Origins of Northern Political Domination Now we’ve been hearing a lot about so-called northern political domination in post independence Nigeria. There’s some truth to it, and I have written extensively about it in the past. This then begs the question as to the fairness of one region dominating the rest put together. To answer this question, we must put matters in their proper historical perspective. Northern domination of Nigerian leadership did not begin until the advent of the military in national political landscape in 1966. Before then there was hardly any complaints about northern domination. I do know however that the military and civil service then were dominated by the south. The Ibos in particular, dominated the civil service, which was to be expected due to the low level of western education in the north. Politics was just about the only field the north could excel and it made maximum use of it to its advantage. Any other region in that position would have done precisely the same. Yes, a northern was the Prime Minister but the President was a southerner of Igbo extraction. Moreover, the heads of the military establishment and the Senate were both Ibos respectively in the persons of Dr. Azikiwe, General Ironsi, and Dr. Nwafor Orizu, as was indeed the Chief Justice of the Federation, the venerable Justice Adetokumbo Ademola who was a Yoruba from the south. What’s more, the regional governments were powerful and self-sufficient. In fact, it was said the Ahmadu Bello preferred to be a Premier to a Prime Minister because of the powers of the region. The federal government then had nothing to be envious about because it was not in control of the economies of the region. The question of political domination therefore did not arise, at least not to the extent it reached during the military regimes headed by northerners. But guess who introduced coup de tats and military rule into Nigeria’s political firmament. It was not the north but the Ibos. The January 15th 1966 military coup that introduced the military into national governance for the very first time was carried out by young army idealists of southern extraction particularly of Ibo origins and was led by Major Ifeanyi Nzeogwu. What’s more, the military government that emerged from it was likewise headed by Major-General Agui Ironsi, again an Ibo man. It is needless to mention that the coup wiped off the cream of Northern political leadership in one fell swoop claiming the lives of the Prime Minister, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, the Premier of Northern region and other prominent northern political figures. The pattern of killings was lopsided against the north which carried the brunt. Now that was real provocation. We should not forget here that we’re talking about the cold blooded murder of a president of a country and a premier of his region by members of a different ethnic group. It would be foolish not to expect retaliation. And there came the Danjuma coup that brought in then Lt. Col. Yakubu Gowon who incidentally was a Christian from the Middle Belt who happened to be the most senior military officer from the entire north as Head of State. And as they say the rest is history. Military coups became fashionable in all of Africa and the north came to dominate the military as well after the civil war, which gave it a leg up. In a nutshell, that’s how the north came to dominate the political landscape through military rule. Do you blame the north for that? Not at all, because the south opened that door of military rule for the north to enter into the house of leadership and stay put only for it to complain afterwards. - Franklin Otorofani
Posted on: Sat, 30 Aug 2014 18:15:28 +0000
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