Remembering Sir Ahmadu Bello – By Kehinde Yusuf
*Photo: Sir Ahmadu Bello*
There are people you wish never died, on account of the immense value they hold for an individual, a people or a nation. One such person is Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto. But, who was Sir Ahmadu Bello? He was the Premier of Nigeria’s Northern Region from 1954 to 1966. On 15 January, 1966, in the first military coup in the country, he was assassinated in circumstances that continue to task our nation. As Premier of Northern Region, Sir Ahmadu Bello, Chief Obafemi Awolowo who was the Premier of Western Region and Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe who was the Premier of Eastern Region, formed the triumvirate who raced among themselves to chart the path to Nigeria’s development.
In a 13 March, 2018 article wittily titled “The Ahmadu Bello Way”, Ainoko Israel Aye-Ebene and Dauda Garuba noted that Sir Ahmadu Bello had “a keen understanding of the fact that the building block for national development is regional development.” As such, they further observed, “his major priority was to push for the realisation of a Northern Nigeria that can politically and economically compete with Western and Eastern regions of Nigeria.” Sir Ahmadu Bello recognised the key role of education in the fulfillment of this objective.
According to a compilation by Professor Isa Odidi and Dr. Baba J. Adamu entitled “Alhaji Sir Ahmadu Bello (1909 – 1966) – The seasons of a man’s life”, this discernment informed his policies, and they declared: “Hence, education was a top priority, and the foundation of all other development efforts. Education and human resources were encouraged at all levels, and in all fields, and between 1954 and 1965 considerable progress was made. Importantly, Ahmadu Bello was able to diffuse the latent resentment and suspicion at the grassroots level among Muslims over the nature and purpose of western education. He was able to mobilize local leaders in the ‘war against ignorance,’ and lay the educational foundations for the future. His crash programs in professional education in Kano and Zaria and Kaduna, and his insistence on the establishment of a northern university at a time when many felt it was premature, attest to his forward-looking view of development.”
Professor Odidi and Dr. Adamu noted further: “He recognized that ‘catching up’ would take at least a generation, and hence tried to provide the political climate wherein northern youth could be encouraged and even initially protected in their initial opportunities for education. The decade from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s produced the first mass-educated efforts in the north, which in turn have produced the first broadly based generation of northern professional and educated leaders.” As a testament to the rightness of his educational vision and mission for the North, the Engineering programme of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, in the mid-1970s and early 1980s, was reputed to be the best or at least one of the best in Nigerian universities. The university was also the home to some of the best humanities scholars represented by the iconic historian Dr. Yusufu Bala Usman who had an intellectual soul-mate in the well-respected Dr. Segun Osoba of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife.
In fact, both of these notable scholars, as members of the Committee and in manifestation of their intellectual sure-footedness, did not support the majority report of the 49-member Constitution Drafting Committee which convened for its first meeting on 18 October, 1975 and submitted its draft to the General Olusegun Obasanjo military government on 14 September, 1976 in preparation for the handover of power to civilians in 1979. Dr. Bala Usman and Dr. Segun Osoba rather jointly produced the minority report of the Committee. This indicated that the North was quite intellectually active and competitive.
Moreover, Professor Odidi and Dr. Adamu observed as follows: “Beyond education, the top development priorities were agriculture, industry and infrastructure. Ahmadu Bello believed that agriculture was the backbone of the north. He took an active interest in farming throughout his life, and was particularly concerned with issues of water, and the introduction of new technology into grassroots-level farming. He believed that local farmers would seize the opportunities for self-improvement if provided with resources and incentives. He also saw agriculture as providing a basis for industrialization in the north, especially in the cash-crop areas of cotton and groundnuts.” Whenever inter-ethnic contestations occur, as happened in 2021, and embargo is placed on the supply of food items to the South from the North, throwing the agricultural economy of the South into a tail-spin and resulting in food insufficiency scare, remember, with due adulation, that the ‘food power’ of the North is one of the enduring legacies of the deep foresight of one man – Sir Ahmadu Bello.
The amazing foresight and sound developmental trajectory of Sir Ahmadu Bello have led Aye-Ebene and Garuba to remark: “Unfortunately, what we have witnessed in recent times in parts of Northern Nigeria is a reversal of the gains attained through the innovations pursued by Sir Ahmadu Bello in education and the all-out war he prosecuted against illiteracy and ignorance. We are witnessing a reinstatement of pre-colonial attitudes towards secular education in parts of Northern Nigeria, which has led in part to the emergence of the phenomenon of ‘Boko Haram.’” In addition, they declared as follows: “In our opinion, the present crop of Northern Nigerian elites who claim descent from the Sardauna’s political philosophy and claim legitimacy by his name have in fact departed from the Ahmadu Bello Way. By fixating almost exclusively on holding on to political power and office at the federal level, the present crop of Northern Nigeria elites, demonstrate a lack of passion and commitment to the people and the pragmatism depicted by the Ahmadu Bello legacy.”
