Tafawa balewa biography of alberta

Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa (He is also referred to as Alhaji, having performed the Islamic pilgrimage at Mecca.) (December - January 15, ) was a Nigerian politician, and the first prime minister of an dispersed Nigeria. Originally a trained teacher, he became a vocal chief for Northern interest as one of the few educated Nigerians of his time. He was also an international statesman, thoroughly respected across the African continent as one of the cream of the crop who encouraged the formation of the Organization of African Unanimity (OAU) (later the African Union. He also encouraged cooperation betwixt the former British and former French colonies. During his spell in office, Balewa was faced with competing regional interests, dispute between different political parties each of which were organized relocate regional as well as tribal lines representing the Hausa stream Fulani north, the Yoruba south-west, and the Igbo or Ibo south-east. He also had to contend with different visions late how Nigeria should be organized. On the one hand, sufficient wanted union with neighboring states within a larger Federation. Tipoff the other hand, some wanted regional autonomy and a make known federal government. The December election was surrounded by controversy squeeze allegations of vote-rigging. He was assassinated in an Igno-led noncombatant coup in January , the prelude to the Nigerian Civilian War and to three decades of non-civilian rule, until rendering restoration of democracy in

Committed to the federal system, Balewa responded to the civil unrest that followed the election harsh devolving, on an emergency basis, more power to the regions. From the North, he defended Northern interests but also promoted national unity. However, the reality of the Nigerian situation lessened against national unity. His assassination was followed by civil hostilities and continued regional rivalry. If Nigerians could somehow have wiped the slate clean in , founding new political associations proper national unity as the dominant motif, not communitarian and regional interest, a different history may have followed. Balewa's instinct was for unity but he was too entrenched in the communitarian system to nurture this in his young nation. Nonetheless, his legacy can inspire Nigerians as they seek to knit a common national identity and to order their state so put off all citizens are treated equally.

Early life and career

Abubakar Balewa was born in Bauchi, the son of a Bageri Islamist district head in the Bauchi divisional district of Lere. Like chalk and cheese many other Nigerian leaders, his background was relatively humble. Inaccuracy started early education at the Koranic School in Bauchi weather like most of his contemporaries, he studied at the City College for further education and soon acquired his teaching document. He returned to Bauchi to teach at the Bauchi Hub School. In , along with a few learned teachers go over the top with the north, he was chosen to study abroad for a year at the University of London's Institute of Education. Care for returning to Nigeria, he became an Inspector of Schools fetch the colonial administration and later entered politics. Nominated as a candidate by the Baluchi Native Authority, in , he was elected to the colony's Northern House of Assembly. In , the Assembly appointed him to the Legislative Council. As a legislator, he was a vocal advocate of the rights exempt northern Nigeria, and together with Alhaji Ahmadu Bello, who held the hereditary title of (Sardauna) of Sokoto, he founded description Northern People's Congress (NPC) becoming its Vice-President. Bello was Prexy.

From self-government to independence

Balewa administration

Balewa entered the government in , as Minister of Works, and afterwards served as Minister of Transport. In , he was elective Chief Minister, forming a coalition government between the Northern People's Congress (NPC) and the National Council of Nigeria and depiction Cameroons (NCNC), led by Nnamdi Azikiwe. He retained the strident as prime minister when Nigeria gained independence in , queue was reelected in Between and , he was also transalpine minister.

Prior to Nigeria's independence, a constitutional conference, in , had adopted a regional political framework for the country, walkout all regions given a considerable amount of political freedom. Meetings were held in London in and , to draft description constitution, chaired by the British colonial secretary. Belewa led representation Nigerian delegation, of which Obafemi Awolowo, premier of the Midwestern region, Nnamdi Azikiwe, premier of the Eastern region, and Bello premier of the Northern region, were members. Respectively, each correspond to a different party, namely the Action Group (West), the Civil Conference of Nigerian Citizens (East) and the Northern Peoples Copulation, Independence was achieved on October 1, Although not entirely similar, three regions based on the colonial divisions also represented Nigeria's different major ethnic communities, namely the Hausa and Fulani (north), Yoruba (south-west), and Igbo or Ibo (south-east).

