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BARO PORT AND NUPEKO BRIDGE

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BARO PORT AND NUPEKO BRIDGE 
 
 
  By Ndagi Abdullahi 
 
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KinNupe is faced with innumerable challenges and problems and the Nupe people, particularly the leaders, seem to be at a loss as which of the challenges to tackle first and which should be tackled last. 
 
But in this present write-up we want to focus our attention on one of the pressing problems of KinNupe which needs immediate and urgent solution, namely, the need for the construction of major trunk roads across KinNupe; the need for the building of bridges to connect these trunk roads across some points in KinNupe; and, the need for the dredging of the River Niger to Baro and the development of the Baro Port into a world standard port right here in Central KinNupe. 
 
But, before discussing these roads, bridges and the Baro Port in details, let’s first note the fact that KinNupe is faced with so many problems of infrastructural and socio-cultural development. 
 
The Many Challenges Facing KinNupe 
Most people are today aware of the popular and grassroots Nupe demand for a Nupe State or Edu State. But most are not aware of the fact that the need for Edu State is not the only problem of the Nupe Nation. As much as we do admit that the need for the creation of Edu State is a very urgent and most paramount one for the Nupe Nation, we also maintain that KinNupe and the Nupe people are also faced with many other urgent and paramount challenges which the Nupe people should not lose sight of. 
 
Among these countless other challenges facing KinNupe today are the issue of the construction of trunk roads to link the major sections of the Nupe Nation most especially including the roads to link the Niger and the Kwara sections of KinNupe. There is also the need to contruct bridges across the River Niger to connect different parts of KinNupe separated by the River Niger. 
 
Disunity is another major challenge before the Nupe Nation. The Nupe people are divided along many lines including the ethnic, sub-tribal, religious, sectarian or denominational, etc, etc. This problem of disunity needs to be addressed as soon as possible. 
 
But then we need to mark the fact that the Etsu Nupes are aware of this problem of disunity among the Nupes and are, accordingly, working very hard to resolve it. For a start the various Etsu Nupes have, first and foremost, united themselves into a unanimous college or council of Etsu Nupes and they are now working hard at extending this Nupe unity down to the grassroots. Popular, grassroots, unity programs like the Nupe Day, the Emigungi Nupe cultural costume of the green, blue and red colours, for instance, have been recently established jointly by the Etsu Nupes to ensure and foster unity among the Nupe people. 
 
Then there is also the need for the infrastructural development of KinNupe. KinNupe is woefully underdeveloped infrastructurally. But many are of the view that the problem of the infrastructural development of KinNupe can only be consummately addressed and resolved with the creation of Edu State, the Nupe State. 
 
The Bida-Nupeko-Patigi Road 
Albeit, and as we have mentioned before, of all these challenges facing KinNupe today we wish to discuss, in this present write-up, the need for the construction of the trunk roads and brdges linking the various parts of KinNupe within and outside the Nupe Nation. We wish to point out the fact that the construction of these roads will bring instantenous development in all its ramifications to the Nupe Nation in general and the Nupe people in particular. 
 
The fact is that the greatest developmental challenge facing KinNupe today is that of the twin problems of the Nupeko Bridge and the Dredging of the River Niger to the Baro Port. These problems are more pressing than even the popular demand for the creation of the geopolitical entity called Edu state. 
 
Let’s start with the Bida-Nupeko-Patigi Road. We will call it the BNP Road. The plan for the construction of this BNP Road has been in the pipeline for long. As a matter of fact the Obasanjo Administration actually began the actual construction of the road but it immediately became an abandoned project the moment it was started almost a decade and half ago. 
 
However the road was graded and connecting bridges and culverts were constructed before the whole projected became an abandoned one. In fact the road was coal-tarred all the way from Bida up to the Sachi general area and it was graded up to Nku and Nupeko before it was abandoned. 
 
The present Jonathan Administration recently approved some 8 Billion Naira for the construction of the road and in fact some serious works have began on the road in the last couple of months. 
 
This BNP Road is the vital link that is urgently needed to re-unite the Nupe peoples of the Niger State and Kwara State since when the Colonial Whitemen deliberately and mischievously disunited and balkanized the Nupe peoples into the cis-Niger and trans-Niger sections beginning in the days of Frederick Lugard ‘The AntiNupe’. 
 
The need to have this BNP trunk road directly connecting the Niger and Kwara sections of KinNupe with a bridge across the River Niger, a bridge stretching from Nupeko in Niger State across the River Niger to Patigi in Kwara State, is a paramount need that the entire Nupe Nation needs to staunchly fight for. 
 
