Tafawa balewa biography books
Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa
Fahad |1 Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Fahad |2 Ethics and Leadership American University of Nigeria School of Arts and Sciences The Biography of Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Submitted by Fahad Umar, A November, Fall Course Instructor: Professor Osam Edim Temple Fahad |3 Intoduction Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa (He is also referred to as Alhaji, having performed the Muslim pilgrimage at Macca.
He 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 election was surrounded by controversy and allegations of vote-rigging.
He was assassinated in an Igno-led military coup in January , the prelude to the Nigerian Civil War and to three decades of non-civilian rule, until the restoration of democracy in Committed to the federal system, Bellew responded to the civil unrest that followed the election by devolving, on an emergency basis, more power to the regions.
From the North, he defended Northern interests but also promoted national unity. However, the reality of the Nigerian situation mitigated against national unity. His assassination was followed by civil war and continued regional rivalry. If Nigerians could somehow have wiped the slate Fahad |4 clean in , founding new political associations with national unity as the dominant motif, not communitarian and regional interest, a different history may have followed.
Balewa's instinct was for unity but he was too entrenched in the communitarian system to nurture this in his young nation. Nonetheless, his legacy can inspire Nigerians as they seek to knit a common national identity and to order their state so that all citizens are treated equally. In contrast with the largely aristocratic ruling elite in the north, many of whose ancestry derives from royal lineage, Balewa had very humble origins.
His father was a slave who rose in service of the Madaki of Bauchi and became a district head. According to family oral history, Balewa’s paternal grandfather Isa was murdered in front of his family by his rival’s agents. Isa’s widow then took her infant son to Bauchi, where the Madaki of Bauchi took her in. Abubakar was born in December in the village of Tafawa Balewa, in modern day Bauchi state.
He was his father’s only child. The name of his birthplace was appended to Abubakar’s name (Abubakar Tafawa Balewa). Tafawa Balewa village takes its name from two corrupted Fulani words: “Tafari” (rock) and Baleri (black).
Biography books free: Twelve informants were interviewed from different Nigerian government parastatals and higher institutions. That this House authorizes the Government of the Federation of Nigeria to request Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom as soon as practicable to introduce a legislation in the Parliament of the United Kingdom providing for the establishment of the Federation of Nigeria on October 1, as an Independent Sovereign State, and to request Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom at the appropriate time to support with the other Member Governments of the Commonwealth, Nigeria's desire to become a member of the Commonwealth. Events and themes in the novel deal with the trans-Saharan slave trade , familial relationships and Islamic themes of submission to the will of God. This novella the author's only major literary work and a bestseller in his native country was first published in
This may have contributed to the “Black Rock” nickname he acquired in later life. Although it is widely (incorrectly) presumed that he was Hausa, Balewa’s father Yakubu Dan Zala was in fact of Bageri ethnicity, and his mother Fatima Inna was Fulani. Education Balewa was among the first northerners to get a western education. He attended Quaranic school and learnt the first chapter of the Qur'an by heart.
For his Western education he attended Bauchi Provincial School. According to his teacher and classmates he was a shy, quiet and not outstanding student. Although reserved by nature, he did commit a disciplinary Fahad |5 infraction when he was caught outside school without permission, and smoking with his friends to boot. He was whipped as punishment.
One of his juniors at school was Nuhu Bamalli (later Foreign Minister). He later attended Katsina Teacher Training College () and graduated with a third class certificate.
Tafawa balewa biography books pdf He attended Quaranic school and learnt the first chapter of the Qur'an by heart. It marks the beginning of the last stage of our march toward independence and all of us who are here today should be thankful to Almighty God who has given us the opportunity to witness the events of this most memorable time. Nonetheless, here is a legacy that can inspire Nigerians as they seek to knit a common national identity and to order their state so that all citizens are treated equally. The three regions then were composed of diverse cultural groups.His best subject was unsurprisingly, English. He became a teacher and irritated by a friend's remark that no Northerner had ever passed the exam for a Senior Teacher's Certificate, Balewa duly sat the exam, and obtained the Certificate. He became headmaster of the Bauchi Middle School. He reported that the first white woman he ever set eyes on was Dame Margery Perham (a renowned academic on African affairs) when she visited Nigeria on an investigation of native administration.
In he and other northerners (including Aminu Kano) obtained a scholarship to study at the University of London’s Institute of Education (), where he received a teacher’s certificate in history. When he returned to Nigeria he said he now saw the world with “new eyes”. Balewa said he: “returned to Nigeria with new eyes, because I had seen people who lived without fear, who obeyed the law as part of their nature, who knew individual liberty”.