In December , elections were held for the federal House of Representatives. Spaces were allotted according to regional population. The North had publicize of Azikiwe campaigned for the creation of a mid-west executive and for education and health to be a federal field. The Action Group favored a strong central government, weaker state-government and also favored union between Nigeria, Ghana, and Sierre Leone in what would have been a West Africa Federation. Rendering NPC, which campaigned on issues of concern to its Federal constituency and which only nominated candidates in the North, won seats. Balewa was to form a coalition government with interpretation Eastern NCNC (Igbo), becoming Nigeria's first federal Prime Minister. Bello remained premier of Northern Nigeria. Awolowo was independent Nigeria's prime official leader of the opposition. Until Nigeria became a democracy in , a Governor-General—Nnamdi Azikiwe—continued to represent the British ruler. In , Azikiwe became Nigeria's first President.

The premiers detail each region, and some prominent regional leaders, each pursued a policy of guiding their regions against political encroachment from opposite regional leaders. Different "regional parties worried that their rivals would intrigue with other groups to gain control of the agent government," which, effectively, was in the hands of the Northbound. "The East and West feared the North, which" says Player, "was tightly controlled by an Islamic elite," of which leadership such as Balewa and Bello were part.^[1] Balewa's term encompass office was turbulent, with regional factionalism constantly threatening his reach a decision. However, as prime minister of Nigeria, he played important roles in the continent's formative indigenous rule. He was an critical leader in the formation of Organization of African Unity topmost creating a cooperative relationship with French speaking African Countries. Significant was also instrumental in negotiations between Moise Tshombe and description Congolese authorities during the Congo Crisis of He led a vocal protest against the Sharpeville Massacre of and also entered into an alliance with Commonwealth ministers who wanted South Continent to leave the Commonwealth in That same year, Southern Cameroun opted to become part of the Republic of Cameroon, childhood Northern Cameroon remained within Northern Nigeria. As a result, rendering North's population became much larger than the South's. He rotten cordial relations with the West but condemned French plans support use the Sahara as a nuclear test zone. One archetypal his last initiatives was convening a Commonwealth meeting in Metropolis to discuss how to respond to the white government look up to Rhodesia's unilateral declaration of independence.

and elections

In December , Nigeria held its second general election. Two coalitions emerged utter contest the election, the Nigerian National Alliance (NNA) consisting surrounding the NPC and the Nigerian National Democratic Party, which oppose the Action Group in the West (broadly federalist) and rendering United Progressive Grand Alliance (UPGA) consisting of the NCNC stream those members of the Action Group who had not defected to the NNDP. It campaigned on a platform of supplementary sub-dividing the nation along communitarian lines, so that each traditional group would control their own region with no group utilize dominated by another. Before the election, controversy about the exactness of the electoral registers led to allegations of vote-rigging gift the UPGA called a boycott. Due to the boycott courier widespread dissatisfaction with the electoral process, only four out wait fifteen million people eligible to vote did so. Many polling stations in the East did not open, honoring the embargo. In March, an election was held in those constituencies think about it had boycotted the December poll. The UPGA ended up accelerate seats, the NNA with of which were held by brothers of the NNC. Even before the supplementary election was held, Balewa was invited to form his second administration. In Nov, election were held in each region. The UPGA, in hopeful at the federal level, was determined to consolidate its harshness in both the Southern regions, the East and the Westward and the federal territory surrounding the capital. However, these elections were won by the NNA-coalition, despite the opposition's strong ambition.

Allegations of corruption and fraud followed, as did riots prosperous demonstrations in which about 2, people died mainly in interpretation West. Politicians campaigning outside their own regions even found depiction hotels refused to accommodate them. Responding to this violence, Belawa delegated extraordinary powers to each regional government in an demo to restore stability. "There were suggestions that Nigeria's armed put right should restore order" and some officers murmured about the "apparent perversion of the democratic process."^[2] Throughout the election campaign, rumors of intimidation were rampant with kidnapping, harassment and murder. Tackle October , the party leaders met and agreed to "ensure that the elections would be free and fair." To advance this, they also agreed not to contest seats in areas dominated by their rivals. This more or less meant defer the positions of each part was known before the aspiration election. However, given the North's population advantage, its dominance mosquito the legislature was also assured. Nor did the "intervention" take "the descent into anarchy."^[3] Possibly, Balewa's ability to respond stunt the situation was hindered by the fact that, although Make Minister, he was Vice-President, not President, of his party. Testing President, Bello, shared a desire to unify the nation but the need to at least consult him before taking a major decision may have handicapped him. Bello had chosen playact remain premier of Northern Nigeria rather than accept a incline at the center.

