Nigeria At 55: Nigeria’s Independence And Birth Of Regional Politics

Editor’s note: Currently, Nigeria is mainly divided along regional lines. Some veterans in politics believe this has been so for donkey years. There are so many questions raised about this issue, one of them being: was the birth of regional politics there pre- or post-independence? In view of this, Oladele Hakeem, the Naij.com editor, tries to determine if ethnic politics were actually ushered by the nation’s independence.

Macaulay founded the first political party in Nigeria. His portrait is found on the nation’s one naira currency note

Going down the memory lane

The existence of Nigeria as a single unit started way back January 1, 1914. This was when the first governor general of Nigeria, Sir Lord Lugard, brought about the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern protectorates.

The amalgamation brought together people of diverse views and various tribal orientations. Although some schools of thought welcomed the idea. But some dragged their feet. This was because they raised several questions that they never got satisfactory answers to. The question to be asked now is, has the country been unified then under a single umbrella of one nation, one Nigeria.

One of the political actors then was Sir Herbert Macaulay, nicknamed “Ejo n gboro” (which literally means “Snake in the city”). He was the direct grandson of Bishop Ajayi Crowther, the first man to translate Bible from English to Yoruba.

Macaulay established the first political party in the country called the Nigeria National Democratic Party (NNDP) in 1923. His party was reckoned with then. However, it was not a formidable force across Nigeria. It beared resemblance of a national party, but did not achieve much in terms of unifying the different tribal interests.

Nigeria’s independence was believed to come on a platter of gold. The truth therein was that different events occurred before 1960. Despite the British influence on Nigeria, there were some revolts and protests. In 1918, there was the first revolt against Lord Lugard himself through the Adubi war which was fought in Egba Land in present day Ogun state. Also, the famous Aba women riot of 1929. The protest was against payment of tax.

All these events shaped the political landscape of the country.

Birth of regional politics

As years rolled by, leaders of thoughts in the country started thinking about independence.

In 1946, Nigeria entered a period of decolonisation and a growth of nationalism with the introduction of regional governments. giving Nigerians more opportunities in the government. This idea was highly applauded when it was mooted. Not just that, some citizens saw it as one of the channels of walking out of colonial rule and moving towards liberation. However, did it really bring Nigerians together? Was this not what resulted to birth of regional politics?

A lot of questions were asked then, with little or no concrete responses to them. Since Nigeria agreed to become amalgamated in 1914, why did it hide under the pretense that all Nigerians were one? Why was politics played to favour a particular region over another, even if the region lacked the competence to occupy the political office?

There was so much division in the land before 1960. The North did her own things separately, ditto the South.

Independence knocking at the door

In 1950, a conference of delegates from the Northern and Southern parts of the country was held in Ibadan, capital of Oyo state. Issues bordering on the political future of Nigeria were discussed there.

Fast-forward to 1957, a constitutional conference was held in Lagos. At that conference, the North stated it was not ready for independence. This led to a situation where delegates from the other regions jeered delegates from the North. Due to this indifference that lingered on that same year, the Western and Eastern regions introduced self government.

Self government means a situation where each region has an authority to the running of its political and administrative affairs. In 1959, the North likewise introduced self government.

To further buttress Nigeria had already moved towards birth of regional politics, in an interview with a white journalist before his death in January 1966, the late sardauna of Sokoto and premier of the Northern region, Sir Ahmadu Bello, emphasised the importance of Northernisation policy to Northern people. He said:

“If there is a opening for a job in the North, it will be given to a Northerner first. if we can not find a Northerner, we give it to an expatriate (that is a white person). If we can’t find an expatriate, we give it to another Nigerian but on a contract basis. It will rather be dangerous for us to give a job to other people of other tribes when we have a high number of youths being turned out from school without jobs.”

October 1, 1960 and the reality of independence

Prior to Nigeria’s independence, the first national election was held in 1959. The objective of the election was to set up an independent government. The contest saw the emergence of Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, a Northerner, as the prime minister. Also, majority of parliamentary seats were won by the Northern politicians.

Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, the first prime minister between 1959 and 1966. He was known as the golden voice of Africa due to his impeccable voice. He was assassinated in the first military coup of January 1966

Political intrigues and further division

According to The Nations Encyclopedia: ”Before 1966, the major parties were the Northern People’s Congress (NPC), overwhelmingly dominant in the Northern region and possessing a plurality in the federal House of Representatives; the National Council of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC), dominant in the Eastern region and junior partner in coalition with the NPC in the federal House of Representatives; and the Action Group (AG), majority party in the Western region and the leading opposition group in the federal legislature.

”Policies and platforms of the major parties were similar, generally supporting welfare and development programmes. Following the 1959 elections, the NCNC joined in a coalition with the NPC in the federal government.”

The candidates who contested in the prime minister election included Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa of the NPC, Chief Obafemi Awolowo of the AG and Chief Nnamdi Azikiwe of the NCNC.

”The first national elections in independent Nigeria, held on 30 December 1964, were contested by two political alliances: the Nigerian National Alliance (NNA), led by Sir Ahmadu Bello, premier of the Northern region, and the United Progressive Grand Alliance (UPGA), led by Michael Okpara, premier of the Eastern region. The NNA comprised the NPC, the Western-based Nigerian National Democratic Party (NNDP), and opposition parties representing ethnic minorities in the Eastern and Mid-Western regions.

”The UPGA included the NCNC, the Action Group, the Northern Elements Progressive Union (the main opposition party in the Northern region), and the United Middle Belt Congress. Northerners feared Igbo domination of the federal government and sought support from the Yoruba, while the UPGA accused the Northerners of anti-Southern and antidemocratic attitudes. The election results, announced on January 6, 1965, gave a large majority to the NNA (198 of 267 constituencies).

”Before the balloting began, the UPGA charged that unconstitutional practices were taking place and announced that it would boycott the elections, in which only 4 million of the 15 million eligible voters actually cast ballots. On January 4, 1965, President Azikiwe called on Prime Minister Balewa to form a new government.

”In the supplementary elections held on March 18, 1965, the UPGA won all 51 seats in the Eastern region and three seats in Lagos. This was followed by announcement of an enlarged and reorganised cabinet on March 31 of the same year. Ten months later, the Balewa government was overthrown, the military assumed power, and on May 24, 1966 all political parties were banned.”

All the infighting among politicians then created crises in the country, particularly in the Western region. There was friction between Sir Ladoke Akintola and Chief Obafemi Awolowo regarding the leadership of the region. As this continued, there was ”Operation wetie,” which claimed the lives of many people.

As Nigeria moved away from this and democracy returned in 1979, the voting pattern by the electorates also reflected regional sentiment. Alhaji Shehu Shagari, who won the presidential election, got over 80% of his votes from the core North where he came from.

This pattern has been so even up till the last national election of Saturday, March 28, where President Muhammadu Buhari got a good chunk of his votes from the North. The only exception to this was the June 12 presidential election where the candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Chief MKO Abiola defeated the candidate of the National Republican Convention (NRC), Alhaji Bashir Tofa in his state, Kano.

Oladele Hakeem, a content editor with Naij.com, holds a BSc (Hons) from UNILAG, a PCWC from NIJ and an MSc in Epidemiology and Medical Statistics from UI. He writes from Ikeja, Lagos.

The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Naij.com.

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