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12—SATURDAY Vanguard, NOVEMBER 14, 2020
TRIBUTE TO MALLAM
UMARU ALTINE
- FIRST ELECTED MAYOR OF ENUGU
MUNICIPAL COUNCIL; 1952 – 1958
Benjamin Cardozo, an American Jurist and Philosopher said
—”history in illuminating the past, illuminates the present and in
illuminating the present, illuminates the future”
By Hon. Femi Kehinde
The story of Nigeria is a deep, intriguing
and enchanting metaphor. Its glorious past
had contradicted sharply with its current
political corundum. A Fulani man from Sifawa
in Sokoto Caliphate - Mallam Umaru Altine,
had in 1952 become elected as the first Mayor
of the City of Enugu, the heart land and heart
beat of the Igbo Nation.
He was in office till 1958.
Enugu is the capital of the old Eastern Region
of Nigeria. Umaru Altine was a product of Dr.
Azikiwe’s political Nationalistic and
cosmopolitan outlook. He was a Pan Nigerian.
His faith in one Nigeria, was unimpeachable,
unshakable and unquestionable. He was
Altine’s guide, pathfinder and mentor.
Umaru Altine, a cattle dealer, had left the
Sokoto province to sojourn in Enugu.
In Enugu, he married an Igbo Lady- Esther,
and was President of the Enugu branch of the
Youth wing of the National Council of Nigeria
and the Cameroons (NCNC).
Umaru Altine- a completely detribalised
Nigerian, became a prominent member of Zik’s
NCNC. A scion of the Sokoto Caliphate, he
became the first elected Mayor of Enugu.
As a descendant of Utman Danfodio, Altine
could have equally emerged as Sultan of
Sokoto, one day, but he preferred the truculent
life of trading, travel and adventure. He had
joined the Army and worked briefly with the
Railways.
He had played politics in the Tambuwal
District of the Sokoto Province, before his
eventual sojourn in the Coal city of Enugu. He
was handsome, always dressed impeccably and
had a magnetic touch.
In Enugu, he wore the
popular babariga, with a turban, and on some
occasions he wore Suits as the function of office,
demanded.
In Enugu he went to church, if his duties as
Mayor demanded and also went to do the kick
off at Stadia as Mayor, whenever invited.
Without loosing his identity, he smoked,
loved the native igbo Nsala Soup with fresh
fish, and according to his Enugu Igbo wife-
Esther, he had a high sense of personal hygiene
and a good command of English, Fufude, hausa
and Igbo languages.
Umaru Altine’s feats, could have been
unattainable, but for the encouragement and
supports of Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, leader of the
NCNC- a consummate politician,
cosmopolitan, urbane and pan Nigerian.
Azikiwe wanted to use Altine’s story, or entry
into Enugu politics, to teach a lesson, and tell
a story of a Nigeria, that could only grow and
prominently too, without ethnic, religious or
tribal divides.
Azikiwe’s life, had been equally chequered.
He was born on the 16th of November 1904
in Zungeru, in present day Niger State to
Obed-Chukwuemeka Azikiwe and Rachel
Chinwe Ogbenyeanu. Obed, was at the time,
a clerk in the British Colonial Government.
Zik started his early elementary school in
Zungeru, and ended up in Onitsha where his
father had sent him, to enable him speak and
understand the indigenous language- Igbo.
He attended Hope Waddell Training College
Calabar and ended up at the Methodist Boy’s
High School in Lagos, for his Secondary
education.
In Lagos, he courted the friendships of
children of prominent Yoruba aristocrats like
George Shyngle, son of Egerton Shyngle,
Francis Cole and Ade Williams (a son of the
Akarigbo of Remo). These connections were
later of immense benefits to his future political
career.
Azikiwe later travelled to America for his
University education and obtained various
degrees from Washington DC, the University
of Pennsylvania and Colombia University,
respectively, before returning to Nigeria in
1934.