This notwithstanding, a grateful people converged on Maiduguri on 27 January, 2024 for the 10th Annual Sir Ahmadu Bello Memorial Lecture Series organised by the Sir Ahmadu Bello Memorial Foundation with the theme “Creating pathways for peace: tackling banditry and insurgency through good governance for sustainable development.” At the occasion, the Gombe State Governor and Chairman of the Northern Governors’ Forum, Alhaji Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya, in his keynote address, spoke as follows about unsalutary disconnection: “Somehow, a serious disconnect exits … between the people and the government, between politics and politicians themselves and between the total system and the connectivity with development.” According to the Governor, “To my dismay and I believe to the dismay of virtually everybody here the North that was monolithic, that was thinking almost in one line, that was acting one line obtained [desirable] results in those days up to 1966. But, unfortunately, we’ve allowed elements of disunity, Merchants, Merchants of poverty and hunger; because whoever thinks of only himself is a merchant of poverty to the people, is a merchant of disease and hunger to the people. We’ve allowed them to take sway and lead.”
Governor Yahaya continued: “I must plead with all of us to accept that the reality on ground demands that we must change style. We must change style and we shouldn’t fear any amendment of the Constitution … If you say restructuring, fine and good, but restructure for the better with clear guidelines, with a mindset that you are not out to cheat anybody. Don’t fear resource control, because the North has [abundant resources].”
There was also a lot of truth-talking at the programme. For example, the former Governor of Niger State, Dr. Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu, Chairman, Ahmadu Bello Memorial Foundation, remarked as follows: “It is disheartening today to observe that even employments of government are for sale. People buy employment. Imagine a person buying employment let’s say level eight at three million Naira. How long will it take him to recoup his own money? Then will he be loyal to the government and to the country knowing that he bought that job?” The Governor of Borno State, Professor Babagana Umara Zulum, also drew attention to profligacy. According to the Governor, “How much have we spent in hosting this occasion? What quantum of money has been sunk in chattering aircraft to Maiduguri for this occasion? … Our overhead costs are too high. What has been spent in organizing this conference can bring about 1,000 out of poverty.
A 2022 National Bureau of Statistics report states as follows: “Poverty levels across States vary significantly, with the incidence of multidimensional poverty ranging from a low of 27% in Ondo to a high of 91% in Sokoto.” Sir Ahmadu Bello’s Sokoto! Incidentally, the Governor of Niger State, Mallam Muhammad Umaru Bago, has decided to re-enact the Sir Ahmadu Bello agricultural success, with the Governor declaring: “As a government we have seen that ungoverned spaces in the state are also responsible for this kind of menace [banditry and insurgency]. So, we are putting so much resources in clearing of land and preparing it for agri-production. We are deploying technology and mechanization, so that we can become an agri-giant. … By 2027 by the grace of God, nobody will earn less than 1 million naira monthly from my farm and I can assure you a lot of civil servants will desert … their offices and come to the farm.
His Excellency Ambassador Professor Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, former Vice-Chancellor of Usmanu dan University, Sokoto, and Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, who was the Guest Speaker at the programme, noted that “any problem affecting the northern part of Nigeria is a problem for Nigeria as a whole … in the same way that a problem dealing with any part of Nigeria is a problem for Northern Nigeria.” He further remarked: “The Sardauna and his colleagues developed a vision of a prosperous, self-reliant and self-assured Northern Region which was their responsibility. They created, repurposed and reinvigorated institutions to make their vision a reality.” Professor Muhammad-Bande also noted: “The danger is simply today the gap between the self-serving preoccupations of today’s elite and the existential realities of the multitude is progressively widening. We cannot continue to widen the gap between the rich and the poor … and then expect peace. You cannot sleep with your two eyes closed if there is this level of injustice. It has to be addressed.” In the opinion of former Govenor Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu, “as Borno State and the Northeast region has been the theatre of warfare for the last 10 to 15 years, we need a symbiotic relationship between government, the governors and the people, in the Northern states.”
Considering the consensus of opinion and pledges of pragmatic action by the governors to reposition the North by connecting and reconnecting as appropriate, it is hoped that the 11th Sir Ahmadu Bello Memorial Lecture Series next year would be dominated by pragmatic reviews of how far the Northern elite have gone in the path-finding, self-confident and altruistic footsteps of the Sardauna of Sokoto.
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