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OJIKE. Mbonu (1912 1956)
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Biography Entry: <\/p>\n
State of Origin: Imo Local Government Area: Ideato North Village\/ Town: Arondizuogu Late Mazi Mbonu Ojike was one of the most firebrand Nationalists of the day of Colonialism. He was a promoter of Pan Africanism and an uncompromising defenderof the rights of the Africans. Hewas emotionally attachedto the values of African Culture to the extent that he felt it was not necessary for any African to use or even put on European dress or take the foreign names. His strong rejection of European artefacts” or materials made him propound the philosophy of Boycott. According tohim Africans should “boycott all boycottabe” European materials and properly in order to allow the Africans develop iheirown original and indigenous materials. This philosophy earned him the popular name in the Stale House ofAssembly of’The Boycott King”. I” lucation \u2022 Arochukwu Primary School 1926 \u2022 Church Missionary Society (CMS) Training College Awka 1929 United States ofAmerica and Canada where hestudied Political Science. Journalism and History. Jo!- Experience \u2022 Taught as a missionary teacher 1931. \u2022 StaffofCentral School Abagana Dennis Memorial Grammar School (DMGS) Onitsha 1933. I le was one of the African Teachers at DMGS \u2022 Worked briefly in West African Pilot \u2022 Won the College 1831 Annual Prize with the Book Aggrey of Africa. Political Activities \u2022 On return from Americahejoined Politics of Nationalism then under the National Council of Nigeriaand Cameroon ( NCNC) \u2022 Ile was elected into the Eastern House of Assembly and served as the Minister of Finance Ilelped in the formation of the African StudentsAssociation of America and Canada, 1941 and became its First President. Was one of the Official Delegates to London Constitutional Conference in 1947 \u2022 Avid crusader for African Nationalism and political independence. \u2022 Wrote a pungent article against the Coal Miners in 1949 and was fined \u00a340 for what the British Colonial Government called Seditious article. Hewasa very upright and hard working nationalist. He died suddenly probably of exhaustion or heart attack after a hectic day in the office. Mazi Mbonu Ojike will forever be remembered as one of the foremost Nationalists and clean Nigerian Politicians who did not betray the cause of freedom of theirpeople. TheGiant Oji Memorial Centre- Specialist Hospital at Ndi-Akemc Ndizuogu wasbuilt in his memory as a fitting tribute to a gallant Igbo Icon. He was a true patriot.<\/p>\n
Source Publication:
\nThe Igbo Icon<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","categories":[],"writer":[],"class_list":["post-9772","biography","type-biography","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blerf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/biography\/9772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blerf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/biography"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blerf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/biography"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blerf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blerf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/biography\/9772\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blerf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blerf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9772"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blerf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/writer?post=9772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}