He became an active member of the Nigerian
Youth Movement (NYM), Nigeria’s foremost
Nationalist movement and supported
Adeniran Akisanya, as the NYM candidate,
for a vacant seat in the Legislative Counsel in
1941, that had been vacated by Sir Kofo
Abayomi, who had resigned from his position
to pursue further studies in Ophthalmology in
the United Kingdom.
The leadership of the NYM, had supported
Ernest Ikoli, an Ijaw man to succeed their former
President- Kofoworola Abayomi. Azikiwe,
disappointed by this choice, resigned his
membership of the NYM and accused the
leadership of disdain against the Ijebu Yoruba
members.
Interestingly, Obafemi Awolowo, Samuel
Ladoke Akintola and a host of other youths,
supported Ernest Ikoli, against the choice of
Adeniran Akisanya, by Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe.
Akisanya, bemoaning the loss, described
Awolowo and Akintola as “misguided youths.”
He later became the Odemo of Isara. Zik
became a Co founder of the NCNC in 1944 and
became its Secretary General in 1946 with Dr.
Herbert Macauley as its President.
He played Lagos politics and his newspaper,
The West African Pilot, was very prominent.
His militants in the Zikist Youth Movement
led by Osita Agwuina were Raji Abdala,
Kolawole Balogun M.C.K Ajuluchukwu and
Abiodun Aloba, whose pen name was
Ebenezer Williams.
In the politics of Lagos and its environs, the
Igbos and their acolytes have always held
sway. Alhaji Adegoke Adelabu (Penkelemesi),
Chief Theophilus O.S Benson, Chief Adeniran
Ogunsanya, Chief Olu Akinfosile, Chief
Richard Akinjide, were distinguished and
notable Yoruba politicians in their life-time,
and were equally close confidants of the late
Dr. Nnamdi Azikwe. T.O.S Benson (Nigeria’s
first Minister of Information) had earlier won
the Yaba Federal seat for the NCNC and in
1964 ran again as
Independent Candidate, to
defeat his former
Constituency Secretary,
Maduagwu Moronu, an Oba
man of the Igbo clan; as a
candidate for Yaba Federal
seat.
Zik won a seat to the
Western Regional House of
Assembly representing
Lagos and would have been
the first Premier of the
Western Region in 1952,
already coasting home to
victory, if the Action Group
had not boosted its
memberships by supports of
Ibadan’s People’s party,
Ondo Improvement League
the Out-Edo People’s Party
and other splinter groups to
secure a majority in the
Western Region House of
Assembly in 1952 following
the advent of the
Macpherson Constitution of
1951.
Ibadan political maverick-
Adegoke Adelabu, Dr.
Olorunimbe and TOS
Benson, were his ardent
supporters. As a result of this loss, he returned
back to the Eastern Region by displacing the
Ibibio man Prof. Eyo Ita who as Majority leader,
in the Eastern Region House of Assembly, was
leader of government business and
Azikiwe succeeded him, by being elected in
1954 as Premier of the Eastern Region.
He became Governor General on the 1st of
October, 1960 with Abubakar Tafawa Balewa
as Prime Minister,- the first Nigerian appointed
to the Privy Council of the United Kingdom
and the first President of Nigeria in 1963 when
Nigeria became a Republic.
In Enugu, a Northerner- Babasule was
equally prominent in politics about this time
and was President of the Stranger Elements
Movement in Enugu.
He synergised and supported Altine’s cause.
In 1956, a group in the NCNC had also
presented D. T Iyang as a candidate to run
against Altine, in the election to the Municipal
Council. He was easily trounced by Altine to
continue in office as Mayor of Enugu Municipal
Council. Interestingly, he won this re-election
as an Independent candidate.
He was also at this time, still very close to the
Sultan- Sadiq Abubakar who was the Sultan
of Sokoto for 50 good years- (1938 to 1988.)
