Early life and career.
Abubakar Balewa was born in Bauchi, the son of a Bageri Muslim district head in the Bauchi divisional district of Lere. Unlike many other Nigerian leaders, his background was relatively humble. He started early education at the Koranic School in Bauchi and like most of his contemporaries, he studied at the Katsina College for further education and soon acquired his teaching certificate. He returned to Bauchi to teach at the Bauchi Middle School. In 1944, along with a few learned teachers from the north, he was chosen to study abroad for a year at the University of London’s Institute of Education. After returning to Nigeria, he became an Inspector of Schools for the colonial administration and later entered politics. Nominated as a candidate by the Baluchi Native Authority, in 1946, he was elected to the colony’s Northern House of Assembly. In 1947, the Assembly appointed him to the Legislative Council. As a legislator, he was a vocal advocate of the rights of northern Nigeria, and together with Alhaji Ahmadu Bello, who held the hereditary title of (Sardauna) of Sokoto, he founded the Northern People’s Congress (NPC) becoming its Vice-President. Bello was President.
Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa (He is also referred to as Alhaji, having performed the Muslim pilgrimage at Mecca.) (December 1912 – January 15, 1966) was a Nigerian politician, and the first prime minister of an independent Nigeria. Originally a trained teacher, he became a vocal leader for Northern interest as one of the few educated Nigerians of his time. He was also an international statesman, widely respected across the African continent as one of the leaders who encouraged the formation of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) (later the African Union. He also encouraged cooperation between the former British and former French colonies. During his period in office, Balewa was faced with competing regional interests, rivalry between different political parties each of which were organized on regional as well as tribal lines representing the Hausa and Fulani north, the Yoruba south-west, and the Igbo or Ibo south-east. He also had to contend with different visions of how Nigeria should be organized. On the one hand, some wanted union with neighboring states within a larger Federation. On the other hand, some wanted regional autonomy and a weak federal government. The December 1964 election was surrounded by controversy and allegations of vote-rigging. He was assassinated in an Igno-led military coup in January 1966, the prelude to the Nigerian Civil War and to three decades of non-civilian rule, until the restoration of democracy in 1999.
Balewa administration.
Balewa entered the government in 1952, as Minister of Works, and later served as Minister of Transport. In 1957, he was elected Chief Minister, forming a coalition government between the Northern People’s Congress (NPC) and the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC), led by Nnamdi Azikiwe. He retained the post as prime minister when Nigeria gained independence in 1960, and was reelected in 1964. Between 1960 and 1963, he was also foreign minister.
Prior to Nigeria’s independence, a constitutional conference, in 1954, had adopted a regional political framework for the country, with all regions given a considerable amount of political freedom. Meetings were held in London in 1957 and 1958, to draft the constitution, chaired by the British colonial secretary. Belewa led the Nigerian delegation, of which Obafemi Awolowo, premier of the Western region, Nnamdi Azikiwe, premier of the Eastern region, and Bello premier of the Northern region, were members. Respectively, each represented a different party, namely the Action Group (West), the National Conference of Nigerian Citizens (East) and the Northern Peoples Congress, Independence was achieved on October 1, 1960. Although not entirely homogeneous, three regions based on the colonial divisions also represented Nigeria’s different major ethnic communities, namely the Hausa and Fulani (north), Yoruba (south-west), and Igbo or Ibo (south-east).
In December 1959, elections were held for the federal House of Representatives. Seats were allotted according to regional population. The North had 174 out of 312. Azikiwe campaigned for the creation of a mid-west state and for education and health to be a federal responsibility. The Action Group favored a strong central government, weaker state-government and also favored union between Nigeria, Ghana, and Sierre Leone in what would have been a West Africa Federation. The NPC, which campaigned on issues of concern to its Northern constituency and which only nominated candidates in the North, won 142 seats. Balewa was to form a coalition government with the Eastern NCNC (Igbo), becoming Nigeria’s first federal Prime Minister. Bello remained premier of Northern Nigeria. Awolowo was independent Nigeria’s first official leader of the opposition. Until Nigeria became a republic in 1963, a Governor-General—Nnamdi Azikiwe—continued to represent the British monarch. In 1963, Azikiwe became Nigeria’s first President.
