Over time, critics have blamed Nigeria’s woes on leadership problem. Do we then say that our leaders, right from the time of independence, have done very well or have they always faltered? This obviously, will depend to a large extent, on the parameters, used in arriving at such judgment.

Prior to independence, there were agitations by the great nationalists - Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Chief S.L. Akintola, Chief Michael Okpara among others.

Alhaji Tafawa Balewa

He was the former federal minister of transport and deputy president of the Northern Peoples Congress (NPC). The teacher with a humble beginning was nominated to serve at the centre by the Premier and President of the NPC, Sir Ahmadu Bello. The nomination was made possible because Ahmadu Bello was reluctant to come to Lagos for ministerial appointment.

Tafawa Balewa, popularly referred to as the “Golden voice of Africa” because of his suave and soft-spoken voice, was a quiet, simple administrator from Bauchi State. One of the few educated elite from the northern region and he had a grasp of politics as it affected his region.

Unlike most of the Northern leaders, he did not belong to the Hausa-Fulani aristocracy. He was from a small tribe, a proven administrator, astute parliamentarian. No wonder, he earned the respect of all the political parties’ gladiators, who formed the national government immediately after independence.

Invariably at that time precisely in 1961, the North was beginning to have an increasing strong influence on the rest of Nigerian federation. The Nigeria federal election held on December 30, 1964 was more a ‘witches’ Sabbath” than a general election.

The three giant parties, namely, Northern Peoples Congress (NPC), National Council of Nigerian Citizen (NCNC) and the Action Group (AG) were invited to form a national government. This was so because no political party had absolute majority to control machinery of government.

On the contrary, each political party held on to its region and controlled the activities of government there. At the beginning, the AG opted out of the alliance to form a national government. However, Chief Akintola’s United Progressive Grand Alliance (UPGA) became part of the alliance. Abubakar Tafawa Balewa was named the country’s prime minister and head of government.

While the emotional dust that was kicked up by the formation of Alhaji Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa’s broad-based federal government in January 1965 had not quite settled, it was already beginning to look as though this brainchild of Sir Abubakar’s, which many critics had dubbed abortion, is the only system of government best suited to Nigeria. This is so because his leadership style appealed to Nigerians.

The only voices of criticism against the arrangement were those of the Action Group (which saw its exclusion as an act of spite) and some Nigerian National Alliance elements (who saw the arrangement as an uncalled for charity towards Akintola’s United Progressive Grand Alliance).

Some Nigerians who were favourably disposed to Abubakar’s government were of the opinion that unhappiness of any one region of the country would have disastrous consequences on the steady progress of the other regions. Nigeria as one country has since ceased to be merely a geographical expression, they argued.

The effect of the continued political unrest in Western Nigeria, at that time, on the rest of the federation has demonstrated clearly that no region of the federation could hope to get along smoothly when another region of the same federation was limping along on one broken wheel. Some political analysts believed then that Abubakar’s government will eventually unite the country.

In view of the Abubakar government already proven effortless solution of many important political problems, Sir Abubakar’s broad-based central government became the permanent feature of the Nigerian political arrangement.

For one thing, other political leaders in the federation were not as accommodating and unambitious as Sir Abubakar. Many of them, given a little chance, would not hesitate to run the government of the federation single-handedly despite their awareness that this would bring untold unhappiness and frustration to Nigerians.

That is, Sir Abubakar’s government brought regional balance to the country.
However, the continued regional loyalty of Nigerians made the emergence of national, as distinct from regional, parties, impossible during the First Republic.

And its impossibility, critics observe, has been even more accentuated by the seemingly smooth running that attended Sir Abubakar’s present broad-based federal government - a government that has in fact, been arranged on a regional, as distinct from political party, basis.

The federal government headed by Alhaji Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa was in place until the military coup of Saturday, January 15, 1966, which subsequently led to the unanimous decision of the then council of ministers of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to hand over the government to the armed forces.

Therefore, on Saturday January 22, 1966, the federal ministry government officially announced the death of the incumbent Prime Minister, Alhaji Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa. The Federal Military government in place at that time ordered that flags should be flown at half-mast for three days in all public buildings “as a mark of respect for this great son of Nigeria.”

Of all the people who died during the Army operations that led to the change of government, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa was the only one so honoured.

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