- Chief Obafemi Jeremiah Awolowo’s birth date
- More than 23 Christian students died from fire at Gindiri girls school
- First kidney transplant
According to Jawaharlal Nehru, you don’t change the course of history by turning the faces of portraits to the wall.
History can not be rewritten. We should not make attempt to rewrite past events because they are ugly. We should rather learn from these events to shape future ones.
In an effort to create awareness and enlighten our readers, WITHIN NIGERIA has highlighted three notable events that shaped March 6 in the history of this country, Nigeria.
First kidney transplant
On this date, 6th of March in 2000, the first kidney transplant in Nigeria was conducted at St. Nicholas Hospital by Dr. Shonibare.
The hospital which is private owned was founded in 1968 by the late Moses Majekodunmi. He was a gynaecologist and obstetrician who served as Minister of Health during Nigeria’s First Republic of 1960-1966.
Chief Obafemi Jeremiah Awolowo’s birth date
On this date, 6th of March in 1909, Chief Obafemi Jeremiah Oyeniyi Awolowo was born in the Remo town of Ikenne, in present-day Ogun State of Nigeria.
Awolowo was a Yoruba nationalist and Nigerian statesman who played a key role in Nigeria’s independence movement (1957-1960). He founded the Yoruba nationalist group Egbe Omo Oduduwa, and was the first Leader of Government Business and Minister of Local Government and Finance, and first Premier of the Western Region under Nigeria’s parliamentary system, from 1952 to 1959.
He was the official Leader of the Opposition in the federal parliament to the Balewa government from 1959 to 1963.
He attended various schools, including Baptist Boys’ High School (BBHS), Abeokuta; and then became a teacher in Abeokuta, after which he qualified as a shorthand typist.
Subsequently, he served as a clerk at the Wesley College Ibadan, as well as a correspondent for the Nigerian Times. It was after this that he embarked on various business ventures to help raise funds to travel to the UK for further studies.
Following his education at Wesley College, Ibadan, in 1927, he enrolled at the University of London as an External Student and graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Commerce (Hons.). He went to the UK in 1944 to study law at the University of London and was called to the Bar by the Honorable Society of the Inner Temple on 19 November 1946.
In 1949, Awolowo founded the Nigerian Tribune, a private Nigerian newspaper, which he used to spread nationalist consciousness among Nigerians.
More than 23 Christian students died from fire at Gindiri girls school
On this date, 6th of March in 2001, twenty-three students died during the fire incident which occurred at their hostel, while three others die at the Jos University Teaching Hospital after being admitted for burns.
The fire broke out on the night of Monday, March 5. By Wednesday, the remains of 23 students, burnt beyond recognition, had been retrieved from the ruins of the hostel. They were buried in a mass grave a few meters away from the hostel.
Speaking on the tragic incident,, Dr Daniel Iya, chief medical director of the hospital, disclosed that two other students were in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), while four more were recuperating in one of the hospital wards.
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