Sometime during his campaigns, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Nigeria’s first president was forced to sleep in the open.
Ten months after, he was sworn-in as president. Alhaji Isiaku Ibrahim, his protégé, was there when Zik slept in the open; he was also there when Zik met the son of the man who forced him to sleep in the open.
Alhaji Isyaku Ibrahim, 83, was a politician, businessman and philanthropist. The Wamba native, hailed as The Patron, wherever he goes, was once an ally of Nigeria’s first president, Nnamdi Azikiwe.
Together they travelled the country and had many experiences on the campaign trail.
He remembers vividly, the day Zik was forced to sleep outdoors, in a village square, just ten months before he became president, a story he tells with relish.
Alh. Ibrahim and his elder brother were the first to be enrolled in a missionary school and he went on to learn not only English but French and German, all of which he speaks today alongside several local languages. He also speaks Russian. His interest in that language is more than perceive as he is one few Nigerians who joined the communist party and rose in its reckoning in 1964.
“Nigerians talk about politics, the politicians don’t believe in anything more than to acquire wealth,” he said.
His journey into politics started when he was just 20. He was enamoured by the ideologies of Malam Aminu Kano and Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, who he named as his mentors. He joined Aminu Kano’s NEPU and the Zikist movement, and was one of the founding fathers of the National Party of Nigeria, (NPN) Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) and lately the All Progressives Congress (APC).
His memories of the 1946 constitutional conference, where the likes of Herbert Macaulay played a prominent role, are still vivid.
“Our elders went to the conference and they rejected the proposals that the colonialists wanted to impose on us as conditions to be met before we achieve independence,” he said. “When they came back, NCNC under Herbert Macaulay and others started going round Nigeria, mobilizing people for independence.”
Herbert Macaulay, a grandson of Samuel Ajayi Crowther, was already 82 at this time. Yet he joined the nationwide campaign to mobilize Nigerians for independence. He fell ill in Kano and was rushed back to Lagos, where he died on May 7, 1946 a day after arriving.
Between 100, 000 to 200, 000 people were reported to have attended Macaulay’s funeral. It was unprecedented at the time in Lagos.
His death meant that Nnamdi Azikiwe, the secretary of the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC) was propelled to head the party.
“I was made the secretary in Ibadan and later the Secretary of NEPU in the Western region,” Alh. Ibrahim said.
“In 1959, the Secretary General of NCNC sent me to Lagos and gave me a letter to Chief Azikiwe in Warri. That Zik would commence his campaign. Zik took me on his campaign to Sapele and he told Dr M.I. Okpara, who was the Minister of Agriculture and Chairman of his campaign, that he should include me in his campaign team,” he said.
Interestingly the campaign method is not that much different from what is obtainable today. The alliance between NEPU and NCNC meant that Alh. Ibrahim was working directly for Zik’s campaign and was sent on a special assignment.
“We were in Kaduna heading to Zaria when Zik said I would not follow them on a train to Enugu because I had to go and do an assignment. Mbazulike Ameachi was the Organising Secretary, South East and he welcomed me at the railway station, took me to his house and gave me water to bath and another one for ablution as a Muslim. In the morning, he took me to the NCNC Secretariat and handed me six car keys with 350 pounds. He told me to use one [of the cars] and to share the others to the five towns under Benue Province like Makurdi, Oturkpo, Wukari, Lafia. He said I should use my initiative in sharing the money as some places are more populous than others. I shared the Volkswagen Beetle cars with the money. And when I returned 17 pounds, he laughed and told me to use it,” he said.
However, one of Alhaji Ibrahim’s most memorable moments was on the campaign trail with Zik himself.
“In 1959, we went on a campaign tour of the country. I was with Dr Nmandi Azikiwe when we reached a town called Nguru in present day Jigawa State. The District Head of the town was Mai Galadima Kyari. He did not deny us entry or the right to rally for vote, but he denied us accommodation because he was an ally of another political party.
“But to my surprise and that of all in our team and those in the town, a camp bed was prepared for Zik and we slept on mats in the open field in the town square were we held our campaign rally,” he said.
After that night in the open, the campaign team moved on to Gaidam, to Maiduguri, to Mubi to Jimeta.
At that time, there was no bridge across River Gongola to cross to Jimeta so they had to use a ferry to cross to Yola, then to Numan to Gombe to Bauchi to Jos. From there they boarded a train to Enugu and ended the campaign in Abakaliki.
Ten months after that night at Nguru, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe was sworn-in as the first President of Nigeria and Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa the Prime Minister and Nigeria became a Republic in 1963.
For Alh. Ibrahim, that story did not end that night under the starry skies of Nguru but decades later in London. It was during the regime of Ibrahim Babangida when Zik was ill and had been flown to London for treatment. Alh Ibrahim met a son of the District Head who had denied them accommodation.
“When I met Zik and introduced Mustapha as the son of Galadima Mai Kyari, the man who had denied him accommodation at Nguru in 1959 and forced him to sleep on a camp bed, Nnmadi Azikiwe embraced him and said, ‘Galadima Mai Kyari, the Lion of Juda.’”
Alhaji Ibrahim said Zik called him the lion of Juda because the Late Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia and Galadima mai Kyari were the two who reared lions and had private zoos in Africa. Zik was sad to learn that the Galadima had died 12 years before and even hugged Mustapha.
When they came out, Mustapha Galadima Mai Kyari wept and said he was happy he was not abused by Zik over the maltreatment he was subjected to by his father.
Alh. Ibrahim also revealed that it was down to Zik that a northerner from Sokoto became the Mayor of Enugu for two consecutive terms.
“Nigeria was the constituency of late Chief Azikiwe and nothing else. So, he nominated Malam Umaru Altine, who was educated and from Sokoto, to contest under the NCNC as the Mayor of Enugu and he won two consecutive elections,” he said.
Asides politics, Alh. Ibrahim spent a lot of his money on the once dreaded Mighty Jets Football Club of Jos with a foreign Coach and a luxurious bus. He led them to win the Nigerian League in 1972 and was behind their fearsome reputation in the 1970s.
