted, one can peep through the circumstances of his retirement. In his view, he came to realise that students were not ready to learn and study. Their interest was to acquire degrees, while doing so through cutting corners. Some of the teachers too were culprits in aiding the anti-academic culture among the students. Also, he took the decision to exit from the system because the overall environment was not conducive for productive teachings. Hence, the decision he took to exit the system after ruminating over it for quite some time before it eventually happened. The last straw that broke the camel’s back was the midnight invasion of his office to cart away marked examination papers. He immediately put in his letter of retirement and proceeded to Enugu to begin the Pan- African Centre for Research on Peace and Conflict Resolution (PACREP).
While the unfortunate happenings in the university system made Prof. Nnoli to exit it in 1995, one argues that the crisis in the university system at that point in time was just emerging. It has since passed the stage of showing a tendency, as it is now a threatening reality where many unusual things have become the norm in our university system. One wonders how he is feeling now when its destruction is more manifest and, as some would say, is complete.
Prof. Nnoli is one of the respected scholars of his time. He has written books and articles too numerous to recount all here. He occasionally intervenes on current issues using the social media platforms when we, the younger ones, are still struggling with their use. He is also an activist, giving practical steps to his academic tradition, which he so much believes in. The thriving academic and ideological culture he was used to in Tanzania was replicated by him at Nsukka with seminars made more common among the staff. More so, when he came back from the US on sabbatical in 1979 and subsequently made Head of Department in 1980. Fund-raising for the department when he was in the saddle was not a problem then. His ascension to the office of the Dean at the UNN in 1983 brought with it the urge to expand his ambition by extending the frontier of the Dar es Salam’s academic culture to the Faculty though with a limited level of success. He trudged on with his romance with Dar es Salam’s ideas though with reduced enthusiasm due to the changes that have taken place in the environment until he retired from the system.
I recall an experience at the Uturu conference of the South East NPSA held in 2017, he sat on the high table but disagreed with all that he was hearing from the various submissions of the authors. When it was time for him to make his remarks, he did not betray his academic tendency. He completely disagreed with what was emerging at the conference as a consensus on the issue of marginalization of the Southeast. He submitted that we should all be aware of the danger of falling for the bourgeoisie’s framing of the Nigerian problem, which is superficial and does not address the real issues. Marginalization and related matters are, for him, the symptoms of the malady in Nigeria. The fundamentals, in his submission, are the issues of production and the skewed distribution of wealth in favour of the ruling class in the country.
Although he appeared to have spoken to an inattentive audience on that occasion, he never bothered about it in making his points. He usually does that without minding if he is alone in that frame of mind or in his evangelism. He is therefore a long-standing critic of the state and those who have been presiding over its affairs for their oversized drive for primitive accumulation, who, in his view, cannot be trusted in producing public goods for all Nigerians. The origin of the state and the economic/class interests being pursued by its managers who were deliberately favoured by the colonialists at independence and even after can hardly make them behave otherwise.
Prof. Nnoli, even at his age, is very active and alert to social happenings around him, perhaps as a man who craves for the establishment of a new social order in the country. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of our Association, whose maiden meeting was held in Abuja on 3rd December, 2024, via hybrid forms. At the meeting, he made valuable contributions bordering on the substance of the body, its membership, among others.
He has mentored a number of scholars who have become scholars in their own right. One of them is Prof. Okey Ibeanu, a notable political scientist. As our elder in the discipline advances in age, our prayer is that he has the strength to continue fighting for a new social order in Nigeria. I would definitely be speaking the minds of our members when I say that we are pleased with his legacies in scholarship.
This tribute would definitely fall short of expectation if I fail to remark about the Babangida regime, which holds the enviable record of a regime that made use of more political scientists than any other regime in Nigeria’s history. Some of them were given cabinet and parastatal appointments, and others, but the derailment that happened after the June 12, 1993 presidential election was an unfortunate happening, judging by the number of experts that the regime paraded.
Prof. Nnoli has to be mentioned in connection with the Babangida regime because he was one political scientist who refused to participate in the regime on a regular and continuous basis. He naturally had friends in the government who mounted pressure on him to join the government but he did not succumb to the pressure to be part of it on a regular basis. His position is that participation in Nigeria’s politics entails being prepared for the task of system strengthening and consolidation whereas he sees himself as a mobiliser for system change. This underscores the cautionary approach he took relating with that particular government and other Nigeria’s governments. He was not alone sharing the perspective. Two other political scientists, including Prof. Oyedele Oyediran, had also refused to be part of the Babangida government perhaps not from the same deep ideological standpoint.
We celebrate him today for his contributions to scholarship and his unwavering commitment to his academic tradition. His book on Ethnic Politics in Nigeria, first published in 1978, has been cited more than 4,500 times across the world for the insights it has provided on the issue of identity politics in Nigeria. His second book, Introduction to Politics, published in 2003, is also a widely cited book. The two books, among others, are seminal works that have shaped the discipline of Political Science.
With respect to the first book on ethnicity, his major submissions are: (1) The colonialists created ethnic consciousness in Nigeria; (2) The fraction of the ruling class that the colonialists handed over power to after the official end of colonialism have been using it as an instrument of domination; and (3) Ethnicity is being manipulated by the leaders to cover up their irresponsible governance behaviour. The appointment he got with CODESRIA somehow changed his academic trajectory as he was made to coordinate the ethnic research programme, a development that subsequently made him part of the international Working Group on ethnicity.
