Brewing Crisis

“There cannot be a crisis next week. My schedule is already full.” - Henry Kissinger

Did you know that for those who were any closer to deciphering the code back then in the mid-sixties, Nigeria’s disturbing security report had set the alarm bells ringing earlier than the Western Nigerian rigged election of October 1965? At the aforementioned polls, the people of the West rejected Akintola and the NNDP, setting ablaze shops, houses, and vehicles which belonged to the Akintola group. Adewale Ademoyega reports in his 272-page book, Why We Struck: The Story of The First Nigerian Coup (pg. 29):

“By November 1965, the people had started to fight the unpopular Akintola Government. They sang war songs and fought on the streets. They invented the “wetie” (meaning “soak him up”), a practice in which a political opponent and his house or property were sprayed with petrol and set ablaze. Somehow, in “wetie,” only the intended victim suffered.”

A detailed recall of events at the time may be necessary here. A crisis in the Action Group (AG) culminated in the indictment of former federal minister of communications (1957-1960), premier of Western Region, and 13th Aare-Ona-Kakanfo of the Yoruba, Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola, fondly called S.L.A. (1910-1966), for “maladministration and anti-party activities.” But Akintola, whom AG party big wigs and some Yoruba traditional rulers had preferred to succeed Chief Obafemi Awolowo, SAN, GCFR (1909-1987), being his deputy, instead of the more loyal Chief Frederick Rotimi Williams (1920-2005), Awo’s preferred choice, who had acted as premier each time Chief Awolowo went on vacation, refused to resign both his deputy leadership of the party and premiership of the Region, as demanded by the Party.

The Governor of the West (1960-1962) and Ooni of Ife (1930-1980), His Majesty, Oba (Sir) Adesoji Tadeniawo Aderemi, KBE (1889-1980), who had succeeded Sir John Dalzell Rankine, CMG, KCMG (1907-1987) at his retirement in 1959, and had loyally supported the party and its leader, Chief Awolowo, received a petition from majority of the Region’s assemblymen. He quickly intervened, and seeing that the Premier, Chief Akintola, no longer enjoyed the confidence of the majority of the legislators as provided in Section 33 (10) of the Region’s constitution, sacked him on 21st May 1962. In Nigeria: Politics in the Crisis Years, culled from the Library of Congress Country Studies' website, we read that:

"Akintola's removal in May 1962 sparked bloody riot in the Western Region and brought effective government to an end as rival legislators, following the example in the streets, introduced violence to the floor of the regional legislature."

The recalcitrant Chief Akintola, a known ally of the NPC ruling Party at the national level, who had become renowned for his oratorical wizardry and uncommon prowess as a Yoruba wordsmith, refused to step aside, which accounted for the 23rd May, 1962 screaming Yoruba headline in the Daily Times newspaper, Akintola ‘taku’ (meaning Akintola won’t quit), having instituted a court action on the same day, challenging his removal and, instead, claimed to have removed the Governor. Ademoyega recounts, ibid (pg. 61):

“It was for this reason that Chief Akintola, although totally defeated in the Regional election of October 1965, refused to quit the premiership of Western Region and publicly stated that he would rather be killed in office than voluntarily quit the stage!”

But rather than allow due process to take its course by waiting for the court to give its verdict on the suit before it (which was eventually delivered on 7th July, 1962 in favor of Akintola), Governor Aderemi appointed another party chieftain and serving Minister of Local Government, Alhaji Dauda Sooroye Adegbenro, as Akintola’s replacement effective 21st May, on the advice of Justice Samuel Osarogie Ighodaro, [later Iyasere of Benin Kingdom], then Attorney General of Western Region and Minister of Health. Trouble broke when Adegbenro made to address the assemblymen on 25th May at a parliament meeting called to ratify his appointment. Akintola’s men caused a breach of the peace and disrupted proceedings to prevent any voting from taking place. They allegedly threw chairs about, shouted hysterically and broke the mace. The Prime Minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, KBE (1912-1966), who now controlled the police, having withdrawn the services of the Region’s Commissioner of Police from Adegbenro, was said to have quickly deployed riot police, who used tear gas to disperse the assemblymen present, to prevent any further trouble. Daily Times’ former political editor, Olufemi Ogunsanwo, recounts in his 2009 publication, Awo Unfinished Greatness:

“On the prime minister’s orders, the legislature was cleared in a jiffy with police tear gas when the House met for the second time on May 25, 1962 to endorse Adegbenro as the new premier. This was sequel to the first premeditated pandemonium in the House caused by Akintola’s supporters at an earlier meeting when they knew the numbers were not in their favor. On this occasion, the mace was broken, a honorable member’s head (Hon. Kensington Momoh, AG) was badly bruised during the renewed scuffle in the House. This was the signal that Balewa needed to deal with Akintola’s rivals. Instead of allowing the Speaker to discipline the troublemakers, the police dispersed all the members and locked up the chambers at federal behest.”

