Hamilton, Nigeria's Founding Fathers & Who Gets to Tell the Story of Revolution

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The Setup - "Alexander Hamilton" & The Question of Narrative Power

Hamilton opens with a question that haunts all national origin stories: "How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore and a Scotsman, dropped in the middle of a forgotten spot in the Caribbean by providence impoverished get up and climb?"

This is Lin-Manuel Miranda asking: WHO GETS TO BE REMEMBERED? Who gets their story told? Whose narrative survives?

Nigeria's founding story has the same problem. We celebrate Nnamdi Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo, Ahmadu Bello, and Kwame Nkrumah (the "Big Four"), but how many know about Herbert Macaulay? Samuel Ajayi Crowther? Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti fighting for women's rights while the "official" founding fathers got the credit?

In "Alexander Hamilton," we meet a young immigrant with ambition. In Nigeria's founding, we meet men shaped by colonialism, educated abroad, returning to fight for independence. But like Hamilton, the question persists: who decided these men were the heroes?

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The Chorus We Ignored - "Say No To This," "Non-Stop," & The Cost of Obsession

  • "Say No To This" is about Hamilton's affair. But it's also about how ambition + isolation + power = disaster. Hamilton had no one to tell him no. No one to say: step back, rest, be human.
  • Nigeria's founding fathers? Same problem. Azikiwe became too much the "father figure," Awolowo too consumed with his vision, Bello too invested in Northern dominance. No one could tell them no. Democracy was supposed to be the check. It failed.
  • "Non-Stop" is Hamilton literally working all the time, writing constantly, unable to rest. It's portrayed as admirable but it's also toxic. He's destroying his relationships, his health, his ability to see clearly.
  • How much of Nigeria's dysfunction comes from founding fathers who couldn't stop, couldn't step back, couldn't let go? Awolowo's grip on Yoruba politics didn't end until his death. Azikiwe's influence stretched decades. Bello's legacy shaped the North for generations.

The lesson both Hamilton and Nigeria teach: ambition without bounds isn't heroic. It's destructive. And the people who pay the price aren't the ambitious man, it's everyone around him.

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