In his second book, Introduction to Politics, published in 2003, Prof. Nnoli challenged the earlier definitions of politics. In his view, no concept in political science can ever be ideologically neutral, as realities of existence should be taken on board. If the concern is with competition for power, there is the need to interrogate the basis for the struggle for power in the society. Definitely, there are gaps in the definition and others. He has therefore come up with a practical definition of politics that has attempted to capture how resources are being allocated in a society that are often influenced by class/economic considerations.
Ethnicity as a Marxist sees it, an ideological ‘risky’ venture in the late 1970s
It is instructive to note at this point that Prof. Nnoli is actually an international Relations’ person having written his doctoral thesis on “Economic Decolonization and Interstate Relations in Africa, 1960-1966.’’ The PhD degree was awarded to him in June, 1967. He was subsequently appointed as an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago and worked under Professor Hans Morghantau, the late eminent power theorist. He followed this up with his first published book titled Self-Reliance and Foreign Policy in Tanzania which is also from the IR sub-set of Political Science. His subsequent engagements in America and even Tanzania as Lecturer Grade one were on the basis of his engagement with International Relations. As stated earlier in this tribute, what happened was that his seminal book on ethnic politics in Nigeria that grew out of a relationship with CODESRIA has tended to overshadow his earlier footprints in International Relations from the memory of even scholars, notwithstanding his second book entitled National Security in Africa that also came from the sub-set of International Relations.
His background in political activism was quite useful when he relocated to Tanzania and found himself in the company of some liberation movements. He was sympathetic towards the liberation movements which then saw Dar es Salam as their base because of the warm reception they had received from the government and some activists on the payroll of the university of Dar es Salam. Prof. Nnoli used the occasion of the friendliness with the liberation movements to be writing press releases and aide memoirs for those liberation movements he was relating with.
He is not an armchair critic of the system. He has laced his teaching of politics with some activism as a testament to his conviction and dedication. Prof. Nnoli detests the state with passion and its general orientation that shows self-preservation at the expense of catering to the needs of all the citizens. This explains why he has turned down virtually all offers made to him, including to be the first Director-General of the National Orientation Agency, NOA by the state except one (TETFUND), which he believes approximates his thinking and philosophy and due to the persistent pressure of Prof. Tunde Adeniran who wanted him to serve on the board of the Fund.
He had on other occasions responded to requests made to him to serve in an ad hoc capacity at semi-government level such as serving as the leader of a team dispatched to Borno on an inspection of DFFRI’s projects. He once rendered support to Mr. Segun Oni of Ekititi State during his time as Governor with the expectation that he was going to establish a Post graduate University which did not materialise due to the texture of the local politics in Ekiti state.
Prof. Nnoli is a community person who has contributed to his Oraifite Local Government Area of Anambra State. He once held an academic programme in his village on the theme: “Academics in Government’’ on the occasion of commissioning his village house. He has offered scholarships to five children of his primary school mates who could not make it to secondary schools. Prof. Nnoli has been honouerd locally, nationally and internationally. For instance, he was given the award of Icon of Education Merit Award by the Anambra State Government when the state attained 25 years of existence. His description in this context needs not to be construed as if he is a local champion as we say in this part of the world. He is indeed a global phenomenon who has travelled to several countries on account of his immense knowledge production. For instance, he was among the African scholars invited by President Gorbachev of the defunct USSR when he organised a conference on Glasnost and Perestroika.
During his active university days, he was a formidable member of the Nigerian Political Science Association (NPSA), that he joined after its formation at Nsukka. Even now, he is still waxing strong in rendering support to the Association. He is a fellow and former President of the Association, who handed over the baton of leadership to Prof. Sam Oyovbaire in 1984. He has also had the rare privilege of heading the continental body of Political Scientists that he co-formed in 1973 at Dar es Salam, while being active in the affairs of International Political Science Association (IPSA).
He was the second person to have featured in our NPSA Platform in 2021, and on that occasion, he spoke on production in all its ramifications. He had argued that the low level of production in Nigeria was the bane of the country’s underdevelopment. I must report here that judging by the feedback I have received, the outing was an eye-opener and of immense value to our younger colleagues who attended the online programme.
As a former President of the Association, he left an indelible mark on the Association. His leadership and vision have helped shape the Association into what it is today. We are grateful to him for his continued involvement with the NPSA, particularly as a member of the Board of Trustees. Prof. Nnoli’s wisdom and experience are invaluable assets to the Association.
By way of wrapping up this tribute, it is necessary for me to tease out a few lessons of his life to our younger colleagues. These include the following:
- Nnoli is very faithful to his academic tradition.
- He is a highly content person who is not driven by materialism.
- He is conscious of not being polluted by academic cultures that he does not agree with.
- He is very rigorous and values the methodologies of enquiries.
- He has strong convictions and makes his points no matter the environment.
- Challenges never define him.
- He is not the lover of the state because of its corrosive influence.
- He has the milk of kindness flowing in him.
- He is not materialistic, judging by his simple dressing code.
- He thinks research should define a scholar.
It is my belief that these few lessons that I have teased out about him will help our colleagues who may still be looking for a role model in academic to imbibe the qualities of this easy-going but thoroughbred academic, Prof. Okwudiba Nnoli.
As he celebrates another year of life, we pray that God continues to grant him good health, strength, and wisdom. May his legacies continue to inspire and motivate future generations of scholars and activists. On behalf of the NPSA, I wish Prof. Okwudiba Nnoli a happy birthday and many happy returns!
Prof Hassan A. Saliu is the current President, NPSA.
