The Kano Riots
Forty-six deaths in riots in Kano, the commercial centre of Northern Nigeria, is depressing news. For the past couple of months Nigeria has been going through a period of political crisis, but hitherto tensions had remained at the level of debate, not of violence. The trouble is that a superficial con- flict between Mr. Awolowo's Action Group, the dominant party in the Western Region, and the Northern People's Con- gress, led by the Sardauna of Sokotu, which is in control in the North, over the date when Nigeria should be granted full self-government conceals a more profound division of opinions and interests. The leaders of the political parties in the South, influenced by Gold Coast and Indian examples (Mr. Awolowo has recently been the guest of Pandit Nehru), wish to press ahead with the process whereby power is trans- ferred from British administrators to African Ministers. The traditional rulers in the North, and the Northern People's Congress which tends to reflect their views, afraid of " domina- tion by the south," wish to retard the process and look to the Administration to protect them. At the same time they are faced in their own Northern stronghold with a challenge to traditional authority from the radical Northern Elements Progressive Union. Once this opposition between political leaders is brought into the open it is not difficult for the unscrupulous_ and irresponsible to stir up communal feeling among the rank=and-file. In a city like Kano the familiar conditions are present. Northerners and Southerners live in different towns, worship different gods and have different histories, languages and social habits. Most important of all, Southerners have the educational advantages which 'enable them to get the better-paid clerical and supervisory jobs. No- body professes to want a Nigerian Pakistan—which would be economic nonsense—but unless the leaders of all three regions can hammer out a common policy there is a danger of things drifting that way.
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