By Prof Alkasum Abba
Introduction
There is no befitting tribute to Mallam Magaji Danbatta, than digging and bringing out the important role that he and his colleagues played in fighting for democracy, fundamental human rights, national unity and independence for a united Nigeria. For the freedoms and liberty, which we currently enjoy are often taken for granted; people like Magaji fought and sacrificed to make it possible for this to happen. This is why I think that we need to often go back to the period of the independence struggle to educate and re-educate ourselves with regards to the actions and activities of those who fought for democracy, freedom, justice and human rights in Nigeria. We are not doing this just to appreciate them but also to learn to value what we are enjoying so that we can be able to build on top of that.
It is, therefore, not an exaggeration to say that one of the most outstanding political parties to be established in Nigeria during the colonial period was the Northern Elements Progressive Union, simply known as NEPU. This political party was the second to be established in Nigeria, outside Lagos; the first was the Northern Elements Progressive Association, NEPA, 1946-1950. In the real sense, NEPU was a continuation of NEPA, which was squeezed out of existence by the British colonial government in collaboration with the Kano Native Authority, who invoked General Order 40B against the party members and officials, including those working for the Native Authority. In fact, NEPU itself survived under tremendous difficulties and its members and leaders endured beatings, harassment, intimidation, imprisonment and so on, in the course of the existence of the political party, 1950-1966, under both British rule and after. In view of the above, it is, therefore, important to start by asking some pertinent question like why was NEPU established? Why was the British colonial establishment hostile to NEPU? What, in spite of all the difficulties and challenges, were the achievements of NEPU?
NEPU leader, Mallam Aminu Kano chatting with Bello Ijumu, Secretary-General of United Middle Belt Congress (UMBC). Pix credit: Tudun Sira Facebook wall
The Founding of NEPU
When on Tuesday 8th August 1950 a group of eight young men, from ordinary families, gathered at Sabon Gari, Kano, to announce the birth of a new political party in Nigeria, little did they know that they were going to face profound opposition because their political party was poised to upset the calm political environment, especially in Northern Nigeria, where British colonial rule was entrenched into the Native Authority system, under the autocracy of the emirs and chiefs. These historic eight young men were: Abba Maikwaru, Bello Ijumu, Magaji Danbatta, Babaliya Manaja, Musa Kaula, Mudi Spikin, Abdukadir Danjaji and Musa Bida. This new political party, NEPU, emerged as an integral part of the pan-Nigerian political movement under the leadership of the NCNC to specifically unite the people of Nigeria, preserve and protect the territorial integrity of Nigeria from an impending partition by the British colonial government, at a time when independence was becoming a reality. This is why it is important for us to understand the context of the emergence of NEPU in order to appreciate its role and significance in the history of Nigeria. It is noteworthy to understand that although, NEPU, was a northern Nigerian political party, it had to be a Northern Nigerian in order to function as a political bulwark against the machinations of the British colonial government, in collaboration with their subordinate Native Authority officials to curve out Northern Nigeria from Nigeria.
The Nigerian Context
Although the economic and political situation in Northern Nigeria of the 1940s and the 1950s had created the conditions for the emergence of NEPU, it was nevertheless prompted by the attempt of the colonial government to use the Northern Nigerian Native Authority establishment to undermine the achievement of independence through a divide and rule tactics. This started in 1946 when in reaction to the successful pan-Nigerian political mobilization campaign against the imposition of the Richards’ Constitution by the National Council of Nigeria and Cameroons, NCNC, the colonial government crafted and imposed the Richards’ Constitution of that year. This constitution created regions and made them new centres of political power by creating regional governments and parliaments, in contrast to the Clifford Constitution of 1922, which concentrated power in Lagos, housing both the Central Government and its Legislative Council, dominated by senior British officials from the Regions but with all the unofficial nominated members, drawn from Southern Nigerian elites. Under normal circumstances, this devolution of power was a welcome development except that its goal was to truncate the efforts of the NCNC to create and consolidate a pan-Nigerian political party like the Convention Peoples’ Party, CPP, in the Gold Coast, now Ghana, to facilitate the achievement of independence with a measure of national unity. Under the Richards’ Constitution, political parties were required to be regional in outlook and activities to ensure that Nigerian politicians would be too busy at the regional level, fighting each other at the expense of uniting to demand for independence.
