FEATURE ARTICLE

Temple Chima UbochiSunday, August 23, 2015
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Bonn, Germany

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ALHAJI TAFAWA BALEWA:
ONE OF THE FINEST PRODUCED BY NIGERIA, BUT, MANY DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT IT (CONCLUSION)

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Continued from Part 1

The only way you can be the best at something is to be the best you can be (Susan Beth Pfeffer)

How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes! (Maya Angelou)

Being a one of a kind means we are automatically the best in the world at what we do (Victor Williamson)

A hero is someone who, in spite of weakness, doubt or not always knowing the answers, goes ahead and overcomes anyway (Christopher Reeve)

rior to becoming the Prime Minister, Tafawa Balewa was not even the head of his party, NPC, but was asked by the Sardauna of Sokoto, Sir Ahmadu Bello, the head of NPC, whom he deputized, to go to Lagos to form a national government, while he, Sardauna, remained in Kaduna as the Premier of the Northern Region. Remember that the Sarduana/Balewa's Northern People's Congress, NPC, won 142 seats, Nnamdi Azikiwe's National Council for Nigeria and the Camerouns, NCNC, won 94 seats and Awolowo's AG won 73 seats during the post independence House of Representatives election. That election results made it possible for NPC and NCNC to enter into a coalition or alliance in order to form the national government. As noted above: While Sarduana remained in the north as Premier, his deputy, Tafawa Balewa, went to Lagos to become the Prime Minister; Nnamdi Azikiwe handed over to Dr. Michael Okpara as the Premier of the Eastern Region and went to Lagos to become the ceremonial President; and then, Awolowo made the mistake of handing over the Premiership of the Western Region to his deputy, Akintola, and moved to Lagos to become the leader of the opposition. The north used the opportunity created by Awolowo's exit from Ibadan to infiltrate the Western Regional government headed by Akintola, and that created the problem between the Akintola and Awolowo that led to the jailing of the latter. The Western Regional crisis was the precursor or the harbinger to the 1966 coup, leading to the fall of the First Republic, the civil war, and most of all, the problems besetting Nigeria till today.

When Tafawa Balewa visited The United states in 1961, he had an aura of superiority around himself and carried himself majestically to the delight of the blacks and the amazement of the whites. Tafawa Balewa burbled with a certain eccentric charm and bubbled over with charisma in the United States. Remember that in 1961, John F. Kennedy was the President of The United States; the blacks in America were sitting only at the back of the buses, and racial segregation was rife, infact blacks were regarded as second class citizens. Nobody then ever dreamt that there will come a day when a black man will ever rule the United States. But then, the Prime Minister of Nigeria, Alhaji Tafawa Balewa, visited United States of America like a colossus and dazed the host country and the world by his eloquence, self-confidence or self-esteem, speeches and personality. No other northerner can be as inspiring as Balewa was. Today, many northerners and many Nigerians claim that they are holders of Bachelor or Masters or Doctorate Degrees, but, can barely address any audience or say something audible or write something commensurate with their education. But, this teacher from Bauchi displayed self-confidence through his body language, radiated dignity, infact, his ease and aura in USA evoked enthusiasm and respect from the whole world for him and Nigeria.

Unfortunately, the civil war created a big chasm in the minds of Nigerians, as such that it has been hard to see anything good in the people "on the other side". For most southerners, the northerners are "mallams", or, gworo-chewing primitives, who despite the level of education of some of them, still remain crude, ineloquent and can be differentiated by their accent. But, Tafawa Balewa was a very different kind of northerner; he was in a class of his own. The western Nigeria crisis of the first republic, the civil war, ethnic strife and religious animosity have beclouded most people, especially those from the southern part of Nigeria not to recognize the good qualities possessed by some northerners such as Tafawa Balewa, and the same goes for many northerners who never trusted and will never trust the people of the south.

Alhaji Tafawa Balewa, a teacher, was one of the best Nigeria has produced, although only few Nigerians knew about it. President Shagari was catastrophic; no need to talk about the successive military heads of state as they were dunces; President Yar'Adua with his Masters Degree couldn't speak clearly, and went to The United States, on official visit on December 13, 2007, to say that "that day was the best day of his life", because he was admitted into the White House, and he shook hand with President George Bush. President Buhari also went to the United States recently (2015), and the United States ambassador to Nigeria was the highest ranking United States government official who received him at the Airport in Washington DC, and he allowed someone else to explain to him the meaning of "running an all inclusive government" when a reporter asked him if he plans to carry every Nigerian along. Buhari also said that "God crated him, but, that America made him". But, Alhaji Tafawa Balewa was in The United states in 1961, and was received by the then Vice president, Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ), and the then secretary of state. Tafawa Balewa also visited so many United States' cities, and was well received and respected everywhere he went. He didn't let himself or Nigeria down, unlike those after him.

