"The Nigerian Youth Movement {1934-1951}

J.C. Vaughan,Ernest Ikoli H.O. Davies,and Samuel Akinsanya founded the Nigerian Youth Movement (NYM) In 1934.Based in Lagos,the NYM was the first Nigerian natonalist organization to promote politics outside of the capital.Futhermore,the NYM was also the first organization to stress national unity over racial divisions,notably between the Igbo and Yoruba ethnic groups.In 1934 the colonial government Yaba Higher College in order to train more Nigerian technicians.The College suffered for being a native Nigerin institution,having no affiliation with any british university.According to the educated elite at the time,any college based in Africa was inherently inferior.Additionally Yaba offered no courses on either public administration or economics,which were prerequisites for colonial administrative positions.The Lagos Youth Movement,renamed the NYM in 1936,was created in protest of these inherenty educational opportunities.The NYM would outline  its now fundamental mission in its 1938 Nigerian Youth Charter.According the chareter,the primary aim of the NYM was the development of a united nation out of  conglomeration of peoples who inhabited Nigeria,and the promotion of complete understanding along with a sense of common nationalism among different elements in the country.Politically the NYM sought to increase the native Nigerian participation in civil service and government with the ultimate goal of self-government.The NYM established branches in urban areas throughout Nigeria in an attempt to promote inter-tribal cooperation.he two most influential leaders of the early years of the NYM were H.O. Davies,one of the founders,and Nnamdi Azikiwe.H.O. had lived abroad for several years and studied economics.Nnamdi had studied at Lincoln University (B.A. and M.A. in Political Science),the University of Pennsylvania (M.A. and M.Sc.in Anthropology),and Cololumbia University (certificate in Journalism) all in the United States.In addition to English Nnamdi spoke Hausa,Igbo and Yoruba,the three major languages of Nigeria.Founded on the basis of equal racial participation,the demise,of the NYM eventually came from a combination of ethnics tension and political inflighting.Personal conflicts between Nnamdi,an Igbo nationalists,and the other members of the NYM,which as a whole was an increasingly Yoruba organization,were perceived by many to be signs of growing ethnic tensions.Eventually Nnamdi would leave the organization in protest to what believed were discriminatory policies against him and the Igbos.From then on the NYM was mainly a Yoruba organization that had evolved into the type of ethnically-based party it was founded to prevent.In April 1951 the NYM was absorbed by two other two other Yoruba political parties and ceased to be a force in Nigerian politics.