Overview
Michael Okpara was Premier of the Eastern Region from 1959 to 1966 and the architect of the farm settlement programme known as pragmatic socialism. He was Igbo, born at Ojoto in the Bende area of what is now Abia State.
Biography
Okpara trained as a teacher and then as a lawyer, and entered politics through the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons. He succeeded Nnamdi Azikiwe as Premier of the Eastern Region when Azikiwe moved to federal office.
His government put its emphasis on agriculture and rural industry. Farm settlements were established to place young school leavers on cleared land with crops and inputs, and palm, rubber and cocoa production were expanded alongside light industry and a regional development corporation. He described the approach as pragmatic socialism: state investment aimed at production rather than at ownership for its own sake. The region's economic performance in those years is often cited in Nigerian development writing. His premiership ended with the coup of January 1966, and he spent much of the civil war period and its aftermath out of office.
Notable achievements
- Premier of the Eastern Region from 1959 to 1966
- Established the Eastern Region farm settlement scheme
- Expanded palm, rubber and cocoa production and regional light industry
- Set out the policy approach he called pragmatic socialism
Legacy
Okpara is remembered mainly for agricultural policy: the farm settlements and the export crop expansion of the early 1960s are still used as reference points in arguments about Nigerian rural development. His role in the politics that led to the civil war is assessed differently by different writers.