Ahmadu Bello

Ahmadu Bello Biography / Profile

Sir Ahmadu Bello was born in Rabah, Sokoto State, Nigeria on June 12th, 1910. He was the son of a district head and heir to the Sokoto Emirate. His great-grandfather was Sultan Bello, son of the revered Usman Dan Fodio who founded the Fulani Empire, the largest in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Ahmadu Bello Age

Ahmadu Bello would have been 113 years old, if he were alive today. May his soul rest in peace.

Ahmadu Bello Early Life

Bello received his education first at the feet of Muslim masters, studying the Quran, the hadith, and Shariah, then at Sokoto Middle School, the only modern school at the time in the Sokoto province (1917-1926). He then proceeded to the Katsina Teacher's Training College.

Ahmadu Bello Career

After spending five years at Katsina, Bello was appointed by the Sultan as a teacher in his own former school in Sokoto. In 1934, he was made the district head of Rabbah within the Sultan's administration. Four years later, he was promoted and sent to Gusau to become a divisional head. In 1938, he made an unsuccessful bid to become the new Sultan of Sokoto. The successful sultan immediately conferred on him the traditional, now honorary, title of "Sarduna" and elevated him to the Sokoto Native Authority Council.

Bello first became politically active in 1945, when he helped to form a Youth Social Circle, which later (1948) affiliated with the NPC (Northern Peoples Congress) of which he became President-General in 1954. In 1948, he was offered a scholarship to study local government administration in England. He took the scholarship, sensing he needed to develop his knowledge about the process of governance.

Unlike other Nigerian political leaders who envisioned a single, united nation after independence from the British, Bello saw his primary mission as protecting the interests of the people of northern Nigeria. He soon found himself in opposition with Nigerian nationalists from the southern regions. After returning from England, he was nominated to represent the province of Sokoto in the regional House of Assembly, and elected. As a member of the assembly, he was a notable voice for northern interest and embraced a style of consultation and consensus with the major representatives of the northern emirates: Kano, Bornu, and Sokoto. As the movement for independence from the British Empire gathered momentum, Bello emerged as a strong advocate of federalism as the system of government that in his view was most suitable for Nigeria. This was especially attractive to Northern Nigerians, who had a history of sharing power. Nigeria has some 300 clan groups. He may also have wanted to protect the North from what he perceived as the possibility of Southern domination. He also served on the national constitutional drafting commission as a representative of the North.

In the first elections held in Northern Nigeria in 1952, Ahmadu Bello won a seat in the Northern House of Assembly, and became a member of the regional executive council as minister of works. Bello was successively minister of Works, of Local Government, and of Community Development in the Northern Region of Nigeria. In 1953 and in 1957, he led the Northern delegation during independence talks in London.

In 1954, Bello became the first Premier of Northern Nigeria. In the 1959 independence elections, he led the NPC to win a plurality of the parliamentary seats. Bello's NPC forged an alliance with Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe's NCNC (National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons) to form Nigeria's first indigenous federal government which led to independence from Britain. In forming the 1960 independence federal government of the Nigeria, Bello as president of the NPC, chose—although arguably one of the most influential politicians in Nigeria—to remain Premier of Northern Nigeria and devolved the position of Prime Minister of the Federation to the deputy president of the NPC, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa. He apparently did not want to live in Lagos and preferred the political climate of the North from that of the South. His disinclination to head the national government also suggests that he was not interested in power for the sake of power but in serving the people whose votes had elected him to office.

Ahmadu Bello Personal Life

Bello was a practicing Muslim. He married five times. His first wife was Goggon Kurya Hafsatu bint Abdulkadir Maccido, daughter of the Waziri of Sokoto (they married in 1932). His second wife (married 1934, divorced 1938) was Kande. His third was Amiru Fadima (married 1934, divorced 1938). His fourth wife (married 1940) was Goggon Kano Amina bint Abubakar, daughter of the District Head of Bici. His fifth wife was Jabbo bint Aliyu, daughter of the Sarkin Yaki of Gwandu (married 1949). In 1952, he married Jabbo bint Aliyu, daughter of the Sarkin Yaki of Gwandu. He had numerous children including; Muhammad Tambari ibn Ahmadu Bello (son), Inno bint Ahmadu Bello (daughter), Aisha bint Ahmadu Bello (daughter), and Lubabatu bint Ahmadu Bello (daughter).

In 1955, he performed the Hajj, becoming Alhaji Ahmadu Bello. From then until his death, he visited Mecca annually to perform the Umrah. He walked every day to his local Mosque for prayer. He chose "work and worship" as the slogan for Northern Nigeria. Bello established a reputation for religious toleration.

His belief that the Sardauna of Sokoto was the most powerful politician in the nation, even more powerful than the prime minister, led a group of army officers headed by Major Chukwuma Nzeogwu to attack Bello’s residence in Kaduna in a coup d'état. Sir Ahmadu Bello was brutally murdered during that attack on January 15th, 1966.