The Northern Elements Progressive Union (NEPU) was the first

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...

Northern Nigeria Northern Nigeria was an autonomous division within Nigeria, distinctly different from the southern part of the country, with independent customs, foreign relations and security structures. In 1962 it acquired the territory of the British No ...

. Founded in Kano on 8 August 1950, it was the offshoot of a pre-existing political association called the Northern Elements Progressive Association. It became the main opposition party in Northern Nigeria after the region was granted self-governance in the 1950s. In the First Republic it maintained a steady alliance with Zikist

National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons The National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC) later changed to the National Convention of Nigerian Citizens, was a Nigerian nationalist political party from 1944 to 1966, during the period leading up to independence and immediately ...

(NCNC) against the

Northern People's Congress Northern People's Congress (NPC) is a political party in Nigeria. Formed in June 1949, the party held considerable influence in the Northern Region from the 1950s until the military coup of 1966. It was formerly a cultural organization known as J ...

(NPC)-dominated Federal Government.

History

In the late 1940s, the dawning of a constitutional conference (the Richards Constitution) spurred a crisis in the then Socio-Cultural Association of

the NPC. The conservatives keen on protecting Northern traditions were reluctant to spearhead any transformation in the socio cultural dynamic of the region while the leftist led by Sa'adu Zungur championed a form of radical modernization they called Democratic Humanism. This in turn ignited a wave discontent within leftist circles in the North, on 8 August 1950, a conference of leftist individuals representing the Spikin Movement and pro-Zungeru modernists at a building in Yoruba road, Kano issued the Sawaba Declaration; a proclamation of a political front calling for a socialist revolution in Northern Nigeria, the Student wing of the party called Zahar Haqu had members such as

Abdullahi Aliyu Sumaila Abdullahi Aliyu Sumaila (21 March 1946 – 11 January 2003) was a Nigerian politician and administrator. One of the first administrators to inherit the post first republican administrative structure instituted by the military, served the Local Edu ...

. This was to become the enduring manifesto of NEPU. An English translation by

Aminu Kano Aminu Kano (9 August 1920 — 17 April 1983) was a Muslim politician from Nigeria born at Sudawa, Gwale Local Government and resided at Gwammaja, Dala Local Government. In the 1940s he led a socialist movement in the northern part of the ...

of the original Hausa document published by the party in 1953 called on the 'Talakawa' or populace to launch a 'class struggle against the ruling class'. After a protracted struggle within the party between Abba Maikwaru and Malam Aminu Kano (then a school teacher). A shift of support by the Spikin Movement in the Lafiya Convention of 1953 resulted in a victory for Aminu Kano from then on, Aminu Kano was to dominate the party infrastructure until 1964, when the same radicals that supported him turned against him and created a parallel structure called the Northern Elements Freedom Organisation.

References

{{Authority control Defunct political parties in Nigeria Liberal parties in Nigeria Socialist parties in Nigeria Political parties established in 1950 1950 establishments in Nigeria Politics of Northern Nigeria