The famous ‘Africa has come of age’ speech by Murtala Muhammed
Murtala Muhammed is a figure that looms large in the history of Nigeria. There is an overwhelming consensus that he was an incorruptible hero that would have, given the time, rid Nigeria of the scourge of corruption that had infected the country.
His focus wasn’t just Nigeria. The commitment he showed to the liberation struggle in Angola, Mozambique, and South Africa and, to the pan African was unparalleled.
On the 3rd of January, 1976, the American Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Donald Easum, brought a letter addressed to the Nigerian head of state from the United States president, Gerald Ford.
The same letter was sent to many other African leaders. Murtala considered this a contemptuous gesture – an attempt by the Americans to dictate policy regarding the Angolan liberation struggle.
His federal military government took the bold and unprecedented step of releasing President Ford’s letter to the press. It also issued a strong response, calling the letter a “gross insult” and basically telling the Americans to go to hell.
This event triggered Murtala’s decision to attend the OAU conference in Addis Ababa and deliver his message to the world.
On the 11th of January, at the extraordinary summit conference of the OAU held in Addis Ababa, he gave one of the most powerful speeches ever delivered by a Nigerian leader, pulling no punches as he railed against the forces of neo-colonialism and imperialism aiming to keep Africans in poverty and strife.
In his speech, he paid special attention to the “Pretoria-Lisbon-Salisbury” axis (the governments of South Africa, Portugal, and Rhodesia) and, to the United States of America who he claimed were interested in maintaining “white supremacist minority regimes” in Africa.
Just over a month later, Murtala Muhammed was killed at the age of 37, the victim of a failed military coup. One of the leaders of the coup had accused Murtala Muhammed of, among other things, “going Communist”.
Source: The ABU Site