Four days later in Parliament (precisely on 29th May, 1962), while seeking to declare a state of emergency on the Western Region, the Prime Minister moved to urge respect for the courts by narrating the story of a case presided over by the Federal High Court’s Justice, Charles Umeha Daddy Onyeama, nicknamed “Eagle on the Bench,” and first Nigerian to serve at the International Court of Justice at the Hague, Netherlands:

“It must be borne in mind that we in the Federal Government wanted at one time for a good reason to appoint a commission of inquiry into the National Bank. We received a report from a Bank Examiner that the Bank was not in good shape, perhaps there was misuse of the money put into the Bank. But the Court by the action of these same people, stopped us, they said we could not go ahead. We had to listen to the Court and obey the Court. We did not go ahead. We could easily have gone ahead but we did not.

“We called a meeting of Parliament; Parliament gave us approval to go ahead and we did. When we appointed the inquiry again, the inquiry sat for only fifty minutes and the court stopped us. We did not disobey, we had to wait. I may ask why could the Governor of Western Nigeria and the Action Group not wait if they really had any regard for the Court? Why could they not wait?”

But, according to Chief Awolowo, Leader of the Opposition in Nigeria's Federal Parliament and Leader of the Action Group party, whose “small writing plane” during the hustings of the period “drew his party symbol” as well as scribbled his name “in the sky in smoke vapors”, thus dazzling the crowds everywhere he went, the Prime Minister’s action to seek parliamentary consent for a proclamation of state of emergency on Western Region while a case to that effect was still being heard in a competent court of the land could also be tantamount to a demonstration to both the Nigerian public and other keen watchers around the world that the Balewa Government was well disposed to conducts that threatened due process and separation of powers. Why did his government not wait on this as well? Chief Awolowo, "by far the most action-driven of the three independence leaders" (Awo, Bello and Zik) according to Bolaji Ogunseye in Zik and Awo: The original sin (Guardian of Thursday, 25th February, 1999), demanded to know:

“Under our constitution, it is the court that has to determine whether the removal of Chief Akintola is right or wrong and whether the appointing of a successor is in order. As a matter of fact, the moment the removal of Chief Akintola is declared void, then he resumes his office, but if the court declares to the contrary then, of course, the successor carries on. The case has been fixed for the 5th. Why not wait till the 5th?”

Awolowo, “the first and only head of government in Nigeria to cut short his tenure by voluntary resignation without a hint of scandal,” claimed that he was present in the chamber of the Western Region’s House of Assemble when the incident occurred, and gave the following narrative in Parliament:

"The truth is that in the house of assembly that day, hon. Members were assembled as we are here now assembled; prayers were said and then immediately after that, one Mr. Oke, a supporter of Chief Akintola, a member from Ogbomosho, jumped on the desk and was running about on the desk and then lifted a chair and struck somebody on the head. That is how it started, and then thereafter one Mr. Ebubedike, the member for Badagry, who lives in Ajeromi, took the Mace and then in an attempt to strike the speaker with the Mace, the Mace struck the table and broke into two. These events were witnessed by the police and then chairs were lifted and were thrown all over the place by supporters of Chief Akintola.

"The police will testify to the fact that all the members of the Action Group supporting Alhaji Adegbenro remained calm under the gravest possible provocations. They too could hit back - there were 66 of them against 40 odd of the other side and they could have hit back but they did not hit back. I should have thought that the Rt. Hon. Prime Minister would have given that story. I spoke to him over the telephone myself and he was candid enough to admit that he received the report of the police that the supporters of Alhaji Adegbenro remained calm throughout.”

An Akintola man, a former Secretary of the Action Group, former Minister of Health and Minister of Information, Chief Ayo Rosiji (1917-2000), who had been expelled from the party along with Chief Akintola, had only a day earlier, concluded:

“This is the blackest day Nigeria has seen since Independence. In fact, what happened, I mean rebellion in the Tiv Division and the Okrika Riots in the East cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, be compared with the situation in the Western Region.”

Whereas, a “confused” Chief Anthony Eromosele Enahoro (1923-2010), a supporter of Chief Awolowo, later General Yakubu Gowon's federal commissioner for information and Labor (1967-1974) and federal commissioner for special duties (1975), merely sued for caution on the part of the Prime Minister:

“I am in a confused state because I think something has started today, something has begun today which is going to go much further than, perhaps, most of us here imagine. I can only hope and pray that in the exercise of the powers which the Prime Minister is going to seek later, he will be as careful and circumspect as he has promised to be, because I think that may well prove to be the salvation of this country.”

Meanwhile, Chief Awolowo had also stated in his opposition amendment to Balewa’s state of emergency motion that the first question which any reasonable person, especially the Prime Minister, ought to ask himself was whether a state of public emergency existed truly in the Western Region. Awolowo’s submission was to the effect that there was no such widespread violence or rioting or disturbance in the Western Region, and went on to draw attention to the double-standard of the Balewa Government:

"Not long ago after independence, there was rioting of a most severe nature in the Tiv Division of Northern Nigeria. Several lives were lost, several properties were destroyed, there was arson and a host of other crimes were committed. At that time, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa was the Prime Minister as he is today. He did not think it fit to call this parliament to declare a state of public emergency in the Northern Region. Also in Okrika - there was widespread rioting in Okrika; again, several lives and properties were lost. I understand that this widespread rioting in Okrika occurred twice in the Eastern Region. The Prime Minister and the cabinet did not think it fit on that occasion to declare a state of public emergency in the Eastern Region.

