Chapter 4
Planning and
Organisation of the Pogrom
Before the Army takeover of January, 1966 the
position of Easterners and Northerners was insecure. As far back as 1953 the
Eastern community in Kano, capital of Kano Emirate and a famous trade centre,
was subjected to ruthless attack by the Northerners. This incident was later to
be known as the Kano riots of 1953. It was so violent and bloody that the then
British administration set up an official inquiry. The principal organiser of
this attack was Mallam Inua Wada, then Secretary of the Kano branch of the
Northern People’s Congress and later the Federal Minister of Works in the
Federal Government of the late Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa. The ostensible
reason for this planned attack on an unsuspecting Eastern community was that it
was a retaliation for booing and jeering experienced by the Northern members of
Parliament at the hands of Lagos crowds in Lagos.
Lagos, be it noted, was and still is the capital of
Nigeria whose population has always been mainly Yorubas. The official report
disclosed that it was not the proposed visit to Kano of an Easterner that
sparked off the trouble but that of a Westerner (Yoruba) politician, Chief
S. L. Akintola a member of the Action Group party. The Action Group was
then a bitter opponent of the N.P.C. the dominant party in Northern Nigeria.
According to the report, Mallam Inua Wada convened a meeting of the Native
Authority sectional heads at the Works Depot in Kano and treated them to a most
provocative speech. He 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 are determined to retaliate treatment given us in the South. We have
therefore organised about 1000 men ready in the city to meet force with force.
We are determined to show Akintola
and his Group what we can do in our
land when they come…. The Northern People’s Congress has declared a strike in all Native Administration offices for
16th May 1953…. We shall post sufficient number of men at the entrance of every
office and business place…. We are prepared to face anything that comes out of
this business.
On Saturday 16th May 1953, these organised crowds
swooped down in bloody massacre on innocent citizens in spite of the fact that
the visit of Chief Akintola’s team had been previously banned. Chief Akintola
did not turn up in Kano. The irony in the whole incident was that the Northern
rioters switched the attack from Westerners (Yorubas) who they scarcely touched
to Easterners whom they butchered with a “universally unexpected degree of
violence.”
In its conclusions the Commission of Inquiry
condemned the riots in these terms: “No
amount of provocation, short term or long term, can in any sense justify their
behaviour.” and it warned that the “Seeds
of the trouble which broke out in Kano on May 16 (1953) have their counterparts
still in the ground. It could happen again and only realization and acceptance
of the underlying causes can remove the danger of reccurance.”
We take note of the fact that in Kano riots much use
was made of Native Administration agencies both in the planning and execution
of the riots. When one recalls the important position which the Native
Administration occupies in the scheme of government in Northern Nigeria under
the system of indirect rule and even after independence, the extreme danger
inherent in the deployment of governmental agencies for riotous attacks on
innocent citizens becomes disturbingly apparent. Yet this practice reached its
peak in the pogrom of 1966.
The evidence disclosed that although there was no
incident of violence comparable with the 1953 Kano riots that took place until 1966,
yet the position of the Easterners was gravely threatened in other directions.
This was especially so in the economic field.
It was a well known fact that Easterners had huge
investments in the North. Let Luke Ebere Ejinkonye, the 80th
Witness speak.
My name is
Luke Ebere Ejinkonye, formerly of AH 11, Benue Road, Kaduna. I was a
transporter and general merchant, selling motor spare parts. I went to Kaduna
in 1944 where I had my primary education. I left Kaduna on August, 1966. I am
37 years old. I had many lorries by 1966 and they operated all over Nigeria. I
was President of Orlu Divisional Union and Treasurer of the Ibo State Union, Kaduna.
Between 1957 and 1959 I was a Councillor in Kaduna. Before in 1963 my relation
with Northern Government was very cordial, although my councillorship was
through NCNC – NEPU alliance. This alliance was in the majority in the Kaduna
Central Local Council. In spite of their strength, it was a clear understanding
between the NCNC and NEPU not to field Eastern candidates for election to the
Northern House of Assembly. During 1959, the Northern Government made the life
of councillors in our Council unbearable and their decisions worthless, so we
resigned en masse before the Federal election. After the Federal elections, I
withdrew completely from political activity although a few Easterners continued
in politics.
