FROM MY ARCHIVES: ECHOES FROM OUR POLITICAL PAST
Mobolaji E. Aluko
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FROM MY ARCHIVES: ECHOES FROM OUR POLITICAL PAST
by
Mobolaji E. Aluko, PhD
Burtonsville, MD, USA
December 31, 1996
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Preamble
========
"He was the indefatigable fighter for freedom and equality..At
independence, he cut a rather tragic figure. He was to me
the symbol of a Nigeria that might have been, but was not.
He became the Governor-General, the Queen's offical representative.
He later became President - a ceremonial executive. Throughout
the first Republic, it slowly permeated the perception of the
masses that his position in terms of power was empty. He could
not dissociate himself from the inequities of the First Republic.
He could not intervene to halt the inequities, and from time to
time, we saw him justifying and rationalising actions we were sure
conflicted with his better judgement.
With bitterness, we began to learn that Zik, who the British colonial
administration could never incarcerate, had willingly constituted
himself a prisoner of what appeared to us as northern interests.
With many others I began to feel let down.
During the war, which to a certain extent was a war to free him, he
rallied to the Biafran side but later switched support when it appeared
the Biafran resistance would fail. Deriving from this act, many have
questioned his commitment to the Igbos. Many have recalled that he is
of Onitsha extraction and that Onitsha has with great pride claimed
and continued to claim non-Igbo lineage.
The foregoing coupled with the fact that the Igbos appear today to be
marginalised and lacking in any appreciable influence within the power
structure of Nigeria invariably has made the leadership of the Igbos
by Zik a subject of vast amount of discussion. In my candid
opinion, Zik did not set out to lead the Igbos and has not in
fact led the Igbos. He has been first and foremost a Nigerian
who aspired to a Nigerian leadership.
When the British withdrew in 1960, Nigeria was left in the hands of
three great men. Of the three, Zik could be said to be the dreamer,
whilst the others were hard-headed realists. Zik believed, worked
for and made sacrifices for a Nigeria that has not yet come to
existence - the ideal Nigeria. Those who followed him worked for this
ideal and perforce had to make sacrifices for this ideal. It is only
natural that finding this ideal increasingly unattainable they found
themselves deflated and deprived vis-a-vis the realists, who fro the
beginning ensured for their groups a share of whatever was going.
It is true that he and I have not agreed on many issues. This is more
due to a generation gap than to anything else....As a politician,
I disagree with his politics which I believe, to a large extent,
have left the Igbos naked."
- Chief Emeka Ojukwu, "Because I am Involved", Spectrum
Books, 1989.
Dear Netters:
On this last day of 1996, I bring to you once again some posting from my
archives. I first posted it September 1994, when Zik was still alive.
Its motivation then is now unclear. However, today, it is motivated by the
incessant inter-tribal wars of Golden Amaefule Duruwunne Nwanoka (the raging
anti-SW Biafran Veteran), Abiodun Ayo Ojo (the flaming Yoruba/Ekiti defender),
Ganiyu Omo-Jaiyeola (the unrepentant and foaming Awoist Thug from Shagamu) and
all others cheering (or cursing) all of them from the sidelines. I hope that
it somewhat complements the very illuminating series of postings recently
released by Wemimo "Call Me a Tribalist" Azeez, the unrepentant and separatist
Lagosian, a fellow chemical engineer.
It is also motivated by the fact that the three founding fathers of Nigeria -
Azikiwe, the Sardauna of Sokoto and Awolowo - are now all dead, leaving us
all with a messy ball called Nigeria. What our generation does with it is
now ours to determine, but we must not forget some of the echoes of the past.
I end here with a recent fascinating dialogue in the greater beyond:
---------------
Awolowo (to Zik): Egbon, kaabo ! Welcome. The Sardauna and I have been
waiting all this time, but you were tarrying for some
reason.
Zik: Awo, E ku ile ! Sardauna, Sanu ! Nna, I was waiting for
democracy to take hold in Nigeria, not to talk of Africa.
Sardauna: Sanu ! And how goes it in our dear country ?
Zik: Biko - completely messed up ! I could not wait any
longer. They did not accept my diarchy, now they have
anarchy.
Awolowo: I warned all of us then to be careful....
[Balewa comes in, whispers into Sardauna's ear and leaves immediately.]
Sardauna (interjecting) : Has the Northern hegemony been dipped into
the sea yet ?
Zik: Your people are still trying... with help from some of
my people as usual !
Awo: And I see with some help from some of my people too !
Sardauna (frowning): Kai ! I thought I left Maitama Sule, and....and...
Zik: Nna - let's go an play some draught, bo.
/ \ / / \ / \ /
Awo: O ku si owo won, o ja re ! O ma she o !
~ ~ ~
Sardauna: Maitama Sule.....Shehu Shagari........ you mean..?
Zik: Sardy, Sardy ! You have not changed !