In view of the fact that the Richards’ Constitution created acrimony even among politicians who supported regionalism, its revision into the Macpherson Constitution, at the Ibadan General Conference in January1950 was used as a platform to threaten the corporate existence of Nigeria by the Native Authority groomed politicians and some of the leading emirs from Northern Nigeria. Abubakar Tafawa Balewa from the Bauchi Native Authority and the emir of Zazzau, Mallam Ja’afaru became the most vocal advocates of the breakup of Nigeria. In the case of Hon. Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, he had been actively campaigning against the NCNC since he was nominated to became a member of the Central Legislative Council in Lagos. For example, in a reaction to the NCNC pan-Nigeria campaign against the Richards’ Constitution of 1946, he declared on 25th March, 1947 at the Central Legislature that:
… I should like to make it clear to you that if the British quitted Nigeria now at this stage, the northern people would continue their uninterrupted conquest to the sea.[1]
On his part, the emir of Zazzau fired the first salvo for the break up of Nigeria, shortly after the acrimonious end of the Ibadan General Conference, when he granted an interview to the colonial government newspaper, paradoxically, the Nigerian Citizen and declared that:
We were perfectly happy in 1914. Later, although they had been our traditional enemies we became friends with the Southerners – I established great friendship with some of the chiefs in the south – but now, because our points of view are so divergent, we have become enemies again.[2]
The party that was above North and South view of Nigeria
Thus, Nigeria was plunged into a North-South conflict after the end of the Ibadan General Conference in 1950. In fact, even within the North, conflicts erupted between the elites of the emirates and the non-Muslim minorities. For, while the emirate elites were demanding for 50% representation of the Northern Region in the House of Representatives, the Birom Progressive Movement pointed out that the non-Muslim minority were not represented in the organs of government in Northern Nigeria. In a letter sent to the Secretary Northern Provinces, the Movement pointed out that:
Non-Muslims are not fully represented in the Northern Regional Houses of Assembly and Chiefs and consequently could not be represented and protected in the Central Legislature.
We are conscious of the fact that the fifty percent representation demanded by the North in the Central Legislature of Nigeria would be a farce as there are no non-Muslim representative in the Northern Regional Houses.[3]
This type of crisis building up, before and after the Ibadan General Conference is one of the reasons that made Saad Zungur, NCNC Federal Secretary, whose political party had anticipated the conflicts, to take leave of absence on the eve of the Ibadan General Conference in December 1949 to tour, meet and discuss with progressive elements in Northern Nigeria.[4] He delivered ten lectures across the region, preaching for Nigerian unity.
On their part, the delegates from Northern Nigeria, who were all drawn from the Native Authority establishment and were demanding for 50% representation at the House of Representatives in the Ibadan General Conference, organized a fund-raising committee for a delegation to travel to the Colonial Office, in London to make their demand; their position was very clear, they either get what they wand or, break away from Nigeria. It was under this circumstance that the NEPU emerged with Saad Zungur and Mallam Aminu Kano, acting at the background. This gives us one of the most important significance of NEPU as a political party in the history of Nigeria; it was set up to fight for Nigerian unity and preserve it with honour and dignity. In an effort to preserve and consolidate the fragile Nigerian unity, the NEPU established an alliance with the NCNC at the second national conference of the party, held at Kaduna on 4th – 7th August 1951. This alliance, gave the President of NEPU a seat on the Executive Council of the NCNC. The alliance lasted up to 1966 when the military took over power in Nigeria. That is to say that NEPU had been part and parcel of the NCNC and its activities throughout its existence.