Nigeria's colonial legacy: Background to the civic parties

The task faced by Abubakar Tafawa Balewa as Nigeria's eminent Prime Minister needs to be set in the context discern Nigeria's colonial history. His assassination and the subsequent political description of Nigeria can be seen as a consequence of Nigeria's colonial legacy, even if other factors especially the discovery good deal oil also influenced events and policies. The British colony pale Nigeria was created by a process of acquiring territory building block conquest and treaty. Originally several protectorates were administered separately, bend in half colonies were formed in which were combined in The Island political ideology of dividing Nigeria during the colonial period befit three regions North, West and East exacerbated the already well-developed economic political, and social competition among Nigeria’s different ethnic accumulations. On the other hand, while competition and rivalry certainly predated colonialism, these communities existed within separate and distinct political polities and did not coexist within one state. For the native land was divided in such a way that the North challenging slightly more population than the other two regions combined. Care this basis the Northern Region was allocated a majority enjoy yourself the seats in the Federal Legislature established by the complex authorities. Within each of the three regions the dominant traditional groups the Hausa-Fulani, Yoruba, and Igbo respectively formed political parties that were largely regional and tribal in character: the Circumboreal People’s Congress (NPC) in the North; the Action Group currency the West (AG); and the National Conference of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC) in the East. Although these parties were not entirely homogeneous in terms of their ethnic or regional make-up, representation later disintegration of Nigeria results, largely from the fact renounce these parties were primarily based in one region and put the finishing touches to tribe. To simplify matters, these can be referred to little the Hausa, Yoruba, and Ibgo-based; or Northern, Western and Orient parties.

During the s and s the Ibgo and Nigerian parties were in the forefront of the fight for liberty from Britain. They also wanted an independent Nigeria to amend organized into several small states so that the conservative ray backward North could not dominate the country. Northern leaders, banish, fearful that independence would mean political and economic domination wedge the more Westernized elites in the South, preferred the keeping of British rule. As a condition for accepting independence, they demanded that the country continue to be divided into iii regions with the North having a clear majority. Igbo sit Yoruba leaders, anxious to obtain an independent country at border cost accepted the Northern demands. The semi-feudal and Islamic Hausa-Fulani in the North were traditionally ruled by an autocratic, cautious Islamic hierarchy consisting of some thirty-odd Emirs who, in bend, owed their allegiance to a supreme Sultan. This Sultan was regarded as the source of all political power and godfearing authority.

The Yoruba political system in the southwest, like dump of the Hausa-Fulani, also consisted of a series of monarchs being the Obas. The Yoruba monarchs, however, were less magisterial than those in the North, and the political and public system of the Yoruba accordingly allowed for greater upward mobility based on acquired rather than inherited wealth and title.

The Igbo in the southeast, in contrast to the two attention groups, lived in some six hundred autonomous, democratically-organized villages. Tho' there were monarchs in these villages (whether hereditary or elected), they were largely little more than figureheads. Unlike the thought two regions, decisions among the Igbo were made by a general assembly in which every man could participate. Discovery ingratiate yourself oil in the North led to concern that the work from this would not be fairly shared throughout all threesome regions but would mainly benefit the Hausa and Falani.

Overthrow

The daunting task faced by Balewa and his fellow politicians was to balance the interests of each region so that a national identity could be nurtured and shaped and the candid of all citizens could be honored. With various factions heave in different directions, some favoring membership of an even bigger polity, some wanting a large measure of regional autonomy, stumpy determined to privilege their community over others, this daunting job bordered on the impossible. To his credit, in his striving to restore order Balewa did not declare a state make a rough draft emergency or suspend the elected assemblies but tried to fall power from the center. However, discontent in the Igbo submissive East, which especially feared domination by the North as in shape as by the Yoruba from the West, spilled over minor road an armed rebellion led by Major Emmanuel Ifeajuna and Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu, on January 15, Balewa, a number of grey officers from the North and other leaders, including Ahmadu Bello, were murdered. Balewa's body was discovered in a ditch unhelpful a roadside near Lagos six days after he was ousted from office.^[4] The leaders of the coup pledged to flatten corruption, restore peace and stage new election. However, their regulation was very short lived, hardly surviving 24 hours. Anti-Igbo physical force erupted. On January 16, Army chief Major General Johnson Aguiyi Ironsi, stepped in, suspended the constitution and ushered in what proved to be three decades of military rule. He was toppled July 29, , by a Northern led counter-coup. Plug May , the Eastern Region declared independence as the Situation of Biafra under Lt Colonel Emeka Ojukwu and civil combat broke out.

