The Action Group Crisis 1962 was one of the most consequential political emergencies of Nigeria’s early independence. Less than two years after the country became independent, a leadership struggle within the governing party of the Western Region developed into a constitutional dispute, disorder in the regional legislature and direct intervention by the Federal Government.
In October 1962, while the Western Region remained under emergency administration, the Nigerian edition of Drum published an article titled “The A.G.: What Next?” The feature appeared at a moment when the future of the Action Group, one of Nigeria’s most influential political parties, had become deeply uncertain.
The party was divided between supporters of Obafemi Awolowo and Samuel Ladoke Akintola. Its regional government had been suspended, its leaders were confronting legal and political challenges, and the constitutional consequences of the crisis were still unfolding.
Drum and African Popular Journalism
Drum was established in South Africa in 1951 and became one of Africa’s most influential popular magazines. It combined photography, political reporting, crime stories, sport, entertainment and accounts of modern African urban life.
Although the magazine became especially famous for its South African writers and photographers, its influence extended across the continent. It developed publishing operations for audiences in West and East Africa, including Nigeria and Ghana.
The Nigerian edition addressed political, cultural and social subjects that were directly relevant to local readers. Its reporting helped bring national events beyond government offices, courtrooms and legislative chambers to a wider popular audience.
The appearance of “The A.G.: What Next?” in October 1962 demonstrated how a constitutional crisis had entered public conversation. The dispute was no longer confined to party meetings or parliamentary speeches. It had become a major national story.
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How the Action Group Crisis 1962 Began
The Action Group governed the Western Region during the final years of colonial rule and the opening period of independence. Under Obafemi Awolowo, the party became associated with regional development programmes, including free primary education.
Following the 1959 federal election, Awolowo moved into federal politics and became Leader of the Opposition in the Federal House of Representatives. Samuel Ladoke Akintola succeeded him as Premier of Western Nigeria.
This arrangement created two powerful centres of authority. Awolowo remained the national leader of the Action Group, while Akintola controlled the regional executive as Premier. The relationship became increasingly difficult as disagreements developed over party discipline, government policy and political strategy.
The conflict was not merely a personal quarrel. Political ambition and mistrust contributed to the breakdown, but historians have also identified disagreements over ideology, party leadership, economic policy and relations with the Northern People’s Congress, which dominated the Federal Government.
Akintola and his supporters increasingly objected to the political direction of the Action Group and to what they regarded as interference in the work of the regional government. Awolowo’s supporters, meanwhile, believed that Akintola was departing from the party’s agreed policies and weakening its position as the principal federal opposition.
Attempts by senior party figures to reconcile the factions failed. The Action Group’s National Executive eventually removed Akintola as the party’s deputy leader and asked him to resign as Premier of Western Nigeria. He refused.
The Dispute Becomes a Constitutional Crisis
On 20 May 1962, Akintola advised Sir Adesoji Aderemi, the Governor of Western Nigeria, to dissolve the regional legislature. Rival factions were claiming majority support, and Akintola argued that an election would allow voters to settle the dispute.
The Governor refused the request.
Akintola also asked the Speaker of the Western House of Assembly to convene the House so that his government could seek a vote of confidence. The Speaker refused.
On 21 May, Governor Aderemi removed Akintola from office after concluding that he no longer commanded the support of a majority in the House of Assembly. He appointed Dauda Soroye Adegbenro, formerly the regional Minister of Local Government, as Premier.
Akintola challenged his removal in court. The conflict had therefore moved beyond the internal affairs of the Action Group. It now involved major constitutional questions about the Governor’s powers, the authority of the Premier and the procedure for determining whether a government still commanded legislative support.
The legal dispute later reached the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in the case of Adegbenro v Akintola and Aderemi. The case became an important authority on the constitutional powers of a Governor operating under a parliamentary system.
Violence in the Western House of Assembly
The Western House of Assembly met in Ibadan on 25 May 1962. The sitting was expected to provide a parliamentary test of the competing claims to power.
Instead, the chamber descended into disorder.
Fighting broke out among members, furniture was damaged and the proceedings could not continue. The police intervened and used tear gas to clear the chamber. A second attempt to hold a meeting also ended in serious disorder, after which the police cleared and locked the building.
The failed sittings created a constitutional impasse. In a functioning parliamentary system, the question of whether a government commanded majority support would ordinarily be settled through a vote in the legislature. In Western Nigeria, the legislature could not complete that procedure.
The crisis had moved from a struggle inside the Action Group to a breakdown in the machinery of regional government.
Balewa Declares Emergency Rule
Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa summoned the Federal Parliament on 29 May 1962. He asked both chambers to approve a resolution declaring a state of public emergency under Section 65 of the Constitution of the Federation.
The resolution stated that the emergency would remain in force until the end of December 1962.
The House of Representatives approved the motion by 209 votes to 36. The Senate approved it by 32 votes to 7, with two abstentions.
Balewa argued that the Western Region no longer possessed a properly constituted government capable of maintaining peace, order and effective administration. He presented federal intervention as a temporary constitutional response to an exceptional political breakdown.
Awolowo strongly opposed the motion. He argued that the intervention was discriminatory and questioned why serious disturbances elsewhere in Nigeria had not produced similar federal action. He also warned that suspending constitutional government in a region controlled by the principal opposition party could damage democratic institutions.
