Déjà vu

The rising Gestapo-style harassments of opposition politicians by executive branch of the federal government are a nauseating replay of the political recklessness that prematurely terminated the First Republic in 1966. The parallels are very troubling. Indeed, as has been said elsewhere, the Nigerian politician evidently learnt little or nothing from the tragic fate of that republic. Partly seized of that observation I had few years ago started writing a novel around the reported activities leading to the January 15, 1966 fateful date, but called it off due to limited time for extra curricula. But the recent hard-to-fathom siege on the National Assembly by the Department of State Security (DSS) prompted me to snatch a glance at the abandoned draft. I should like to share Chapter 1 of the draft with fellow compatriots, lest we forget:

 

“AERIAL VIEWS OF Nigeria’s over nine hundred thousand square kilometers landmass gave the impression of a monolithically stable agrarian country. The pea-nuts driven northern region seemed to work hand-in-glove with both the eastern and western regions, driven by palm fruit and cocoa respectively. But in spite of that seeming national stability, the pre-independence separating forces that had strained Nigeria’s seams persisted years after the indigenous administrators had taken control of their national affairs from the British colonial administration in 1960. Regional differences on the preferred hand-over date, and a controversial census exercise immediately preceding the election that gave power to the northern region had been at the center of the unremitting tensions. These tensions became heightened by the ‘doctored’ 1963 census exercise, which was purportedly conducted to placate the aggrieved two southern regions. Contrasting their extensive littoral boundary-regions on the Atlantic Ocean against the ‘harsh hinterlands of the northern region,’ the southern regions insisted the north was less populated than the south, contrary to the census’ figures. Thus the tensions continued to mount even as 1963 drew to a close. 

Those inter-regional tensions inexorably approached their zenith in 1965. It was an election year in Nigeria. National elections usually presented daunting challenges in Nigeria because the three leading political parties were essentially regional. Political alliance was a necessary condition for attaining the constitutionally stipulated two-thirds of the national votes to emerge victorious. In the 1965 election the ruling Northern Peoples Party (NPP) was in a fledgling alliance with the Progressive Party (PP) of the western region, leaving the eastern region’s Oriental Movement Party (OMP) in the opposition. There had been emerging evidence suggesting that the NPP-PP alliance was being threatened by lingering irreconcilable differences on foreign policies concerning the Middle East in general, and the new state of Israel in particular. That possible disintegration was causing the leadership of NPP great concerns. Those concerns assumed anxious proportions on the heels of OMP’s recent confirmation that the hugely popular incumbent premier of the eastern region, Mister Ita Bassey Ita, was the party’s candidate for the 1965 Prime Ministerial election.

Mister Ita’s significance in the emerging post-independence Nigeria had remained in the mainstream of national discourse, following his hard-won judicial victory. He had wrested from the all-powerful federal government monies accruing to his region from the trouble-ridden resource control fund (RCF). He achieved this barely twenty-four months after assuming the premiership in 1961. The NPP-led national government had seen that victory as a major blow to its powers. In the words of the inimitable Premier Samahu Idris of the northern region, the victory denied the federal government of ‘an effective means of checking the excesses of the opposition.’ And when in late 1963, the socialist-leaning Ghanaian president had proposed the formation of an African Military High Command by independent nations, Nigeria’s Prime Minister Ibrahim Gambo had dismissed the idea as ‘premature for emerging African states.’ Premier Ita had fervently endorsed the Pan Africanist’s proposal, calling it ‘a logical imperative in relation to the threat of neocolonialism.’ Local intelligentsia and the working classes sided with the populist premier.

In the northern region capital city of Kaduna, a secret meeting occasioned by Mister Ita’s candidacy was in session in the premier’s lodge. The time was one hour thirty-eight minutes past midnight, yet the intense discussions, which started about four hours before midnight continued. Emptied bottles of fruit juice lay about the room, richly decorated with a Middle Eastern flair. All but three of the discussants sat on colourful Persian rugs. The aristocratic trio sat in throne-like chairs after a fashion that left even a cursory on-looker in no doubt about their enormous powers.

‘As I say, Prime Minister, you should emphasize to the chief justice the need to set up the commission of inquiry not later than a fortnight after the hand-over… Strict adherence to the agreed timelines is of utmost importance…’ the heavily turbaned of the trio was saying, but was gently interrupted by Alhaji Ibrahim Gambo’s ‘Needless to say; needless to say, Premier.’

‘The idea here is to enable the commission of inquiry to publish the names of all those who are to appear before it before the electoral commission completes its screening of all candidates. We should be seen at all times to be acting within the bounds of the law.’

‘Absolutely,’ again agreed the golden voiced Prime Minister, scribbling in his diary.

The time was twenty-seven minutes past three o’clock in the morning when the marathon meeting finally came to a close. About six hours after, two of the discussants who had sat on the colourful rugs would fly with the Prime Minister to the national capital city of Lagos. There, they would take leave of the Prime Minister and then travel by road to the western region capital city of Ibadan to deliver another secret message to Chief Ladi Akinola, the Progressive Party’s irrepressible premiership candidate for the 1965 election.

