The Northern Region and independence

When the British joined the Northern and Southern Protectorates in 1914, the North was by far the larger partner: in the decades that followed it held more than half of Nigeria’s people and a large majority of its land. Indirect rule (see the chapter on Sokoto) had kept emirs in office, but it had also left the region with far fewer Western-style schools than the south. Northern leaders went into the independence period determined to catch up, and to protect the region’s autonomy.

The dominant political figure was Ahmadu Bello (1910–1966), the Sardauna of Sokoto, a descendant of the dan Fodio family who had lost a contest for the sultanate in 1938 and then turned to politics. As leader of the Northern People’s Congress he became the first and only Premier of the Northern Region (1954–1966), governing from Kaduna. His colleague Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, from Bauchi, became Prime Minister of the federation, and Nigeria became independent on 1 October 1960. The Premier’s “Northernisation” policy gave preference to northerners in public jobs, and in 1962 Ahmadu Bello University opened in Zaria.

Not everyone agreed with the new order. The Northern Elements Progressive Union (NEPU), led by Aminu Kano, challenged the power of the emirate aristocracy and argued for the commoners, the talakawa. The singer Mamman Shata was among its supporters in the 1950s. Salamone’s informants in Yauri also remember pressure for conversion to Islam during the Premier’s years, when teachers (mallamai) were sent to villages; the account is one person’s memory, but it shows that religion and politics were closely linked.