When Northern Nigeria Demanded Independence..

NNAMDI AZIKIWE'S SPEECH ON THE THREAT BY THE NORTH TO SECEDE IN 1953.

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 its 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 publicize
them in the Press.

In my opinion, the Northerners are perfectly entitled to
consider whether or not they should secede from the
indissoluble union which nature has formed between it and
the South, but it would be calamitous to the corporate
existence of the North should the clamour for secession
prevail. I, therefore, counsel 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 of 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,
except 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 it to feed its teeming
millions, unlike the 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 neighbours 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 any case, the plausible cause of a civil war might
be a dispute as to the right of passage on the River Niger, or
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 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 is 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 or the
East or the West 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 asunder. 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 President of the Nigerian Senate formerly   by
Premier of the Eastern Region of Nigeria