The premiers of each region, and some prominent regional leaders, each pursued a policy of guiding their regions against political encroachment from other regional leaders. Different “regional parties worried that their rivals would intrigue with other groups to gain control of the federal government,” which, effectively, was in the hands of the North. “The East and West feared the North, which” says Cooper, “was tightly controlled by an Islamic elite,” of which leaders such as Balewa and Bello were part.[1] Balewa’s term in office was turbulent, with regional factionalism constantly threatening his government. However, as prime minister of Nigeria, he played important roles in the continent’s formative indigenous rule. He was an important leader in the formation of Organization of African Unity and creating a cooperative relationship with French speaking African Countries. He was also instrumental in negotiations between Moise Tshombe and the Congolese authorities during the Congo Crisis of 1960-1964. He led a vocal protest against the Sharpeville Massacre of 1960 and also entered into an alliance with Commonwealth ministers who wanted South Africa to leave the Commonwealth in 1961. That same year, Southern Cameroon opted to become part of the Republic of Cameroon, while Northern Cameroon remained within Northern Nigeria. As a result, the North’s population became much larger than the South’s. He maintained cordial relations with the West but condemned French plans to use the Sahara as a nuclear test zone. One of his last initiatives was convening a Commonwealth meeting in Lagos to discuss how to respond to the white government of Rhodesia’s unilateral declaration of independence.
1964 and 1965 elections.
In December 1964, Nigeria held its second general election. Two coalitions emerged to contest the election, the Nigerian National Alliance (NNA) consisting of the NPC and the Nigerian National Democratic Party, which contested the Action Group in the West (broadly federalist) and the United Progressive Grand Alliance (UPGA) consisting of the NCNC and those members of the Action Group who had not defected to the NNDP. It campaigned on a platform of further sub-dividing the nation along communitarian lines, so that each ethnic group would control their own region with no group being dominated by another. Before the election, controversy about the accuracy of the electoral registers led to allegations of vote-rigging and the UPGA called a boycott. Due to the boycott and widespread dissatisfaction with the electoral process, only four out of fifteen million people eligible to vote did so. Many polling stations in the East did not open, honoring the boycott. In March, 1965 an election was held in those constituencies that had boycotted the December poll. The UPGA ended up with 108 seats, the NNA with 189 of which 162 were held by members of the NNC. Even before the supplementary election was held, Balewa was invited to form his second administration. In November, 1965 election were held in each region. The UPGA, in opposition at the federal level, was determined to consolidate its power in both the Southern regions, the East and the West and the federal territory surrounding the capital. However, these elections were won by the NNA-coalition, despite the opposition’s strong campaign.
Allegations of corruption and fraud followed, as did riots and demonstrations in which about 2,000 people died mainly in the West. Politicians campaigning outside their own regions even found the hotels refused to accommodate them. Responding to this violence, Belawa delegated extraordinary powers to each regional government in an attempt to restore stability. “There were suggestions that Nigeria’s armed forces should restore order” and some officers murmured about the “apparent perversion of the democratic process.” Throughout the election campaign, rumors of intimidation were rampant with kidnapping, harassment and murder. In October 1964, the party leaders met and agreed to “ensure that the elections would be free and fair.” To facilitate this, they also agreed not to contest seats in areas dominated by their rivals. This more or less meant that the positions of each part was known before the actual election. However, given the North’s population advantage, its dominance in the legislature was also assured. Nor did the “intervention” prevent “the descent into anarchy.” Possibly, Balewa’s ability to respond to the situation was hindered by the fact that, although Prime Minister, he was Vice-President, not President, of his party. Party President, Bello, shared a desire to unify the nation but the need to at least consult him before taking a major decision may have handicapped him. Bello had chosen to remain premier of Northern Nigeria rather than accept a position at the center.
