TRIBUTE TO MALLAM UMARU ALTINE: First elected mayor of Enugu(1952 – 1958)
By Hon. Femi Kehinde
Benjamin Cardozo, an American jurist and philosopher said: “History in illuminating the past, illuminates the present and in illuminating the present, illuminates the future.”
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 heartbeat 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.
READ ALSO: Shame on you, my Igbo people
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 the 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 losing 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.
NCDC responds as Yellow fever claims 76 lives in 3 statesMary 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
The post TRIBUTE TO MALLAM UMARU ALTINE: First elected mayor of Enugu(1952 – 1958) appeared first on Vanguard News.