-------------
As I always admonish, please read this communication to the end. It requires
some patience.
Compliments of the season. May 1997 bring us, individually and collectively,
better fortunes (Amen).
Bolaji Aluko
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Sunday, September 11, 1994
Dear Netters:
ECHOES FROM THE PAST
Paraphrasing another quote, a nation that does not listen to voices from its
past may be condemned to making the same mistakes in the future. In my
ever-continuing effort, as well as significant others, to inform members of the
net about the foundations of our nation and our present conflict, I have taken
some time out to excerpt various quotes of famous Nigerians, both dead and
alive, and narratives of the author of a remarkable book called "Nigeria: The
Tribes, the Nation, or the Race - The Politics of Independence" by Frederick
.A.O. Schwarz (MIT Press 1965), which I have found personally rewarding.
Excerpts are from the first five chapters only.
Completed in June 1965, just under a year before the dawn of Nigeria's more
recent conflict, I am impressed about the book's frankness, insight,
comprehensiveness and relevance, and baffled by its complete ignorance of the
military threat that has since engulfed our nation [a sample ominous quote from
page 171, Chapter 9: "Nigeria's armed forces have thus far appeared to be
completely innocent of political intrigue both at home and abroad.... The
likelihood of any existing political parties being able to use the army
extraconstitutionally is reduced by the fact that the great majority of
Nigeria's officers are Southerners while the great majority of soldiers are
Northerners."]
What we will find in these voices are echoes of the present conflict, from both
our heroes and our goats alike, and that there is enough praise and abuse for
all of them alike. While some of these echoes may open old wounds, the real
aim is to give us all a balanced view of our past, so that we can all face the
future unsaddled by myths about individuals and peoples, yet vigilant to
maintain our own personal dignity, that of those we may most intimately identify
and that of the whole of Nigeria. My claim is that this can be done by sacking
the military from political domination in Nigeria, finding an accomodation of
June 12, convening a Sovereign National Conference under civilian rule and
restructuring the entity called Nigeria. This we can achieve through
solidarity, focus and fortitude, despite occassional but temporary setbacks. To
the more religious of us, that also translates to committment, faith, patient
endurance and integrity.
The excerpts are preceded first by the Chapter and its title; then the person
quoted followed by the year of the quote (as taken from the Notes at the back
of the book). When it is a narrative of the author, the excerpt is preceded by
"The author writes:" followed by a page number. When it is a footnote in the
book, you will read "The author's footnote", with a page number.
All typographical errors are mine.
Please read on, and I urge you to get a hold of the book yourselves, most likely
from your libraries. There is something for everyone in it.
Bolaji Aluko
----------------------------------- Excerpts of "Nigeria" follow -------------
Chapter One (The Roots of a Nation)
The author writes
"Nigeria's history has just begun. The history of her tribes goes back as far
as man remembers. Her greatest need is that the different tribes become but
strands woven into the web of her national history; her greatest danger is that
tribal jealousies will explode and cut the ties that hold the nation together"
Obafemi Awolowo ( 1947)
"Nigeria is not a nation. It is a mere geographical expression .... The word
"Nigerian" is merely a distinctive appellation to distinguish those who live
within Nigeria from those who do not."
British Governor Hugh Clifford (1920)
"[The Nigerians are a].... collection of self-contained and mutually independent
Native States, separated from one another .... by vast distances, by differences
of history and traditions, and by ethnological, racial, tribal, political,
social and religious barriers....."
The author writes (page 5)
"A federal system requires that each group desiring autonomy or protection be
identified with a particular piece of territory which can be made a federal
subdivision that it can control; federalism is not a device with which to
protect minorities scattered throughout a country and intermingled with other
groups. Nigeria's federal system provides that matters which are of greatest
concern to the dominant regional ethnic groups - land tenure, local government,
customary law, education - are in the hands of the regions which they, rather
than the Federal Government, dominate. Thus it assures the major ethnic groups
that their customs will not be interfered with. The other side of the coin, of
course, is that it tends to perpetuate differences. Furthermore, it gives rise
to demands by ethnic minorities within each region for their own region".
The author writes (page 11)
"Nigeria's people did not have a sufficiently common history so that a sage
writing as few as seventy years ago could have foreseen the emergence of a
nation which unites the peoples brought together in Nigerian today. The
country's boundaries have no basis whatsoever in history; nor except for the
Atlantic ocean, which forms the southern boundary, are they meaningful
geographically. The western frontier, between Nigeria and Dahomey, splits the
Yoruba tribe. and many Hausa live across the northern frontier in Niger.
Instead of the frontiers being reflective of Nigerian history, they were fixed
by bargaining between the British and their rival colonolialists, the French and
the Germans."
Lord Salisbury (1933)
"We have been engaged in drawing lines upon maps where no white man's foot has
ever trod; we have been giving away mountains and rivers and lakes to each
other, only hindered by the small impediment that we never knew exactly where
the mountains and rivers and lakes were."