In keeping with his routine whenever the Prime Minister returned from a trip outside the national capital, the Minister of the Interior again called at the Prime Minister’s water-front official residence on Marina Street. The nine o’clock nightly news had just begun when Mallam Yusuf stepped into Alhaji Gambo’s private sitting room;  as though on cue, the four other persons in the cozy room took their leave no sooner than the minister had relieved his legs, exchanging pleasantries in Arabic with the Prime Minister.

‘Congratulations Mallam; I just heard on the news that the restive students have finally agreed to return to their classrooms…’

‘Thank you, Prime Minister. This spate of protests really stretched our resources; we would have had dire challenges had they continued for another week. Honestly, Alhaji, there would have been serious security issues.’

‘I wonder why they can’t carry out their protests without attacking the police. I mean, what’s the use in sending these children to school to acquire the skills to express themselves, if they always have to resort to violence at the least provocation? We didn’t see this pattern of protests in our student days.’

‘Certainly not,’ helpfully put in Mallam Yusuf, ‘this is a strange departure from university tradition. Our intelligence people are developing a theory that there might be some outside influence…’

‘You mean like from unscrupulous politicians?’

‘Exactly, sir; There is hardly any other way to explain the source of the caliber of weapons that are found on these boys; honestly.’

The Minister’s response instantly invoked Prime Minister Gambo’s characteristic fixed stare. A male steward in a spot-less white uniform entered the room, bearing a steaming pot of tea and teacups on silver tray. The dignified duo barely acknowledged him as he proceeded to empty the impressively crested pot into the cups in turn. In another moment the steward left the room.

‘It seems to me your intelligence people and The Kalifa have been comparing notes of late…’

‘I do not quite follow, sir,’ interjected the Minister, darting a glance at the Prime Minister.

‘Mallam, our Premier is a resolute believer in the laws of science. You probably would recall your secondary school laws of motion and stability… You know, about how every action results in an equal and opposite reaction; and how every body would remain in its state of equilibrium until acted upon by an external force. The Kalifa believes, in a like inner, that every society or social-setting would continue in its state of stability until it comes under external influence.’

‘Mallam Samahu Idris is as much a scientist as he is a political and spiritual leader; his school of thought aligns perfectly with that of our intelligence people.’

‘That school of thought has led us to make new resolutions at our latest meeting,’ resumed the Prime Minister with Mallam Yusuf again darting a glance at his companion, his breath virtually bated. ‘We resolved that some external influence must in large part account for all the headaches we have been getting from the eastern region, particularly under the leadership of Mr. Etah. The socialist flavour of his economic programmes has led us to suspect that some communist country with territorial ambitions might be the source of finances for the region’s unequalled economic success story…’

‘Hmm, that makes a lot of sense; I have always wondered about that, now this offers some possible explanation for all the firsts of the region: first free primary education, first radio station, first television station, first free primary health care, first bottling company,’ thoughtfully interjected the pensive minister, still looking unwaveringly at his host.

‘Therefore, we further resolved to set up a commission of inquiry to thoroughly look into the finances of the region soon after the June hand-over of offices,’ explained the Prime Minister, prompting his audience of one to quickly call to mind some of the many less-than-conscionable assignments he had had to undertake as the then inspector-general of police on behalf of Alhaji Gambo, as the then deputy Prime Minister and Minister of defence. More often than not these assignments had tended to run foul of the national constitution, Mallam Yusuf thought. Still, he contemplated the Prime Minister as he focused more on the imminent commission of inquiry.

‘As you well know Mallam…’

‘Sorry to interrupt, sir; I’m at a loss here. l was wondering how mere acceptance of funds from a friendly communist country could pass as an infringement of our national interests.’

Alhaji Gambo stared at the minister as though seeing him for the first time that evening.

‘Honourable Minister, it is a potential security breach for any part of the country to associate with any nation that expressly denies the existence of Allah!’

‘But the east is a staunch Christian region, and has been so for…’

‘But don’t forget those millions of hard currency always come with inflexible conditions, yes?’

‘Yes; but religion can’t possibly be one of those conditions. Em, that would be asking for too much of a people.’

‘If you give a people much money you are at liberty to demand much from them. Mallam, when you consider the quantum of economic projects that came into being at a period when the region didn’t have access to their RCF money, you would agree that much money flowed into the east from somewhere. Even Christianity recognizes that to whom much is given, much is expected.

No doubt, Mallam, you would agree that such an association could jeopardize our national aspirations, and therefore should be identified and promptly uprooted. That’s exactly what the commission of inquiry will set out to achieve,’ the Prime Minister conclusively asserted with an uncertain facial expression that suggested to his guest that they were sinister motives behind the proposed commission of inquiry.”

                                                                                               

Afam Nkemdiche is an engineering consultant; August 2018