In Enugu he went to
church, if his duties
as Mayor demanded
and also went to do
the kick off at Stadia
as Mayor, whenever
invited
•Umaru Altine
Umaru Altine grew up in the Sultan’s Palace.
On the 10th of November 1956, Umaru Altine
was elected as President of the NCNC branch
in Enugu without any opposition. He was in
office, comfortably and confidently until 1958.
In the Western Region, Umaru Altine had a
soul mate in Emmanuel Ebubedike, an Igbo
man from Ozubulu Town, in present day
Anambra State.
He was the Honourable member
representing Ajeronmi/Ife Lodun/Badagry
Constituency in the Western Region House of
Assembly.
In May 1962, he was the member, who on the
day of the crises in the House of Assembly,
prominently pitted his support for the
continuation in office of Samuel Lodoke
Akintola as Premier of the Western Region.
The crises that erupted on the floor of the
Parliament, eventually led to the dissolution of
the Parliament and government of the Western
Region and the eventual set up of the
Majekodunmi Emergency Administration,
between May 29 1962 and December 31 1962
by the Federal Government and the Tafawa
Balewa Administration.
Dr. Moses Adekoyejo Majekodunmi, asides
from being a member of the Senate of the
National Assembly was also Tafewa Balewa’s
friend, confidant and private medical doctor.
Ibadan, as a result of its rising growth,
economic development, and
its accommodating nature,
became a colony for large
migrants population. The
Western Igbos settled in
Mokola, Ekotedo and
Inalende, in the early 1920’s
whilst Sabon- gari was
planned in 1917 and
completed in 1920. The
overcrowding of Sabongari,
originally meant for the
Hausas, led to the
development of Mokola, to
also house, Nupe and Igbira
migrants, from the Northern
Nigeria. Late Waziri Nupe,
Alhaji Bello Muhammed
Bagudu, grew up and settled
in Mokola, Ibadan, until his
later life, when he relocated
back to Bida. He was a
member of Ibadan
Municipal Council in the
1950s. His son, Senator Isa
Mohammed, who also grew
up in Ibadan, attended Igbo
Elerin Grammar school,
Ibadan, founded by the late
Ibadan Monarch – Oba
Odugade Odulana. He was
a Senator, representing
Niger Central Constituency of Niger State, in
the National Assembly, between 1999-2007.
As an interesting corollary, a non-Ibadan
native, J.M Johnson (1912-1987), born in Lagos
of Lafiaji/Brazilian extraction, returned to civil
life in Ibadan after the Second World War and
became a Bank Clerk and later a business man
and eventually joined Politics, where he got
elected into the Ibadan District Council and
later became the first and only ever nonindigene
to serve as Chairman of the council.
From his Political life in Ibadan, he became
a Federal Minister in 1956, and served in
Internal affairs, Labour, Social welfare and
Sports, also acting twice as the Prime Minister
in the N.C.N.C and N.P.C. Coalition
Government. He was instrumental to the first
World Boxing Title fight in Africa, which took
place in Ibadan, Western Nigeria, between
Tiger and Fulman in 1963 at the Liberty
Stadium. In the same year (1963), he retired
from Politics by declining to contest in the
General Elections
Lord Lugard’s dispatches to London
Nigeria is a very complex country. Our
problems did not start yesterday. They started
about 1894. Lord Lugard came here as Major
Lugard and he was not originally employed by
the British Government, but employed by
companies
He was first employed by the East Indian
Company, then by the Royal East Company,
then by the Royal Niger Company. It was from
the Royal Niger company, that he transferred
his services to the British Government.
The interest of the Europeans in Africa and
indeed in the enclaves later known as Nigeria
was purely economic and it is still economic.
Nigeria was created as British spheres of
interest for business.
In 1898, Lord Lugard formed the West African
Frontier force, initially with 2000 soldiers.
Lugard became a Lord and imperialist.
When Lugard formed the West African
Frontier Force, about 90% of them were from
the Middle belt in Northern Nigeria.
His dispatches to London, between 1898 to
1914 were interestingly amazing.
