As a student in Unilag, I saw the 1966 military coup coming – Sani Zangon Daura

I sat for a scholarship examination after graduating from School for Arabic Studies (SAS) Kano. I was given scholarship to go to Sudan for my university education. But I felt that I wanted to go to the School for African and Oriental Studies, London. By 1961, we were off to London. One of the conditions […]

I sat for a scholarship examination after graduating from School for Arabic Studies (SAS) Kano. I was given scholarship to go to Sudan for my university education. But I felt that I wanted to go to the School for African and Oriental Studies, London. By 1961, we were off to London. One of the conditions for the scholarship then was that, after two years you can either come back for a holiday or if married you can bring your family to London. Coincidentally, something happened. I decided to leave London because of two incidents.

What were they?

They were two simple incidents but I took them very seriously. The first one was that Nigerian High Commission in London, annually hold independence anniversary celebrations. Most of the Northern Nigerian students were living in what was called Queen’s Garden, a kind of a hostel for one year. After one year, you move out and secure your own accommodation because you must be familiar with town then.  I rented an apartment. And the house keeper had a daughter who was working in the United States. She came for a brief holiday. When she learnt that we were going for this celebration, she asked me whether she could follow us. But she was not my girl friend at all. I obliged. But first, I had to ring the secretary Nigerian High Commission. At that time it was the late Abdulmalik, he said there was no problem we could come together with her.

We went on foot about 11 of us together with her. When a gang of white young boys saw us they started shouting and jeering at us. They kept on doing that saying why blacks should go about with a white girl. That was one. On our way back again after the ceremony, almost on the same spot, we met another gang which did the same thing like the first one. Even the young girl was very embarrassed and disturbed. So we didn’t care.

The second one was that I was taking an extra lesson in English Literature paid by the Nigerian High Commission. Immediately I came out of the tube and it was snowing, I met some white  boys who collected the snow and moulded it like balls and started hauling it at me until I disappeared. I felt it was too much for me and I couldn’t take it anymore. That was why I left the university in London and came back to Nigeria.

What did you do after coming back?

When I came back I reported to the under secretary of education, Alhaji Sani Daura, who was my brother. I told him that I was not going back to London. The scholarship secretary was Muhammadu Daku, the older brother of Brigadier General Ahmed Daku (rtd). When Sani talked to him, he said there was no problem and started telephoning Lagos, Ibadan, Nsukka and Benin. I was offered to study Law at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria but I rejected it. At the end of the day, I got admission at the University of Lagos and Nsukka. A friend advised me to go to the University of Lagos. I went there.

While I was at the university, I was a fire brand student activist. We stood for the North. We really sent shivers to other students from other parts of the country even though we were not many. We were a determined few, particularly myself and the present Medical Director of Jinya Clinic, Dr Tukur Abdullahi. We were for Northern People Congress (NPC).We formed All University Northern People Congress Students. And we were issuing out, almost every week, press releases. I could remember our last meeting for this organisation was on 11 January 1966 when Operation Wetin was still taking place.

One of the items in the communiqué was that we were calling on the Federal Government to declare a state of emergency in the defunct South West. We didn’t make it public but whatever we discussed and agreed upon in our own communiqué we would go and see Alhaji Yusuf Maitama Sule, Danmasanin Kano, then the Minister of Mining and Power to look at it. That was because we refused to identify with anybody that abused our leaders. And we protected their interests as much as possible. But where they fell short of their responsibilities we also told them.

We took our motorcycles and drove straight to Maitama Sule’s house. We went there to remind them of their responsibilities because the operation wetin was really taking a bad shape. So, we  told Maitama Sule about it. You know he is very diplomatic. He said that he was just waiting for a call from Akintola, after which he would communicate to the late Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa. We went to see the late Waziri Ibrahim but we were told that he was not around. We therefore said that the only gentleman that would tell us the truth was Shehu Shagari.

Luckily, the person who was with him is still alive, Alhaji Abubakar Alhaji. We alerted him that there would be a coup in this country. We told him that he had to take care to make sure that you arrest the flow of this bloodshed. Although we told him this, we said he had to get in touch with Sir Ahmadu Bello, Sardaunan Sokoto; he said if I say this to Sardauna or Tafawa Balewa, they would say I am making mountain out of a mole hill.

To make matters worse, the communication link was not there because the telephone was very bad. We said whatever it is, we had come to remind you of your major responsibilities and people would come here and start butchering you. His reaction to us was very hard. He said did you have to tell me? He said must you remind me that this is our responsibilities? We said no. We have done our best. And we took our motorcycles and left. I think that was on the 13 January 1966. Two days later the coup took place.

How did you get to know about the coup?

