By Ambassador Usman Sarki
The significance of Nupe in Nigerian and African history and contemporary evolution of thoughts, ideas and progress should be appreciated and noted much more than is currently exhibited. “Nupe” in historical perspective denotes both a linguistic group and the land occupied by the people speaking this language. Nupe forms one of the most compact and homogeneous African ethnic groups located in the center of Nigeria, straddling the River Niger. Its central location and dynamic role in the history of Africa has ensured the contemporary relevance of this people especially towards unification, integration and the management of diversity of the Nigerian milieu.
A Nupe outing!
The Nupe today symbolise progress and modernity in the manner it embraced both Western education and Islamic learning much earlier on in its history. Its role in commerce, industry and administration is also a remarkable achievement for a people that was tried and tested by adversity and crisis particularly at the onset of the British colonial conquest of the area known today as Nigeria. The conquest of Nupeland by the British at the end of the 19th century formed one of the greatest setbacks to the Black race, and the prelude to the establishment of British domination throughout Nigeria, and the unification of the North and South of the country.
Without subduing Nupeland and neighbouring Ilorin, the possibility of achieving this transformation could not have been possible. The gallantry and sense of patriotism and assertiveness of their independence and dignity in the face of overwhelming power, makes the Nupe an ennobling example of resistance and attachment to the cause of a nation, which all Africans should imbibe and live by. Nupeland today is the pivot of Nigerian unity and the veritable symbol of the county’s essence, which naturally would lead to several questions of existential significance to be attached to this remarkable and singular people.
It is precisely for these reasons that will be explained that the author of this piece feels strongly that the Nupe should be accorded a much more prominent recognition in contemporary Nigeria especially in serving as a bridge between North and South, Muslims and Christians, and more particularly between minority and majority ethnic groups in the country. This leadership role should transcend the symbolic and embrace the actual political direction of the country with the Nupe at the helm of affairs. The fact that Nupeland aggregates several other ethnic groups with which it has co-existed harmoniously for centuries recommends it to the position of ameliorating the diverse tendencies that seem to have pushed Nigerians away from each other in decisive and disturbing ways as witnessed today.
Nupe is one of the units in Nigeria that can actually galvanise and bring about the much yearned for unity in diversity, and integration of this country in more ways than one. For a start, this people is in competition with no other ethnic groups in the country for supremacy as is now witnessed with debilitating consequences between some groups that the author will not mention. This age-old rivalry and competition has considerably set Nigeria back in her march towards unity and integration, as well towards achieving her destined place in Africa.
Map of Nigeria showing Niger State which could be called the Nupe space
Nupe with its flexible temper and accommodating spirit can indeed show the way towards fostering unity among various Nigerian ethnic groups, and even lead through example that it has cultivated over the centuries in its relations with other people. The long peace and calm and absence of sustained and prolonged inter-ethnic conflicts throughout the length and breadth of the Niger Valley and the Benue Confluence, can be rightly attributed to the pacific nature of this people, and its expansive disposition towards accommodation and embracing of diversity.
This singular attribute is what makes the Nupe a friend to everyone, and a foe to none. This disposition marks this people for greatness and leadership in this country, since this elastic temper seems to be what is really lacking in the building of the nation and constructing of a spiritual as well as an emotional bond between and among different groups. By the dint of self-assertion, experiment with nation-building and cultivation of intellectual calling especially Islamic learning, the Nupe today have achieved an outstanding position of respect and illustrious significance in the Black, African and Nigerian socio-cultural evolution and development. The ranking of the Nupe traditional authorities among the hierarchy of Nigerian rulers, attests to this civilisational heights the Nupe have attained.
The intellectual traditions of the Nupe have transcended the Islamic compass to include even different aspects of Western learning in which competent and appreciable levels of erudition and excellence have been recorded by the Nupe, as testified by the numerous cerebral people that it has produced in many walks of life. Such people have contributed immensely and in unquantifiable measure to the political, social, economic, cultural and spiritual development of Nigerians and Africans as a whole. The author’s first intimacy with Islamic exegesis while growing up in Maiduguri as a boy was through the teaching and missionary work of one Mallam Usman Bida, who was among the first to embark on Tafsir or dissemination of the Quran in the Hausa language in the 1970s. This civilisational and religious work was reciprocal, since there was a long established missionary spirit and tradition by the Kanuri people of Borno, who were the harbingers of the spread of Islam in some parts of Nupeland.
This bond of history and spiritual affinity make the Nupe and the Kanuri a kindred people dedicated to the cause and service of humanity, as well as the establishment of conditions for peace and serenity to thrive and prevail in their respective spatial zones. The remarkable absence of a negative fixation on the “Fulani” question among the Nupe today, unlike some of its neighbours in the Benue Valley and to the west, makes the Nupe the harbingers of peaceful transformation and constructive cross-cultural fraternisation and confluence more than any other people.
In the progress towards nation-building and peaceful transformation of Nigeria through democratic ideals and practice, the Nupe must be accorded the primary place by the recognition of its leadership capacities and all-embracing disposition for peaceful co-existence and good neighbourliness. If Nigeria wishes to transcend her challenges and difficulties, and move away from irretrievable irrelevance, she should recognise the Nupe spirit and cultivate that as a panacea to her problems. Perhaps allowing the Nupe and kindred people of Borno to take the lead in Nigeria’s evolving political experiment could be the solution to the seemingly intractable challenges of unity and integration which Nigeria desperately needs, to become what she rightly should.
The author is a former Deputy Permanent Representative of Nigeria to the United Nations, New York
