[1] The National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons[a] was formed in 1944 by Nnamdi Azikiwe and Herbert Macaulay.
During a national conference in 1954, the party opposed a call to include 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.
The policies of the party, from its inception favored a countenance of determined expression for self-government and nationalism.
Executive members from November 1957 to August 1958 included:[5] After Nigeria's independence, Azikiwe was Governor-General (1960-1963) and President (1963-1966).
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.