Atiku Abubakar
Lugard, however, left the protectorate for Hong Kong. Lugard later returned to work in Nigeria where he decided on the merger of the Northern Nigeria Protectorate, an area which spanned 255,000 miles (410,000 km), including the pre-colonial states of the Sokoto Caliphate, Bornu Empire, and the Kano Emirate, with Southern Nigeria in 1914. And so, the protectorate was ended in 1914 when it was unified with the Southern Nigeria Protectorate and the Lagos Colony becoming the Northern Province of the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria.
Northern Nigeria occupies about two-third of the country’s land mass. The region includes present day Kogi, Kwara, Benue and Taraba State towards the South, part of which sometimes now address itself as the Middle Belt. Much of the North was once politically united in the Northern Region, a federal division that was formally disbanded in 1967.
Abubakar Tafawa Balewa
Mbahi’s reference to “the first time” suggests that before now, the North had always had a leadership that provided for its needs and protected its interest. This means that there were persons behind these apparent glorious years of the North. Who were some of these leaders? From where did they derive their power or authority? How did things go wrong? And who now leads the North out of its present political quagmire?
Some of these northern leaders of yesteryears who readily come to mind are, Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Alhaji Aminu Kano and Alhaji Shehu Shagari.
Sir Ahmadu Bello (1909-1966), Sardauna Sokoto
The circumstances of the birth of Sir Ahmadu Bello (June 12, 1910 – January 15, 1966) naturally threw him up as the leader of his people. He was born in Rabah in today’s Sokoto State into an aristocratic parentage. Ahmadu Bello was the son of a district head and heir to the Sokoto Caliphate. The founder of Sokoto, Sultan Bello, the son of Sheikh Usman Dan Fodio, was his great-grandfather.
Anthony Sani
In the first elections held in Northern Nigeria in 1952, Sir Bello won a seat in the Northern House of Assembly, and became a member of the regional executive council as Minister of Works. He also served as Minister of Local Government, and Minister of Community Development in the Northern Region.
In 1954, Bello became the first Premier of defunct Northern Nigeria. In the 1959 independence elections, Bello led the Northern People’s Congress (NPC) to win a plurality of the parliamentary seats. Bello’s NPC forged an alliance with Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe’s National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC) to form Nigeria’s first indigenous federal government which led to independence from Britain.
When the 1960 independence Federal Government was formed, even as president of NPC, Bello chose to remain Premier and devolved the position of Prime Minister to the deputy president of NPC, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa. Bello’s greatest legacy was the modernisation and unification of the diverse people of Northern Nigeria. He was assassinated on January 15, 1966 in a coup which ousted Nigeria’s post-independence government.
In spite of his aristocratic background, Bello was still humble enough to acquire the necessary education that prepared him for the leadership of the North, nay Nigeria. Besides, as evidenced by his biodata, he went through the ranks, indeed through the rungs of the leadership ladder, to earn his place as the first and only Premier of the region, a position which he employed to the fullest advantage to canvass and ensure the protection of the interests of his people.
However, there are other public commentators who think that the religious cum socio-cultural set up in the North which promoted hegemony in the North, in addition with the low literacy level at the time provided a fillip for the emergence of Bello as the sole dominant leader of his era.
Yakubu Gowon
Born in 1912, in Bauchi, Balewa was the son of a Bageri Muslim district head in the Bauchi divisional district of Lere. He began his education at the Koranic School in Bauchi and later studied at the Katsina College, where he acquired his teaching certificate. He taught at the Bauchi Middle School. In 1944, he was chosen to study abroad for a year at the University of London’s Institute of Education. When he returned to Nigeria, he became an Inspector of Schools for the colonial administration.
Balewa’s political career started with his election in 1946, to the colony’s Northern House of Assembly, and to the Legislative Assembly in 1947. As a legislator, he was a vocal advocate of the rights of northern Nigeria, and together with Sir Ahmadu Bello, who held the hereditary title of Sardauna of Sokoto, he founded the Northern People’s Congress (NPC).
