BELLO: ARCHITECT OF EXTREME HATRED
By Dr. James C. Agazie, jamesagazie@gmail.com
There was a Nigerian who attempted
to destroy the moral fiber of my country, whose words and acts had a profound
influence upon this writer, and who would go down in history as author of the
darkest and briefest mark as the architect of hatred, bigotry, and disunity. The
purpose of this essay is to trace the beginning of Nigeria’s downward slide
into infamy to one man. He was named Sir Ahmadu Bello, Sardauna of Sokoto,Premier
of Northern Nigeria, leader of the Northern People’s Congress, and champion of
the iniquitous Northernization Policy. What
an impressive, jaw-breaking title to be accorded a politician who was so
hateful of one of the major tribes in
his nation as to be reserved a place at wherever Adolf Hitler is.
Ahmadu Bello hated everything
about me and my kindred with the most disgusting odium. Odium is defined as the
most pronounced abhorrence, revulsion, disgust, loathing, or hatred. After
being beaten in intelligence by other boys in school, Bello had a lifelong
aversion to the Igbos. Aversion is a strong feeling of dislike, repugnance, or
antipathy. It is amazing how a so-called
leader could have extreme dislike for some of the people he was called upon to
represent in his community. Watch the video http://www.nairaland.com/1804356/ahmadu-bello-declares-hatred-igbos. Here, Bello bares his troubled soul through his
bigoted, hateful, and incendiary remarks. You cannot help but feel pity and
sorrow for him.
Though Belo was famous as the
founding father of Northern Nigeria, he is now notorious, having earned a reputation as the destroyer of
Northern Nigeria. It appears that the
chicken has come home to roost in that the aim of Boko haram is to continue the
destruction where Sir Alhaji Armadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto, Premier of
Northern Nigeria, had left off.
In an essay dated 01/16/12, and entitled To
Those Who Clamor For “A Continued One Nigeria:” Stop! It’s Too Late, Ikechukwu
Enyiagu (ike.enyiagu@gmail.com) assembled a few anti-Igbo utterances leaders of
the Northern Nigeria House of Assembly made between Feb and march, 1964, to
support the view that illiteracy is the worst blight or disfigurement a leader
in modern Africa should have in the 21st Century.
“I am very glad that we are
in Moslem country (sic), and the government of Northern Nigeria allowed some
few Christians in the region, to enjoy themselves according to the belief of
their religion, but building of hotels should be taken away from the Ibos and
even if we find some 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.”-Mr. A. A. Agigede
“I am one of the strong
believers in Nigerian unity, and I have hoped for our having a United Nigeria,
but certainly if the present trend of affairs continues, then I hope the
government will investigate first the desirability and secondly the possibility
of extending the Northernization policy to the petty Ibo traders
[Applause].”-Prof. Iya Abubakar (special Member: Lecturer, Ahmadu Bello
University, Zaria)
“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 members of these Ibos
be 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.”-Mallam
Mukhtar Bello
“On the allocations of plots
to Ibos, or allocation of stalls I would like to advise the minister that these
people know how to make money and we do not know the way and manner of getting
about this business. We do not want Ibos to be allocated with plots; I do not
want them to be given plots.”-Mallam Muhammadu Mustapha Maude Gyari
“I would like you, as the
Minister of land and Survey, to revoke forthwith all certificates of occupancy
from the hands of the Ibos resident in the Region [Applause from the assembly
floor].”-Mallam Bashari Umaru
“It is my most earnest desire
that every post in the region, however small it is, be filled by a Northerner
[Applause].”-The Premier, Sir Ahmadu Bello, Sarduana of Sokoto
Bello did much harm to my nation
through his ubiquitous Northernization Policy that denied opportunities to
non-Northerners and in turn brought poverty, misery, and illiteracy to the people he wanted to protect the
most. This writer was merely a child when he was kicked out of the North at the
instigation of Bello immediately after completion of a secondary school. He was
not allowed to complete the Higher School in order to gain entrance into the
university. He was sent packing to the south. I was forbidden (not allowed) to enroll
in any of the North’s post -secondary institutions. My heinous crime was being
Igbo. Although Bello tried his best to
derail my future, providence has a way of working things out.
My family and I were in the North
most of our lives. It was in the North that we lived, worked , made our contributions to what was then Northern Region
of Nigeria. It was in the North that we died. Could Bello see thousands of
Southerners, particularly Igbos, in the trenches doing what kept him ruling,
mismanaging and destroying the North? Haba! I cry: “Allah, if you really are god, why did
You curse my nation through one man’s wickedness? It is dangerous to be in the
hands of an angry god, isn’t it?”
