This brings us to the unfolding situation in our
country today. It appears that the Fulani leaders of
yesteryear were far more honest and forthcoming in
the expression of their views and disposition about
the south than the ones of today. Let us consider the
following.
In an essay titled ‘’Nigeria’s History and A Morbid
Obsession With Unity’’ written in Vanguard
Newspaper on October 6th 2013, Dr. Douglas Anele
wrote the following:
‘’Now, it should be pointed out that before the July
29th 1966 (northern military ‘’revenge’’) coup,
prominent Northern leaders, led by the Sardauna of
Sokoto, much more than their Southern compatriots,
disliked the unification or amalgamation of Northern
and Southern Nigeria. For instance, at the
inauguration of the Richards Constitution in 1947,
Tafawa Balewa, who later became Prime Minister,
declared, “We do not want, Sir, our Southern
neighbours to interfere in our development. …I
should like to make it clear to you that if the British
leave Nigeria now at this stage the Northern people
will continue their uninterrupted conquest to the
sea.”
At the General Conference held at Ibadan in January
1950, the Emirs of Zaria and Katsina made it quite
clear that “unless the Northern Region is allotted fifty
per cent of the seats in the central legislature, it will
ask for separation from the rest of Nigeria on the
arrangements existing before 1914.”
In March 1953 during a heated debate at the Federal
House of Representatives, Ahmadu Bello (who later
became Premier of the North region) remarked that
“the mistake of 1914 has come to light and I should
like it to go no further.” When a delegation from the
Action Group decided to visit Kano in May that same
year “to educate the Northern peoples about the
crisis in the House of Representatives over the self
government motion,” Inua Wada, Kano Branch
Secretary of the NPC, declared in a speech two days
before its scheduled arrival that, ‘’having abused us in
the South these very Southerners have decided to
come over to the North to abuse us’’.
Although the visit was cancelled eventually, it did not
prevent the Kano riots in which scores of Ndigbo
were murdered’’. (END OF QOUTE).
Wada, who later became Minister of Works in Tafawa
Balewa’s government, was particularly virulent in his
choice of words and many are of the view that his
fiery submissions and threats of violence resulted in
the Kano riots of 1953 which took place two days
later and in which thousands of southerners were
slaughtered.
To reiterate this point Bobson Gbinije, in his article
titled ‘’Igbo and Northern Leaders: Hate and National
Cohesion’’ which was published on September 2015,
wrote the following:
‘’The invidious and inveterate mutual hatred and
antagonisms between Easterners and Northerners
through inspired hate speeches and media
publications, dates back many years before
independence. Sporadic out breaks in Northern
towns, particularly the Jos riots of 1945, had been
occurring in the past but the British Administration
barely took them seriously. However, after the
ruthless massacre in Kano in May, 1953 the British
were constrained to look into the matter by setting
up a commission of inquiry on the Kano
disturbances.
The Report on the Kano disturbances posited that the
remote causes suggested at the time could not by
any means be referred specifically to Easterners. The
attacks were attributed to the clash of cultures, the
disparities in economic and social development
between Northerners and Southerners, the
occupation of strategic posts in the administrative,
technical and commercial sectors of Northern life by
Southerners and the leveling impact of Western
religion and political ideologies introduced into the
North by Southerners.
It is on record that there were series of polemical
and aggressive verbal exchanges between Northern
Representatives and the Action Group Members
during the Lagos Conference. But the fuse that really
set off the explosion in May, 1953 was the proposed
visit to Kano of an Action Group (AG) delegation led
by Chief S. L. Akintola, an Ex-Minister (who was Chief
Obafemi Awolowo's deputy and who later became
the Premier of the Western Region) .
The organization and preparation of Northerners for
the riots did not suggest to Easterners that they
would be the main object of the attack. Northerners
denied in 1953 that the massacres were ever
organized or premeditated. But it is on record that
two days before the disturbances began on Thursday,
May 14, 1953, Mallam Inua Wada, then Secretary of
the Kano Branch of the Northern Peoples Congress
(NPC) and later Federal Minister of Works, convened
a meeting of the Native Administration sectional
heads at the works Department in Kano during which
he made a very ill-advised and provocative speech
against the proposed visit of the Action Group
delegation led by Akintola. Inua Wada said, inter alia,
‘’having abused us in the south these very
Southerners have decided to come over to the North
to abuse us but we have determined to retaliate the
treatment given us in the South. We have therefore
organized about 1,000 men ready in the city to meet
force with force. We are determined to show to
Akintola and his group what we can do in our land
when they come. The Northern Peoples Congress has
declared a strike in all Native Administration Offices
for Saturday, 16th May, 1953. We shall post a
sufficient number of men at the entrance of every
office and business place and we are prepared to
face anything that comes out of this business’’. (END
OF QOUTE)
It appears to me that with the ‘’shut up’’ rhetoric of
Rabiu Kwankwaso we may have another Inua Wada in
the making. Whichever way history must not be
allowed to repeat itself and southerners must not be
massacred. It is also clear that the violent and
provocative rhetoric of todays northern leaders will
not go unanswered. Let us pray for the peace of our
nation and let us hope that men like Rabiu
Kwankwaso do not cause a second civil war.
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