The Politics of NEPU
The young men who established NEPU in August 1950 realized that the big task of keeping Nigeria one involved its frontal attack against British colonialism in all its manifestation. This meant that NEPU was not going to spare anybody or function like the other political parties, in Nigeria, that focused on one aspect of British colonial rule; by attacking the colonial government officials and leaving their Nigerian collaborators. NEPU, therefore, became the first political party in Nigeria, to draw the attention of people to the grim reality of the class nature of the Nigerian society under British rule. For, in its declaration of principles, the Sawaba Declaration, released at the first convention of the party held on 3rd – 6th April 1951, at Kano, NEPU made this point succinctly clear:
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 Administration in their present autocratic form.
That owing to this unscrupulous and vicious system of administration by the Family Compact rulers and which has been established and fully supported by the British Imperialist Government, there is today in our society an antagonism of interest manifesting itself as a class struggle, between the members of the vicious circle of 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 privileged few and by the reform of the present autocratic political institutions and placing their democratic control in the hands of the Talakawa for whom alone they exist.
That at present, the Machinery of Government, including the armed forces of the nation, exist only to conserve the privilege of the selfish minority group, the Talakawa must organise consciously and politically for the conquest of the powers of government ‑ both nationally and locally ‑ in order that this machinery of government, including these forces, may be converted from an instrument of oppression into the agent of emancipation, and the overthrow of bureaucracy and autocratic privilege. That all political parties are but the expression of class interest, and as the interest of the Talakawa diametrically opposed to the interest of all sections of the master class both white and black, the party seeking the emancipation of the Talakawa must naturally be hostile to the party of the oppressors.
The Northern Elements Progressive Union of Northern Nigeria, therefore, being the only political party of the Talakawa, enters the field of political action determined to reduce to nonentity any party of hypocrites and traitors to our mother country, and calls upon all the sons and daughters of Northern Nigeria to muster under its banner to the end, that a speedy termination may be wrought to this vicious system of administration which deprives them of the fruits of their labour, and that POVERTY may give place to COMFORT, PRIVILEGE to EQUALITY, and political, economic and social SLAVERY to FREEDOM. [5]
This declaration linked the deplorable living conditions of the ordinary people to the class nature of the Nigerian society and made it very clear that the liberation of the talakawa can only be undertaken by the talakawa themselves; they should not expect or wait for any saviour to do it for them. Therefore, the Native Authority system, under the control of the emirs and chiefs, which had been actively involved in enforcing the British colonial government’s repressive economic, political and social policies, was identified as representing the ruling class, along with the British colonial officials. The ordinary people should, therefore, confront them by demanding sweeping reforms of the system as an important component part of their liberation struggle.
It was in the heat of the crisis generated during the Ibadan General Conference that the first election under British rule was conducted in Northern Nigeria in late 1951. This election was unique not because it was the first one but for the procedure adopted to undertake it, had introduced election rigging in favour of the elites of the NA system. During the election, the electors whispered to the British Returning Officers the candidate of their choice to vote for them. The election was also conducted in five stages with the first one being direct and the rest, indirect. The British colonial officials and the District Heads were the returning officers and at every level, the NA is allowed to inject 10% of the electors after the first stage of the election. This election had also another unique feature where the District Heads could be candidates as well as Returning Officers.
