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Saul Gwakuba Ndlovu
THE Nigerian Moslemic, anti-western education organisation, Boko Haram, has brutally established a reign of terror in some parts of Africa’s most densely populated country in the last couple of months.
Targeting mostly schools, the typically terrorist socio-cultural movement, Boko-Haram, has recently seized several hundreds of defenceless school girls and driven them away to its remote camps.

Boko Haram (Hausa for “western education is bad”) wants a part of Nigeria, especially the northern region, to secede from the federation and become an Islamic state administered strictly on the Sharia law.

It is of much of historical interest to note among the founding fathers of modern Nigeria that there were at least three very prominent personalities who were educated in the United Kingdom.

They were Alhayi Sir Amadu Bello the Sardauna of Sokoto, Alhayi Sir Abubakar Yakawa Balewa, Nigeria’s first federal prime minister, and Dr RA Dikko, the very first northern Nigerian to graduate from a British (Birmingham ) university.

Dr Dikko in May 1948 and a few young northern Nigerians formed virtually the first political-cultural group of Zarios and called it Jami “yar Mutanen Arewa” (Union of the people of the North).

Among the young men who teamed up with Dr Dikko were Alhayi Amadu, Bello the Sardauna of Sokoto and Alhayi Abubakar Yakawa Balewa both of whom had not yet been knighted by the British government.

Just before its general conference in 1949, their organisation stated that it didn’t intend to usurp the authority of the region’s hereditary rulers.

We want to help them in enlightening the Talakawa-  Hausa for masses or ordinary people.
A year or so later, Ahmadu Bello and Abubakar Yakama Balewa changed the name of their organisation to Northern People’s Congress (NPC).

One of the NPC’s objectives was “to inculcate in the minds of the northerners a genuine love for the northern region and all that is northern and a special reference for region, law and order and the preservation of good customs and tradition and the feeling that the sorrow of one northerner shall be the sorrow of all.”

Meanwhile, a group of young northerners led by Amine Kano had broken away and formed an organisation they called the Northern Elements Progressive Union (Nepu).

The Nepu leadership accused the Northern People’s Conference (NPC) of tribalism and parochialism, the latter term implying that the NPC was concerned merely with local rather than national interests.

Nepu later affiliated itself to a political party called the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroon (NCNC) founded by the Nigerian Union of Students in Lagos on August 26, 1944.

The NCNC was led by a surveyor, Herbert Macualay, as its president and a journalist, Dr Mnadi Azikwe, as the secretary-general.
The organisation’s objectives stated among other things, that it would maintain and protect the unity and sovereignty of Nigeria and would secure for Nigeria and raise the standards of living of the people.

In addition to the above, the NCNC declared that it would observe human rights in accordance with the United Nations Charter and would seek an irrevocable acknowledgement by the Nigerian government that all lands in the country were ultimately vested in the people of Nigeria.

Meanwhile, the Western region woke up to the nationalistic wind of change and formed its own political party called the Action Group (AG) on March 21, 1951.

It was led by the chief, Obafemi Awolowo.
Among the prominent AG founders were Chief Abiodun Akenele who was a lawyer, Ola Adigun, a journalist, Olutinyu Dosnmumu also a journalist, SJ Oredein, a trade unionist, Adeniga Akinsanya, a publishing company senior official and a chemist called Ayo Akinsanga.
The AG’S motto was: Freedom for all, live more abundant.

The AG called for an independent Nigeria in which all of school-going age would receive education, and where there would be general enlightment of all illiterate adults and all illiterate children above school going age.

The AG stated that in an independent Nigeria “the people of western Nigeria in particular, and of Nigeria in general, would have life more abundant when they enjoy freedom from British rule, freedom from ignorance, freedom from disease, and freedom from want.”
So, unlike the Northern People’s Congress (NPC), the AG emphasised the need for education and enlightment.

However, it highlighted its regionalistic character and aspirations. Western Nigeria is predominantly Christian, but northern Nigeria is almost entirely Islamic.

Boko Haram is more prevalent in the country’s northern, north-western and north-eastern areas than elsewhere.
The present demand for a Moslem state in Northern Nigeria was, in fact, more or less a content wish of the northerners before the protectorate of northern Nigeria was merged with the colony and the protectorate of Southern Nigeria to form the colony and protectorate of Nigeria on January 1, 1914.

Historical records indicate that the British governor General Frederick Lugard assured the northern traditional leaders (chiefs and emirs) just before the amalgamation that Britain would not interfere with the spread of Islam in their region.

In fact, Christian missionaries and evangelists were restricted in the northern region where the British colonial administrators introduced indirect rule unlike in the south, west, east as well as Lagos proper where direct rule was practised.

When independence negotiations started on July 30, 1953  and closed on August 21, 1953, many smaller parties demanded the creation of new states.

Among those parties were the YIV Progressive Union (YPU), the Idoma State Union (ISU), the United Middle Belt Congress (UMBC), the Middle Belt People’s Party (MBPP), the Ilorin Yalaka Parapo Party (ITPP), the Otu Edo (OE), the Calabar-Ogoja Rivers State Movement (CORSM), the Mid-West State Movement (MSM) and the Conference of Rivers Chiefs and Peoples (CRCP).

While the AG and the NCNC supported the idea of new states in principle, the NPC opposed the proposal. A federal constitution was adapted and introduced on October 1, 1954.

Boko Haram’s demand for an Islamic state is not clear as to whether it would like the entire Northern region to secede from or to be declared a wholly Moslemic state but within the Nigerian Federation.

If the aim of the insurgency is to have the region out of Nigeria as currently constituted, the matter needs to be placed before at least three international organisations:

The African Union (AU), the United Nations (UN), and the Commonwealth of which Nigeria is a member.
If, however, the aim of Boko Haram is to have the affected region to be declared an Islamic state within Nigeria, as were the demands of various political parties before Nigeria’s independence, then the matter can and should be dealt with internally by way of referendum or referenda.

In that case, the involvement of outside players would be minimal.
Only regional international bodies such as the Economic Organisation of West Africans States (Ecowas) could get involved at Nigeria’s invitation.

Whatever the solution will be, the question about the permanence of the current Nigerian federation remains.
In 1967, the world had the Biafran civil war. Incidentally, during the Biafran forces short-lived advance into western Nigeria, Major Albert Okonkwo declared the Republic of Benin on September 20, 1967.

That secessionist’s republic collapsed with the Biafran forces’ formal surrender at Dodan Barracks in Lagos on January 15, 1970.
Is the world likely to see a similar capitulation but this time by Boko Haram sooner or later, or a birth of another African state, following that of South of Sudan which is just about three years old this month?

Saul Gwakuba Ndlovu is a Bulawayo-based retired journalist. He can be contacted on cell 0734328136 or via email [email protected]