"But, because the Action Group is pursuing the normal democratic processes as laid down in our constitution to oust someone who happens to be a very close friend of the Prime Minister, and also because the AG is looked upon as a moral foe to the NPC, this very far-reaching provision of our constitution is now being invoked, only in respect of what might be described as squabbles inside the chamber of the Western House of Assembly. It is doing violence to our constitution and doing violence to the construction of words to suggest that what happened in the Western House of Assembly amounts to a state of public emergency…”

In the end, Balewa’s motion secured parliamentary approval “209 votes to 36 in the House of Representatives and in the Senate by 32 votes to 7 with two abstentions:

“That in pursuance of section sixty-five of the Constitution of the Federation it is declared that a state of public emergency exists and that this resolution shall remain in force until the end of the month of December, nineteen hundred and sixty-two.”

Both Sir Ahmadu Bello, KBE (1910-1966) and Dr. Michael Iheonukara Okpara (1920-1984), premiers of the Northern Region (1954-1966) and Eastern Region (1959-1966) respectively, who had monitored the proceedings from the visitors’ gallery amidst tight security provided by a police detachment headed by Sir Kerr Bovell (1905-1988), then Colonial Inspector General of Police, were more than elated. That was how the Federal Government (FG) declared a state of emergency on the Western Region at around mid-day of 29th May 1962, and sacked its entire government to protect Akintola. Author of Muslim Civic Cultures and conflict Resolution: The Challenge of Democratic Federalism in Nigeria, Prof. John N. Paden, explains the North's preference for Akintola over Awolowo in his biography of the Sardauna, Ahmadu Bello, Sardauna of Sokoto:

"The NPC came to regard Awolowo as the stumbling block to a union between the Yoruba and the North. Akintola was more trustworthy than Awolowo. The thinking was that later they might form one single party with Akintola."

Soon after, the Prime Minister took the unprecedented step of appointing his personal physician, Dr. Moses Adekoyejo Majekodunmi, CFR, CMG, (1916-2012), a senator and later the Federal Minister of State, Army and Minister of Health (1961-1966), as the Sole Administrator of Western Nigeria (29th June-December, 1962). The country’s leading gynecologist at the time, Majekodunmi later founded St. Nicholas Hospital, Lagos which opened for business in March 1968, and he became its first Chairman. Captain Murtala Ramat Mohammed (1938-1976), who would become Nigeria’s head of state in July 1975, emerged as Majekodunmi’s Aide-de-camp (ADC):

"Subsequently, the federal government declared a state of emergency, dissolved the legislature and appointed a medical practitioner, Dr. Adekoyejo Majekodunmi, as an administrator for the Western Region."

Following the suspension of the Regional Government, restricting the principal actors in the conflict such as Chiefs Awolowo, Akintola, Adegbenro, Rosiji, Remi Fani-Kayode, Enahoro, Williams, etc, received the top-most priority by the new helmsman, who also held the titles of Mayegun of Lagos and Otun Balogun of the Christians of Egbaland:

"One of his first acts was to place many AG leaders under house arrest."

Majekodunmi later stated in a radio and television broadcast across the Region, reassuring the people and promising fairness to all parties:

“…I know that all talk of development is futile if there is unrest in any part of Nigeria. In this anxious period, my duty is to seek rapidly to reduce political tension and secure an atmosphere of calmness so that the people of Western Nigeria can have an early opportunity of resolving for themselves the difficulties which now confront the region. I shall do my utmost to be absolutely impartial to all factions and political parties. I am appealing to the Obas, Chiefs and peoples of Western Nigeria to reassure their people that it is not the intention of the Federal Government to substitute an oppressive regime for democratic government.”

Without any gainsaying, therefore, it was the fallout of this incident that ultimately consumed the First Republic government of Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa, who rather than move to restore law and order preferred to preserve Akintola, at all cost, as Premier of the Western Region:

"Six months later, the Western House was recalled and Chief S.L Akintola, through the political support of the Federal Government, but more especially the Sardauna was restored to his previous position as Premier of Western Nigeria. Akintola, by this time, had formed a new political party called the United Peoples Party (UPP) which he said would in future ally itself with the NPC."

The portents remained bad; as the NCNC, which instantly saw an opportunity to fish in the troubled political waters of Western Nigeria joined hands with the NPC to deal a mortal blow on Chief Awolowo and his lieutenants by sending them to jail on charges of treasonable felony. In his envy of Awo's 'efficient party machine' and NPC's struggle for political mastery of Western Nigeria, Ahmadu Bello became Akintola's willing tool:

"By this trial, the NCNC and NPC tried to eliminate the Action Group thus giving vent to their envy of the Action Group's efficient party machine and its wealthy constituency of the agriculturally rich Western Region."

Former minister of culture and tourism (2006), minister of aviation (2006-2007), and director of media and publicity of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential Campaign Committee (2015), Chief Femi Fani-Kayode writes in Olunloyo and the 'Wild, Wild West' published in the Vanguard newspaper of Saturday, 7th December, 2013:

"...it could be argued that the bitter fight that took place between Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Chief S.L. Akintola and their respective supporters throughout the early '60s, the division within the Action Group and its eventual splitting into two separate and distinct parties, the ugly events in the South- west at the time and the unrestrained and brutal violence that was unleashed by both sides against one another led directly to the first coup d’état of January 15, 1966. This in turn led to the second pogroms and mass killings of the Igbo in the North and ultimately to the Nigerian civil war."

