Nwafor Orizu

“One pivotal figure who symbolised the fall of the first republic was Dr. Prince Akweke Abyssinia Nwafor Orizu, the senate president on whom fate foisted the interim leadership of Nigeria in the absence of the then ceremonial President, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe.”

“While the likes of Nwafor-Orizu were in the trenches fighting for Nigerian independence, and pushing the British out, and in turn being blackmailed and jailed, the likes of Ahmadu Bello known collaborator with British colonialism and its neo-colonial aims n Nigeria, were vociferous against the independence movement, and the emergence of Nigeria as a free and United nation.”

“During the Colonial era in Nigeria, the plan of the then imperial masters was to train Africans on the narrow perpendicular educational curriculum in order to prepare them for civil service only. My father was an American trained intellectual who then could appreciate the stagnation in knowledge and future economic deficit subtly enshrined in this limited perpendicular curriculum.”

“That was why he boldly kicked against it when he launched the Horizontal Education. This was the broad-based American styled curriculum that would explore, develop and utilize fully the human potentials and talents for full growth and emancipation. His motto, “To educate the mind is to liberate it”, was applied in my upbringing. Apart from this, my father authored thirteen published books, about ten yet -to- be published manuscripts.”