But Balewa made his real entry into government in 1952 as the Minister of Works. He later served as the Minister of Transport. He was elected Chief Minister in 1957. He formed a coalition government between NPC and the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC), led by Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe. He retained the post as Prime Minister upon Nigeria’a independence in 1960, and was reelected in 1964, and the position until his death in 1966.
He had in 1950 in the Northern House of Assembly advocated fundamental reforms to the system of Native Authorities in the North. This proposal was unpopular among many of the Northern leaders. Throughout the 1950s, he participated with great skill in the discussions on constitutional reforms which ultimately led to independence. Nevertheless, Balewa often seemed limited in the exercise of his own personal power, because as vice president of NPC, he was answerable, theoretically, to Sir Ahmadu Bello, premier of the Northern Region and president of NPC.
Balewa, just like Bello, came from among the ranks of teachers and the select few with aristocratic background, though not in the category of Bello. Even with his evidently more nationalistic postulations, he still did not forget his roots, and therefore did not abandon the pursuit of the interest of northern Nigeria.
Mallam Aminu Kano (1920-April 17, 1983)
Born to a Muslim scholar of Fulani extraction in Kano, Mallam Aminu Kano (1920-April 17, 1983) was educated at Katsina College from where he went to the Institute of Education, University of London, alongside Tafawa Balewa. He, however, earned his teaching certificate after completing his studies at the Katsina College. He commenced his teaching career at the Bauchi Training College.
Sultan Sa’ad Abubakar
After two failed attempts, one to secure a federal House of Representatives’ seat which he lost to Ambassador Maitama Sule in 1954, and two, to garner enough votes to win a seat in the Northern Regional Assembly in 1956, Aminu Kano in 1959 won the Kano East federal seat as a candidate of NEPU, which was already in an alliance with the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons. While in the House, he was a deputy Chief Whip. In the post-First Republic military administration of Generl Yakubu Gowon, Aminu Kano served as a federal commissioner for health.
When the ban on political parties were lifted in September 1978, Aminu Kano, Sam Ikoku, and Edward Ikem Okeke formed the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP). The party leaned towards populism. In 1979, it presented Aminu Kano as its presidential candidate but he could not muster enough votes to win. In spite of that, the party won two governorship seats.
Perhaps more than anyone else, Mallam Aminu Kano come out as the Northern leader who craved so much for the interest of the common people in the North through his reformists ideas. Indeed he co-founded the Northern Elements Progressive Union as a platform to challenge what he felt was the autocratic and feudalistic actions of the Native Northern government. His attack was directed at the ruling elite, including emirs, who were mostly Fulanis.
Moreover, he attempted to use politics to create an egalitarian Northern society, just as he sought in the prelude to the First Republic the break up of ethnically based parties. The latter idea was well received by his emerging support base of petty traders and craftsmen in towns along the rail track. These men and women were mostly individuals on the move, searching for trade opportunities and had little ethnic similarities with their host communities.
Furthermore, he proposed a fiscal system that favoured heavy taxation of the rich in the region and was notably one of the few leading Nigerian politicians that supported equal rights for women. Mallam Aminu Kano is seen a man that typified democratisation, women’s empowerment and freedom of speech. The conversion of his house where he lived, died and was buried, to the Centre for Democratic Research and Training under the Bayero University Kano, is a great testament to the fact that he lived for the people.
In fact, Aminu Kano’s thoughts which captured the state of the North in his time and which appear relevant even today, as well as portray his populist ideology are encapsulated in the following statement:
“That the shocking state of social order as at present existing in Northern Nigeria is due to nothing but the Family Compact rule of the so-called Native Administrations in their present autocratic form.
“That owing to this unscrupulous and vicious system of Administration by the Family Compact rulers, there is today in our Society an antagonism of interests manifesting itself as a class struggle, between the members of the vicious circle of the Native Administration on the one hand and the ordinary ‘talakawa’ on the other.
“That this antagonism can be abolished only by the emancipation of the ‘talakawa’ from the domination of these conduits, by the reform of the present autocratic political Institutions into Democratic Institutions and placing their democratic control in the hands of the ‘talakawa’ for whom alone they exist.