Sir Claude McDonald (1958)
"In those days, we just took a blue pencil and a rule and we put it down at Old
Calabar and drew that line up to Yola."
The author's footnote (page 13)
"Sardauna is a title restricted to members of the ruling house of Sokoto, one of
the two Fulani capitals, a new town established by Usuman [dan Fodio] son. It
means roughly, Captain of the Bodyguard."
Sardauna of Sokoto (1961)
speaking against a proposal to split the Northern Region
"If I may further say, whoever thinks he has words with which to attack me, I
can assure him that I learnt more than he knows before he was born .... our
empire is going to last forever because it was inspired by the Creator of the
universe and his criticisms do not come within our fold."
Abubakar Tafewa Balewa (1947)
warning that if the British departed
"the Northern people would continue their interrupted conquest to the sea."
The Emir of Kotangora (1903)
"Can you stop a cat from mousing ? When I die I shall be found with a slave in
my mouth."
Nnamdi Azikiwe (then Nigeria's Governor-General; no date)
"... while we must admit that we have hundreds of nationalities in Nigeria, by
which I mean Nigerian societies whose inhabitants speak with different languages
and whose cultures are influenced by their environment and by the constant
impact of other cultures on their own, yet we must concede that our racial
homgeneity and the sociological problems created by peoples of different racial
stock and cultural complexes coming into contact with us have facilitated the
crystallization oof a sense of oneness among Nigerians ....."
The author's footnote (page 20)
"The name Nigeria was probably first suggested by Flora Shaw, a commentator on
colonial affairs for the London Times who later became the wife of Lord Lugard,
Nigeria's first Governor-General. In the Times of January 8, 1897, writing
about what is now Northern Nigeria, she suggested "Nigeria" as a "title for the
agglomeration of pagan and Mohammedan states which have been brought .... within
the confines of a British protectorate, and thus need for the first time in
their history to be described as an entity by some general name." "
Chapter Two (The British: Catalysts for Nationalism)
The author writes (page 23):
"The British cut Nigeria out of Africa. Much of themselves they left behind.
Colonial rule left a new country with a measure of both political and economic
unity, but the British did more to unify the country economically than
politically. And the political unity that did develop stemmed much more from
Nigerians' assimilation of alien ideas and their common desire to oust alien
rulers than from any design of the colonialists. Even economically, much that
was done by Britain was in her interest and not in the interest of the colony.
Racial prejudice and class snobbery mar the record."
The author writes (page 30 ff)
" The emirs possessed almost absolute power. Rule was hereditary, though the
emir's successor was not necessarily his eldest son but be chosen in a variety
of ways... Beneath the emir where selected officials of aristocratic birth,
some with specific functions at the emirate center and others with general
supervision of an outlying district or village.
"... The Yoruba chiefs appeared to have the same sort of autocratic power as did
the Fulani emirs or the Tudor monarchs; in fact, their was a constitutional
monarchy built upon overlapping family, lineage, and clan units. At the center
of a Yoruba state there was an oba, or king, but substantial power was also held
by the heads of familites and clans and subchiefs who did not owe their office
to the oba. ...... Moreover, though the oba was regarded as semidivine when
ruling, others, applying an unwritten constitution, determined who would become
an oba and could remove an oba who offended the people. Traditional electors or
councillors chose him from among the eligible males of the royal families; if
the councillors decided that his rule should end, he would be politely sent a
parrot's egg as an indication that he should depart. When that happened he
would commit suicide.
".... In the East, the problem was to find the traditional authorities through
whom to rule....... Inland in Iboland, the effort to find rules who could be
used by the British was ceaseless and frustrating......... The community,
particularly in the Ibo area, is not prepared to surrender its legislative
authority to any chiefs, elders or other traditional office holders...."
Chapter Three (Language and Religion)
Joseph Stalin (1913)
" a national community is inconceivable without a common language.. There is no
nation which at one at the same time speaks several languages."
Tai Solarin (1961)
"Nigeria will never really become a nation until the Yoruba joke in Ibo or
Hausa, or the Hausa young man can make the Ibadan damsel blush as she listens to
a courting monologue rounded off in a beautiful epigram in her own tongue."
Anthony Enahoro (1961)
"As one who comes from a minority tribe, I deplore the continuing evidence in
this country that people wish to impose their customs, their languages, and even
more their way of life upon the smaller tribes. My people have a language, and
that language was handed down through a thousand years of tradition and custom.
When the Benin Empire exchanged ambassadors with Portugal, many of the new
Nigerian languages of today did not exist. How can they now, because the
British
[have] brought us together, wish to impose their language on us."
