Thread by @RemiAdekoya1

Morning All! Day 11 of our #NigerianPoliticalHistory sessions based on my thesis research.

Today, we'll discuss major political events in months leading to Independence Day in 1960 and immediately after, including what fuelled growing fears of "Northern domination" in the South.

Yesterday, we discussed how Nigeria's first post-colonial government was formed with Zik's NCNC eventually allying with Bello's NPC as a junior coalition partner in a government headed by Tafawa Balewa as Nigeria's Prime Minister.

However, while Balewa was PM, everyone knew Bello, as head of NPC, was his political boss, a fact Bello himself often reminded people of, regularly referring to Prime Minister Balewa as "my lieutenant" in public.

Awo had just suffered the biggest setback of his political career

with his party doing worse than expected in the 1959 elections and now in opposition. Zik could feel somewhat satisfied with becoming the first Nigerian Governor-General and the first Senate President, but none of these positions offered any real political power at the time, and

were largely ceremonial. Bello, however, had just achieved the biggest success of his political career, leading NPC to become Nigeria's senior ruling party.

In fact, from when Bello entered politics in 1950-51, he had enjoyed success after success with virtually no setbacks.

First, he had built NPC into the strongest party in the North and now into Nigeria's strongest party, all within a decade and all by the age of 50.

Though Bello could have become Prime Minister, he chose not to, remaining Premier of the North from where he pulled the strings.

Too much success can go to any man's head.

After the 1959 elections, Bello's statements became increasingly less restrained, helping fuel fears Nigeria was going to come under "Northern domination" as Awo had long been insisting would happen if the North was not broken up.

For instance, on December 18, 1959, just days after the federal elections, addressing supporters in Kaduna, Bello announced plans to hand over power to younger Northern leaders at the national level. He suggested his withdrawal would take place in similar fashion to that of his

great-grandfather Usman Dan Fodio, founder of the Sokoto Caliphate, who, on completion of his successful Jihad "exactly 151 years ago", divided the empire, conquered territory and all, between his brother and his eldest son for them to administer.

"When the current political battle is over, I too will divide this country between my two trustworthy lieutenants", declared Bello.

Here is a 1959 newspaper article citing the speech:

The historical analogy between Nigeria and the Caliphate drew a sharp official response from Awo's AG party who pointed to this as proof there was a Northern domination agenda. "We have taken cognisance of the statements made by the leader of the NPC, Sir Ahmadu Bello...to the

effect that he intended to divide Nigeria into North and South and then rule the two parts: from Sokoto through his lieutenants, in much the same way as his great-grandfather ruled the Fulani empire...all nationalists in Nigeria must find this threat not only disturbing and it is

against this background that the new composition of Council of Ministers should be viewed, consisting as it did, of 10 lieutenants of Sir Ahmadu Bello, all from the North, and 7 others drawn from the East, COR area, the West, the mid-West and Lagos...AG has decided to champion

the struggle of the masses against oppression, tyranny, tribal domination and victimisation which are the common political weapons of the NPC."

In his 1960 autobiography, published just before independence, Awo repeated his claims NPC had an agenda for Northern domination and

that the Northern Region had to be broken up. So while there was general happiness at prospect of independence going into 1960, these fears and apprehensions were present too.

Falola and Heaton aptly describe Nigeria as a "state without a nation" at the time of independence.

"The underlying cause of all the problems Nigeria experienced in the 1960s and has experienced since then is the 'national question'. What is Nigeria? Who are Nigerians? How does a country go about developing a meaningful national identity....the people within the borders of

Nigeria were known to the world as 'Nigerians' but in reality, this designation meant little to most people whose lives continued to be primarily centred on local communities that had existed for hundreds and thousands of years. The regional and federal emphasis of constitutions

of the 1950s further undermined the development of a unified national consciousness by determining that access to power at the national level was to be derived from holding power at the regional level", argued Falola and Heaton.

Further, political domination by Yorubas, Igbos and Hausa-Fulanis in their respective regions left minorities feeling alienated from the political process, nurturing further subdivisions of identity rendering even more uphill the task of building an overarching national identity.

The politics of the immediate post-colonial years thus became characterized by corruption, election-rigging, ethnic-baiting and violence. Shwarz summed up 1960s Nigerian politics thus:

"On paper, the system seemed fair and reasonable; it gave the opposition the chance in future

federal elections to capture enough seats in its opponents' home territory to swing the balance....in practise the system did not work that way...with federal power went a large bloc of patronage; jobs in federal corporations, the siting of industries, granting of scholarships,

allocation of revenue for amenities. The Yoruba felt they were left out...that their people were not getting their fair share..the other obstacle was that the chances of winning seats in other regions were largely illusory. The powers of a regional government in manipulating

elections - by intimidating opposition and rewarding supporters - were considerable and grew with every election as party managers gained experience," observed Schwarz.

By 1962, even Zik's NCNC was feeling marginalized by the dominant NPC despite being in coalition with it.

1962 also ushered in a crisis in AG that would lead to the party losing power in the Western Region and its leader, Awo, imprisoned on charges of treasonable felony.

This we shall discuss tomorrow. Have a great weekend folks!😃