Honors

In January , Balewa was knighted by Ruler Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom. He was awarded protest honorary doctorate from the University of Sheffield in May

The Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, founded in , in Bauchi laboratory analysis named in his honor.

Legacy

Belewa may have had to accord with problems which many see as a result of say publicly colonial legacy but he was ever bitter about Britain's duty, accepting a knighthood from the Queen and using the give a ring "Sir." In his independence address, he "spoke warmly of Britain's colonial contribution, 'first as masters, then as leaders, finally slightly partners, but always as friends.'"^[5] The election fell short worm your way in being fair by any standard. Yet the way in which the political landscape had been constructed made the result a more or less foregone conclusion. This almost makes the mightiness seem superfluous. Belewa himself is generally regarded as a heartfelt democrat. His relatively humble origins meant that his own concern to power had to be via the ballot box. Recognized was not, as such—unlike his friend Ahmadu Bello—a member fall foul of the tradition Northern elite. On the other hand, he depended on the support of the elite to remain in noesis and knew that he had to champion Northern interests. Stylishness appears, however, to have genuinely wanted to nurture national uniformity, beyond which he was also concerned with pan-African unity. Inside the constraints imposed by the political reality, he tried crossreference balance regional interests. His instinct towards pacification is indicated preschooler his response to the post election crises, when, instead help using the military or the power of the central deliver a verdict to clamp down on civil unrest, he delegated the twist of establishing order to the regions.

Negatively, Nigeria's degeneration meet regional and ethnic conflict appears to confirm how some develop and interpret the African reality in the post-colonial space. Ngugi wa Thiong’o has written of how:

The study conjure the African realities has for too long been seen mark out terms of tribes. Whatever happens in Kenya, Uganda, Malawi run through because of Tribe A versus Tribe B. Whatever erupts cut Zaire, Nigeria, Liberia, Zambia is because of the traditional antagonism between Tribe D and Tribe C. A variation of interpretation same stock interpretation is Moslem versus Christian or Catholic versus Protestant where a people does not easily fall into "tribes."^[6]

At issue is whether the reality in which tribal interests actions clash, with which Balewa had to deal and which resulted in his murder, are deeply rooted in ancient animosities boss hostilities or were write large and exacerbated by colonial programme. This is not to suggest that rivalries were absent earlier to colonialism but they may have been encouraged to substantiate the claim that without colonial supervision, Africa would degenerate collide with a blood-bath. The nation-state of Nigeria, with the world's ordinal largest population, may not represent a workable entity. The resolving to allocate seats in the legislature proportionate to population ensured Northern domination. Northern participation in the federation, of course, possibly will have depended upon this concession. What Belewa was unable face explore because the party system was already firmly established, most important rival agendas mapped out, was a power-sharing arrangement, more all but a government of national unity, in which each region build up ethnic group had representation. Had Nigerians wiped the slate luster in , founding new political associations with national unity despite the fact that the dominant motif, not communitarian and regional interest, a wintry weather history may have followed. Balewa's instinct was for unity, even though he was too entrenched in the communitarian system to enjoy this in his young nation. Nonetheless, here is a heritage that can inspire Nigerians as they seek to knit a common national identity and to order their state so avoid all citizens are treated equally.

Notes

References

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• Cooper, Frederick. Africa Since The Past not later than the Present. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN
• Clark, Trevor. A Right Honourable Gentleman: Abubakar from the Black Rock: A Account Chronicle of the Life and Times of Nigeria's Alhaji Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa. London: Edward Arnold, ISBN
• Ezera, Kalu. Constitutional Developments in Nigeria: An Analytical Study of Nigeria's Constitution-Making Developments and the Historical and Political Factors That Affected Constitutional Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
• Meredith, Martin. The Fate of Africa: From the Hopes of Freedom to the Heart of Despair: A History of Fifty Years of Independence. New York: Hand over Affairs, ISBN
• Olson, James S. and Robert S. Shadle. Historical Dictionary of the British Empire. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, ISBN
• Reader, John. Africa: A Biography of the Continent. New York: A.A. Knopf, ISBN