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The debate exposed a wider political problem. The violence in Ibadan and the paralysis of the regional legislature were undeniable. However, the Federal Government was led by the Northern People’s Congress, while Awolowo headed the principal federal opposition.
The emergency therefore took place within an atmosphere of intense party competition and regional rivalry.
Majekodunmi Takes Control of Western Nigeria
After Parliament approved the emergency resolution, the Western Regional Government was suspended. Senator Moses Adekoyejo Majekodunmi, the Federal Minister of Health, was appointed Administrator of Western Nigeria.
Majekodunmi was given responsibility for restoring order and administering the region until normal constitutional government could return. Restriction orders were imposed on prominent politicians from the rival factions, including Awolowo, Akintola and Adegbenro.
The emergency administration temporarily reduced the immediate struggle for control of the regional government. It did not, however, repair the division within the Action Group or settle the deeper contest for political power in Western Nigeria.
A commission headed by Justice G. B. A. Coker was later established to investigate the affairs of certain Western Nigerian public corporations and associated companies. Its proceedings became part of the wider political and legal consequences that followed the emergency.
Why Drum Asked “What Next?”
When the October 1962 Nigerian edition of Drum reached readers, the emergency resolution remained in force. The Western Region was still being governed by an appointed Administrator rather than by its ordinary regional government.
The title “The A.G.: What Next?” captured the uncertainty surrounding the party’s future. The Action Group had lost control of the regional administration it had dominated, its leadership was divided and its political direction had become uncertain.
The headline also reflected the importance of popular journalism in early independent Nigeria. Official speeches explained the positions of the Federal Government and its opponents. Court proceedings examined the constitutional powers involved. Newspapers and magazines brought these complex disputes to a broader reading public.
Drum was a commercial general-interest magazine rather than an official political publication. Its coverage placed constitutional conflict alongside the other subjects that shaped modern African public life, including entertainment, sport, work, fashion and urban culture.
By asking “What Next?”, the magazine presented the Action Group crisis as a question whose consequences extended beyond the party itself.
The Crisis and the Fall of the First Republic
The events of 1962 contributed to the weakening of Nigeria’s First Republic, but they were not the sole cause of its collapse.
Further political crises followed. Nigeria experienced bitter disputes over the 1962 and 1963 population census, controversy surrounding the 1964 federal election, political realignments and widespread violence after the disputed Western Regional election of 1965.
Together, these developments weakened confidence in parliamentary government. Political competition became increasingly associated with intimidation, disputed results, regional rivalry and the use of state institutions against opponents.
The Western Region crisis exposed several weaknesses at once. It revealed the difficulty of separating party leadership from executive authority. It demonstrated the vulnerability of parliamentary conventions when legislative proceedings could not be conducted peacefully. It also showed how federal emergency powers could become entangled with competition between the governing coalition and the opposition.
Emergency administration restored a measure of official control, but it did not produce a permanent political settlement. The divisions that emerged in 1962 continued to shape Western Nigerian politics until the military coup of January 1966 ended the First Republic.
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Conclusion
The Action Group Crisis 1962 marked a critical test for Nigeria’s young parliamentary democracy. A struggle between Awolowo and Akintola developed into a dispute over party authority, the regional premiership, legislative confidence and the constitutional responsibilities of the Federal Government.
The violence in the Western House of Assembly on 25 May prevented the legislature from resolving the competing claims. Four days later, Balewa secured parliamentary approval for emergency rule, suspended the regional government and appointed Majekodunmi as Administrator.
By the time Drum published “The A.G.: What Next?” in October, the crisis had already changed the political direction of Western Nigeria. The feature’s title preserved the uncertainty of a moment when the future of the Action Group and the strength of Nigeria’s democratic institutions were both in question.
Author’s Note
The central lesson of the Action Group crisis is that constitutional government depends on more than written rules. It also requires political restraint, functioning institutions and a willingness to resolve disagreements through lawful procedures. When party rivalry overwhelmed those safeguards in Western Nigeria, a regional leadership dispute became a national emergency and contributed to the wider loss of confidence that eventually consumed the First Republic.
References
Drum Nigeria, October 1962, contents catalogue, Drum Publications, Africa Commons.
Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, “The Crisis in Western Nigeria”, parliamentary motion and address, 29 May 1962.
Tyler Fleming and Toyin Falola, “Africa’s Media Empire: Drum’s Expansion to Nigeria”, History in Africa, Volume 32, 2005, pages 133 to 164.
Emmanuel Oladipo Ojo, “The Awolowo–Akintola Leadership Tussle: A Reinterpretation”, Journal of Arts and Humanities, Volume 5, Number 1, 2016, pages 76 to 90.
Larry Diamond, Class, Ethnicity and Democracy in Nigeria: The Failure of the First Republic, Palgrave Macmillan, 1988.
James O’Connell, “Politics, Law and Constitutionalism: The 1962 Western Region Crisis in Nigeria”, in Constitutional Heads and Political Crises, Palgrave Macmillan, 1988.
Alhaji D. S. Adegbenro v Chief S. L. Akintola and Sir Adesoji Aderemi, Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, 27 May 1963.
Joseph Olayinka Fashagba, “The Legislatures in the First and Second Republics”, in The Oxford Handbook of Nigerian Politics.