The author writes (page 42)
"In one respect Enahoro was being unfair in his remarks. What support there is
for the adoption of Hausa as the national language is not limited to the Hausa;
indeed, its most ardent supportes have been other than Hausa. The motion
advocating Hausa to which Enahoro responded was proposed by a man from Benin and
seconded by a Kanuri. An Ibo, Mbonu Ojike, first raised the issue when at the
General Conference on Review of the Constitution in 1950 he moved that Hausa be
made a compulsory language in elementary and secondary schools..........
Through his weekly newspaper column, Tai Solarin, a Yoruba, has become the
leading advocate of the adoption of Hausa."
Nnamdi Azikiwe
after being convicted of sedition by a colonial court
"....when a son of the New Africa is faced with the travails and tribulations of
Gethsemane, and Golgotha and Calvary, there is no need for the spirit to weaken.
At this stage of my life, I cannot be a mere flesh.... I am a living spirit of
an idea - the idea of a New Africa. I am the living spirit of an ideal - the
ideal of man's humanity to man...."
The author writes (page 47 ff)
"..[in Nigeria] Christianity itself has not dominated any political movement
and is not likely to do so in the future. Islam is a political force......
Islam is more directly associated than Christianitywith politics in Nigeria
[because] the religion is more pervasive. Islam is a total religion without the
Christian concept of separation of secular and religious concerns. There is no
Koranic verse corresponding to the biblical "Render therefore unto Caesar the
things which are Caesar's and to God the things which are God's...."
"....tolerance on the part of Muslims is more significant to Nigeria's welfare
because Isalm is more closely associated with a political movement than
Christianity (and that seems likely to continue as a difference). It is also
more significant because there are more Muslims that Christians and because they
feel a certain shared resentment of being left behind during the British era."
"The third [question] can serve as an introduction to one of the several themes
running through Nigeria's political history. The North has been Nigeria's most
conservative section, and the Islamic Northerners have been Nigeria's
conservative leaders. Southerners have by and large been far more radical,
excitable, and impatient. The North has also been the least nationalistic of
Nigeria's regions; the Northern Party, the NPC, has confined its own activities
to the North. Southerners, though they have their regional and tribal biases as
well, have been by and large far more nationalistic."
Chapter Four (Tribalism, Regionalism, and National Politics)
Akiga (1939)
in Akiga' Story, translated by Rupert East (Oxford University Press, London,
1939)
"Thus Akiga, a Tiv, told "his Tiv brothers of the new generation that can read
.... [to read his book] and tell others, who cannot, of the things of our
ancestors. And, " he continued, "do you, however great your knowledge may be,
remember that you are a Tiv, remain a Tiv, and know the things of Tiv; for
therein lies your pride."
Obafemi Awolowo (1947)
Our grandfathers, with unbounded gratitude adored the British who emancipated
them from slavery and saved them fromt the "horrors" of tribal wars. Our
immediate fathers simply toed the line. We of today are critical,
unappreciative, and do not feel we owe any dept of gratitude to the British.
The younger elements in our group are extremely cynical and cannot understand
why Britain is in Nigeria."
The author writes (page 61)
"The NYM [Nigerian Youth Movement] had been formed in 1936, and in 1938 it have
challenged and ended the fifteen-year Lagos rule of Herbert Macaulay's Nigerian
National Democratic Party. Though its activities were centered in Lagos, it
aimed at the unification of Nigeria's tribes, had branches in the provinces, and
criticised the older Democratic Party for being dominated by "native
foreigners." Azikiwe became a member of the NYM's executive committee but
resigned this position, though not his membership, for "business" reasons in
1939. (Some people said it was because the NYM had begun to the Daily Service
newspaper under the editorship of Ernest Okoli in competition with Azikiwe's
West African Pilot.)...............
In 1941, the NYM was permanently split, and tribalism came to the fore in
Nigerian politics. The occasion was a contest within the NYM for a vacant seat
on the Legislative Council. The contestants were Ernest Ikoli, who was an Ijaw,
and Samuel Akinsanya, an Ijebu Yoruba. Ikoli was chosen. Azikiwe and most Ibos
and Akinsanya with some Ijebus left the NYM on the ground that the majority had
rejected Akinsanya because he was an Ijebu. The NYM was left with an almost
entirely Yoruba membership, and thus began the political tension between Ibo and
Yoruba that has plagued Nigerian politics ever since."
The author's footnote (page 61)
The Ijebu subtribe of the Yoruba have been noted for their acquisitiveness, and
are no more popular with their neighbors than other groups with that reputation.
They had, moreover, remained outside the mainstream of Yoruba history. Other
Yorubas have had some prejudice against them, a prejudice which appeared during
the crisis that split the Action Group, the political party backed by most
Yorubas, in 1962. Prejudice may well explain the rejection of Akinsanya, but
two facts point the other way. First, his opponent, Ikoli, did not belong to
the Yoruba majority; second, Obafemi Awolowo, himself an Ijebu Yoruba, spoke in
favor of Ikoli.