In 1963, the
Administrator wanted to dispossess the Easterners of their stalls in Kaduna
market. He dissolved all allocations, some of which had been held for 15 years
to 20 years and asked everybody to re-apply. All the stall holders decided to
send a delegation on which I was nominated to go and see the Administrator.
There were delegates as follows:- Hausa 3, Igbo 3, Nupe 2, Yoruba 3. The leader
was an Hausa man, Alhaji Katcha. This was in November 1963. My participation in
this delegation started my troubles with Northern Government. I was asked to
quit my house which I was told was acquired by the Administrator. The case dragged
in the court for up till today. At a stage I was jailed for 2 years. I did not
serve the term.
Was this action of the Kaduna Administrator in
attempting to dispossess Easterners of their market stalls an isolated act of a
spiteful civil servant or was it an expression of a deliberate Government
policy? Our witness Luke Ebere Ejinkonye maintained it was the latter and in
support of this, he tendered the Hansard (official report of the
parliamentary debates in the House of Assembly of Northern Nigeria of 17th
March, 1964). This was admitted as Exhibit LEE/203. The debate on the Ministry
of Land and Survey Head 247 makes interesting reading. Let some of the
Honourable members speak.
Mr. A.A.
Abogede (Igala East):
“I have one or two appeals to make. Mr. Chairman,
Sir, my other point of advice to the Minister is that in most area in the
riverine areas, especially where I came from, in Igala Division, Ibos do
farming a lot. I hope there will be legislation to prevent the Ibos from
farming in Northern Region and if I am competent and we are allowed, we shall
legislate on such matter in Igala Division…. I am very glad that we are in a
Moslem country and the Government of Northern Nigeria allowed some few and the
Christians in the Region to enjoy themselves according to their belief of their
religion but building of hotels should be taken away from the Ibos and even if
we find some Northern Christians who are interested in building hotels and have
no money to do so the Government should aid them instead of allowing Ibos to
continue with the hotels… I suggest the certificate of occupancy of all Ibos
having hotels should be withdrawn and transferred to non-Ibo Christians”
Mr. Bashari Umaru
(B/Kudu):
“Mr. Chairman I have nothing to say. We
are all aiming at the same thing. This
is our house, the North belongs to us. The only solution to this problem is
to take over all the houses belonging to Ibos and revoke all their certificates
of occupancy. A certain Ibo trader living in Kano accommodated all the
delegates attending the NCNC (rival political party) convention in Kano and it
was in one of his houses that he entertained us…. These are the sort of people
whose houses should be confiscated by the Minister of Land and Survey”
Alhaji Usman
Liman (Sarkin Musawa):
“What brought the Ibos into this Region? They were
here since the colonial days. Had it not been for the colonial rule, there
would hardly have been Ibos in this Region.
Now that there is no colonial rule the Ibos should
go back to their Region. There should be no hesitation about this matter. Mr.
Chairman, North is for Northerns, East for Easterners, West for Westerners and
the Federal is for us all. (Applause). Mr. Chairman we do not want to have
another trouble leading to bloodshed”
The Minister
of Land and Survey (Alhaji the Hon. Ibrahim Musa Gashash O. B. E.):
Mr. Chairman, Sir, I do not like to take up much of
the time of this House in making explanation, but I would like to assure
Members that having heard their demands about Ibos holding land in Northern
Nigeria, my Ministry will do all it can to see that the demands of Members are
met. How to do this, when to do it, all this should not be disclosed now. In
due course you will see what will happen.” Applause).
It was not in land holding that the House expressed
strong views on the position of Ibos in the North during this session. On the
Civil Service of Northern Nigeria, Mallam
Ibrahim Musa (Igala North West) had this to say:
Mr. Chairman,
Sir, well first and foremost, what I have to say before this Hon. House is that
we should send a delegate to meet out Hon. Premier to move a motion in this
very budget session that all Ibos working in the Civil Service of Northern Nigeria
including the Native Authorities, whether they are contractors or not, should
be repatriated at once.
On manning of federal posts in the North: Mallam Muktar Bello:
I would like to say something very important that
the Minister should take my appeal to the Federal Government about the Ibos in
the post office. I wish the numbers of these Ibos reduced. There are too many
of them in the North. They were just like sardines and I think they were just
too dangerous to the Region.