You don’t need to be told but you could sense it. First of all, you have to remember in 1964, what went on during the general elections when people were hunted and massively killed like rats. In the same elections there was a boycott when the whole country was divided into two parties. All the smaller parties merged with the bigger ones. It was the first time that APGA, AG and NCNC came into alliance because they never agreed. But when it was completely convenient for them they came into alliance. UMBC was working together with them. At certain extent, the Borno Youth Movement was also together with them. Even at that time, the only part of this country that was playing real politics was the North. South West; that is the former West had only one political party. The same thing applied to the South East. The only region where there was democracy and people had the right to belong to any political party they wanted was the North.

With this arrangement and general elections on the way, APGA in their own selfishness and crude greed for power turned out 18 unopposed candidates for the elections. When NNA heard this over the radio, they countered it by declaring 68 unopposed candidates. You could therefore see from there that the stage for the victory of NPC that is the NNA was readily assured. So, APGA got frightened and took a decision to boycott the election. The elections went ahead despite APGA’s threat to boycott the elections. In the North, everybody voted while in the South there was a complete boycott except in Ikorodu, Lagos.

Where do we go from there, Balewa wanted Nnamdi Azikiwe to call him and form a government. Zik declined. There was a political stalemate. But because at that time there were people with integrity and courage, two juggernauts of the Supreme Court: the late Sir Adetokunbo Ademola, the then Chief Justice of the Federation and one Justice Ubekwe went to Zik and told him that he should not lead the country into chaos and he had no constitutional powers to refuse calling the prime minister to form a government. And he should call him now. That was how Zik invited the late Balewa to form a government. He later also called other parts of the country that didn’t conduct elections to conduct fresh elections. That gave birth to what was called broadly-based government. 

Because of the heated atmosphere during the elections, there were some newspapers that were even calling for the Army to take over. But at that it was an expatriate who was the General Commanding Officer. So, that didn’t happen at that time. There was a general strike again that was politically-motivated. And it was the Army that was called to handle some essential services. That went on for at least two weeks. But due to responsible leadership at that time, Nigeria kept going. Coupled with the crisis in the Western region in 1965 you didn’t need to be told that a coup was coming.

Let me take you to the Second Republic. You were allegedly involved in some anti-party activities that resulted into the defeat of Alhaji Lawal Kaita by the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP)’s candidate Alhaji Abdulkadir Balarabe Musa in 1979. It was said that you did that because Kaita had defeated you during the National Party of Nigeria (NPN)’s primaries. Why did you do that?

 

Well, let me tell you one thing. If I believe in something I never sabotage it. I had never participated in that conspiracy. Of course, I contested and lost. But you can ask Tukur Usman who came and said to me that you were so optimistic but what happened?  I told Tukur Usman that yes; I lost because there were some manipulations.  If things were allowed even at that time to be done freely, it would have been a different story. One thing I can attest to even now is that, Lawal Kaita is my very good friend even though our approach to life is different. It was certainly strange for a party with 68 members out of about 90 in the State House of Assembly to lose the governorship seat. I am assuring you that I didn’t have a hand in it, if I did I will say it and  I won’t hide.

You left President Olusegun Obasanjo’s cabinet as Minister of Agriculture in controversial circumstances. It was reported that you confronted the former president during one of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meetings. Can you exactly tell us why and how you left that cabinet at its initial stage?

 

There are quite a number of things there. One, Obasanjo is my boss and I respect him. In the first two years of his administration he was a gentleman. I understood that he didn’t like anybody to challenge him. It is my nature that I don’t like to see injustice meted out to anybody and to think that I would keep quiet. I think we were there as his strong support not sycophants. I am not giving to sycophancy at all.

But the only thing I will tell you is that one day I went to the chamber for the FEC meeting. It happened that I was the first to arrive except of course two people I met who were the secretaries: Dr Aliyu Modibbo Umar, who later became the FCT Minister and Dr Mua’zu Babangida Aliyu, the current Governor of Niger State. After exchanging pleasantries they said they wanted to see me. They said “Sir, Mr. President is very uncomfortable with you. He feels that you are confronting and challenging him.” I told them that you want me to be saying yes to him even if there are issues to discuss? I said I would never do that even though I still respect him and if I won’t keep quiet. I also knew that my days [in his cabinet] are numbered. When it was time for me to go I left. After all, I didn’t beg to be made a minister. He asked me to become his minister and he also asked me not to say no or give it a second thought. And I promised him that. And he submitted my name alone instead of the usual three names.

But there was that issue involving Lawal Batagarawa, who was said to have come late by the former president but still embraced the late Bola Ige, who came later than Batagarawa. What actually happened?  

To me, it is neither here nor there. If you are my boss, you are  also a leader and father. Therefore, you have to treat everyone of us as your own children; giving everyone, as much as possible, equal attention and care. If you discriminate even against your own children you will be worse up. That is the only thing I can tell you.