“All parties are but the expression of class interests, and as the interest of the talakawa (commoners) is diametrically opposed to the interest of all sections of the master class, a party seeking the emancipation of the talakawa must naturally be hostile to the party of the oppressors.”
Shehu Usman Aliyu Shagari (February 25, 1925)
Shehu Shagari was the President of the country in the Second Republic (1979–1983).
He was born in Shagari village, Sokoto, on February 25, 1925. A Sunni Muslim of Fulani extraction, Shagari is the holder of the aristocratic title of Turakin Sakkwato in the Sokoto Caliphate. His father, Aliyu, was a farmer, trader and herder, who later became the Magaji or village head of Shagari village. Shehu Shagari attended elementary school at Yabo before he went to the Sokoto Middle School and later Kaduna College.
He worked as a teacher for a brief period before entering politics in 1954 following his election to the House of Representatives. Earlier, in 1946, Shagari and Mallam Gambo Abuja started the Youth Social Circle, which centred around Sokoto. With the suggestion of a merger of all fledgling political organisations in the region under one canopy, the Youth Social Circle agreed to the merger, and together with other organisations formed the Northern People’s Congress, which later became a political party. In 1959, the party won the national parliamentary elections.
In 1958, he was appointed parliamentary secretary to the Prime Minister, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa. He later held the positions of Minister of Economic Development in 1960, Minister of Internal Affairs in 1962 and Minister of Works and Survey in 1965. The military coup of 1966 ended the First Republic.
Shagari returned to Sokoto to work on his farm and later to work as a councillor for the Sokoto Native Authority. In 1970, Yakubu Gowon made Shagari Minister of Economic Affairs and later of Finance. Shagari went on to become President on the platform of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) in 1979. He was later overthrown in a military on December 31, 1983 by General Muhammadu Buhari over allegations of corruption and maladministration.
According to observers, these leaders may not have derived their powers directly from the people at the early stages of their political career. The Northern region’s peculiar nature in terms of religion and socio-cultural make-up, as well as the low level of literacy which probably made lot of people remain subjugated to the whims and caprices of their leaders would have contributed to giving the leaders the power and influence they had over the people.
However, it needs be pointed out that at the mid-term of most of the leaders’ political career, the people started empowering the leaders to act on their behalf through these leaders’ election into different political positions. The failings of these leaders either by omission or commission notwithstanding, they are still regarded to be among the best the North has so far produced.
Dr. Musa Adamu Mbahi brought a different dimension to this discourse. He categorised the Northern Nigerian political establishment into various groups. One, those who were at the helm of affairs as heads of state and did well or at least worked hard. And whatever shortcoming during their leadership tenure, according to him, are probably due to human frailties and not an orchestrated plan of evil. Two, those who, as chiefs of state, were evil or incompetent or both and Nigeria came out the worst for their periods in office.
Three, those who served, not as heads of state, but in positions of authorities as governors, federal commissioners, Ministers, Special Advisers etc.
Mbahi said “Within these group also can be found those who served sincerely and to the best of their abilities without betraying the trust of the office in which they served and were required to execute. But there is a large cadre within this subset that really screwed-up Nigeria – They were corrupt, profoundly incompetent and except for nepotism, should never have been allowed near these offices which they were supposed to execute in trust for us and our posterity.”
Wondering where the North, acclaimed within the Nigerian political context as excellent politicians and people with high moral rectitude came to be so despised politically, Mbahi went on to ask: How is it that the Northern Political establishment found itself out in the proverbial cold?
“A lot has been written about the virtues of the first generation of Northern Nigeria’s political leaders especially the likes of the Late Sardauna of Sokoto, the Late Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, the Late Alhaji Muhammadu Ribadu, the Late Mallam Aminu Kano etc. Nonetheless, it will be note worthy to point out, with no fear of contradiction, that the period in which they – especially the Sardauna at the regional level and Sir Balewa at the federal level – led, can be regarded as the golden age of Northern Nigeria’s political glory.