Nnamdi Azikiwe (1946)
His "last testament", after accusing the Colonial Government of plotting to
assasinate him, and going into hiding in Onitsha
"[I am willing to give] my most prized possession - my life - for the redemption
of Africa."
Anthony Enahoro (no date)
"Let there be no two opinions about this - the common people believed and were
completely satisfied that the white man had planned to assasinate him. We
interpet Nnamdi Azikiwe's prompt retirement to Onitsha as a huge joke, a
cowardly act or a wise and judicious step, according to our several opinions of
the man."
The author writes (page 66 ff)
"The chief protagonists [in nationalism] at first were the Yoruba and the Ibo.
The Yoruba, dominant in the Western Region, were the established leaders. They
had been exposed to Western education at a much earlier date than any other
group in Nigeria; they were the wealthiest Nigerians, with a substantial middle
class based on cocoa farming, and their cities, Lagos, Abeokuta and Ibadan, were
Nigeria's intellectual and political centers. The Ibo, dominant in the Eastern
Region, were the energetic land-hungry newcomers.
When Yoruba young men were obtaining their education in England, the Ibo on
the whole were still liveing their isolated life in their small village
communities. The Ibo were poor and land hungry. By great energy and the
sacrifices of village improvement unions to provide scholarships, however, the
Ibos reduced the gap so much that by the late 1930's there were more Ibos than
Yorubas at most of the important Nigerian schools.
The Ibos came into conflict with the Yoruba in two ways. Because of the
crowded conditions in their homeland and their willingness to leave home to
advance themselves, Ibos spread all over Nigeria, including the Yoruba cities.
Lagos, for example, had 264 Ibos in 1911, but 26,000 in 1951. Ibos also tended
to be more militant nationalists than Yorubas - though there were exceptions in
both directions - and as such challenged the economic and political interest of
the established Yorubas.
..... In 1948, a pan-Yoruba organization...... was formed. Known as Egbe Omo
Oduduwa (Society of the Sons of Oduduwa, the legendary Yoruba tribal ancestor),
its members made remarks which were taken by Ibos as tribalistic attacks.
Azikiwe was referred to as an "Arch Devil" [quoted in a 1944 bulletin], and the
Egbes President promised that the "Big Tomorrow" for the Yoruba was coming when
they "will hold their own among other tribes of Nigeria."
During the summer of 1948, tension between Yorubas and Ibos in Lagos nearly
led to violence, for which both groups prepared by purchasing all available
machetes....... All personal attacks upon Azikiwe were resolved by the Ibos of
Lagos to be attacks upon the Ibo nation, because "if a hen were killed, the
chickens would be exposed to danger."
Nnamdi Azikiwe [1949]
"The God of Africa has specially created the Ibo nation to lead the children of
Africa from the bondage of the ages .... The martial prowess of the Ibo nation
at all stages of human history has enabled them not only to conquer others but
also to adapt themselves to the role of preserver.... The Ibo nation cannot
shirk its responsbility."
Editor of Gaskiya Ta FI Kwabo (a Hausa newspaper; 1950)
"Southerners will take the place of Europeans in the North. What is there to
stop them ? .... There are Europeans but, undoubtedly, it is the Southerner who
has the power in the North."
Abubakar Tafewa Balewa [1948]
replying to Azikiwe appealing for a united Nigerian outlook
[..Nigerians] deceive themselves by thinking that Nigeria is one. This is
wrong. I am sorry to say that this presence of unity is artificial and its ends
outside this Chamber... The southern tribes who are now pouring into the North
in ever increasing numbers....do ont mix with the northern people in social
matters, and we in the North look upon them as invaders."
General Conference Debate (1950)
Eyo Ita: " Today we are out to abolish feudalism, not to reform it. We must
leave the archaic in the limbo where they belong."
Mbonu Ojike: " The people who carry umbrellas for their majesties are people.
Enfranchise them."
The Sardauna of Sokoto: "The gentleman thinks that a new era for them
[commoners] has opened, yes, but since when ?..... If my friend can live for
centuries he might still see the natural rulers in the North."
The author writes (page 77)
Resolved "that this House accepts as a primary political objective the
attainment of self-government for Nigeria in 1956." That resolution, moved in
the House of Representatives by Chief Anthony Enahoro of the Action Group on
March 31, 1953, plunged Nigeria into crisis, nearly led to the secession of the
North, was followed by bloody tribal rioting, and made certain that Nigeria
would be a federation rather than a centralized state.
Sardauna of Sokoto
"[... asks to substitute] as soon as practicable [for] in 1956. The North does
not intend to accept the invitation to commit suicide."
The author writes (page 78)
"[The House of Representatives proceeding] ended with the Action Group and the
NCNC joining together to walk out of the House as their two leaders, Azikiwe and
Awolowo, embraced on the steps outside, in one of their few gestures of
reconciliation."
