ABSTRACT
The Action Group (AG) of the West formed the opposition in the federal Parliament. In February 1962 in Jos, northern Nigeria, Awolowo denounced Akintola at an AG party congress, after which Akintola openly fraternized with the Sardaunan of Sokoto, who was the real head of Northern Peoples Congress. On 19 May, the AG executive committee called on Akintola asking him to resign but he refused. Awolowo then asked the regional governor of the West to convene the western House of Assembly to debate a vote of no confidence in Akintola. After independence, the demands by minority ethnic groups for separate regions were intensified. This was partly the result of a natural desire for each ethnic community to have an area under its own exclusive jurisdiction, but in addition this was partly — and perhaps especially — the result of the fact that regional governments monopolized power and its benefits to the detriment of their minorities.