Balewa was a stooge leader who took his orders from the Sardauna of Sokoto and Premier of Northern Region, Sir Ahmadu Bello, a “formidable personality” and “an astute politician” with “strong character”, whose policy of northernization found root in “the common concept of ‘One North, One Destiny‘.” It was to the Sardauna, who always referred to Balewa as “Our Southern Ambassador”, and that “the earlier rise in the fortunes of the Hausa/Fulani leaders on Nigeria‘s political horizon” has been singularly attributed. Adisa Adeleye posits:

”Some have attributed the earlier rise in the fortunes of the Hausa/Fulani leaders on Nigeria‘s political horizon to the formidable personality, political sagacity and strong character of the late Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto, a great grandson of that religious legend, Uthman Dan Fodio, the founder of Sokoto Caliphate. As an astute politician and devout Muslim, Sir Ahmadu Bello was associated with an open door policy which embraced and recognized Christian talents in his administration and in his party, the Northern Peoples Congress (NPC).

Equipped with "a modest British education", the Sardauna wished for each region to progress at its own pace and on its own volition till such a time that their convergence will prove a fait accompli, thus ending as "a process of mutual confidence and political harmony." Ogunseye further states, ibid:

"The first irony that strikes one is the fact even though Ahmadu Bello died some 20 years earlier than Awo, and 31 years earlier than Zik, it is the Sardauna whose political calculations and strategies have survived to shape the context of Nigeria's political reality up till today. Another irony is that the conservative northern oligarchy, or power bloc whose members are beneficiaries of the Sardauna's power calculations, are the foremost proponents of a unified and non-regionalized polity, in direct contrast to Ahmadu Bello's regionalist or non-centralist politics. In the same pattern of reversal, the southern political leadership is now stridently clamoring for decentralization and true regionalization of the polity, in direct contradiction of Zik's and Awo's interest in central power at independence."

In 1989, however, almost two and a half decades after the death of the Sardauna, who campaigned for the first time in the history of Northern Nigeria during the 1959 elections, to counter the Action Group’s intense and vigorous campaign to “capture” enough seats in the North, even as the NCNC heaped the entire exercise onto its ally, the NEPU, in order to give its full attention to securing the East and the West, former Biafran warlord and Ikemba Nnewi, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu (1933-2011), painted the former northern Premier’s vivid memories of triumph and influence thus:

“…a prince who bestrode the Nigeria of his day and won,…a man who roused the sleeping giant of the north from its centuries-old slumber and within the short span of six years placed it in a dominant position in Nigeria.”

Chief Awolowo captured the above referenced incident with cinematic exactness and spoke of how his hard campaigns throughout the country, and particularly in the North, had woken the Sardauna from his slumber, pushing him to physically join the 1959 hustings in utter annoyance:

“In the North, to the annoyance no doubt of my good friend the premier of Northern Nigeria, I think it is correct to say that it was the Action Group who, during the 1959 elections, campaigned for the first time in the history of Northern Nigeria. The hon. The Sardauna of Sokoto, the premier of the Northern Region, had to go into villages and towns and mount the soap boxes to address the masses. It had never happened in the history of the Northern Region that the Sardauna would descend to the depths of mounting a soap box and talking to the masses of the people - they take orders through other agencies and not directly from the Sardauna himself.

"I remember that a story was told to me on that occasion, that the Sardauna drove through several miles of dusty road and, at the end of it, he found himself covered with dust, and sneezing he said: "I will never forgive Awolowo for this!" If he does not want to forgive me we can talk that over between ourselves because we are friends, but this is not the way to deal with that particular situation: this is not the way to deal with that particular annoyance. This is wrong.”

Awolowo was referring to Prime Minister Balewa’s motion of 29th May, 1962, for a state of emergency in Western Nigeria, which was seconded by the Federal Minister of Finance, Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh (1919-1966), the man who licked his lip to hatch the diabolical plan to imprison Chief Awolowo on charges of tresonable felony. In his response to an article on “Need to define content of federalism” by Maryam Uwais, MFR, Principal Partner of Wali Uwais & Co. and a Director of Stanbic IBTC Plc since November 2011, under the column “Right of Reply” in THISDAY newspaper of Sunday, 26th March, 2006, Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, director-general of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (1975-1983), Nigeria’s external affairs minister (1985-1987) and deputy chairman of Nigeria's national conference (2014), asserts:

When Chief Obafemi Awolowo was arrested and charged with treasonable felony, it was Justice Daddy Onyeama, a no nonsense judge, who was scheduled to hear the case. Intrigue intervened. A justice of the Supreme Court went on leave. By warrant President Nnamdi Azikwe appointed Daddy Onyeama as acting Justice of the Supreme Court, thus rendering him ineligible for the Awolowo Trial even though Onyeama did not sit in the Supreme Court for even a day. As soon as Awolowo’s case was over, Daddy Onyeama reported to the Lagos Judiciary.

