BELLO AND THOSE WHO SOWED EARLY SEEDS OF NIGERIAN DISUNITY

If you cannot stand up and speak the truth, you are as good as a dead Nigerian

The purpose of this piece is to show that the disunity of Nigerian as a nation began soon after independence when Sir Ahmadu Bello, Premier of Northern Nigeria was advocating the removal of  Igbos from Northern Nigeria in 1964. Disunity is defined as the state of not being able to agree about an important issue, namely the Igbo Question (IQ)

Poisonous seeds were sown by previous incompetent politicians championed and led by Ahmadu Bello and now the seeds are being watered by unholy bigots such as Arewa Boys and the Northern Youth who are asking the Igbos to forget the horrors of Biafra and widespread pogroms and vituperation and “to come trade with us.” It is not as  easy as it 1-2-3.

The question is: How does one force a marriage that is in total irreconcilable disarray to prop up together as though nothing has ever gone amiss? There is no marriage where there is no trust not to talk about affection or respect. One wishes there were no Bello, no Northernization Policy, no Arewa threats and no illiterate cattle herdsmen’s beheadings of Christians.

There was a Nigerian who nearly succeeded in early attempt to destroy the moral fiber of my country, and whose words and acts had a profound influence upon this writer.

Ahmadu Bello would go down in annals of Nigerian history as author of the darkest and briefest chapter as the architect of hatred, bigotry, and disunity. Bello is the father of vituperation which is defined as the  verbal abuse or castigation and violent denunciation or condemnation of a group of citizens.

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 and decided to destroy as many as he could muster. Bello had aversion  for Igbos.  Aversion is a strong feeling of dislike, repugnance, or antipathy.  Synonyms  for aversion  are antipathy, hate, repugnance, and dislike.

It is amazing how a so-called popular 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 ought to go down as the most 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 21^st 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 southern Nigeria. 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 a maniac, 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 haramist 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, Bello in absolute ignorance, 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 being run by Igbos and white missionaries. My little town was engulfed in fear which destroyed and continues to destroy education for Northern Nigerian children till this day.

 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!

The name Bello spells the doom and 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 Bello, one of the  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 anarchy and devastation. Down with Bello! 

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 Bello 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 of Nigeria. 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 should be defaced by millions of others whose acts and thoughts will shine light that drives away a darkened, sickening mark  of an evil  man 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 Silent Majority who disagree with Bello but who choose to remain not vocal in order to eat tained meat from Bello’s poisonous banquet table. These thoughts 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.

Previously published by Dr. James C. Agazie, jamesagazie@gmail.com