Reasons Why BNP Road Has Not Been Constructed 
For so long Nupe people are always saying that there is the need to get this BNP Road, the Bida-Nupeko-Patigi road, constructed, yet this road has remained unconstructed for several decades on end. 
 
This BNP Road from Bida through Nku to Nupeko and then across the River Niger to Patigi should have been constructed since the time of the First Republic of the Sir Ahmadu Bello days or even during the colonial era. But there has always been a conspiracy or a hidden agenda by the enemies of Nupe, within and outside Nupe, since the colonial era, to ensure that this road is not constructed. 
 
There are many reasons why the road has not been constructed. A leading reason is that its construction will redefine Nigeria and change the balance of economic, and consequently political power, in Nigeria. We will discuss this in greater details in the following paragraphs. 
 
Another reason is that some Nupe people within KinNupe are not comfortable with the far-reaching economic and political changes that the construction of this road will effect which they feel will not be in their parochial interests. 
 
Many villagers and Nupe peoples within and outside the particular areas and general zones to be affected by the construction of this road are afraid of the drastic and rather unpredictable changes that the construction of this road will bring upon them. 
 
Some other Nupe people, living in other parts of KinNupe, are simply jealous or envious of the great and positive changes that the construction of this road will bring upon the people in its immediate surroundings and not to them who are living far away from the area of the road. 
 
Similarly, a mischievous section of the Nupe elite or leaders also felt that their personal interests will be negatively affected by the construction of this road and they have therefore refused to fight actively at the federal level for the construction of the road. 
 
There are so many other reasons, many petty reasons, that space and time will not allow us to list or specify here. 
 
The Advantages of the BNP Road 
There are many advantages that the construction of the BNP Road will confer on KinNupe. A foremost advantage here in that the construction of the Bida-Nupeko-Patigi Road, or BNP Road, will transform KinNupe into the transportation hub of Nigeria. 
 
With the construction of this BNP Road we will see that all traffic from the North to the South of Nigeria and vice versa will pass through KinNupe. This development will, of course, lead to an instantenous and positive economic transformation of KinNupe due to the heavy traffic that will now be passing on transit through KinNupe. 
 
Ever since pre-colonial times KinNupe has been the prehistoric and historic transport hub of ancient Nigeria and the Central Sudan in general. All the commercial and mercantilic transportation from across the Sahara to the Atlantic and from Northern Nigeria to Southern Nigeria used to pass through KinNupe before the advent of the White man in West Africa. 
 
It was this role as the singular transporation hub of ancient Nigeria that, in addition to its role as the population powerhouse of ancient Central Sudan, transformed KinNupe into the economic, political and cultural superpower of ancient Nigeria. 
 
KinNupe was the central headquarters, geographically and otherwise, of ancient Nigeria. Everything that goes in and comes out of ancient Nigeria must pass through and be influenced by or processed in KinNupe in those days. KinNupe was the clearing house of ancient Nigeria. And this was simply because all transportation passed through KinNupe in those days. 
 
But then the White people came and, with the power of their Colonial Government, balkanized KinNupe into disunited puny provinces that could not hold at the centre. To further consolidate this balkanization they deliberately refused to link or connect by major roads the disunited Nupe puny states they have created. Imagine there being no any modern road, since colonial times, directly linking Patigi with Bida despite the historical and political significance of these cities in the makeup of the Nupe Nation. 
 
As Professor Idris Abdullahi Patigi will always note, the White people ensured the Nupe Nation is disunited through balkanization to the extent that the cis-Niger and the trans-Niger, or today’s Niger State and Kwara State, Nupe people are made to appear as if they are two different peoples with no any ethnic or tribal affiliations whatever. 
 
This unholy disunity between the two major sections of the Nupe peoples is further abetted, to this very day long after the Colonial era, by the seemingly unexplicable refusal of the post-Independence Nigerian authorities to construct a direct, trunk road linkng Bida to Patigi with a major bridge across the River Niger at Nupeko. 
 
But Nupe people have come to the realization that the construction of this road linking Bida to Patigi with a bridge across the River Niger, the Bida-Nupeko-Patigi or BNP Road, is of utmost importance to the overall development of the entire Nupe Nation. 
 
As we have mentioned above, the construction of the Bida-Nupeko-Patigi Road will lead to the passing of all traffic between Northern and Southern Nigeria through Central KinNupe as all traffic will be diverted to this BNP Road which would have become the shortest connection between Northern and Southern Nigeria. This, of course, will simply revert KinNupe back to its ancient role as the transportation – and hence the economic, political and sociocultural – headquarters of Nigeria. 
 