“These was the period when Northerners in politics were revered by their peers and their opinions highly regarded even if not agreed to by contemporaries because they were totally patriotic and passionate to their causes. During this golden age, other regions will preferentially rather “do business” with the North politically, even if they disagree with it, than do business with other regions. The leaders from the North during this period, are respectable and, integrity is an honor they live by.
“They were incorruptible and had the best interests of their constituencies at heart. Politics for them is not a personal wealth-making endeavor, as it is the case with most of the later generation of leaders of Northern Nigerian extraction, but a call to leadership and service. The guiding principle of these leaders’ are: Duty, Honor, and Country,” Mbahi wrote.
Regrettably, he pointed out, these same statements could not be made without exception about the subsequent generation of leaders of Northern Nigerian extraction both at regional and state levels. “To varying degrees, the progress that the first generation of Northern Nigerian leaders achieved for the region and the nation at large were allowed to waste and in most cases reversed,” Mbahi added.
Zainab Usman on September 4, 2012, in an article titled, Northern Nigeria: The Disconnect Between Our Leaders and the Rest of Us, accused the present generation of leaders of progressively disconnecting themselves from the ordinary people through misplaced priorities.
According to her, “The summaries of various communiqués of meetings and fora involving northern political leaders (mainly the Northern Governors Forum) and most northern elders (mostly former public office holders) of recent, on the North’s numerous problems are baffling and frustrating as it is apparent the agenda of these meetings typically have little to do with the region’s gargantuan economic, socio-political and security challenges. Neither do the final recommendations.
“The themes of these meetings usually revolve around increased revenue allocation to northern states from the Federal Government, lamentations over existing conspiracies to “marginalize” and “destroy” the North; emphasis on the North’s “turn” to produce the next president in 2015; hollow, rhetorical lamentations on the decline of the northern economy and the need to revive agriculture, countering the Boko Haram insurgency and occasionally, a passing reference is made on the need for good governance, and in the end, these ills are ascribed to bad leadership and that’s about it. These meetings typically produce virtually no solid, detailed, implementable blue prints on how to methodically, systematically and effectively address the North’s well-documented problems.
“As the communiqués and press briefings for these meetings become public, one’s hopes of tangible solutions are further dashed by the crushing realisation that our leaders are running round in vicious circles. At best, they gloss over the most critical problems, and at worst, their recommendations have practically no bearing on these problems.”
Usman also classified the problems bedevilling the North into four broad distinct but interrelated categories: the steady economic decline of the region over several decades, the breakdown of social cohesion, the insecurity especially the Boko Haram insurgency and the gradual decline of the North’s political influence at the centre. She, however, opined that disturbing fact is that the priorities of the northern Governors and many of the northern elders, are skewed towards the North’s access to political power and how to bring back the Presidency to the North come 2015 while the more important economic, social and security challenges are of secondary importance to them.
Besides, Usman said Thomas Friedman of the New York Times, writing in June 2012, identified two components of the global leadership deficit prevalent in many countries - generational and technological. She opined that the Northern Nigeria leadership shares in this deficit.
She opined that “When this is applied to the situation in northern Nigeria, it becomes apparent that the disconnect between our leaders and the rest of us has much to do with the little generational change amongst those responsible for aggregating and articulating the North’s aspirations, with mostly the same people who have been in the thick of things since some of us were in diapers, whom we’ve read about in social studies textbooks in primary and secondary school, still dexterously recycling themselves continuously back in power – as governors, ministers, legislators, permanent secretaries, board members of parastatals – still calling the shots today.”
The incredibly persistent longevity of many die-hard power-brokers in northern Nigeria, Usman observed, has ensured that only a few neophytes have been genuinely groomed as successors. This situation of course, she added, is connected to the technological dimension of this leadership deficit which beyond the use of modern technology in governance, refers to the stale, archaic and retrogressive approach to leadership as a consequence of this generational gap, with little input of fresh ideas and approaches to governance.
“Therefore, the same top-down, gerontocratic and quasi-feudal approaches to leadership of decades past is very much the norm in the North today, increasingly incapable of addressing present-day 21st century challenges,” she further said. Who then leads Northern Nigeria?
NigerianTribune
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