the right of secession – a stance which was later exploited by the North and the West to deny the East the right to secede in the Nigerian Civil War. It had argued that the country was not a league of forced nations and it would be ruinous to include such right. The policies of the party, from its inception favored a countenance of determined expression for self-government and nationalism. The major aims of the party taken on subsequent campaigns at home and abroad were as follows. The extension of democratic principles and advancement of the interest of the people of Nigeria and Cameroons under British mandate. The impartings of political education to the people of Nigeria in order to prepare them for self-government. The provision of medium of expression for members of NCNC through which they would endeavor to secure for Nigeria and the Cameroons, political freedom, social equality, religious toleration and economic activity. Executive members from November 1957 to August 1958 included: Nnamdi Azikiwe, National President and President of the Senate (Igbo, Methodist) J. O. Fadahunsi, First National Vice-President (Yoruba, Protestant) Eyo Ita, First National Deputy President (Ibibio-Efik Man, First Nigerian Professor) Raymond Njoku, Second National Vice-President (Igbo, Catholic) F. S. McEwen, National Secretary (Sierra Leone Creole of West Indian ancestry, Protestant) Festus Okotie-Eboh, National Treasurer, Federal Minister of Finance (Warri, Protestant) A. K. Blankson, National Auditor (Ghanaian, Protestant) Dennis Osadebay, National Legal Adviser (Igbo, Protestant) T. O. S. Benson, National Financial Secretary, Federal Minister of Information (Yoruba, Protestant) Post-independence After Nigeria's independence, Azikiwe was Governor-General (1960-1963) and President (1963-1966). In 1966, a military coup ended Azikiwe's term as president, and the NCNC dissolved in the following turmoil. The NCNC was accused by its adversaries of focusing overly on the interests of the Igbo population. By the late 1940s, the remnant of the Nigerian Youth Movement, now effectively a western Nigeria political organization, had decided to support the Action Group accusing the NCNC of ethnic imperialism. However, the western opposition needed to tactically rev up local sentiments as its base was made up of local elites who depended little on nationalistic sentiment but on the local economic and political activity in their various towns and cities. During the Biafran war of secession, Azikiwe became a spokesman for the republic and an adviser to its leader, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, before switching allegiance back to Nigeria and publicly appealing to