History of The Igbo State Union

The Igbo State Union was the main pan-ethnic Igbo organisation from 1948-1966. It started out as the Igbo Federal Union founded in 1944 by the leaders of the Lagos Igbo Union.

In 1943, Dennis Chukude Osadebe, the general secretary of the Igbo Union in Lagos who represented the Asaba Union, launched a campaign to federate all Igbo unions throughout Nigeria resulting in the formation of the Igbo Federal Union in 1944 which later became the Igbo State Union.

The Igbo State Union’s goal was for solidarity among the Igbo people as well as support for educational development. Formed by elite Igbo nationalists, the union also functioned as an anti-colonial and nation-building organisation and supported an agenda for Nigerian independence.

The Igbo Federal Union, once headed by Nnamdi Azikiwe and renamed the Igbo State Union in 1948, produced an Igbo national anthem and once planned for a national bank of Igboland. The union also made the 6th November ‘Igbo National Day.’ The union was close with the NCNC.

The Igbo Federal Union became the Igbo State Union at a 1948 Pan-Igbo conference at Aba in order “to organize the Igbo linguistic group into a political unit in accordance with the NCNC Freedom Charter.”

The Igbo State Union was banned in 1966 along with other political parties by the Aguiyi-Ironsi regime through decree 34 of May 24. During its existence, the Igbo State Union was most influential and strongest ethnic organisations in Nigeria.