Jaja Wachuku - Return To Nigeria and Politics

Return To Nigeria and Politics

Wachuku returned to Nigeria in 1947, travelling in the same ship with Nnamdi Azikiwe; and was present at Takoradi, Gold Coast (British Colony) - now Ghana, when Azikiwe spoke to Joseph B. Danquah, leader of the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) - concerning the organizational ability of Kwame Nkrumah. Azikiwe then urged Joseph B. Danquah to invite Nkrumah back home from England. In the same year of his return to Nigeria, Wachuku joined the NCNC, and was elected the Party's Legal Adviser and Member of the National Executive Committee. He soon got involved in the nationalist agitation of that period and was a favoured lecturer at the Glover Memorial Hall, Lagos. There, in one of his lectures, Wachuku provoked national controversy when he declared Lagos a "nomam's land" - meaning that it was an all-Nigerian city - wherein all Nigerians were entitled to equal rights. Among other responsibilities, Jaja Wachuku was Principal Secretary of the Igbo State Union from 1948 to 1952. In 1949, he founded a radical Youth Movement, the New Africa Party (NAP), and affiliated it to the NCNC in 1950. NCNC was later called: National Council of Nigerian Citizens. Concerning Wachuku's New Africa Party, in a letter from London, England dated May 29, 1951, sent to W. E. B. Du Bois, and later included in the book titled: The Correspondence of W. E. B. Du Bois: Volume III Selections, 1944 to 1963 edited by Herbert Aptheker and published by the University of Massachusetts Press, George Padmore said:

"Enclosed are a few clippings from West Africa. You will no doubt remember Jaja Wachuku who was a delegate to the Fifth Pan-African Congress. He has recently started a Pan-African Party in Nigeria to spread the ideas of which you are the worthy father..."

Interestingly, Wachuku was co-founder and original shareholder, with Nnamdi Azikiwe, of the African Continental Bank (ACB). And was the First Regional Director of the bank from 1948 to 1952. As ACB Director, he facilitated the opening of branches in Aba, Calabar, Port Harcourt and Enugu. Jaja Wachuku started his political career from the grassroots. In 1948, he was first nominated village councillor and later to the Nsulu Group Council. From 1949 to 1952, he was a Member of the Ngwa Native Authority, Okpuala Ngwa. In 1951, he entered regional politics and was elected Second Member for Aba Division in the Eastern Nigeria House of Assembly. From 1952 to 1953, Wachuku was elected Deputy Leader of the NCNC and Chairman of the Parliamentary Party when there was crisis in Nigeria's Eastern Region - resulting in the dissolution of the Eastern House of Assembly. Also, from 1952 to 1953, he was Chairman of the Eastern Regional Scholarship Board and Member of the Finance Committee in the House of Representatives of Nigeria. Wachuku went to the 1953 Constitutional Conference in London as Alternate Delegate and Adviser to the Nigerian Independence Party (NIP) - a break-away faction that was formed following the NCNC crisis of 1953.

In 1954, Wachuku lost the Eastern Regional election and ceased to be a member of the House of Representatives. Later on in 1954, when the principle of direct election to the House of Representatives was introduced, he was re-elected first member for the Aba Division in the House of Representatives; as well as member of United Nigeria Independence Party (UNIP) - amalgamation of the Nigerian Independence Party and another party. In 1957, Wachuku became Deputy Leader of opposition when he joined the NCNC. From 1957 to 1959, he was a Board member of the Electricity Corporation of Nigeria (ECN). Also, in 1957, for the following three years, he was appointed member of the Local Education Authority and Chairman of the Board of Education in the Eastern Region of Nigeria. During the same period, Wachuku was also Chairman of Aba Divisional Committee of the NCNC.

Accordingly, in 1957, Jaja Wachuku was the Leader of the Nigerian Federation Delegation to the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association Meeting held in India, Pakistan and Ceylon, now Sri Lanka. He also represented Nigeria in Liberia during the opening of the New Parliament Building in Monrovia. From 1958 to 1959, Wachuku was Chairman of the Business Committee in the House of Representatives of Nigeria. He was also a member of the Parliamentary Committee on the Nigerianization of the Federal Civil Service. He wrote the Committee's Report assisted by Mr. Michael O. Ani. In 1959, Wachuku was re-elected into the House of Representatives from Aba Division; and was, subsequently, elected the first indigenous Speaker of the Nigerian House of Representatives.