Alvan Ikoku was Born on August 1, 1900 in Arochukwu,
present-day in Abia State, from 1911 to 1914, he was educated at the Arochukwu
Government Primary School and from 1915 to 1920, he attended Hope Waddell
College, Calabar where he was a student under James Emmanuel Aggrey and was
mates with Akanu Ibiamand Eyo Eyo Esua. In 1920, he received his first teaching
appointment with thePresbyterian Church of Nigeria and Church of Scotland at
Itigidi and two years later became a senior tutor at St. Paul's Teachers'
Training College, Awka,Anambra State. While teaching at Awka, Ikoku earned his
University of London degree in Philosophy in 1928, through its external
programme.
Soon after, in 1931, Ikoku established a
Co-Educational Secondary School in West Africa: the Aggrey Memorial Secondary
School, located in Arochukwu and named after his mentor James E.K. Aggrey, an
eminent Ghanaian educationist.[1] In 1946, after several constitutional changes
allowing more Nigerians in the legislative chambers, he was nominated to the
Eastern Nigeria House of Assembly and assigned to the ministry of education. In
1947 he became part of the Legislative Council in Lagos as one of three
representatives of the Eastern Region.
Ikoku fostered considerable government
interest in the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), becoming instrumental in the
Legislative Council's acceptance of 44 NUT proposals amending various
educational ordinances. He did encounter resistance through much of the 1950s,
when the Colonial Government repeatedly rejected his NUT recommendations to
introduce uniform education in Nigeria. After national independence, Ikoku and
his union were vindicated, when these recommendations became the basis for
education policy in the new nation.
Upon retiring from government politics,
Ikoku served on various educational bodies in the country. He was a member of
the West African Educational Council (WAEC) and the Council of the University
of Ibadan as well as Chairman, Board of Governors of the Aviation Training
Centre. Honours for his contribution to education in Nigeria include an
honorary Doctorate in Law (1965) at a special convocation of the University of
Ibadan, the establishment of the Alvan Ikoku College of Education, a major
road, Alvan Ikoku Way, in Maitama, Abuja (Capital of Nigeria) and his
commemoration on a bill of Nigerian currency, the Ten Naira note. He died on
November 18, 1971.
HERE
ARE SOME AMAZING THINGS ABOUT ALVAN IKOKU:
His round glasses we are all used to. His
face graciously adorns the ten Nigerian naira note but not many of us have
really taken time to take a closer look at the note to know that he lived for
71 years (1900-1971). Now I see you thinking of where you kept your last ten
naira note or scrolling down to check the image...lol! Iyaniwura presents to
you today, one of Nigeria's most illustrious sons, SIR. DR. (MAZI) ALVAN AZINNA
IKOKU.
1) Born on 1st August, 1900 to a rich
merchant family in the tiny town of Amanagwu, Arochukwu, Abia State, he remains
one of Nigeria's finest educationists. Dr. Ikoku was also an activist,
nationalist, politician and undoubtedly, a statesman.
2) A pioneer of education, he resigned and
established one of Nigeria's very first private secondary schools, Aggrey
Memorial College in Nigeria in Arochukwu, Abia State in 1931. Till date, the
college holds the enviable record of the oldest private college ever built in
Africa. Ikoku named the college after James Emman Kwegyir Aggrey, the eminent
Ghanaian teacher, intellectual and missionary.
3) At Aggrey, he introduced carpentry as a
subject, where he called it 'the Education of the Hand.'' The most interesting
aspect of this is that the students were able to make their desks, lockers, chairs,
bookshelves and tables all by themselves. All his children also studied at
Aggrey, with the exception of Stella Aku (late). She was a molecular biologist
and Senior Lecturer, Biochemistry Department, ABU.
4) An intellectual giant, he had graduated
BA in 1928 long before the Great Zik of Africa and Chief Obafemi Awolowo.
5) As a politician, he was nominated to the
House of Assembly (Eastern Nigeria) where he sat on the Board of Education in
1946. A year later, he was a member of the Legislative Council in Lagos
representing the Eastern Region (1947-1951).
6) He was the leader of the United National
Party (later the United National Independence Party) which was formed in 1952.
Ikoku opposed party politics (was a constant critic of the NCNC which felt he
might use his massive influence over the NUT to embarrass the government of the
Eastern Region) and supported a national government.
7) A resolute defender of teachers, he was
at the forefront of championing the causes of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT
was formed in 1931 and Ikoku was its National President in 1955). At various
times, he was at loggerheads with the colonial rulers who disagreed with and
resisted his recommendations on education, such as the introduction of uniform
education in the country. However, upon gaining independence, he was vindicated
and his proposals became the bedrock of basic education policy formulation in
Nigeria. Throughout his time in government, he always pushed for the promotion
of educational development in Nigeria. He criticized the educational system at
the time for failing to teach indigenous languages.
8) When he left the political arena, he was
not tired, and still offered his services to the nation as a member of the
Governing Board of Directors of West African Educational Council (WAEC) and the
Council of the University of Ibadan (UI) where he was later given an honorary doctorate
degree in law in 1965.
9) Alvan Ikoku is the first Nigerian to
earn a university degree as an external candidate when he bagged a philosophy
degree from the University of London in 1928.