In spite of all the obstacles placed on NEPU it was able to record victories at the primary stage, which involved direct elections by the talakawa. For example. in the case of Kano, the victory was massive. In Kano City and Waje areas, NEPU won 19 out of 26 seats and its top officials like Abba Maikwaru, Abdulkadir Danjaji, Magaji Danbatta, Mallam Aminu Kano, Bello Ijumu, Musa Kaula e.t.c were among the successful candidates. NEPU also won all the 64 seats for Sabon Gari, Zaria; 144 out of 194 in Kaduna; 25 seats in Maiduguri; 10 out of 12 in Nguri and its victory was spreading like wild fire across Northern Nigeria, especially in the urban centres.[6] The NEPU victories were alarming to both the British colonial officials and the NA notables, because they knew that the primary objective of the party was to dismantle the colonial instruments of repression embodied in the Native Authority system. This alarm was first raised publicly by the colonial government newspaper, ironically called the Nigerian Citizen. In its editorial of 25th October 1951, it warned that:
If the farcical position at Kano, where a minority group looks like getting control against the declared interests of the overwhelming majority of people, is repeated elsewhere in the North, there must be the most stringent heart searching particularly at the top to find the cause. In the meanwhile, the red light is showing – may its warning be headed before it is too late.
A follow up warning came directly from the Resident of Kano Province, Sir Bryant Sharwood Smith, who in a letter addressed to the Civil Secretary, Northern Provinces, dated 29 October, 1951, just four days after the newspaper caution, stated that:
To repeat what I have frequently said before, the executive of NEPU and its founder members are a worthless lot in terms of both mental calibre and experience. They do, however, possess drive, zeal and appreciable measure of organizing ability. This thing can spread and it will spread unless responsible Africans who have the real future of the North at heart get down to it at once and organize a counter offensive…[7]
It was not surprising that at the end of the election process not a single NEPU candidate emerged. Thus, in Kano Province, out of the 20 successful candidates that emerged as members of the Northern Region House of Assembly, all but two were sons of emirs and NA functionaries. In fact, ten of them did not even contest at the primary, direct election stage and the other ten, contested and lost but re-emerged as injected candidates. The immediate consequences of the electoral popularity of NEPU made both the colonial government and the NA establishment to mobilize the machinery of repression against the party, its members and leaders. This was facilitated by the promotion of the Resident of Kano Province, Sir Bryant Sharwood-Smith, to the Governor of Northern Nigeria. He served in this capacity from 1952-1958, which gave him adequate time to ensure that NEPU was not allowed to win elections.
But the repression of NEPU members and leaders started immediately after the first convention of the party held in April 1951, where the Sawaba Declaration was released. For on 29th June 1951, two months after the warning by the Nigerian Citizen newspaper, the servants of the emir of Kano, Abdullahi Bayero, organized a violent militia gang called the ‘Mahaukata’ the crazy gang under the leadership of Mamman Nagindin Waya, to specifically, attack, molest and humiliate NEPU leaders and members. This gang established branches across the Northern Region where NEPU was active. In the case of Kano, the gang organized coordinated attacks against leaders of NEPU. Thus, on Sunday 1st July, 1951, the President of NEPU, Abba Maikwaru, as well as other important officials like, Abdulkadir Danjaji and Baba Dan Agundi, were visited and molested in their houses. Also on 7th July, the Secretary of NEPU in Kano, Maitama Sule was beaten up in his house, which made him to resign from the party and join the NPC. On 8th October 1953, the house of Mallam Aminu Kano was also visited by the gang and that he and his family were equally beaten and molested. Other NEPU leaders like Abubakar Zukogi was equally subjected to arbitrary arrest and imprisonment by the Etsu Nupe, in Bida. Indeed, one of the most celebrated cases of colonial state repression against NEPU members and leaders was the example of Illa Ringim. In his autobiography, recorded by Beita Yusuf, he said:
In 1951 when myself and my brother Hussaini were passing by the Ringim Alkali Court, we were summoned by the court president. To our great surprise, the Alkali instructed one of his boys to beat us up. The reason for this punishment, as we learnt later, was that we shouted SAWABA before the court.
