Word: sardauna
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...swift and violent. In a single night, a conspiracy led by five young Sandhurst-trained officers killed or neutralized their superiors and grabbed control of big units of the army. Then, in simultaneous strikes throughout the nation, they killed or kidnaped Nigeria's most powerful feudal lord, the Sardauna of Sokoto; its two most corrupt politicians, Finance Minister Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh and Western Region Premier Chief Samuel Akintola; and its most prestigious international figure, Prime Minister Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa...
...Prime Minister, the number two man in the Northern People's Congress, shrewdly refused to comment on this article. But his boss, Alhaji Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto, Premier of the North, and President of the Northern People's Congress, denounced the President and proclaimed (not for the first time), "Sooner or later we shall have a showdown...
...held in October, and they were not "free and fair." The Constitutional Convention did not meet. As a result, the Azikiwe-Balewa compromise has failed and the "showdown" has come in a violent manner, precipitated by men who have grown tired of the broken promises of the politicians. The Sardauna and Sir Abubakar have been murdered, as has their ally, Chief Samuel Akintola, Premier of the West, and their friend Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh, the incredibly rich Federal Finance Minister who held the key to the balance of power in the Midwestern Region. Only the Ibo East has not lost...
...populous north, the Moslem ruler, whose title is the Sardauna (Field Marshal) of Sokoto-the real power behind Prime Minister Balewa-removed all elements of chance. Aware that the north's 167 seats alone were enough to guarantee the N.N.A. continued control of the House, the Sardauna's police jailed 40 U.P.G.A. candidates on spurious charges, and election officials refused to register at least 20 others. The lonely opposition candidates remaining were turned away from hotels and restaurants all over the north, denied entrance to public buildings-and even found police roadblocks barring their way to the next...
Since the Sardauna had no interest in settling in Lagos among the "southern barbarians," Abubakar became the protector of northern interests in the capital. Grudgingly, he went along with federal unity to the extent of becoming Minister of Works. "From the start he was the best minister of them all," recalls a British civil servant. "He did his homework and sent his paperwork through swiftly." But he remained a northerner, not a Nigerian...