Visiting Ifo, decades-old political battleground of First Republic

Fierce First Republic foes, the Northern People’s Congress (NPC) and Northern Elements Progressive Union (NEPU), took their fight out of the Northern Region, their home, to Ifo (in Ogun State) in the Western Region, home of the Action Group (AG). That was when the then youthful, school-going Muhammadu Buhari, now president, was going there for […]

Fierce First Republic foes, the Northern People’s Congress (NPC) and Northern Elements Progressive Union (NEPU), took their fight out of the Northern Region, their home, to Ifo (in Ogun State) in the Western Region, home of the Action Group (AG). That was when the then youthful, school-going Muhammadu Buhari, now president, was going there for holidays.

Nothing would strike you about the  physical structures and terrain of Ifo. It is just like every other Nigerian town, with all the familiar socio-economic characteristics of every thriving Nigerian community.

 

It features a rising wave of hustle and bustle, similar to Lagos.

Every Nigerian community has some events surrounding its foundation, growth, socio-economic and political development in varying degrees of historical significance.  This proud Yoruba town also has some interesting tales about its history.

Ifo is said to have been founded by  prosperous Yoruba palm-oil and cocoa farmers and merchants, followed by a gradual convergence of Islamic scholars from northern Nigeria. The population of these scholars was, however, not known to have been recorded at any point in the history of the town.

It is said that no other known southern Nigerian community can ‘proudly’ tell a tale of such convergence of Islamic scholars from northern Nigeria.

But the town tells a bit more interesting tale of itself, which borders on the politics of the First Republic. Due to its large number of northern settlers in the class of Agege, Lagos (thanks to the old North-South Trunk A road and the Kano-Lagos rail line, all running through it, which rapidly bolstered North-South cattle and kola-nut trade, producing such wealthy individuals like Alhaji Inuwa Zambahu and its subsequent prosperity as a notable town), Ifo became the only known political resort of the Northern People’s Congress (NPC), Alhaji (Sir) Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, the Prime Minister of the then newly independent Nigeria, the Northern Regional Premier, Alhaji (Sir) Ahmadu Bello and the Northern Elements Progressive Union’s (NEPU) Mallam Aminu Kano.

They sculpted a battleground of wits and strategy between the two political parties as a notable spillover from northern Nigeria, where they tugged hard against one another as rival gladiators and beside them Obafemi Awolowo’s AG in control of the then Western Region.

Those were the times when the elder brother of now President Muhammadu Buhari, the late Mamman Daura, settled there as one of the prominent personalities, and the then youthful Muhammadu Buhari used to go there on holidays, often watching how kola-nut was sorted before being loaded into the North-bound train.

Even when Mamman Daura relocated to Agege, where he was said to have acquired wealth, he never severed ties with Ifo, where he funded the construction of a still existing mosque commissioned in 1968.

Finding the population of northerners as too large to be ignored as a hunting ground for followers, the two political parties tugged for higher influence and followership in a province where NEPU was said to control more followership out of which the NPC, using its federal might, succeeded in winning a substantial number of supporters.

The main facilitator of the resort was said to be Alhaji Inuwa Zambahu, who, mainly due to his enormous wealth, was an intimate friend and confidant of the Prime Minister and Northern Regional Premier, who paid him friendly visits and held regular political meetings in his office along the Abeokuta-Lagos road (demolished during the reconstruction of the road) and house at the Hausa quarters in the town.

It is said that the NPC henchmen had to concentrate huge attention on Ifo due to the formidable influence of NEPU, which showed the potential of wreaking havoc on its political might there. So influential, it is said, was NEPU and Mallam Aminu Kano at Ifo that the town seemed to be Mallam’s home in the South-west, as he laid  the foundation of the oldest juma’at mosque in 1971, and commissioned it in 1972, witnessed by the then Inspector-General of Police, Kam Selem.

The then Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji (Sir) Abubakar III, sent a Federal Commissioner and later, Second Republic President, Alhaji Shehu Shagari and the late Alhaji Ibrahim Dasuki to represent him at the occasion.

So regular were clashes between the NPC and the NEPU at Ifo that notable disciples of Aminu Kano were often persecuted, especially the now about 80-year Mallam Abubakar Usman, popularly called Garba Maijankai, who was said to be arrested about 21 times and imprisoned once by the  NPC-led federal government.

The NPC asserted its influence at Ifo with its federal might, but leftwing ideals sustained its original strength there into the Second Republic when henchmen of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), Second Republic governor of Kano State, the late Alhaji Muhammadu Abubakar Rimi and the former governor of the present Jigawa State, Alhaji Sule Lamido, ‘went to school’ at Ifo to learn from such diehards as the now about 100 year-old Alhaji Labaran Na-Bukar and Alhaji Yalo Gari.

The Prime Minister, the Northern Regional Premier and Aminu Kano were said to have frequently exhorted the northern community there on patriotism, political affiliation, sense of belonging to northern Nigeria and education.

At one of such occasions, after saying the noon prayer at the still existing mosque built by Alhaji Zambahu during one of his regular visits, Sir Ahmadu Bello addressed the congregation, saying: “When you are at a place where people have tails, also find your own and fix to your back,” meant to imply that they should identify with the AG (to avoid persecution) although they sympathized with NPC and NEPU at heart, and “always split the riches you acquire here into two, take one half home to the North and retain the other half here.” Mallam Aminu Kano was always impressed with them: “Enroll your children in western education schools, these riches you now see can only be scrambled for and acquired by educated people in future,” he said.

