Examine the factors which contributed to the Action Group Crises of 1962.

Answer Details

The Action Group crisis of 1962 was a serious internal split within the Action Group, the party then controlling the Western Region. It arose from a combination of the following factors.

1. Leadership rivalry between Awolowo and Akintola: The struggle for supremacy between Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the national leader of the party, and Chief S. L. Akintola, the Premier of the Western Region, was the immediate cause of the split.
2. Ideological differences: Awolowo favoured a radical, welfarist and democratic-socialist programme, while Akintola preferred a more conservative approach and cooperation with the ruling coalition at the centre.
3. Disagreement over relations with the federal government: Akintola wanted the Action Group to join or align with the NPC-led federal government to attract development to the West, whereas Awolowo insisted on remaining in vigorous opposition.
4. Struggle for control of party funds and machinery: Contest over the control of party finances and the party organisation deepened the mutual distrust between the two camps.
5. Personal ambition and ethnic or sectional loyalties within the West: Personal ambitions of leading members, reinforced by sectional loyalties, hardened the two factions.
6. Interference of the federal government: The NPC-controlled federal government exploited the quarrel to weaken its main opponent, and its declaration of a state of emergency in the West in May 1962 turned the party quarrel into a full-blown regional crisis.

The crisis led to disorder in the Western House of Assembly, the removal and reinstatement disputes over the premiership, the emergency administration, and eventually the treason-felony trial of Chief Awolowo.