He sent a number of dispatches to London,
which led to the amalgamation of 1914.
The Order-in-Council was drawn up in
November 1913, signed and came into force in
January 1914.
In those dispatches, Lugard said a number of
things, which are the root causes of Yesterday
and today’s problems.
Mary Shaw, a journalist, was Lugard
mistress, and she actually suggested to him, in
the amalgamation of the Northern and
Southern protectorates, the name- Nigeria.
The British needed railways, from the Coast
to the North in the interest of British business
The Amalgamation of the South, not of the
people, with the North, became of crucial
importance to British business interest.
Benin was conquered in 1896. It made the
creation of the Southern protectorate in January
1 1900, possible. Sokoto was not conquered,
until 1903. After the conquest of Sokoto, the
British were then in a position to create the
Northern Protectorate.
Unfortunately, what the British amalgamated
in 1914, was the amalgamation of the
administration of the North and South and not
its people.
Obafemi Awolowo had called Nigeria- “a
mere geographical expression” while Sir
Ahmadu Bello called Nigeria- “a mistake of
1914.”
In furtherance of the British interest, the
British started railway services from Iddo
Lagos in 1896 and it got to Ibadan in March
1901, when the Dugbe Train Station, was
opened, and from there, into the North, exiting
at Nguru then known as the Lagos to
Nguru line.
As a result of the discovery of Coal in Enugu
in 1906, by British engineer Mines Albert
Kitson, the British developed a city port, known
as Porthacourt in 1906 and developed a rail
line to Enugu for evacuation of coal to the Port
from Enugu mines, in 1913.
As at 1956 there were about 8000 miners in
Enugu, Coal was then like crude oil. There are
barely a few miners now in the Coal city.
The Porthacourt rail line traverses Enugu and
ended or exited at Kaura Namoda in
Maiduguri.
Porthacourt was actually named after Lord
Lewis Vernon Harcourt, former Secretary of
State for the colonies- (1910 to 1915.)
Both Lagos to Nguru and Porthacourt to Kaura
Namoda has a total spanage of 3506kms of
narrow rail track.
In fondest memory of the first ever Mayor of
Enugu, Umaru Altine, Agu Gab, in his capacity
as Chairman Enugu North Local Government
in 2004, invited the Umaru Altine family to
Enugu, to celebrate the achievements of their
late father.
According to Agu- ”our history before that
tune did not reflect its towering achievements
in terms of Nigerian unity. I was going to name
a public institution after him, but time did not
allow for that,..., “ but was glad to note - “a
street was named
after the late Mayor somewhere in the coal
camp in the city of Enugu during the first
Republic”
Alhaji Umaru Altine, certainly deserves
more.
Despite the history of its birth in 1914, its
hiccups and challenges and leadership deficits
coupled with its inability or refusal to
restructure, despite strident and trenchant calls,
Nigeria has certainly come to stay, and in
fondest memory of the likes of pan Nigerians
like Mallam Umaru Altine, there may be need
to re-echo with relish and undisguised
affection, and deep nolstagia Nigeria’s old
National anthem -
Nigeria we Hail thee
Our own dear native land
Though TRIBES and TONGUE may differ
In brotherhood we stand
Nigerians all, are proud to serve
Our sovereign Motherland…
(Adopted as Nigeria’s National Anthem
composed in 1960 by Frances Berda and
relinquished in 1978.)
May the soul of Mallam Umam Altine,
continually find peaceful repose with the Lord.
Article by-
HON (BARR.) FEMI KEHINDE,
FORMER MEMBER, HOUSE OF
REPRESENTATIVES,
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY, FROM 1999 TO
2003,
REPRESENTING AYEDIRE/IWO/OLA-
OLUWA, FEDERAL CONSTITUENCY OF
OSUN STATE
&
PRINCIPAL PARTNER,
FEMI KEHINDE & CO.
(SOLICITORS),
84, IWO ROAD, IBADAN