Meet Samuel Ikoku, first Nigerian to defeat his father in an election

In Nigeria’s political space, it is not common to see a child pitch against his father in any elective position; because culturally, it is not accepted, and seen as disrespect to one’s parent.

However, some 68 years, a landmark history was made in Nigeria’s political space when Samuel Ikoku, a young Nigerian defeated Alvan Ikoku, his father, in an election, the first ever in the country to achieve such a feat.

Alvan, the man whose face is emblazoned on the ₦10 note famously lost to his son, Samuel Goomsu, by 59 votes in a regional House of Assembly election, precisely on March 15, 1957, Eastern House of Assembly elections.

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Born on July 24, 1922, to Alvan Azinna, and Grace Ikoku, from Arochukwu in Abia State, Samuel graduated from Achimota College and later studied at University College, Southampton.

As a student at the University of Southampton, Ikoku supported Nigeria’s independence movement, writing articles printed by the West African Pilot, and the independence movement led by Nnamdi Azikiwe.

After his degree, he joined the radical arm of the independence movement, working as an adviser to the Nigerian Federation of Labour led by Michael Imoudu and later co-founding the United Working People’s Party in 1952.

A year later, the party was officially disbanded; the government did so after branding the organisation as subversive and communist. The young Ikoku later began a relationship with the Action Group (AG) that spanned the majority of the First Republic.

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Samuel sometimes spoke on national issues with a sense of candor, this style led to him being called a controversial figure by Sam Momah, the former Science and Technology Minister.

He began writing articles in Azikiwe’s West African Pilot criticising the Legislative Council, in which his father was a nominated member, arguing against the council as an imposed government and aligning with Azikiwe’s ideas about immediate independence.

In 1957, he won the regional House of Assembly election, in the assembly he represented AG and served as the leader of the opposition. During the campaigns preceding the election, Ikoku’s father was contesting the same seat under the United National Independent Party.

In 1962, he traveled to Ghana, days before a factional crisis engulfed the Western Region House of Assembly leading to a state of emergency. Some factional members of the Action Group were later charged with treason.

S.G Ikoku, as he was popularly known, was one of the accused during the famous Treasonable Felony Trial of 1962, along with Obafemi Awolowo, Anthony Enahoro, Lateef Jakande, and 10 others but by the time the trial had commenced he was already in Ghana and did not return to prove his innocence.

In Ghana, Ikoku organised a branch of the party and also worked as a lecturer at Nkrumah’s Ideological Institute and as an editor for Spark Magazine, published in Ghana.

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During the Nigerian Civil War, S.G. did not support secession. He was briefly detained after his return from Ghana but was later appointed commissioner for Economic Development and later Health in the East Central State.

He broke ranks with former Action Group members and joined Aminu Kano’s People’s Redemption Party during the Second Republic. He was appointed Secretary-General of the party, which believed in the emancipation of the ‘talakawa’.

He was Aminu Kano’s running mate in the 1979 presidential election, which Shehu Shagari won. However, beginning during the twilight of the republic, Samuel began to shift away from his socialist ideas. S.G. left PRP and became an adviser to Shehu Shagari of the National Party of Nigeria.

He spoke of elongating the role of the military in Nigeria’s political affairs during the administration of Ibrahim Babangida and later served as deputy chairman of the Transition Implementation Committee during Sani Abacha’s regime.

As the deputy chairman, Samuel Ikoku argued that Abacha was free to succeed himself if the political parties agreed to draft him as their presidential candidate.

He died in 1997.