In 1953 when Northern Nigerians were beginning to consider
secession from the Nigerian colony that would soon be a nation, Nnamdi Azikiwe
gave a speech before the caucus of his political party, the National Council of
Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC) in Yaba, Nigeria on May 12, 1953. That speech,
while not disallowing secession, suggested that there would be grave
consequences if the Northern region became an independent nation.
I have invited you to attend this caucus because I would
like you to make clear our stand on the issue of secession. As a party, we
would have preferred Nigeria to remain intact, but lest there be doubt as
to our willingness to concede to any
shade of political opinion the right to determine it's policy, I am obliged to
issue a solemn warning to those who are goading the North towards secession. If
you agree with my views, then I hope that in course of our deliberations
tonight, you will endorse them, to enable me to publize them in the Press.
In my opinion, the Northern leaders to weigh the advantages
and disadvantages of secession before embarking upon this dangerous course.
As one who was born in the North, I have a deep spiritual
attachment to that part of the country, but it would be a capital political
blunder if the North should break away from the South. The latter is in a
better position to make rapid constitutional advance, so that if the North
should become truncated from the South, it would benefit both Southerners and
Northerners who are domiciled in the South more than their kith and kin who are
domiciled in the North.
There are seven reasons for my holding to this view.
Secession by the North may lead to internal political convulsion there when it
is realized that militant nationalists and their organizations, like the NLPU,
the Askianist Movement, and the Middle Zone League, have aspirations for
self-government in 1956 identical with those their Southern compatriots. It may
lead to justifiable demands for the right of self-determination by non-Muslims,
who form the majority of the population in the so-called ‘Pagan’ provinces,
like Benue, Ilorin, Kabba, Niger and Plateau, not to mention the claims of
non-Muslims who are domiciled in Adamawa and Bauchi Provinces.
It may lead to economic nationalism in the Eastern Region,
which can pursue a policy of blockade of the North, by refusing it access to
the sea, over and under the River Niger, expect upon payment of tolls. It may
lead to economic warfare between the North on the one hand, and the Eastern or
Western regions on the other, should they decide to fix protective tariffs
which will make the use of the ports of the Last and West uneconomic for the
North.
The North may be rich in mineral resources and certain cash
crops, but that is no guarantee that it would be capable of growing sufficient
food crops to enable of growing sufficient food crops to enable it to feed it's
teeming millions, unlike East and the West. Secession may create hardship for
Easterners and Westerners who are domiciled in the North, since the price of
food crops to be imported into the North from the South is bound to be very
high and to cause an increase in the cost of living. Lastly, it will endanger
the relations with their neighbors of millions of Northerners who are domiciled
in the East and West and Easterners and Westerners who reside in the North.
You may ask me whether there would be a prospect of civil
war, if the North decided to secede? My answer would be that it is a
hypothetical question which only time can answer. In my case, the plausible
cause of a civil war might be a dispute as to the right of flight over the
territory of the Eastern or Western Region; but such disputes can be settled
diplomatically, instead of by force.
Nevertheless, if civil war should become inevitable at this
stage of our progress as a nation, then security considerations must be borne
in mind by those who are charged with the responsibility of government of the
North and the South. Military forces and the installations are fairly
distributed in all the three regions; if that is not the case, any of the
regions can obtain military aid from certain interested Powers. It means that
we cannot preclude the possibility of alliance with certain countries.
You may ask me to agree that if the British left Nigeria to
its fate, the Northerners would continue their uninterrupted march to the sea,
as was prophesied six years ago? My reply is that such an empty threat is
devoid of historical substance and that so far as I know, the Eastern Region
has never been subjugated by any indigenous African invader. At the price of
being accused of overconfidence, I will risk a prophecy and say that, other
things being equal, the Easterners will defend themselves gallantly, if and
when they are invaded.
Let me take this opportunity to warn those who are making a
mountain out of the molehill of the constitutional crisis to be more restrained
and constructive. The dissemination of lies abroad; the publishing of
flamboyant headlines about secessionist plans, and the goading of empty-headed
careerists with gaseous ideas about their own importance in tile scheme of
things in the North are being overdone in certain quarters. I feel that these
quarters must be held responsible for any breach between the North and South,
which nature had indissolubly united in a political, social and economic
marriage of convenience. In my personal opinion, there is no sense in the North
breaking away; it would be better if all the regions would address themselves
to the task of crystallizing common nationality, irrespective of the extraneous
influences at work. What history has joined together let no man put sunder. But
history is a strange mistress which can cause strange things to happen!!!
Sources:
Nnamdi Azikiwe, Zik: A Selection from the Speeches of Nnamdi
Azikiwe, Governor-General of the Federation of Nigeria formerly Premier of the
Eastern Region of Nigeria (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1961).
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