Sir Alhaji Ahmadu Bello LATE SARDAUNA OF SOKOTO
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ir Ahmadu Bello lived a short but fulfilled life. He was a teacher, farmer, administrator, politician, statesman and religious leader. He was the premier of the northern region of Nigeria and one of the greatest Nigerian leaders. Sir Bello was born in 1909 in Rabah present day Sokoto State, North; he was a descendant of Uthman Dan Fodio, the renowned 19th-century Moslim spiritual leader of Northern Nigeria. He had his education first at the Sokoto Provincial School, then he proceeded to Katsina Teachers’ Training College. He taught in Sokoto middle school in 1934 and after which he entered the emirate administration as district head of Rabah. In 1938 he made an unsuccessful claim to the office of sultan of Sokoto and the new sultan immediately conferred upon him the traditional, now honorary, title of Sardauna and elevated him to the Sokoto Native Authority Council. Sir Ahmadu Bello got involved in broader political concerns as World War II drew to an end and in 1945 he also assisted in the formation of the Youth Social Circle in Sokoto, a discussion group of Northern educators and civil servants. In 1948 this organization affiliated with the newly
founded Northern People’s Congress (NPC), which was originally conceived as a cultural organization destined to become the leading political party in Northern Nigeria. Sir Ahmadu Bello became increasingly active in the NPC and ultimately its president. In 1949 he was elected by the Sokoto Native Authority to the Northern House of Assembly. Between1949-1950 during the discussions of constitutional reform he became a leading spokesperson for the Northern view of federal government. The first electionwas held in Northern Nigeria in the year 1952, he was elected to the Northern House of Assembly, where he became a member of the regional executive council and minister of works. The following year he accepted the regional portfolio of community development and local government. And in 1954 he became the first premier of Northern Nigeria, a position he held until his death. As president of the NPC and premier of the Northern Region, Sir Ahmadu Bello was perhaps the most politically powerful person in Nigeria during the first 5 years of independence, and from 1952 to 1959 he was a member of the Federal House of Representatives. Therefore, when Nigeria became independent in 1960, Sir Ahmadu Bello chose to remain premier of the Northern Region, while the deputy president of the NPC, Alhaji Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, became prime minister and the only one for that matter, of the Federation. In 1962, he founded the famous Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. In 1964 Sir Ahmadu Bello led the NPC into an alliance with the Nigerian National Democratic Party (NNDP) of the Western Region led by Awolowo’s opponent, Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola. The coalition party, called the Nigerian National Alliance, won a clear majority in the federal elections of 1964. In 1965 the NNDP claimed victory in a regional election, and the Western Region fell into complete confusion. In January 1966, Sir Ahmadu Bello was assassinated in Kaduna State. culled from the Internet
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