On Government aspiration and intentions the Premier (Alhaji The Hon. Sir Ahmadu Bello the
Sarduana of Sokoto) had this to say: It is my most earnest desire that
every post in the Region, however small it is, to be filled by a Northerner
(Applause).
We can only end these recitals by saying that the
people of the North through their representatives have spoken. It was merely a
question of time for trouble to erupt.
What were the reasons for this hostilities to
Easterners and especially to the Ibos? We shall deal with this matter most
fully in a separate chapter. At this stage we shall merely refer to the
evidence of a witness, Chukwuma Anueyiagu (110th Witness).
This witness lived in Kano from 1949 to August, 1966. Says he:
Between 1962
and 1963 there was a sort of campaign against Easterners in the whole North
that the Ibos must quit the North. When we asked some of the members of the
Sarduana Brigade who were the chief campaigners of this ‘Ibo-must-go’ order,
they said that with the exception of the Eastern Premier, Dr. Okpara, others
were not in their way in the South. But for the fact that Dr. Okpara was
stubborn, the Hausa people would have gained full control of the whole of
Nigeria. At one stage in about 1963, some members of House of Assembly carried
out some campaign to the Parliament in that one of them Alhaji Musa Gashash
told the House that it was not a difficult problem to get the Ibos out of the
North, that he knew best how to handle them.
Evidence showed that the Sarduana Brigade mentioned
above was a para-military organisation built up, trained and maintained by the
then Premier of Northern Nigeria, the late Alhaji Sir Ahmadu Bello, Sarduana of
Sokoto as his private army and was the instrument to be used for eliminating of
Easterners from the North.
Q. 5522: “Why the campaign for Ibos to quit the North?
“One of the reasons was the
census trouble…. Again during the 1964 general election, members of the
Sarduana Brigade went round telling people that there would be trouble in the
whole country if the NPC should lose the election. Many NEPU men and women were
killed because they were in alliance with NCNC. Hundreds of them were
imprisoned in the North. What saved the situation and a mass killing of Ibos in
1964 was the boycott of the 1964 election by the U.P.G.A. In fact during one of
the meetings of the U.P.G.A. for North campaign, we had to wire Dr. Okpara that
the elections should be boycotted or postponed because of the threat given us
by the Sarduana Brigade and some Northern parliamentarians at that time. Of
course between 1962 and 1964 whenever there was any local election or regional
election, people were chased up and down especially people who were living in
Sabon Gari. They had some trouble with the Ibos because of the alliance with
the N.E.P.U”
We shall not conclude this chapter on the condition
of things in Nigeria before the Army takeover of January 1966 without referring
to events in other parts of the country especially in Western Nigeria. The
Federation was papably sick. The Western Nigeria elections of October 1965
brought the Federation to the brink of disintegration.
The 1965 Western elections were openly rigged. The
blatant electoral irregularities plunged the Region into serious violence as
the citizens were driven to take the law into their own hands.
Chaos reigned supreme. Even the Chairman of the
Electoral Commission of Western Nigeria after listing the shortcomings of the
election publicly confessed his doubt about “the future of free and fair
elections in the whole of Nigeria.” Writing in the same vein a correspondent of
the African
World, a London monthly commented in the issue of March 1966: “The
ruling party in the Western Region, by alliance with its opposite number in the
North has practically ended all hopes of effecting constitutional changes in
the country by democratic means.”
With the foregoing as a background we now come to
deal with the evidence that bears directly on the planning and organisation of
the pogrom.
We have used the word “pogrom” to describe what took
place in Nigeria in 1966 because it is the most appropriate term to use.
What were the forces responsible for this great
tragedy? The evidence disclosed that it was not a case of popular rebellion by
an oppressed people or a case of protest getting out of hand or of a
spontaneous outburst of communal strife sparked off by some sudden provocation
which resulted in the loss of lives, destruction and looting of property in one
or two towns. The evidence revealed that it was a planned exercise which
involved various “interests” and personalities. The pogrom was planned on a
wide scale. We propose to review the evidence and to identify the “interests”
involved in all this.
0 comments so far,add yours