“Then you have the Adegbenro versus Akintola case where the Privy Council upheld Adegbenro, only for the Federal Parliament to be summoned in emergency session to abolish the right of Appeal to the Privy Council, backdating their decision and in effect, upholding Akintola.”

Chief Duro Onabule, former editor of the defunct National Concord newspaper, General Babangida's chief press secretary (1985-1993) and Jagunmolu of Ijebuland, who truly believes that Chief Awolowo was simply met in his game in 1962 as he accuses him of starting a 'conspiracy' against Nnamdi Azikiwe/NCNC and doubts whether Awo would "have done anything less if in Tafawa Balewa's position", provides in his Onabule Column published by The Sun Online of 24th April, 2009:

"The Federal Supreme Court in Lagos ruled that Chief Akintola at the end of emergency rule should be restored as West regional premier but the Privy Council in London ruled in favor of rival claimant that the emergency rule should be followed by fresh elections. In the face of the potential political/constitutional crisis, instead of complying with the Privy Council ruling, Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa maintained his support for Chief Akintola, rushed through parliament an amendment to the constitution abolishing appeals to the Privy Council in London and backdated it to October 1st, 1960. Adegbenro's legal victory at the Privy Council instantly became a nullity."

Akin Ajose-Adeogun, a lawyer and historian, who is confident that both Akintola and Fani-Kayode had been desirous of freeing the Yoruba from the political cul-de-sac that “Awolowo’s rigidity” had brought upon them, and had wished to ally their people and Region with the ruling NPC, further states in Re Femi Fani-Kayode: A Bigoted, Anti-Igbo Tribalist posted on The Nigerian Voice of 25th August, 2013:

“It may be recalled, however, that Chief Akintola had pre-emptively challenged his attempted dismissal when he filed a lawsuit in May, 1962. He was successful at the Federal Supreme Court, which then occupied the intermediate position the Court of Appeal presently occupies in the judicial hierarchy. The pro-Awolowo faction appealed to the judicial Committee of the Privy Council, which was then the final Court of Appeal for Nigeria.

“A powerful Board, which included some of England’s finest jurists such as Lords Radcliffe, Devlin and Guest, held that Chief Akintola had been lawfully dismissed, as the novel procedure adopted by the pro-Awolowo faction was constitutional. It must be conceded that it was failure of statesmanship on the part of Chiefs Akintola and Fani-Kayode that they did not immediately resign at this point, for their government had by that decision become illegal. Of course, the Balewa-led coalition government of the N.P.C. and N.C.N.C. must also even take a great portion of the blame for committing the constitutional abomination of nullifying this judgment by passing a law, which had retrospective effect from October 1, 1960, abolishing appeals to the Privy Council. This was done in order to sustain their allies in power. This singular action destroyed parliamentary democracy in the West, and subsequently, in Nigeria.”

Earlier, Ogunsanwo, had alluded ibid, to the above fact and concluded that upholding the ruling of the Privy Council by the federal government may have prevented the crisis from happening:

“When the dispossessed premier, Alhaji Dauda Adegbenro, went to court and won a decisive victory which validated his appointment by the deposed governor in Britain’s Privy Council, Akintola moved to quash the judgment in the Western House with the help of his partisans, an example quickly followed by Balewa who rallied his troops in the federal Parliament to annul the landmark judgment. The federal Parliament and the Western House also abrogated the continued use of the Privy Council in London as a final appellate court for Nigeria to thwart their rivals’ future gains there and in the instant case, from reaping the fruits of their victory at the premiership stakes. If the federal government had upheld this Privy Council decision to restore Adegbenro, the crisis might have been averted and the history of Nigeria of this era might have been different.”

The concatenations of events such as the pervading rebellion in Tiv Division (1962-1965), and the Okrika Riots in the East, were also serious enough to have warranted the deployment of troops that were stationed there. It preceded the violence that occasioned the October election in the West and Lagos, and further raised the ratchet of violence and heightened the worsening security situation in the country at the time. Ademoyega also reminds us of the struggle of the Tiv since the country’s independence:

“Soon after Independence, the Tiv of Benue province who were the backbone of the UMBC, became more articulate in demanding for their political rights, which were denied them by the Sardauna Government. Agitation and rioting became the order of the day. Rather than make concessions to them, the Sardauna simply used force to suppress them the more. Early in 1963, when moves were made to create the Mid-West Region, the Tiv accordingly intensified their political war against the Northern Government. But the same NPC government which gladly excised the Mid-West out of the West did not deem it fit to attend to the agitation of the Tiv for their own region.”

No doubt, the operation of double standards was clearly visible to the human eye, and particularly to Nigerian soldiers whom the Northern premier sent to quell the unrest after a failed effort by anti-riot policemen. They, therefore, concurred with other well-meaning Nigerians that rather than engender good governance peaceably in the country, the two principal chieftains of the ruling Northern People’s Congress (NPC), Sirs Abubakar and Ahmadu, were only disposed to rowing all the time with their political opponents on the one hand and the Tiv, as a contending minority, on the other, and eliminating both in a ruthless attempt to impose their own will.