We were severely beaten up and, as if that was not enough, taken subsequently before the Chief Alkali of Kano, who sentenced each of us to one year’s imprisonment. Nobody tried us at all.[8]
In fact, arrests, beatings and imprisonment became part and parcel of the political life of NEPU members and leaders. It reached an extend that the party started honouring its members who were imprisoned with a certificate of prison graduates. For example, in a report to delegates at the Bida conference in 1953, the Secretary of NEPU, Bello Ijumu said that between 1951-1952, a total of 31 members of the party from Kano, Katsina, Niger, Benue, Zaria and Borno provinces were prison graduates. The litany of political repression of NEPU members was endless. In the case of Kano, the party had to establish a counter organization under the leadership of Tanko Yakasai called PAW. These were not the only challenges NEPU met. Others include forced labour, injustice in the judiciary, violation of human rights, using taxation to pauperize NEPU members and so on. In the course of fighting against these injustices, NEPU was able to teach the Talakawa to develop courage to challenge both British and NA officials, as Mallam Aminu Kano pointed out in a lecture on 6th October, 1952 at the Moonshine Hotel, Zaria, he said:
Have no fear of any Chief, Governor, Resident or District Officer because they are all our employees. They are paid out of our general tax and jangali, so they are of no account. Your slave boy (dandako) cannot be an object of fear to you.[9]
As a consequence of the political repression being meted out to its members, NEPU decided to insist on the inclusion of Fundamental Rights in the constitution of Nigeria. The party placed this and other important demands in a memo to the 1956 constitutional conference. This memo was signed by Mallam Aminu Kano. In expressing its views, NEPU specifically demanded for:
Fundamental Rights be incorporated in the Nigerian Constitution. These should include the right of appeal to the highest court of the land, the right of bail, the right for free election and that is direct election with single member constituencies, secret ballot and campaign without being molested, discriminated against on ground of party affiliation or religion.[10]
Eventually, these demands by NEPU found acceptance among the delegates at the 1956 and subsequent constitutional conferences and the Colonial Office. It is important to recognize that all these fundamental rights of Nigerian citizens enshrine in our current and past constitutions were products of the struggles and sacrifices of NEPU members. Here in lies the significance of NEPU in Nigerian history, politics and society.
Conclusion
It is very important to recognize the uniqueness of NEPU as a political party and also the uniqueness of the challenges that the party faced in Northern Nigeria, during and after colonial rule. It faced the challenges of unprecedented political repression, social subjugation and lack of tolerance by both the British colonial government and the Native Authority establishments. So, it had to fight for everything, inch by inch, including the rights to hold meetings, appeal against unjust judgements by Alkali courts and so on. No political party in Nigeria faced these types of challenges. This is why the successes of the NEPU became the successes of the people Nigeria.
[1] FCB/82/1 Rhodes House Library, Oxford.
[2] The Nigeria Citizen, Friday 3rd February 1950, p.1.
[3] West African Pilot, 2nd May 1950.
[4] Alkasum Abba, The Northern Elements Progressive Union and the Politics of Radical Nationalism in Nigeria, 1938-1960Abdullahi Smith Centre, Zaria, 2007, pp.103-110.
[5] Alkasum Abba (ed.), The Politics of Mallam Aminu Kano: Documents From the Independence Struggles, 1950-1960, Vanguard Printers and Publishers, Kaduna, 1993, pp.22-23.
[6] Alkasum Abba, Op. cit, 2007, pp.174-176.
[7] Quoted from, Ibid, p178.
[8] Ahmed Beita Yusuf, A Freedom Fighter: Annotated Memoirs of Malla Illa Ringim, Sokoto, 1978.
[9] NAL/SNP 15/349
[10] Alkasum Abba, The Politics of Mallam Aminu Kano: Documents From the Independence Struggle, 1950-1960, Vanguard Press, Kaduna, 1993, 133.
Being text of the First Magaji Danbatta Memorial Lecture, Mambayya House, Bayero University, Kano, Tuesday 27th August, 2024. The author is of the Centre for Democratic Development, Research and Training (CEDDERT), Zaria.
