The Sun News On-line/politics

Alhaji Magaji Dambatta, Chairman, Board of Trustees, Arewa Consultative Forum, was one of eight young men who founded the Northern Elements Progressive Union (NEPU), the fiery-tempered left-wing political party that literally liberated the whole of northern Nigeria in the 50s, from the oppressive tendencies of the native authority.

More importantly, the elder statesman was a wartime publicist of the Nigerian government in the grimly civil war. He was responsible for countering the propaganda of the Biafran Republic.
In this interview, he went down memory lane and concluded that Nigeria’s first military Head of State, Gen. Johnson Aguiyi Ironsi, ‘was a good man.’

Nigeria and nationalists dream
Well, I played my little part in the struggle for independence. I contributed my quota to the national struggle along with many other senior colleagues. When I joined the political fray, I was only 19 or 20 years old. I quickly learnt to follow the political leaders of that time, learnt to understand where they were coming from and where they were going. I participated actively without concern for personal conveniences or pains of deprivation, discrimination or oppression, including torture, by the authorities of that time, against whom we directed our agitation.

Nigeria, before independence, promised to be a great country. Even today, Nigeria is still considered one of the greatest countries in the world; by far, the greatest country in Africa. We had hoped that this nation would grow big enough to cater for all its citizens, to help cater for other African countries. Indeed, Nigeria, at independence, was acclaimed as the beacon of hope for all black people, wherever they live in the whole world. Indeed, Nigeria has recorded many achievements since independence, but many disappointment are also evident.

At independence, most political leaders were concerned with winning independence. That was their main target, our hope rather. There wasn’t any dishonesty in the vision. It was a great vision of what we wanted for Nigeria at independence. We wanted to rule ourselves, even if we misrule ourselves in the process. We just wanted to be independent. We wanted other people to let off our country. When independence came, I believe the leading political figures were unprepared for what freedom meant. And because of that, infighting among the nationalists, among the leaders at that time, set in with the result that the abundant energy that the people, especially their leaders had, was dissipated in bickering and quarelling, which greatly undermined the success of the vision. We failed to come together to put Nigeria first, to work for Nigeria and to meet the hopes and aspiration of Nigerians and the Africa nation.

Mentors
Having hinted about the failures, there are, however, some great benefits of working with leaders at that tender age. It was a proud situation to be in. I worked closely with all the leaders of the NCNC to which I belonged. Dr. Nnamdi Azikwe, Mbonu Ojike, among others, took me under their wings. Ojike particularly, was my mentor, until he died. K. O. Mbadiwe, Eyo Ita, Margaret Ekpo, Dennis Osadebe, T.O.S. Benson, Kola Balogun and the lots were there for me. I was a proud member of the caucus of the group. Interestingly, these men were highly educated and exposed to the world, as most of them were trained abroad and they knew the ways of the white man.

Problem of tribalism
Well, there was tribalism all over the place. It manifested in the North, in the East, and in the West. The problem with the two leaders, Awo and Zik, was that none of them was willing to submit himself to the other or to follow the other, because each of them had his own constituency, his own platform, based on the regions he belonged to. Regionalism was essentially a system that promoted inwards, instead of outward towards the whole nation.

We believe that the colonial administrators instigated tribalism deliberately in order to either continue ruling us or to show our failure after they had left. We played into their hands. Initially, the NCNC was the only nationwide political party. It had supporters from all parts of the country. Its members were in all parts of Nigeria. But with 1951 elections, tribalism began to set in. Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe and other members of the NCNC won elections in Lagos and part of the Western Region, to Western Regional House of Assembly. The NCNC had majority in the Western House of Assembly and had the same majority in the Eastern House of Assembly.

But you can see how tribalism played its hand, when many of the NCNC members from the Western Region were won over by the Action Group, led by Chief Awolowo. Dr. Azikiwe and other members suddenly found themselves in a minority party, to the extent that Azikiwe was pushed into leaving the Western Region back to the Eastern Region. He went back to his enclave, instead of staying put as a national figure, with or without a seat in parliament. When he got back to the East, somebody resigned. He contested and was given a seat.

That itself did not help the NCNC at that time. Prof. Eyo Eta, at the time, was the premier of Eastern Region. He was an Ibibio man and when Zik went to contest the seat, it was obvious that Eta could not continue to be the premier. That was how tribalism played its hand. From then, it was West for Action Group, East for NCNC and North for NPC.

NEPU
You see, I am proud to be one of the eight young men, who founded NEPU. Mallam Aminu Kano only joined us about four months later. Of course, he came with his charisma, intellect, exposure, experience, as he had been in the national struggle long before we came on the scene. It didn’t take time for him to become the leader of NEPU.

NEPU was essentially to reform the northern system of administration, the Indirect system of administration, where the native authorities, headed by emirs and chiefs, were all and all. Their words were law. They controlled the Native Authority Police. They controlled the prisons and they controlled the Alkali courts. They dispensed justice as they deemed fit. The common man in the North, at the time, was deprived. In any case, he was so oppressed, he had no freedom of speech, none of association, and movement was hardly the thing to do at that time. Northern people at that time were literally living in a bottle with a cork firmly in place. It was like living in a Dark Age. They did not know their right. They did not know how to complain, so they became submissive, taking orders without resistance.