Tafawa balewa biography books free He was also instrumental in negotiations between Moise Tshombe and the Congolese authorities during the Congo Crisis of — Until Nigeria became a republic in , a Governor-General—Nnamdi Azikiwe—continued to represent the British monarch. Balewa, during his premiership, attached great importance to its Commonwealth membership, declaring in a UN speech, "we shall not forget our old friends. Education [ edit ].He returned to Nigeria as a Native Authority Education Officer. Balewa administration Balewa entered the government in , as Minister of Works, and later served as Minister of Transport. In , 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 , and was reelected in Between and , he was also foreign minister. Fahad |6 Prior to Nigeria's independence, a constitutional conference, in , 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 and , 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, 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 , elections were held for the federal House of Representatives. Seats were allotted according to regional population. The North had out of 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 stategovernment 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 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 , a Governor-General—Nnamdi Azikiwe—continued to represent the British monarch. In , Azikiwe became Nigeria's first President. Fahad |7 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.
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 He led a vocal protest against the Sharpeville Massacre of and also entered into an alliance with Commonwealth ministers who wanted South Africa to leave the Commonwealth in 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 Rhgodesia's unilateral declaration of independence Throughout the mid s Nigeria descended into a chaos.
It soon became unsafe even in the day to drive along the nation’s highways. The country was torn by ethnic violence, much of it directed to igbos, southerners who had managed to gain key influence in Nigeria’s bureaucracy and military.
Balewa failed to keep ethnic differences in the new country from tearing his government apart. In the end it cost him and most of Nigeria’s Fahad |8 political leadership their lives in military coup. By the end of Balewa was presiding over a corrupt, arrogant government. The administration ignored Nigeria’s constitution adopted at independence.
His administration is known to have conducted voter fraud that favoured the electoral interests of the northerners. His party’s candidates won elections because election officials simply refused to list the names of the opposition candidates on ballots. Despite Balewa’s short comings he played a leading role in creating the federation of Nigeria out of three warring ethnic groups.
As the prime minister from to , Balewa was the most powerful political leader in Africa’s giant western republic during its first years of independence from Britain. He was also an agent of change in the particularly in the Fulani Hausa region of old Nigeria. He supported Nigeria’s move toward independence after World War II () and soon gained respect in the debate for the region’s future.
The daunting task faced by Balewa and his fellow politicians was to balance the interests of each region so that a national identity could be nurtured and shaped and the rights of all citizens could be honored. With various factions pulling in different directions, some favoring membership of an even larger polity, some wanting a large measure of regional autonomy, some determined to privilege their community over others, this daunting task bordered on the impossible.
To his credit, in his effort to restore order Balewa did not declare a state of emergency or suspend the elected assemblies but tried to devolve power from the center. However, discontent in the Igbo dominated East, which especially feared domination by the North as well as by the Yoruba from the West, spilled over into an armed rebellion led by Major Emmanuel Ifeajuna and Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu.
Fahad |9 Death and Beyond On January 15, he was kidnapped from his official residence by armed soldiers who were executing Nigeria’s first military coup. He was missing for several days and a search for him was ordered by the new military regime headed by Major-General AguiyiIronsi. His family and friends continued to believe he was alive.
Rumours claimed the rebel soldiers were holding him alive and that he would be released as part of a prisoner swap involving the imprisoned Chief Awolowo. However these hopes were dashed when his decomposing corpse was found a few days later, dumped in a roadside bush. His corpse was taken to Ikeja airport in the company of Police Commissioner Hamman Maiduguri, Inspector-General of Police Kam Selem, Maitama Sule and his wives Laraba and Jummai who accompanied it as it was flown to Bauchi where he was buried.
His body now lies inside a tomb declared a national monument. The tomb includes a library and a mosque. The famous race course square in Lagos was renamed “Tafawa Balewa Square” in his memory. His image appears on the 5 Naira note. Legacy and Lessons learnt Belewa may have had to deal with problems which many see as a result of the colonial legacy but he was ever bitter about Britain's role, accepting a knighthood from the Queen and using the title "Sir." In his independence address, he "spoke warmly of Britain's colonial contribution, 'first as masters, then as leaders, finally as partners, but always as friends.'The election fell short of being fair by any standard.
Yet the way in which the political landscape had been constructed made the result a more or less foregone conclusion. This almost makes the violence seem superfluous. Belewa himself is generally regarded as a F a h a d | 10 sincere democrat. His relatively humble origins meant that his own rise to power had to be via the ballot box.
