BIOGRAPHY OF ALHAJI SIR AHMADU BELLO, KBE, CON
Alhaji Sir Ahmadu Bello lived for over 55 years between June 12, 1910 to January 15, 1966. He was a politician, and the first Premier of the Northern Nigeria Region from 1954-1966. He was one of the prominent leaders in Northern Nigeria alongside Alhaji Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, both of whom where prominent in negotiations about the Region's place in an independent Nigeria. As leader of the Northern People’s Congress (NPC), the party was able to win the 1959 parliamentary elections. However, he was assassinated on January 15, 1966.
Early Life
He was born in Rabah, Sokoto State. He was son of a District Head and heir to the Sokoto Emirate. His great-grandfather was Sultan Bello, the founder of Sokoto and son of the revered Usman Dan Fodio. Alhaji Sir Ahmadu Bello received his education first at the Sokoto Provincial School, the only modern school at the time in the Sokoto Province. He then proceeded to the Katsina Teacher's Training College. After spending five years at Katsina, he was appointed by the Sultan to become a teacher at the Sokoto Middle School, his former school which had undergone rapid transformation. In 1934, he was made the District Head of Rabah, four years later he was promoted and sent to Gusau to become a Divisional Head. In 1938, he made an unsuccessful bid to become the new Sultan of Sokoto. The successful Sultan immediately conferred upon Alhaji Sir Ahmadu Bello the traditional, now honorary, title of Sardauna, and elevated him to the Sokoto Native Authority Council. In 1948, he was offered a scholarship to study local government administration in England. Alhaji Sir Ahmadu Bello took the scholarship sensing he needed to shore up his knowledge about the process of governance.
Politics
After returning from England, he was nominated to represent the province of Sokoto in the regional House of Assembly. As a Member of the Assembly, he was a notable voice for Northern interest and embraced a style of consultation and consensus with the major representatives of the Northern Emirates: Kano, Bornu and Sokoto. In the first elections held in Northern Nigeria in 1952, Alhaji Sir Ahmadu Bello won a seat in the Northern House of Assembly, and became a Member of the Regional Executive Council as Minister of works. Alhaji Sir Ahmadu Bello was successively Minister of Works, Local Government, and of Community Development in the Northern Region of Nigeria.
In 1954, Alhaji Sir Ahmadu Bello became the first Premier of Northern Nigeria. In the 1959 independence elections, he led the NPC to win a plurality of the parliamentary seats. His NPC forged an alliance with Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe’s National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC) to form Nigeria's first indigenous Federal Government which led to independence from Britain. In forming the 1960 independence Federal Government of the Nigeria, Alhaji Sir Ahmadu Bello as president of the NPC, chose to remain Premier of Northern Nigeria and devolved the position of Prime Minister of the Federation to the Deputy President of the NPC, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa.
Alhaji Sir Ahmadu Bello’s greatest legacy was the modernization and unification of the diverse people of Northern Nigeria. He was assassinated during a 15 January 1966 military coup which toppled Nigeria's post-independence government. He was still serving as Premier of Northern Nigeria at the time.
The Ahmadu Bello University is named after him. His portrait adorns Nigeria's 200 Naira note, and he is survived by three daughters, one of which passed away in 2008.
Extract from Wikipedia, and edited by;
Kabeer M. Adamu for NYNA Arewa
No comments:
Post a Comment