Monday October 21st 1968.
Footage of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Vice President of the Executive Council established by the Nigerian military government, launching his book "The People's Republic" in which he advocated a new socialist approach to tackling Nigeria's problems.
Speaking at Lagos's Mainland Hotel, Awolowo, who was a lawyer and journalist, said that the book was aimed at "rescuing Nigerians from 60 years of economic morass and social frustration."
Transcript of Awolowo's remarks:
"'The People's Republic' has been written mainly for Nigerians. But I must warn that I have written only for those Nigerians who are prepared to learn, to study, to make painstaking research, to abjure prejudices and to think systematically and constructively. Up to now, it is the habit with many of us to approach the titanic, intricate and pressing problems of our country with blameworthy casualness, insufficient study and research, loose and desultory thinking, supercilious complacency, deep-seated prejudices and insensitive partisanship. In the "People's Republic", I have deliberately ventured, with as much objectivity as I believe any human being to display in similar circumstances, to invite all our leaders in particular, and the entire body of educated Nigerian's in general, to a more serious, more objective, more thoughtful, more constructive and more altruistic approach to our economic, political and social problems. I have done this because I am convinced and satisfied that only this kind of scientific and thoroughly disciplined approach can help us to evolve rapidly, correct an effective solution to our problems, and so forever preserve the Federal Republic of Nigeria as a united and harmonious entity, bring prosperity and happiness to its teeming diverse people and enable it to play an effective role, for good, in the affairs of Africa and of the world at large."
Source: Reuters News Archive.