NEPU came to change all that. The breath of fresh air was beginning to seep into Northern Nigeria from nationalists’ struggle, being championed at the time by NCNC and other national groups.
NEPU aligned itself with NCNC because NCNC was willing to give us support, financial and logistics, in particular with the Daily Comet Newspapers, which was one of Dr. Azikiwe’s newspapers. It was one of the five in the stable of Dr. Azikiwe and it was relocated to Kano.

It gave us a platform to express our views, to expose the misdeeds of the Native Authority administrations and to awaken the conscience of the ordinary talakawas in the North. So, we got married to the NCNC because of its similar philosophy and also because of the support in terms of legal defence. We were much involved in litigation, either our members were arrested and harrassed or were being forced out of their towns and homes. Many lawyers were sent from outside Kano, by the NCNC to defend cases of that nature in our courts. Many of the lawyers were NCNC supporters.

The civil war
Looking with hindsight, one could say it was avoidable. With foresight and strong will, many human disasters, like wars, could be avoided. But somehow, the excesses of war come to pressure or submit to political considerations, rather than human and material considerations. The civil war in Nigeria was most unfortunate. I came to know much about the Nigeria Civil war, its roots, its causes, its mission; how it started, how it was fought and how it was won. I happened to be a government official in Northern Nigeria during the war. I travelled throughout the Biafran enclave as it was won over by the federal troops. I travelled to all the divisions with the Marine Commando, which was in the Southern area. I travelled in the thick of the war, met all the commanders – General Mohammed Shua, and others. Shua was Lt. Col. then, before Bissalla replaced him.

In the 2nd Division, I knew Murtala well. I saw him in action. I knew members of his troops. Under him were Musa Yar’Adua, Col. Jallo, Col. Ibrahim Haruna. When the 2nd Division was reorganised, General Jallo was the commander in Benin and General Haruna was in the front in Onitsha. Onitsha had been conquered and the bridge had been crossed. I visited Col. Adekunle a few times before Col. Obasanjo replaced him. When Obasanjo took over from Adekunle, I was there.

At that time, I had left the Northern Nigeria Civil Service and was transferred to the Federal Service. I was employed as a publicist for the Nigerian government, with the intention to post me abroad. I was posted to the Nigeria High Commission in London to take care of the publicity of the Nigeria government in Britain and Western Europe, to counter the Biafran propaganda in the minds of the Western Europeans. The Biafran cause was helped largely by their propagandists, including some European charity organisations. So, their cause had a lot of sympathy among the Western people, because of the propaganda, even though most of these western governments were supporting Nigeria.

The cause of the Nigeria Civil war was the miscalculation of Nigerian Army officers at that time, under Major Chukwuma Nzeogwu, when their coup appeared to be partial. There were killings in Kaduna, Ibadan, and Lagos, but not in the eastern part of the country. If the premier of Northern Nigeria or premier of Western Nigeria or the prime minister of Nigeria were that bad; I don’t see what made Okpara a saint. They didn’t touch anybody in the Midwest and the East, or even arrest their leaders. But here in the North, it was a bloody coup. So, it was patently clear, two days after, when the dust cleared, that the coup was essentially up against the Northern and Western interests. So, the East had the upper hand, and with that, the coming of Ironsi as the Head of State.

I knew Ironsi well. We worked together in the High Commission. He was Defence Attache, and I was the Information Attache. We were friendly. He was kind-hearted. I knew him and his wife and I was a welcomed guest in his home in London. When he became the Head of State and Commander-in-chief, and there was trouble in the North, he turned to me. He invited me to Lagos to inform him what was happening in the North. He wanted to know who was causing the disturbances. How many people were killed? In what areas were disturbances most prominent, and what was the way out? I told him that he had the compliment of his cabinet, the Intelligence, the Northern military governors, that he should get his facts from these sources, which would be more genuine and all encompassing.

In my view, Ironsi was a good man, with good intentions. But again, typical Nigeria, people who wanted to develop the same tribal agenda, surrounded him. It is a fact that most of those who surrounded him were Igbo, who were not part of the coup, but who were willing to give advice to the young military officer, before and after the coup.

They misadvised him to promulgate a decree. I think it was Decree No 34 to unify the whole country, at a time tension was brewing. When the people lost faith in Nigeria as a federation, it was suggested that the unification was to make Nigeria one single unit under the Nigeria military authority and that the idea was to revert to provinces, that Ironsi would post military men to provinces to administer them. Now, who were the majority officers of the military officers’ corps? It was the Igbo. Northerners were not much in the officers’ corps. So, the fear was generated that it was the intention of Ironsi’s government to conquer the North in totality, having destroyed its leadership. People were aggrieved and they rose in resistance. Unfortunately, in these matters, it is not the elite who create these problems, who end up suffering; it is the ordinary persons.

Disturbances broke out and there were killings in Kano, Zaria, Makurdi and so on. What made matters worse was the fear by many Igbo in this part of the country and they started moving out, with the tacit approval of the Eastern Region government. In addition to the general insecurity of the nation at that time, that massive movement created fears.