Bello’s speeches and activities
as Premier of Northern Nigeria did more disservice and harm to the country as a
whole and wasted billions of shillings that were siphoned off overseas to the fearful
and tearful detriment of my beloved Hausa, Fulani, and Kanuri children to whom
Bello’s hatefulness denied quality education.
Bello must have been a closet
boko haranist in that he abhorred education having obtained none himself other
than rudimentary Arabic and unaccredited koranic training that does not qualify
a monkey to hold a wrench much less run a nation just out of the clutches of
colonization.
I remember too well, as a child
as if it were yesterday, when Bello landed in our then Benue Plateau town on a
visit. Bello enquired into the tribe of the principal at the Methodist Teachers’ College in the town, and
upon, discovering that the college had Igbo head, ordered that the principal be
replaced with a Northerner. His wishes were carried out promptly (as if a god
had spoken), though the college was built and run by Igbos and white
missionaries. My little town was engulfed in fear which destroyed and continues
to destroy education for Northern Nigerian children. Most Nigerians remember the feared dictator Sani
Abacha, whose death while in power ushered in a return to a semblance of democracy for the nation in
1999. I swear that Bello was to education what Abacha was to democracy in my
nation. Both were paranoid, ostentatious destroyers. Cry for my beloved country!
Bello spelt (spelled) doom and the
painful death of education in Nigeria. South African Alan Paton who wrote Cry The Beloved Country urges Africans
to shed hot tears for their raped fatherland, must have had Bello in mind. Dear
readers, please re-read some of the
most ignorant and absurd pronouncements of hebephrenic Moslem heads entrusted
with the awesome task of leading my home in the early years of her independence. If these politicians were not early
forefathers of boko haran jihadhsts, they must be responsible for shepherding
the North on its present path of devastation.
The speeches made by Bello and
his compatriots can make one cringe with anguish. The speeches can be described as being virulent, vituperative,
malicious, slanderous, and unbecoming of worshippers of allah whom Nigerians
are increasingly beginning to associate
with an idol that relishes violence, that drinks blood from the necks of
beheaded women, that relishes fetuses
gutted out of pregnant women, and enjoys hatred and murder of defenseless children
dying from kwashiokor. People with conscience would wish that Ahmadu Belo and
his ilks go down in history’s chapter of infamy
as a leader most notorious,
traitorous, treacherous, faithless, and perfidious.
Evil things are happening in
Nigeria because my People refuse to speak the TRUTH. We Nigerians ought to be
emboldened to speak the indestructible TRUTH whenever pieces of absurdity,
illogicality, untruth, irrationality, silliness, or bunkum come out of the foul-mouthed
oral cavity of so-called Nigerian leaders.
Truth is the only thing that would save Nigeria.
Bello cannot, should not, and
must not be accorded a prominent place in my history book. He does not have the first or the last word. Nigeria is a joyful party of song and dance that shall not end
until the blissful lady named Truth dances. Bello’s chapter is defaced by millions of others whose
acts and thoughts will shine light that drives away a darkened, sickening mark
in my history book.
There are millions of Fulanis,
Hausas, and Bello’s fellow brothers and sisters who disagreed and still
disagree with what Bello stood for. They must speak up or forever remain
silent. The following thoughts are directed to those Vocal Majority who
disagree with Bello, and are taken from:
https://paradoxologies.org/2010/08/28/martin-luther-king-jr-on-complacency-mlk/
Our lives begin to
end the day we become silent about things that matter. Nothing in the world is
more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
The hottest place
in Hell is reserved for those who remain neutral in times of great moral
conflict.
The ultimate
measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience,
but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
The ultimate
tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence
over that by the good people.
We will remember
not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.
Pity may represent
little more than the impersonal concern which prompts the mailing of a check,
but true sympathy is the personal concern which demands the giving of one’s
soul.
Shallow
understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute
misunderstanding from people of ill will.
The first question
which the priest and the Levite asked was: “If I stop to help this man, what
will happen to me?” But… the good Samaritan reversed the question: “If I do not
stop to help this man, what will happen to him?”
In the End, we will remember not the words of
our enemies, but the silence of our friends. He who passively accepts evil is
as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it.
He who accepts evil
without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.
History will have to record that the greatest
tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the
bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.
Every man must
decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the
darkness of destructive selfishness.
Prepared by Dr.
James C. Agazie, jamesagazie@gmail.com
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