Nigeria: Colorful Land Going Places
HUGHES, JOHN
Independence next October may lead to power on the continent NIGERIA: COLORFUL LAND GOING PLACES By John Hughes LAGOS THIS YEAR will see a landslide toward African self-rule. The French...
...However, it did not win enough seats to gain a clear majority: The NCNC won 81 seats, the Action Group 73, and there are eight independents and eight members of a splinter group, the Northern Elements Progressive Union...
...Though it is by far the most populous region in the country, it is backward and less developed than the two other regions and is the preserve of powerful sultans, emirs and other traditional rulers, many of them clinging to feudal privileges...
...Nigeria's principal problem after independence will be to preserve national unity and to prevent the new state from bursting at the seams...
...And the Nigerians are confident, cheerful and certain that their vast colorful land is going places...
...Nigerian leaders dismiss, for example, Ghana's current role as leader of the emergent African states and it is unlikely that Nigeria, with a population of 35 million, will buckle under to the leadership of Ghana, which has a population of only five million...
...Meanwhile the United Nations trust territory of Tanganyika, in British East Africa, will achieve responsible African government this year, with complete sovereignty but a step beyond...
...Azikiwe's NCNC, with a cabinet made up of 10 NPC and seven NCNC ministers...
...One key question which still remains unanswered is what is to become of Azikiwe, who has taken his party into a coalition with the NPC, but who is not a member of the cabinet...
...Nigeria is comparatively well off compared to other African lands...
...Prime Minister Alhaji Abubakar's solution thus has been to forge a coalition of his own NPC and Dr...
...This little-heard-of land may soon be playing a significant part in African affairs...
...This was the nation-wide general election in December which elected a new African government to administer the country not only during its last few JOHN HUGHES, who is a NEW LEADER correspondent in Africa, also reports for the Christian Science Monitor...
...The country is a federation with three separate regions—the north, the west and the east—each enjoying various powers and each with its own premier...
...Nigeria's western region is the home of the prosperous and industrious Yoruba tribe...
...Thus an outright win for either east or west might have set up strains within the Federation and brought nearer the prospect of northern secession and early disintegration of the new state...
...Alhaji Abubakar, however, is personally dedicated to Nigerian unity and is a Prime Minister perhaps more acceptable to all of Nigeria's diverse factions and tribes than any other...
...In the view of many observers, victory for the north has been perhaps the most satisfactory outcome of the elections...
...It has palm oil, timber, cocoa, tin and other metals...
...Alhaji Abubakar, too, is thought to favor close ties with the West to help develop the Nigerian economy...
...The north, predominantly Moslem, borders the harsh desert wastes of the Sahara and is the home of the proud and tough Hausa tribesmen, 5.5 million strong...
...Shell-British Petroleum has sunk millions of dollars into oil exploration and now is pumping out oil in commercial quantities...
...Opposition leader Chief Awolowo, who campaigned with the aid of helicopters, television and an American public relations firm, makes no secret of his leanings toward the West...
...And it is probable that the Mali Federation of Senegal and the French Sudan will become independent, though it will still maintain cordial relations with France and the French Community...
...It remains to be seen whether the sober and serious Prime Minister can work in amity with the colorful Azikiwe as his Foreign Minister—if that, indeed, is the role reserved for the latter...
...Azikiwe is perhaps the best-known abroad of all the Nigerian politicians...
...Azikiwe is unpredictable and flamboyant, but he has immense personal charm and it has been suggested that he may emerge after independence in October as Nigeria's Foreign Minister...
...A few words of explanation are necessary to understand Nigeria's political background...
...It is the only region where women are not allowed to vote...
...The Sardauna is not interested in the Federal premiership for himself, however, and so supports his fellow northerner, Alhaji Abubakar, the new Prime Minister...
...Despite suggestions beforehand that election day might be marred by violence, and despite the alerting of troops and police to deal with any trouble, voting went smoothly...
...The principal party is the Action Group, led by Chief Obafemi Awolowo...
...A schoolteacher before he graduated to politics, Alhaji Abubakar has made various trips overseas, one of them to Mecca, and another, when he was Nigerian Minister of Transport, to the United States to study river transport systems on the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers...
...The north's principal political party is the Northern Peoples Congress (NPC) and the foremost political leader is the Sardauna of Sokoto, Alhaji Ahmadu Bello...
...The eastern region is dominated by the Ibo tribe and by their National Council for Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC) under the leadership of an American-educated politician, Dr...
...All this underlines the upheaval which will touch almost every major colonial land in Africa this year...
...He has now formed a coalition of two of the main parties, while the third principal party in Nigerian politics will form the opposition...
...Although it is partially crippled by poverty and underdevelopment...
...Nnamdi Azikiwe...
...Drawing on the large population of its region, the NPC swept into the elections to win 142 of the 312 seats at stake in the new House of Representatives and thus became the biggest single party...
...There is considerable rivalry between the various regions and the north is particularly suspicious of the two more developed regions lying to its south...
...However, once its initial troubles are behind, it is likely to emerge as a powerful force in African politics...
...Although technically only the leader of the NCNC, Dr...
...In the face of mounting African pressure, it is conceivable that Belgium might move up its target date for the Congo's independence to this fall...
...One of its last hurdles before independence has just been leaped...
...It has more university-trained men than many another African land...
...months of colonialism but, more significantly, during the initial years of independence...
...One of the most interesting countries to watch will be Britain's big West African colony of Nigeria...
...He took office in 1957 as a compromise candidate acceptable to all, and in his period as Federal Prime Minister he has gained respect and stature...
...The election was won by Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, a solemn, capable Moslem from Nigeria's northern region, who had presided as Federal Prime Minister over a national government drawn from all parties since the revision of the constitution and the establishment of the Prime Ministership in 1957...
...It becomes independent on October 1 and, with its 35 million people, it might yet become black Africa's most powerful state...
...The Action Group will be the official Parliamentary opposition in the initial years of independence...
...Often forgotten and overlooked—perhaps because the sensationalism and strife of some other African states has passed it by—Nigeria is moving quietly through its last months as a colonial territory...
...The French Cameroons became independent January 1. Togoland, Italian Somalia and Nigeria will follow...
Vol. 43 • February 1960 • No. 5