Biography books for 4th graders Hiskett The In , Balewa wrote Shaihu Umar , a novella about a pious Muslim in response to a request by Rupert East, the head of the colonial Translation Bureau, to promote Hausa literature. Click here to sign up. Lagos, Nigeria.He was not, as such—unlike his friend Ahmadu Bello—a member of the tradition Northern elite. On the other hand, he depended on the support of the elite to remain in power and knew that he had to champion Northern interests. He appears, however, to have genuinely wanted to nurture national unity, beyond which he was also concerned with panAfrican unity.
Within the constraints imposed by the political reality, he tried to balance regional interests. His instinct towards pacification is indicated by his response to the post election crises, when, instead of using the military or the power of the central government to clamp down on civil unrest, he delegated the task of establishing order to the regions.
Negatively, Nigeria's degeneration into regional and ethnic conflict appears to confirm how some view and interpret the African reality in the post-colonial space. Ngugi wa Thiong’o has written of how: The study of the African realities has for too long been seen in terms of tribes. Whatever happens in Kenya, Uganda, Malawi is because of Tribe A versus Tribe B.
Whatever erupts in Zaire, Nigeria, Liberia, Zambia is because of the traditional enmity between Tribe D and Tribe C. A variation of the same stock interpretation is Moslem versus Christian or Catholic versus Protestant where a people does not easily fall into "tribes." At issue is whether the reality in which tribal interests do clash, with which Balewa had to deal and which resulted in his murder, are deeply rooted in ancient animosities and hostilities or were write large and exacerbated by colonial policy.
This is not to suggest that rivalries were absent prior to colonialism but they may have been encouraged to justify the claim that without colonial supervision, Africa would degenerate into a blood-bath. The nation-state of Nigeria, with the world's eighth largest population, may not represent a workable entity.
The decision to allocate seats in the legislature proportionate to population ensured Northern F a h a d | 11 domination. Northern participation in the federation, of course, may have depended upon this concession. What Belewa was unable to explore because the party system was already firmly established, and rival agendas mapped out, was a power-sharing arrangement, more like a government of national unity, in which each region and ethnic group had representation.
Had Nigerians wiped the slate clean in , founding new political associations with national unity as the dominant motif, not communitarian and regional interest, a different history may have followed. Balewa's instinct was for unity, though he was too entrenched in the communitarian system to nurture this in his young nation.
Nonetheless, here is a legacy that can inspire Nigerians as they seek to knit a common national identity and to order their state so that all citizens are treated equally. Conclusion As prime minister, Tafawa Balewa developed a favorable reputation in international circles. He was considered a pro-Western leader but was very critical of South African racial policies and of French plans to test atomic devices in the Sahara.
His last public act was to convene a Commonwealth Conference in Lagos to discuss action against the white supremacist unilateral declaration of independence by Rhodesia. Throughout his career Tafawa Balewa played a leading role in national policy making. In in the Northern House of Assembly he had advocated fundamental reforms to the system of Native Authorities in the North, a proposal highly unpopular among many of the Northern leaders.
Throughout the s he participated with great skill in the discussions on constitutional reform which ultimately led to independence. Nevertheless, Tafawa Balewa often seemed limited in his own personal power, because as vice president of the NPC he was answerable theoretically to Sir Ahmadu Bello, premier of the Northern Region and president of the NPC.
Some observers have concluded that this relationship with Bello hindered F a h a d | 12 Tafawa Balewa in handling the major crises which arose in the first years of Nigeria's independence. It was one of these crises, the Western Region elections of , which led to chaos in the Western Region and was the immediate cause of the downfall of Tafawa Balewa's government.
In January a discontented segment of the army attempted a coup d'etat in which Tafawa Balewa was kidnaped and murdered. F a h a d | 13 Works Cited. “Abubakar Tafawa Balewa”. African Biography. Detroit: U.X.L, An imprint of Gale research, Print Clark, Trevor. A Right Honourable Gentleman, the life and times of Alhaji sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa.
Zaria: Huda huda Publishing Company. Print “Balewa Sir Abubakar Tafawa”. Africa who’s who. London: Africa books limited 2nd ed. Print Abegunrin, Olayiwola. Nigerian Foreign Policy Under Military Rule, Westport, CT: Praeger. Cooper, Frederick. Africa Since The Past of the Present. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Thiongo Wa Ngugi.
Tafawa balewa biography books Balewa's term in office was turbulent, with regional factionalism constantly threatening his government. Apparently, in the second section, the contribution and limitations of the OAU in approaching the Nigerian civil war is evaluated. Political views [ edit ]. In office 1 October — 15 JanuaryA grain of wheat. Ibadan: African Writers Series. Print