Otunba Julius Olusegun Adeeko explains, in The Crisis That Truncated the First Republic, that:

"Intent on totally decimating Chief Awolowo, Chief Ladoke Akintola together with his Deputy Premier Remi Fani-Kayode "Fani Power" (both of the Nigerian National Democratic Party) went into a political alliance with Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa's Northern People's Congress (NPC) and the new political party known as the Nigerian National Alliance (NNA) was formed. Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe-led NCNC teamed up with incarcerated Chief Obafemi Awolowo's Action Group (AG), the Northern Progressive Front (NPF), the Kano People's Party (KPP), the Northern Elements Progressive Union (NEPU), the United Middle Belt Congress (UMBC) and the Zamfara Commoners Party (ZCP) to form the United Progressive Grand Alliance (UPGA)."

It would be recalled that within the NNA, there existed other fringe parties like Chike Obi's Dynamic Party, Harold Dappa Biriye's Party in the Rivers Province and Apostle Edokpolor's and James Otobo's Midwest Democratic Front (MDF) in the newly created Midwest Region. The harried senior partner in UPGA, the NCNC, resembled a prostitute to say the least, for striking an alliance with the NPC, MDF, AG, and NEPU- in Lagos, Midwest, West and the North respectively. Its "pragmatic socialism" slogan was never well explained. This hydra headed opportunistic NCNC, soon became desperate when it learned of the NPC's determination to get rid of it for good.

The election itself was reduced to a farce:
"Before the polling day, several members of the NPC had been returned unopposed in the North, through a manipulation of the electoral law and procedure. Opposition candidates were so terrorised that they did not dare file their nomination papers. In some cases, returning officers did not make themselves available to opposition parties. The upshot of this was that the leader of the UPGA, Dr. Michael Okpara, the Premier of Eastern Nigeria, ordered a boycott of the election."

While this boycott met with total success in Eastern Nigeria, it was partly heeded in Lagos and Western Nigeria, where seats were closely contested to win federal power, influence and control. Adeeko also adds, ibid:

"Indeed, Deputy Premier Fani-Kayode had famously boasted that "there is nothing they can do, whether they vote us or not, we will win." This statement turned out to be true as massive rigging was orchestrated in the elections."

Chief Eyo Ita Esua (1901-1973), an Ibibio teacher, founder-member of the Nigerian Union of Teachers and Chairman of the then Federal Electoral Commission (1964-1966), who was “renowned for his dedication to duty and uprightness”, admitted that the disputed 1964 general election was indeed fraught with irregularities, as it was inconclusive. It was on this submission that the country’s President and later Owelle-Osowa-Anya of Onitsha, the Rt. Honorable Dr. Benjamin Nnamdi Azikiwe, GCFR (1904-1996), hinged his refusal to appoint the incumbent Prime Minister, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa:

"The President of Nigeria, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, whose constitutional duty it was to call on the Prime Minister to form a government, refused to perform his constitutional duties on the grounds that the elections were inconclusive. As a former leader of the NCNC, he sympathized with the NCNC-led UPGA. There was, therefore, a deadlock and constitutional crisis during which time Nigeria remained for some days without a legitimately constituted government. "

The results of the seriously rigged 1964 federal elections to the House of Representatives had given victory to the NPC, which beat the living daylights out of the UPGA by clearing "162 of the 312 seats, whilst the NNA held a total of 198 seats", and thus was in a position to form a government without the NCNC. The announcement immediately provoked acts of thuggery, arson, violence, mass murders, and general acts of lawlessness in the whole of Western Nigeria; when hoodlums seized the opportunity to molest the people, destroyed as well as looted their property.

Several Nigerians, who had felt that the Balewa Government will do whatever was necessary to stop the violence, such as declaring a state of emergency in the West and establishing a caretaker government to be tasked with conducting a free, fair and credible election, were disappointed to find that the prime minister would rather he preserved S.L. Akintola as the premier of Western Nigeria than restore law and order. All the efforts of the ceremonial President, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, to involve the military high command to arrest the situation so that fresh elections can be ordered proved futile. Balewa told a distressed nation that there was no cause for alarm as the situation in the Western Region was "normal" and under "control". According to Adeeko:

"...nothing was done to curtail the violence which gradually intensified. Daily mass murders and arson became routine in the Western region (wetie)."

It was reported that the prime minister who could only gasped at the sheer effrontery of Azikiwe, when he requested the military to intervene, was promptly instructed by Ahmadu Bello, who had briefed against the president, that he be placed under house arrest. Azikiwe could only thank his lucky stars. Ogunsanwo reports, ibid (pg. 108):

“He [Azikiwe] attempted to declare a state of emergency and assume executive powers by caging Balewa but shifted grounds within a space of nine hours, after the heads of the army, navy, and police refused to take his instructions. The trio, all British nationals, sided with the interim prime minister."

Common sense finally prevailed on 4th January, 1965, when Azikiwe, whose portrait today adorns Nigeria’s Five Hundred Naira note, and who was actively involved in sports at every stage of his life, becoming successful in many of the events that he participated in, finally announced his change of heart and beckoned Balewa to form a broad based government:

"After consulting six lawyers for their opinions, he [Azikiwe] learnt he had no power to do so…, he promptly threw in the towel and gave Sir Abubakar his job back. The prime minister had made moves to have the president arrested if he proclaimed a state of emergency to dissolve his government.”