"Their desire [ie the Northern delegates] to secede - and thereby end the
amalgamation of North and South accomplished by Lugard in 1914 - was
strengthened as they were abused by crowds of Southerners at each stop of the
train carrying them home and by Southern railway employees all the way"
Obafemi Awolowo (1953)
ridiculing the Sardauna's wish to consult with the people before agreeing to a
1956 independence date
"Who are these masses ? The generality of the people are not interested in
self-government or in government generally. What they are interested in is
their food, shelter, clothing, to get married, bear children, and drink plenty
of palm wine, and if they have the money, to drink some gin as well."
Chapter Five (Minority Group Politics)
The author writes (page 82)
"After it had been agreed that Nigeria would be governed as a federation with
three strong regions, minorities within each of the regions began to agitate to
their own regions or states in which they would be safe from domination by the
majority ethnic groups. As independence approached, the most significant
question in Nigerian politics became whether new regions should be created for
minority groups. Controversy between the major parties on that issue was a
principal cause of the political crisis that shocked Nigeria two years after her
independence."
[In the West] On June 14, 1955, a private member in the Western Region House of
Assembly sponsored a motion urging the creation of a Midwest Region. The
Action Group supported the motion and it carried unanimously. Later in the same
month the Oba of Benin joined the Action Group Government of the Western Region
as a Minister without portfolio..."
[In the East] The minority movements.... were related to the ministerial crisis
in 1952 and 1953 that was climaxed by the return of Azikiwe to the Eastern
Region. After Eyo Ita was expelled from the Premiership, he and other ousted
NCNC Ministers fomred the National Independence Party which found its chief
strength in the Efik-Ibibio area...."
"[In the North] minority separatist movements arose in three areas. Each met
with the implacable opposition of the NPC [Northern Peoples Congress], adhering
firmly to its slogan of "One North, One People."
[In the East] .. the NCNC adamantly opposed creation of a COR
[Calabar-Ogoja-Rivers] Region for which the most vociferous case was being made.
Such a region would not satisfy one of the conditions the party had said a new
region must meet - that it should be ethnically homogeneous. This it was not,
because it contaied the Ijaw from Rivers, the Ibibio-Efik from Calabar, the
polyglot collection from Ogoja, and several other groups who were united, said
the NCNC, only by "a negative dislike for the Ibo tribe" and that, said the
NCNC, was no basis upon which to build a region."
The Action Group Manifesto (1960)
"The Action Group advocated the division of the country into states based on
linguistic or ethnic lines. Any system of political grouping which allows of
the domination of one ethnic unit by another strikes a blow at the unity of the
country. So long as one unit is constitutionally made to occupy a position of
inferiority to another, so long will the inferior unit exaggerate and emphasize
its own ethnic identity - a situation which bids fair to imperil the national
solidarity."
---------------------------End of previous excerpts in 1994 ------------------
--------------------- The following has been added in December 1996 ---------
A Paradox
---------
"But the [Minorities] Commission placed most faith in democracy. It argued
that upon independence the Federal Government would become more significant
as the powers over foreign affairs, defence, and the ultimate responsibility
for law and order in the country was passsed to Nigerian hands. The major
parties would then focus their energies upon winning control of the Federal
Government, and to do so they would have to seek the votes of the minorities.
Furthermore, the monolitihic solidarity of the majority ethnic groups
should gradually break down. That had already begun to happen among the
Yoruba, the most highly educated group in Nigeria. If more than one
party had a chance to win the support of the majority ethnic group, each
would have to appeal to the minorities. If, as planned, Nigeria follows the
road to libearl democracy and parliamentary government, said the Commissin,
"votes will count and in the last resort it is the votes that will win fair
treatment for the minorities." That conclusion points up a paradox. Though
democracy is a safeguard for Nigeria's minorities, perhaps the greatest
threat to democracy is the ethnic parochialism of which the minorities'
issue is one aspect. For an elite may come which finds itself national
in spirit and which becomes impatient of democracy which rests upon a
people more divided than it is."
"In the West, the Government had already established an Advisory Council
for the Midwest Area chaired by Chief Anthony Enahoro, Minister for
Midwest affairs....."
Chapter Six - The 1959 Election
-------------------------------
"Much was at stake in the 1959 election for the Federal House of
Representatives.....Both Chief Awolowo and Dr. Azikiwe, as leaders
of the Action Group and NCNC, stood for election to the Federal
House, announcing that they would give up their positions as regional
premiers. The Sardauna of Sokoto, the leader of the NPC, on the other
hand, decided to stay on as Premier of the North and to let Alhaji
Tafawa Balewa to lead the NPC in the Federal Government........."
