NIGERIA @ 50 Independence anniversary Military intervention our undoing –Amaechi, first aviation minister

Chief Mbazuluike Amaechi, Nigeria’s first Aviation Minister is popularly known in the political circle as “the boy is good.” The elder statesman was in the forefront of nationalist struggle for Nigeria’s independence. He spoke about the struggle for independence, military intervention and the imbalance in the political leadership of the nation among others.
Excerpts:

The boy is good
You were too young to know that. That was the name they gave me in my active days as a Zikist nationalist, as a young NCNC field man and as a politician. At that time I was really known more by that name than my real name.

Even now though I am neither a boy nor look like a boy, it has continued to influence my real name. They still call me by that name. The young ones cannot understand why a man of my age should be called a boy. That was just it.
The way it started was in 1957 during one of the series of conferences for negotiations for independence. A meeting was to hold at the residence of the British Governor of Nigeria, Sir James Robertson at Marina in Lagos. The leaders of the three main political parties in the country then were to come with their delegation for one of the sessions of the conference.

Story By DAVID ONWUCHEKWA, Nnewi
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