The point is that no other Nigerian leader ever have comported himself so well in a foreign land as Tafawa Balewa did when he visited America in 1961. What made that Tafawa Balewa's visit in 1961 special was that it happened only six years after Rosa Park's December 1, 1955 refusal to give up her seat in a bus to a white guy in Montgomery, Alabama. Rosa Parks, who was called "the first lady of civil rights and the mother of the freedom movement", refused to obey bus driver James F. Blake's order to give up her seat in the colored section to a white passenger, after the white section was filled. According to HISTORY: "In 1955, African Americans were still required by a Montgomery, Alabama, city ordinance to sit in the back half of city buses and to yield their seats to white riders if the front half of the bus, reserved for whites, was full. On December 1, 1955, African-American seamstress Rosa Parks (1913-2005) was returning home from her job at a local department store on the Cleveland Avenue bus. She was seated in the front row of the "colored section." When the white seats filled, the driver, J. Fred Blake (1912-2002), asked Parks and three others to vacate their seats. The other African-American riders complied, but Parks refused. She was arrested and fined $10, plus $4 in court fees. This was not Parks' first encounter with Blake. In 1943, she had paid her fare at the front of a bus he was driving, then exited so she could re-enter through the back door, as required. Blake pulled away before she could re-board the bus". From henryford.org we learned that Ms. Parks' "action was spontaneous and not pre-meditated, although her previous civil rights involvement and strong sense of justice were obvious influences."When I made that decision," she said later, "I knew that I had the strength of my ancestors with me." She was arrested and convicted of violating the laws of segregation, known as "Jim Crow laws." Mrs. Parks appealed her conviction and thus formally challenged the legality of segregation".

More especially, Tafawa Balewa's visit to The United States was during the heat of Martin Luther King Jr.'s struggle against segregation and racial inequality through nonviolence in the United States. According to HISTORY "Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968) was a Baptist minister and social activist who played a key role in the American civil rights movement from the mid-1950s until his assassination in 1968. Inspired by advocates of nonviolence such as Mahatma Gandhi, King sought equality for African Americans, the economically disadvantaged and victims of injustice through peaceful protest. He was the driving force behind watershed events such as the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the March on Washington, which helped bring about such landmark legislation as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 and is remembered each year on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a U.S. federal holiday since 1986".

Despite the fact that blacks in America were struggling for their emancipation, against formidable odds, but still, Balewa bravely went and bestrode America like a king. While at home; he was down to earth and lived a very simple life. Tafawa Balewa was a hero, and today, the dearth of people like him is arguably the bane of Nigeria's progress, Bertolt Brecht (1869- 1939) rightly noted that "Unhappy the land that is in need of heroes".

Just compare the Tafawa Balewa sitting on the ground in his farm with his two children in 1963 and the Tafawa Balewa who mesmerized America two years earlier. Now I understand why Sir Edmund Hillary (1919-2008), the New Zealand conqueror of Mount Everest, said that "People do not decide to become extraordinary. They decide to accomplish extraordinary things".

In my article of Saturday, January 24, 2015, I wrote:

"Look at Nigerian First Prime Minister, Tafawa Balewa, on annual leave, relaxing in his farm in 1963. That's the simple life that imbues compassion and ushers happiness into one's life. Even though they, first republic politicians, had their own faults too, considering the history of Nigeria, but many Nigerians would wish Nigerian politicians of today can go back to learn how to live simple and modest life like those of that era. (Nairaland Forum).

Alhaji Maitama Sule, an elder statesman, who was Nigeria's Permanent Representative at the United Nations during the second republic, said that Tafawa Balewa was a gentle man who went into politics to serve but not to be served, to give but not to take, just in line with what Albert Schweitzer (1875- 1965) wrote that "The purpose of human life is to serve, and to show compassion and the will to help others". While the present ruling class are only after our commonwealth and have looted it that Nigeria is now broke and on the brink, Alhaji Sule told us that when the Prime Minister died and they looked into his bank account, he hadn't a kobo except a mud house he left in Bauchi. There was no fleet of cars. No investment or shares in any company".

Tafawa Balewa must be resting now somewhere more peaceful than the hell, he exited on earth, called Nigeria!

Watch some clips about the visit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT5m9Fn9RBg

TIT BITS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwpJWPoblw0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iUE-VOXrlE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dM5QYdTo08&list=PLEbZkQ0zqw_IYdXD6FIYIFYQtBvqud6os&index=5

THE THANX IS ALL YOURS!!!

Continued from Part 1

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IMAGES IN THE NEWS