On 11th October 1965, even as the constitutional crisis persisted, and with emotions hardly calmed down, elections were held into the Western House of Assembly. It is an understatement to say that this election became an acid test of sort for how democracy will continue to exist in Nigeria given the difficult circumstances. Hastening the collapse of the Akintola government in the West became paramount to the National Council of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC) that no longer enjoyed as much influence, in the broadly based Federal Government, as it used to. However, strongly backed by the Sardauna of Sokoto, Chief Akintola's NNDP risked life and limb and swore to remain in power come what may. Then minister of education and an NNDP's representative in the FG, Chief Richard Akinjide, was on the jump to prove to his Yoruba people that if they dumped the Action Group (AG) and the NCNC, they would reap the fruits of political participation in the central government. Not a few found the whole saga extremely disturbing, especially when the pro-chancellor of then University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University), Professor Saburi Biobaku (1918-2001), was appointed vice-chancellor of the University of Lagos (1965-1971), to replace Professor Eni Njoku (1917- ), upon the expiration of Njoku's three-year term in 1965, against well meaning advice that Balewa should leave Njoku in the position. Osuntokun informs:

"The Prime Minister retorted that they should be allowed to fight it out. This, of course, led to serious complications and the closure of the university for months. But in the end, Biobaku and the forces determined to share the national cake triumphed, especially when Chief Akinjide said he saw no reason why, in a plural society like Nigeria, two federal universities in Ibadan and Lagos should be headed by Kenneth Dike and Eni Njoku, two Igbo academics."

Francis Famoroti states in How Radical Student Stabbed Biobaku, UNILAG VC in 1965, National Mirror of 27th January, 2014, that Unilag students were aggrieved and opposed to the change. They accused the Balewa government of ethnic favoritism during their resistance and protest against the action. Famoroti adds that on assumption of duty:

"As Saburi mounted the podium of the auditorium...A radical student activist identified as Adams [it was learned that Kayode Adams died mysteriously some years later] surged forward from the crowd and stabbed him [Biobaku] on the back, ostensibly in protest against Njoku's removal. The VC fell and was promptly rushed to the university medical centre. Adams was immediately arrested by the Police. There was tension in the university and this incident resulted in the closure of UNILAG for months."

Njoku, who had since resigned, later became a visiting professor at the Michigan State University, United States, but soon returned to Nigeria the following year (1966) after his appointment as vice-chancellor of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

In the end during the October 1965 election in the Western Region, the undemocratic way the NPC-led FG used to organized its last election became a model for the Akintola Government, which also denied the opposition parties [NCNC and AG] to file nomination papers, whereas its own NNDP candidates were in some cases returned unopposed and elsewhere rigged in completely so that the ruling party remained in office. The opposition parties, using pirate mobile radio stations secretly located in Ibadan and environs, equally lived up to their promise, as they also announced different election results:

"The general confusion was the signal for state wide arson, killing, conflagration and a general breakdown of law and order, which the police was called in to quell and into which the governing party, the NPC, was rapidly becoming enmeshed."

Also, the records indicate that after the 1959 elections, Awolowo conceded the office of prime minister to Azikiwe, which he strangely rejected, preferring “the ornamental post of governor”. National legal counsel to Egbe Omo Yoruba USA & Canada, Ayo Turton Esq., states in his article (Biafra) There Was Never A Country posted Sunday, 11th October, 2012 ( http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com ):

“It is on record that Chief Awolowo approached Dr. Azikiwe during the 1959 elections when no clear leader emerged to give Action Group votes to him so that Azikiwe can become the Prime Minister and he Awolowo the Finance Minister, but Zik turned him down and traded Prime Minister ship for ceremonial presidency with Tafawa Balewa thereby relegated himself to commissioning federal toilets and primary schools.”

American scholar, Dr. Paden, concurs in his book, ibid, that for his rejection of Awo’s offer:

Zik could have been head of the federal government with Awo running the finance ministry in 1959 and Nigeria might have lived happily thereafter as a stable democracy and beacon of hope for Black Africa.

Earlier, on 16th November 1960, Azikiwe, who "was by far the most formally educated, the most urbane and internationalized among the three independence leaders", and who was addressed as ‘Sir Benjamin’ by the opposition press, declared happily and contentedly during his inauguration as Governor-General, quoting the poem Be the Best of Whatever You Are by American poet, short story writer and associate editor of Chicago’s trade paper American Lumberman, Douglas Malloch (1877-1938), well known as Lumberman’s poet:

“I can say without hesitation that I have no personal ambition in partisan politics. This explains why I have been able to play the role of a prisoner in a gilded cage with personal equanimity. My stiffest earthly assignment is ended and my major life’s work is done. My country is now free and I have been honored to be its first indigenous head of state. What more could one desire in life?”

Ogunsanwo, who (apart from recognizing that the “great Zik of Africa” remained bitter about his deprivation of the premiership of the West by Awolowo) couldn’t fathom how “any practical politician” could have declined such “an offer to be the executive head of government of his country”, writes ibid (pg. xix):

“But, in my opinion, his stock diminished when as ceremonial president, he reversed his stand and reappointed Balewa as prime minister after the botched general election of 1964. If he thought the ceremonial presidency entitled him to any leverage or fancied himself as a latter-day King George III of eighteen century England, he was proved wrong in December 1964. He was a Commander-in-Chief who could neither instruct the army nor the police. As a head of state, he could not dismiss his prime minister from office that year. “I would rather resign,” he said, “than call on any person to form a government.” But his nerve eventually failed him.”

