I Wish Awolowo Became Nigeria’s President – Pete Edochie

Veteran Nollywood actor Pete Edochie has named the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo as his favourite Nigerian politician ever. He recently had his say during an interview on Curiosity Made Me Ask, a show hosted by content creator Isbae U.

Citing his contributions to education and broadcasting, Edochie revealed that he admired how Awolowo set clear targets and explained how he intended to fund and execute his plans.

The moviestar added that he regrets the fact that Awolowo never became president of Nigeria.

His words, “First of all, I love the Yorubas a lot. One of my sons is married to a Yoruba girl, I didn’t tell you that, so you’re my in-law. I’m not into politics, no. But, if you ask me who is or was my favorite politician, I will tell you Awolowo.

You people were not born when Awolowo was in active politics. But Awolowo will tell you, ‘I’m going to build this thing. It will cost certain amount, and this is where I’m going to get it.’ There has been no politician to achieve that, no. Outside Awolowo, then M.I. Okpara in the East.

Which is why Awolowo introduced a lot of things in Nigeria that were not there previously. Awolowo brought television into Nigeria.

He did. Then you would hear, ‘This is WNBC, first in Africa,’ under Awolowo. That was in 1959. Then in 1960, we in the East established our own television, and we were saying, ‘This is ENBC, second to none.’ We were second to the West, but we didn’t want to accept it, so we were saying second to none. Awolowo introduced it.

Awolowo introduced free primary education. And he surprised everybody who was born then in the West. No matter where you came from, you benefited from it, you know?

So, on a couple of occasions, when I tell people that this man was my favorite, regrettably, he never became the president of the country, right? But he wasn’t somebody who would invest so much energy promising.”