That political providence enjoyed by Ifo has sunk deep into history. Ifo is now a politically ‘innocent’ and prosperous community, enjoying urban ‘goodies’ due to its proximity to Lagos, the nation’s former seat of government and now the economic capital. Here are some narratives from some old northern residents of Ifo:

 

Alhaji Labaran Na-Bukar (NEPU diehard)

“First to settle here among the northerners were Muslim scholars from the region. Rich merchants from the region later joined them. They converged gradually, some of them sojourning for some months, some for years and others permanently. They did not come in one huge numbers from one northern location, but from Sokoto, Katsina, Kano, Borno, among others.

These scholars, followed by rich merchants, also from the North, met the original Yoruba inhabitants and founders of the town, who warmly received and accommodated them. They cooperated to develop the town. At that time there was no talk of who was Yoruba or Hausa, they were all Ifo indigenes. More interesting was the fact that in the First Republic, the town became a resort for such top-notch northern politicians as Tafawa Balewa, Sardauna Ahmadu Bello, Inuwa Wada, Aminu Kano and many  others.

All of them would always come to confer with Alhaji Inuwa Zambahu. He was a very wealthy merchant, not a politician. This house I occupy now was Aminu Kano’s. I can say that the whole town belonged to Aminu Kano.”

 

Alhaji Abdumumini Dangiwa

“This town used to be hailed as Ifo, the stronghold of Islamic religion. This became its slogan to this day. This is due to the gradual convergence of Islamic scholars who met the Yorubal original inhabitants here and settled among them in harmonious coexistence. They were from Sokoto, Kano, Katsina and Zazzau. They were followed later by merchants of kola nut and other items from northern Nigeria.

Those political juggernauts of the First Republic we mentioned to you earlier turned Ifo as their resort because their supporters here were exceptionally faithful with regard to their ideals and followership. There were NPC and NEPU members here, and they were down-to-earth faithful. That is why those politicians found a home here. The rallying point of the NPC henchmen was Alhaji Inuwa Zambahu. He was a wealthy merchant who related deeply and cordially with not only politicians but even military men. In the course of relating with them, he dabbled into politics, although he maintained his status as a wealthy merchant.

So politically influential were the Hausa settlers of Ifo in the First Republic that at those times even Awolowo revered them and always met and consulted them whenever he was at Ifo for his politicking, in spite of the fact that they constituted just a small fraction of the larger Yoruba community.

Alhaji Abubakar Usman (Garba Maijankai) ‘Maijankai’ means ‘the red-headed man.’ He was so nicknamed because at his youth he carried so much load on his head that the hair turned red.

About 80 year-old Garba Maijankai, also known as Garba Ifo, who hailed from Yadakwari in Kura Local Government Area of Kano State, was a NEPU diehard. He was a disciple of a prominent Islamic scholar who settled at Ifo called Muhammadu Gwani.

“Muhammadu Gwani was an intimate friend of Mamman Daura, (President Muhammadu Buhari’s elder brother). During the civil war, Mamman Daura bought this plot of land, which used to be a meat market, and constructed this mosque. I met some of the Islamic scholars here, like Mallam Muhammadu Gwani, Mallam Maitumbi, Mallam Salisu, Mallam Abdulmumini Mukaddam and Mallam Dauda Tsakuwa. I met them here with their children and grandchildren. They all converged here from different parts of the North. Later, kola-nut merchants, the most prominent of them Alhaji Inuwa Zambahu, Alhaji Danzabarma and Alhaji Bala Yaro joined them here.  This town attracted great politicians of the First Republic because of its high population of civilized northerners. At those times, whoever came here would think he was in Kano City. I was a NEPU staunch faithful, a member of its youth wing and a member of the political vigilante group.

When Mamman Daura stayed here, always with Mallam Muhammadu Gwani, he was not a rich man. At that time, Muhammadu Buhari always came here on holidays, but he never participated in sorting and bundling kola nut. He was always reading his books while we worked on the kola-nuts.

When the civil war broke out, Mamman Daura got a contract to supply cattle. That was how he always sent us to Otukpo in Benue State to buy cattle and transport them to Onitsha in Anambra State. He settled at Agege in Lagos State where he became very rich, from where he paid for this plot of land here and constructed this mosque which he handed over to Muhammadu Gwani, his intimate friend, as the imam.”

Professor Auwalu Hamisu Yadudu (Former Dean, Faculty of Law and former Deputy Vice Chancellor, Bayero University, Kano)

 

His father settled with him at Ifo.

“Ifo settlers were traders. You know at those times, traders dispersing from the North to Kurmi (forest, which implies all forest regions from Nigeria to Ghana, south of Hausa land) were politically civilized and wherever they went, they carried along their political beliefs. Not only those who settled at Ifo or Agege, even those who went to as far as Ghana went with their NEPU ideology.

Majority of the Hausa settlers of Ifo were NEPU followers. Most NPC followers then were only converted from NEPU. That is why you can describe Ifo as a battleground for NPC and NEPU.