10) Interestingly, his son, Mazi Samuel
Goomsu Ikoku (born 24th July 1922 at Igbo Amabani, near Itigidi, Cross River
State), popularly called S.G, was also a politician and a trusted lieutenant of
Chief Obafemi Awolowo (with whom he co-authored Forward with Democratic
Socialism). A pro-Soviet Union figure (in March 1952, his house in Lagos was
searched by security officials for evidence of his communist ideology while he
was also arrested and questioned by the enraged colonial authorities with his
socialist party disbanded repeatedly), Samuel Ikoku was later a very prominent
figure in the Action Group Party (General Secretary), and at a point, he
astoundingly defeated his father, Alvan, at the southeastern House of Assembly.
He was a very vocal supporter of self-government in 1956. His victory shocked
many, including his father, who later gave his support, and even provided funds
for his re-election in 1961. He rallied members of the Action Group Party in
the Eastern Region and became the Leader of the Opposition. Described as a
'selfless and charming master fixer', he also worked for the victory of fifteen
other independent candidates. Samuel Ikoku was one of those accused in 1962
during the Treasonable Felony Trial but luckily for the masters degree holder
in developmental economics (he was a Senior Lecturer at the University of Lagos
and wrote many books), he was away in Ghana where he stayed with President
Kwame Nkrumah. He did not even bother to return home until 1966. Later, Samuel
Ikoku was selected by President Shagari (also served as the Special Adviser to
the President on National Assembly Affairs) to lead a three-man team to observe
the March 1980 Zimbabwean elections as part of the Commonwealth Observer team.
Then, Nigeria was quite serious about and committed to the liberation of
Zimbabwe. S. Ikoku would later romance with military dictators like Babangida
(he was at the forefront of the Council of Elder Statesmen created by Halilu
Akilu) and was also on very friendly terms with General Abacha. He died in 1997
when Abacha was still in power. He was famous for saying to his wife: “There is
no coup. Let’s go and sleep, my dear.” There was a coup in December 1983, and
he was jailed at Kirikiri Maximum Prisons until IBB's junta. Enough of the son
for now! We will come to another of his sons later.
11-The Alvan Ikoku Federal College of
Education in Owerri, Imo State was named in his honour and of course, his face
is emblazoned on the ten naira note (see pictures). It was at this school that
the first full-fledged Igbo Language Department in Nigeria was established in
1975.
12. Also, Alvan Ikoku Crescent, University
of Lagos Campus, Akoka was named after him. Same with the Alvan Ikoku Hostel at
the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
13-Although he was an Ibo man from
Arochukwu, it is worthy of note that his mother was an Efik woman from Calabar
where he schooled at the Hope Waddell Training Institution. His father, Mazi
Ikoku Adim was friends with Chief Coco Otu Bassey, a rich trader and
politician. The relationship was solidified when he married one of Chief
Bassey's daughters. Described as a 'flawless speaker with a great command of
the English language' Alvan was the only product of that marriage.
14-Alvan Ikoku and Nnamdi Azikiwe were
always at loggerheads, and in retaliation, the Great Zik would blast him in his
newspapers. As Zik noted in his autobiography My Odyssey, it was so serious
that at a point, they dragged themselves to court. Who won? Grab your copy of
My Odyssey...lol!
15-One of his sons, Chimere Ikoku,
Foundation Vice-Chancellor, Federal University of Technology, Abeokuta &
former two-term Vice Chancellor of the University of Nigeria (UNN), a
Pan-Africanist and a professor of chemistry was gunned down on a Sunday
morning, 13th October 2002 by unknown assailants. His killers arrived at his
Enugu residence on okadas (motorcycles) shooting sporadically in the air. They
first met his wife and forced her to take them to the erudite scholar. They
asked for the sum of one million naira which he was not able to produce. Then
they shot him. But the University of Chicago-trained scholar did not die
immediately, according to his wife, he was rushed to four different hospitals
but they turned him down because there was no police report. He finally
breathed his last after four hours of frantic efforts by his wife to get him
treated. He was 70. He was in America before he decided to come to Nigeria to
contribute his own quota. When he told his friend that like the Chinese who
left US to develop their nation, he would also fly home. His friend looked at him
and laughed. What a nation.
16-Sir Alvan was a recipient of the Order
of the British Empire (OBE). Some of his critics would say he was too pro-British.
17-He died on the 18th November, 1971 at
the Aba General Hospital.
18-Alvanville, opposite Aggrey Memorial
College in Arochukwu is named after him and was the site of the funeral of his
son, Chimere.
19. His wife, an Efik woman, was the leading
female organist of the Protestant choir of his college and she was very good at
it. She was said to have been so good that she played the Te-Deum, Laudamus,
Venite and others without looking at the Psalter.
20- He was a practising Protestant and his
other children include Gloria (scientist and publisher), Eson Ecoma, Nkpanam
Bassey (UK-based consultant haematologist), Veronica (medical doctor), Chinyere
(professor of petroleum engineering, University of Port Harcourt), Alvan
Enyinnaya and Fide. Sir Alvan Ikoku sure had a lot of kids...lol!
AkotechBlog TEAM sincerely thanks the
following people for their kindness in providing the images of ten naira notes
that we made use of for this article.
Do yoy mean to say Alvan Ikoku was the first Nigerian to earn a degree or rather that he was the first external degree student of the university of London?
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