In addition to the major parties, there were several minor
parties contesting the election. In each region there was a party
whose efforts were limited to obtaining the support of the dominant
party in the region. In the North that party, of course, was the
NEPU. In the East it was the Democratic Party of Nigeria and the
Cameroons, composed of former NCNC members, led by K.O. Mbadiwe,
who had quarreleled with Azikiwe and been expelled from the party.
In the West it was the Mabolaje, whose efforts were limited to
Ibadan where it represented the interests of the predominantly
Muslim, long-time inhabitants against the predominantly Christian
and Western-educated newcomers supporting the Action Group. In the
North and East, and to a lesser extent the West, there were also
minor parties representing the interests of minority groups. Many
of these allied themselves with the Action Group and sought secession.
But the Niger Delta Congress allied itself with the NPC and sought
federal status, and others, such as parties representing the Idoma
Igala tribes in the North, did not seek secession.
There was a different tone to the campaigns of the three major
parties. The Action Group mounted the most intensive, best organized,
and expensive campaign that had ever been seen in NIgeria. During
the campaign, the Western Region Government, which it controlled,
launched the first television service in Africa; the party's most
noticeable campaign device - the use of helicopters to fly party
leaders to rallies - was also expected to impress upon the country
that the Action Group was best equipped to deal with modern, scientific
technological world that Nigeria was about to enter on its own. THe
helicopters would descend upon dumfounded pagan villages or into quiet
Muslim towns and out would step the neatly dressed, articulate Action
Group spokesman. It is possible that such tactics backfired. The
NPC vigorously and repeatedly asserted that the helicopters, and indeed
all the Action Group's aggressive campaigning, were offensive to the
Northern people; the helicopters came to represent to the NPC all they
hated about the Action Group. Thus, Alhaji Aliyu, Makaman Bida, Northern
Minister of Finance, told a rally that the helicopters had violated
tradition by enabling their occupants to hover over compounds and see
women in purdah, " acrime for which they will never be forgiven." The
NCNC as well charged the Action Group with violating sacred traditions
with its helicopters. While the party was holding a ceremony at the
Lagos grave of Herbert Macaulay, an Action Group helicopter had
irreverently dropped leaflets on their heads, complained Dr. Azikiwe.
Contrasted to the flashy, hustling, modern style of the Action
Group, the NPC was sober, dignified, and conservative. Its ability
to solicit the public's vote "in the most decent way" was
reason enough to vote for it, said the Northern Minister of Education
to a rally at Zaria. The party manifesto promised that its government
would be founded upon "respect for traditional institutions,", belief
in "orderly progress," and "above all, its Government will be based
on fear of God."
The dominant note in the NCNC campaign was emphasis on its great
contributions to the independence movement. Nigeria was said to
owe a debt of gratitude to the NCNC for its work and sacrifice as the
first national political party. Reminders that Dr. Azikiwe had been
the first of the party leaders to enter the nationalistic struggle
were made again and again. Interestingly enough, when the NCNC
reviewed the record of the other parties it was not the NPC, which
had sought to delay independence to catch up with the rest of the
coutnry, but the Action Group, which had become at least as aggressive
as the NCNC in demanding independence, that the party condemned, asking
it its manifesto:
"Where was the Action Group, which now poses as the champion of
Nigerian Independence, during the early and bitter periods of this
national struggle ? Surely it was in the womb of its tribalistic
mother and today it is making a devilish bid to reap where it did
not sow."
No such reference was made to the NPC...."
Violence
--------
"Violence is close to the surface in all political campaigns in Nigeria,
SOuth as well as North. The following is a sample of stories that
appeared during the 1959 campaign in the "Lagos Daily Times", an
independent British-owned but Nigerian-edited newspaper:
"Four NCNC-NEPU supporters accompanying Dr. Azikiwe on his tour
attacked at Bida; 7 NEPU men hospitalized foloowing fight
after the tour stops at Nguru; 11 Democratic Party of Nigeria
and the Cameroons and NCCE men charged with breach of the peace
DPNC meeting in Enugu, Eastern Region, following fighting and
damage to Action Group helicopter; NPC member of Northern
Assembly sentenced to two years imprisonment for assault on
Action Group organizing secretary; Governor-General Robertson
makes broadcast calling for an end to violence; all public
processions banned in the Western Region from November 26 to
December 8; Governor-General Robertson makes a second radio
broadcast decrying violence; troops move to Bauchi, Bida,
Funtua, Jos and Kano in the Northern Region to guard against
violence; NEPU supporter killed in Bida Emirate after NPC
meeting; 11 Action Group supporters in Calabar charged with being
violent with intent to provoke a breach of the peace in that they
"did sing and use abusive words" about the NCNC and throw stones
and shoot arrows at NCNC cars."
