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• Continued from last week.
The houses built specially for parliamentarians in Festac Town, Lagos during the tenure of Alhaji Shehu Shagari as President (1979 to 1983) were rejected by the politicians as being below their status! This was regardless of the fact that the contract was awarded to an American company whose local partner was Chief Bode Akindele.
Anyway, in spite of the rising unresolved tension amongst the politicians, the relationship between Lagos and Kano remained cordial. In 1961, the Sardauna of Sokoto who was the leader of the ruling party, Nigerian People’s Congress [NPC] directed the Prime Minister Sir Abubakar Balewa to reserve fifteen places in the Sixth Form of Kings College, Lagos for students from the North. Pronto the Principal of the college P.H. Davies was instructed by the Minister of Education Chief Aja Wachuku to admit them. My recollection is that five of them were from Kano and its environs. They had no difficulty in adjusting to the Lagos environment and the Boarding House of King’s College. Indeed, one of them, Yinusa Paiko was exceptionally brilliant. He had no interest whatsoever in anything beyond the classroom and the library. He went on to read law at Harvard University and graduated with distinction.
Shortly afterwards, a young army officer named Murtala Mohammed, who would later become the military Head of State of Nigeria, (he was born in the Kurawa Quarters of Kano) married my beloved cousin Ajoke Lanval who was from Lagos. They are blessed with six children – Aisha; Zakari (an old boy of King’s College); Fatima; Abba; Zeliha and Jummai. Murtala Mohammed attended Barewa College, Zaria before following the footsteps of Yakubu Gowon who was the Head Boy (School Captain) to Sandhurst, the elite military academy in England. Gowon was an all-rounder in sports and excelled in athletics which rewarded him with “Victor Ladorum” on numerous occasions.
In 1964, Alhaji Ibrahim El-Yakub also from Kano married Kofoworola Akerele in Lagos amidst considerable bewilderment. The groom was and remains a devout moslem while the Akerele family is staunchly catholic. The Akerele family were stunned. Kofoworola is the daughter of the late Dr. Oni Akerele who was the founder and first president of “Egbe Omo Oduduwa” (Yoruba cultural group). At the last count, thirty-three of the Akerele boys attended St. Gregory’s College, Obalende. It is sufficient to add that Alhaji Ibrahim rose from being a Manager at United African Company [UAC] to being a Director of the company. Thereafter, he ventured into politics and served as Minister of Water Resources under Alhaji Shehu Shagari and General Olusegun Obasanjo.
During the military government of General Obasanjo (1976-1979) he conceived the idea of the“1004 Flats” for civil servants and the prototype was meant for either Lagos or Kano. The Commissioner (Minister) of Housing under whose Ministry the project fell was Air Vice-Marshall Mukhtar Mohammed who was from Kano. Rather than insist that the project should start off in Kano, he opted for Lagos. The contractor was a Dutch company – Bredero. The one meant for Kano was never built.
Interestingly, the Lagos to Kano railway line served Nigeria well as it was the most reliable means of evacuating groundnuts and cotton (Kano was famous for its groundnut pyramids) from the north to Lagos for export to Europe and beyond. Then came the oil boom in the 1970’s and the groundnut pyramids perished slowly; nobody wanted to toil on the farms when there was plenty of money swilling around. The death knell of the groundnut pyramids was followed in short order by the collapse of the Lagos to Kano railway line in the 1980’s.
While the railways flourished, students at King’s College were provided with warrants to enable them spend their “Long Vacation” anywhere in the country. For them, travelling by train or Ojukwu Transport Service lorries was free. Then came the Jalupon disaster in 1958 when students from Lagos who were on their way to the college of Arts and Science perished in a train crash. One of them was my cousin, Oladele Mclean. Thereafter, travelling by train lost much of its attraction.
Even more remarkable is that over the years, both Lagos and Kano have had the good fortune of being under the leadership of some super performing governors (both civilian and military). Till today, Alhaji Audu Bako who was Commissioner of Police while serving as Governor of Kano State gets a lot of kudos for his industrialisation of Kano as well as infrastructure (particularly roads) and tourism initiatives such as Bagauda Lake Hotel, Bagauda Restaurant etc.
On a lighter note perhaps we should savour the apprehension of late Alhaji Alhassan Dantata, the grandfather of Alhaji Aliko Dangote, the richest man in Africa (and the 100th richest man in the world) according to the Forbes List, as Nigeria’s Independence Day loomed on the horizon. Alhaji Alhassan Dantata was a Nigerian businessman born in the village of Bebeji, Kano Emirate in 1877. He traded in groundnuts, kola nuts, beads, necklaces, cattle, precious stones, grains, rope, European cloth etc. He was one of the wealthiest men in West Africa at the time of his death in 1955.
As preparations for the departure of the British became more and more frenetic, Alhaji Dantata who was then the largest depositor at the Bank of British West Africa (now known as First Bank of Nigeria Plc.) decided to travel all the way from Kano to Lagos to check the safety of his money. When he arrived at the Head Office of the Bank located at 35 Marina, Lagos, the British Managing Director of the bank received him warmly. Also, on hand was the most senior Nigerian employee of the bank – Chief Julius Kosebinu Agbaje (a cricketer and an old boy of St. Gregory’s College).
Alhaji Dantata insisted on being shown the vault in which his money was kept before he felt convinced that his money was safe and would not be swallowed by snakes, carted off by monkeys or consumed by rats (as is currently the vogue in Nigeria).
We should acknowledge the business acumen of Alhaji Dantata as well as his instinctive awareness of risk assessment; risk management and due diligence. Sadly he died shortly afterwards.
As for Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, our first Prime Minister, it is to his eternal credit that when he had to select a school for his daughter Aisha, the choice was between Kano and Lagos. Without batting an eyelid or entertaining any qualms whatsoever, he opted to send her to a catholic school – the Lady of Apostles Secondary School in Yaba, Lagos. It is most gratifying that Aisha has retained the friendship and trust of her former schoolmates without any interference from religion or ethnicity. As for her friends, they never held her status as the daughter of the Prime Minister, who was conveyed to school (back and forth) in a chauffeur-driven Rolls Royce car, against her. There was neither resentment nor envy.
It would be remiss on our part if we overlook the special bond between Lagos and Kano – anchored on horses, especially Polo and horse racing.
Right up till the advent of military rule (1966 to 1979), horse racing thrived in both Lagos and Kano until the military government of General Yakubu Gowon (formerly head boy at Barewa College, Zaria) converted the Race Course in Lagos into a parade ground! Sacrilege. That was the end of horse racing in Lagos. Co-incidentally, at about the same time, horse racing in Kano went into decline. By 1976 the race course was still there but there was no horse racing. It only remains for us to remember those northern jockeys – Danja; Adamu; Tanko etc. who were mostly from Kano. They were the superstars in both Lagos and Kano. Thankfully, polo is still thriving in Lagos and Kano.
I had the privilege of being a Guest of Honour at the recent Lagos International Polo Tournament from (14th to 25th February, 2018) and the large contingent from Kano (horses, polo players and polo lovers) provided confirmation that the bond between Lagos and Kano is still intact.
Bashorun J.K. Randle