Ikemba Odumegwu-Ojukwu, who grew more tactful in his dealings with political opponents as he got older, disagreed largely with Azikiwe’s policies as a politician because, as he put it, they “left the Igbo in the lurch”. He wrote in Because I am Involved, (pp.158 & 159):

“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 have been the dreamer whilst the others were hard-headed realists. Zik believed, worked for and made sacrifices for a Nigeria that had not come into existence- the ideal increasingly unattainable, they found themselves deflated and deprived vis-à-vis the realists, who from the beginning, ensured for their group a share of whatever was going.”

Paden also informs:
“Some commentators have continued to regale in the hackneyed theory that Zik was ‘detribalized’ while Awo was a ‘tribalist’. Zik was the author of this mudslinging as a revenge for losing out in Ibadan in 1952. What was his motive in seeking to be the premier of a region populated 90 per cent by the Yoruba? And what is wrong with being ‘tribal’ in looking after your people, after all, everyone must belong to an ethnic group! Which leader, including Zik, would rather champion the interests of another ethnic group at the expense of his? The Yoruba have a saying: 'which father would rather put beautiful beads on the waist of another child instead of that of his own daughter?'" [Ọmọ ẹni ò ní e ìdí bẹ̀bẹ̀rẹ̀ kí á fi ìlẹ̀kẹ̀ sí ìdí ọmọ ẹlòmíràn].

An equally emotional Balewa dedicated his life to the service of his fatherland in a speech which declared Nigeria’s Independence on 1st October 1960, in the presence of King George V’s granddaughter and Queen Elizabeth II’s cousin, Her Royal Highness, the Princess Alexandra of Kent [later The Honorable Lady Ogilvy], LG, GCVO, who recently stepped down from public duties indefinitely due to a particularly debilitating form of arthritis (polymyalgia rheumatica) that has rendered her unable to perform her official engagements since December 2012. Balewa declared on the occasion:

“Today is independence Day. The first of October 1960 is a date to which for two years, Nigeria has been eagerly looking forward. At last, our great day has arrived, and Nigeria is now indeed an independent Sovereign nation.

“Words cannot adequately express my joy and pride at being the Nigerian citizen privileged to accept from Her Royal Highness these Constitutional instruments which are the symbols of Nigeria’s Independence. It is a unique privilege which I shall remember forever, and it gives me strength and courage as I dedicate my life to the service of our country.”

Meanwhile, the brewing crisis ensured that there was pandemonium in nearly everywhere in Nigeria and people were no longer paying attention to the laws of the land anymore as a result of the Tiv Riots, Operation Wetie, and the Adaka Boro Uprising, in the Northern, Western and Eastern Regions respectively. It was indeed an understatement that the campaign of arson, murder and violence which had taken complete control of the whole of Western Nigeria in general and “the non-Oyo speaking areas of Egba, Ijebu and Ondo provinces” in particular, had overwhelmed the police altogether. It would seem that what Nigeria required, which it lacked at the time, was a very special brand of courage and commitment to fight the calamity.

The vengeful NCNC, although with a waning influence in the “broad-based Federal Government”, swore again to entomb the unworthy Akintola government in the dust of its own nothingness, but the NNDP, which enjoyed the support of the Sardauna, kept a stiff upper lip and boasted that it was too legit to quit. Ademoyega observes that despite Akintola's bragging, he was down on his luck already, ibid (pp. 29 & 30):

"By December 1965, there had been a total breakdown of law and order in Western Nigeria. The lawlessness had gone beyond the control of the mobile (anti riot) police and the Akintola Government was generally seen to be tottering to its collapse.”

Ogunsanwo corroborates the charge that Akintola’s Nigerian National Democratic Party (NNDP) rigged the October election to claim an absolute majority, ibid (pg. 77):

“Akintola wanted to remain at the helm at all costs and so the elections of October 1965 were badly rigged. Akintola’s party conceded only 15 seats to its rival out of 88. The AG claimed substantial victory at the end of the polls and tried to form a government but Akintola got his rival, Adegbenro arrested for trying to do so.”

Writing in his 236-page book, The Last 100 Days of Abacha (Book house, 2005, pp. 4 & 5), journalist and former presidential spokesperson (2007-2010) to President Umaru Yar’Adua (1951-2010), Olusegun Adeniyi, also confirms the rigging and violence of the period:

“While there were glaring flaws in the 1959 federal polls, post-independent elections organized by the First Republic leaders were unprecedented in the level of attendant malpractices. But the final straw that broke the already strained proverbial camel’s back was the Western Regional Election of 11 October 1965 which was followed by violence and arson.”

Also, leader of the Northern Elements Progressive Union (NEPU), Mallam Aminu Kano (1920-1983), who was in alliance with NCNC, also mocked NNDP’s dressed up victory in this manner:

“By Akintola’s NNDP victory, it is clear that democracy has jumped out through the window.”

...Continued in Caught napping!

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Articles by Ajiroba Yemi Kotun