Of all the political parties formed in Nigeria by the first-generation leaders, the National Council for Nigeria and Cameroons, later National Council for Nigerian Citizens (NCNC) first led by Herbert Macaulay, and later Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, was the most national. All the others were regional parties and had no pretence about it. Dr. Azikiwe, popularly known as Zik, can rightly claim to be the first Nigerian leader in the true sense of the word. Born in Zungeru in the North, educated in the West and having parents from the East, Zik belonged to all parts of Nigeria. The rest of the first republic politicians were practically local champions who did not have this much connections across the country, but subsequently became national leaders.
Zik made conscious effort to create a national identity for his party. Recall that the General Secretary of the NCNC was Mallam Sa’adu Zangur, Mallam Aminu Kano’s mentor, from Bauchi state. After the parliamentary elections in the build up to independence, Zik could have gone into alliance with Awolowo’s Action Group (AG) to form the government at the centre but he instead went into alliance with the Northern Peoples’ Congress (NPC) which eventually paved the way for Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa to become the first Prime Minister of Nigeria at independence. Some of these founding fathers were not tribalists in fact they were Pan-African. That was why Zik of Africa for Zik and the Golden Voice of Africa for Balewa became their popular reference.
Nigeria’s integration process has been more than what the current tribalists masquerading as nationalists will ever believe. Zik as earlier mentioned was born in the North. The leader of Biafra and first military governor of the East, Col. Odumegwu-Ojukwu, was also born in the North. In the 1950s, a Fulani from Sokoto, Mallam Umaru Altine was elected Mayor of Enugu the capital city of the East. When Mallam Ibrahim Imam of the Borno Youth Movement was persecuted in his home province of Borno, Chief J.S Tarka brought him to Benue Province where Imam stood for and got elected into parliament from Tiv land. There has been Hausas in the West for over a century just as there are Yoruba in the North for over a century.
Most of the current Nigerian leaders are being associated with corruption but it was not so in the past. Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa was Prime Minister of Nigeria from 1957 to 1966. Oil was discovered during his time. According to his biographer, Trevor Clark, when he wanted to build his first and only house in his hometown, Bauchi, he asked his secretary to take inventory of all his worldly possessions. It came to a total of a little over three thousand pounds. He took loan for that amount and built his house which he kept repaying until he was assassinated by the military on January 15, 1966.
Alhaji Shehu Shagari, who has held virtually every cabinet position in Nigeria under various governments, including Finance Minister during the oil boom of the 1970s and subsequently got elected as Nigeria’s first executive President, 1979-83, did not change even his house furniture for the four years and three months he was President. When the military overthrew President Shagari on December 31, 1983, he had only N64, 000 in his account! Till today no one has ever accused Shagari of corruption despite his almost half a century in public life.
Shettima Ali Monguno who recently died in Maiduguri was a junior Federal Minister and Member of Parliament in the first republic. He was Petroleum Minister during the Gowon administration when there was oil boom. In 1975, General Gowon was toppled from power by his military colleagues. A Special Investigation Panel (SIP) was set up to probe officials of the Gowon administration. An asset declaration form was given to them to declare their assets. Shettima Ali Monguno declared everything he had including books and mats. A member of the SIP who later became Finance Minister asked him why he did not declare company shares he must have acquired since the indigenization policy was initiated during the Gowon era. Shettima Ali Monguno answered that he did not have shares and that in any case, in his culture once one was in public office he or she could not have private interests and so even if he had money to buy he wouldn’t have bought any shares anyway!
The military was also less corrupt than now. General Yakubu Gowon who was Head of State for nine years, fought for Nigeria’s unity during the civil war, and presided over the affairs of the nation during the oil boom of the 1970s when Nigeria got unprecedented money from oil, left office without chains of houses or fleet of cars let alone oil blocs or planes. He could have made billions from arms procurement or from oil proceeds. He would have acquired houses in choice areas across Nigeria and indeed around the world. Even those who overthrew him did not say he was corrupt but said he did not punish or change some alleged corrupt officials of his administration.
Like meteor, General Murtala Mohammed came to power in Nigeria’s first bloodless military coup, had an eventful 200 days as Head of State and was assassinated by soldiers on February 13, 1976. He created seven more states, decreed the movement of the federal capital from Lagos to Abuja and gave effect and muscle to Nigeria’s Africa-centred foreign policy. Murtala was the closest national hero the country has ever had. He is still remembered with nostalgia and admiration. According to one of his closest friends, Alhaji Ahmadu Yaro in his book titled, Friend of the Generals, when he was assassinated, General Murtala left only N13,000 in his account in Union Bank, Apapa Lagos!
Those were the type of leaders we had. The integration process is even more pronounced among ordinary people as so many families have cross-cultural marriages with cross-cultural business associates. So, one wonders what these neo-tribalists and politico-religious extremists who are trying to break Nigeria are thinking. Do they think Nigeria is just an egg that can break once it is released to fall to the ground? Or is it that after living together for over a century we believe we still have nothing in common and cannot therefore be together? This actually reminds of a Fulani saying: “A log wood can never be crocodile however long it stays in water”! History is on the side of the oppressed.
ref: http://leadership.ng/columns/547650/the-wood-will-never-be-crocodile
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