Secret Understandings
---------------------
"During the campaign there were indications that the NPC and the NCNC
had reached an understanding that, though they might fight hard and
bitterly for seats in the Northern Region, the Action Group was their
common enemy and major threat. In the North, Dr. Azikiwe would attack
NPC victimization and oppression, warning that its continuation would
lead eventually to a Communist-inspired revolt. Speakers for the NPC
in the NOrth told their audiences to vote against the NEPU, "because
if the NEPU comes to power it will appoint an Ibo man [Dr. Azikiwe]
as the first Prime Minister of Nigeria." In the South, however,
the NPC even gave some campaign help to conservative NCNC candidates
against their Action Group opponents. S.A. Ajayi of Kabba Province,
then Parliamentary Secretary to the Sardauna of Sokoto, was sent with
a team to campaign for Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh in Warri, where he
said there was a "common understanding" between the NPC and the NCNC
and that it would be a "national calamity" if the Action Group won.
Even in the North, the NPC was more hostile to the Action Group
that it was to the NCNC or the NEPU. It was the Action Group that
the Sardauna said would ban Islam, and it was Chief Awolowo who, he
said, had shown contempt for Islam. That ugly charge could not be
made with success against the NCNC since it was represented in the
North primarily by the NEPU, an essentially Muslim party whose
leader was a devout Muslim. The NPC had an altogether different
attitude toward the NEPU opposition than toward the Action
Group. The NEPU was a brother who had strayed, or, as the Sardauna
put it in a later election, a "misguided youth." The Action
Group was the alien enemy, the brash intruder, and in 1959
the greater threat.
The Election Results
--------------------
(Note from Bolaji Aluko: The sources of this following table are Schwartz's
book and J.O. Orjiako: "Nigeria Yesterday, Today and.. ?", 1981. It will not
be found in any of them.)
Final Results announced December 21, 1959
Seats
Party (includes allies) North East West Lagos Total
NPC - 146 1 1 0 148
NCNC/NEPU - 8 58 21 2 89
AG - 25 14 35 1 75
Total 179 73 57 3 312
Entitled to Register 3,885,000 3,423,000 2,759,000 177,000 10,244,000
Voter Registration 3,640,284 2,598,234 2,653,188 144,000 9,035,706
Total No. of Votes 3,258,520 1,929,754 1,887,209 110,072 7,185,555
North East West Lagos Total
Coalition Government
--------------------
"After discussions between NPC and the NCNC, officially described as friendly
and cordial, a new Federal Government was formed on December 20, 1959. NPC had
ten ministers and NCNC seven." - Orjiako
"The NEPU received no ministries, and as between the NPC and the NCNC, the
NCNC was definitely the junior partner in the cabinet. Nevertheless, among
its ministries were some extremely significant ones: Finance [Okotie-Eboh],
Information [TOS Benson], Labour [JM Johnson] and eventually Foreign Affairs
[Jaja Wachukwu]. Dr. Azikiwe was not in the cabinet, but in January he became
President of the Nigerian Senate, and in Novemeber 1960, six weeks after
Independence, became the first Nigerian to hold the distinguished, but largely
ceremonial, nonpolitical position of Governor-General." - Schwartz
Zik Resigns from NCNC - "Just before leaving for Europe, where he attended the
Olympic Games in Rome, Dr. Azikiwe announced that he would resign from the
National presidency of the NCNC. ........Dr. Azikiwe's announcement that he
would disassociate himself from party politics was regarded by observers in
Lagos as his first step on the road to the Governor-Generalship of the
Federation.......The Federal Prime Minister, Alhaji Sir Abubakar, issued
the following statement:" The manner in which certain people are speculating
about the next Governor-General and the undue publicity which has been
given to those speculations is most undesirable and will do a serious
disservice to the international reputation of Nigeria...I particularly
deprecate the use for political purposes which has been made of information
receievd in the course of confidential discussions. The appointment
of a Governor-General is provided for in the Independence Constitution
for the Federation, which has not yet been promulgated, and it is wrong
for anyone to make statements based on knowledge acquired in the course of
official talks..." " - Orjiako
The Role of the Sardauna
------------------------
"During the coalition negotiations, the Sardauna of Sokoto announced
that he would retire from politics as soon as the negotitations were
finished and like his ancestor Usuman dan Fodio, hand over power to
his lieutenanats. Ten days later, he said that pressure from the
party, public telegrams, etc. had changed his mind......The Sardauna
has made it clear that his heart is in the North. Speaking shortly
after independence, he said, "Consolidation of the North is what
is uppermost in my mind and which I have achieved with God's help.
And to show our thanks to God we shall continue to rule justly
as we have hitherto done in the past......"...When speculation first
arose that he was interested in becoming Nigeria's president if she
became a republic, he stated with an aristocrat's air:
"My hereditary title is what I treasure and not the imported one.
I am sure I have able lieutenants and not only able but also
capable. I have implicit confidence in them and I have dedicated
my life to their service. And with God's help, victory will
always continue to be on my side...I now leave it to other parties
have their squabbles but not within my party. "
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