Few people have actually sat down to take a closer look at the far-reaching implications of having this BNP Road constructed; but the truth of the matter is that the construction of this BNP Road will usher in far-reaching changes in the economic and political horizons of Nigeria. It will change the economic and political permutations of Nigeria to the great advantage of the Nupe Nation. And that is why those non-Nupe hegemonistic powers, just like the former Colonial White men before them, who have sat down to take a close look at the implications of the BNP Road have seen to it that it is not constructed to this very day. 
 
In any case it is just a matter of time before this BNP Road will be constructed. The need for it, even for the overall development of Nigeria, is just too overwhelming to be left unattended to forever. Whether others like it or not, one day the Bida-Nupeko-Patigi Road will be constructed and that will lead to the economic and infrastructural renaissance of KinNupe. 
 
Interestingly enough the Obasanjo and now the Goodluck Jonathan administrations have shown genuine interest in the construction of this BNP Road. Infact the Jonathan Administration is right now busy constructing the road. This simply means that the completion of this BNP Road may not even wait for as long as some people have originally predicted. It means that the road will be completed and fully functional in the near future. It means that the Nupe Nation is soon going to become an economic headquarters of Nigeria. 
 
But then we should also mark the fact that the BNP Road is not the only trunk road that KinNupe desperately needs today in order to foster unity and rapid economic growth within KinNupe. Another trunk road linking Niger and Kwara states through Enagi and Lafiagi with a bridge across the River Niger at Cewuru is also very necessary. Then, and of course, the trunk road linking the Bida-Mokwa-Jebba urban centres, which has been in existence, needs to be completely reconstructed into a modern and world standard road since it is also a major link between Northern and Southern Nigeria. 
 
Again, this Bida-Kutigi-Mokwa-Jebba road is also under serious reconstruction right now. 
 
And apart from all these roads, the River Niger needs to be dredged to the point of the Baro Port and even beyond. The importance of an inland Baro Port right here in Central KinNupe for KinNupe, Northern Nigeria and Nigeria in general, cannot, literally, be overemphasized. 
 
The Roads, Bridges and Port 
Nothing will bring instant and extraordinary development to the Nupe Nation right now more than the construction of the Bida-Nupeko-Patigi, or BNP, Road, the building of the Nupeko Bridge across the Niger at the Nupeko-Patigi; the building of a sister bridge across the River Niger from Mokwa Local Government to the Lafiagi-bank; the reconstruction and upgrading of the Mokwa-Jebba road and the dredging of the River Niger up to the inland port of Baro. 
 
The benefits these – the construction of the Nupeko-Patigi and Lafiagi-Cewuru bridges and the Bida-to-Patigi and Bida-Mokwa-Jebba trunk roads and the dredging of the River Niger to the Baro Port – will bring to the development of the Nupe Nation are innumerable, variegated and multifaceted. 
 
Constructing the Nupeko-Patigi Bridge and completing the Bida-to-Patigi road and the construction of the Guzhan-Cewuru-Lafiagi bridge across the Niger from Mokwa Local Government in Niger State to Edu Local Government in Kwara State and the construction of the roads from Enagi through Diko to the Lafiagi-Cewuru Ferry-Port and the reconstruction of the Bida-through Mokwa-to Jebba road will instantaneously transform KinNupe into the transport hub of not only the whole of Nigeria but will also, according to the Vision 3:2020 findings of the Niger State Government, transform KinNupe into the transportation headquarters of the whole of the West African sub-region. 
 
Even now that it takes some four hours to travel through the 40km unlevelled road from Bida to Patigi or a harrowing experience of travelling through Enagi and Diko to the Lafiagi-Cewuru Ferry-Port a sizeable portion of the traffic from Northern to Southern Nigeria, particularly from Abuja to Lagos, still prefer passing through these terrible roads – and this is despite the experience of having to cross the River Niger at Patigi or Lafiagi-cewuru through locally made ferries! 
 
By the time the Bida-to-Patigi road, the Enagi-Diko-Cewuru-Lafiagi road and the Bida-Mokwa-Jebba road are constructed and the Nupeko-Patigi Bridge and the Lafiagi-Cewuru Bridge are constructed across the Niger it is clear that the entire flow of traffic from the Northern to the Southern part of Nigeria, and vice-versa, will have to be passing through this Bida-Patigi; Lafiagi-Cewuru and Bida-Mokwa-Jebba roads and across the Nupeko-Patigi bridge; Lafiagi-Cewuru bridge and Jebba-bridge. This simply means that KinNupe will become the transport hub of the whole of Nigeria. 
 
The Future Mega-cities of KinNupe 
The construction of all these roads, bridges and Baro Port we are talking about will lead to the instantaneous transformation of the several clusters of the Nupe towns and villages along the Bida-Patigi; Enagi-Diko-Cewuru-Lafiagi road and Bida-Mokwa-Jebba road into mega-cities. 
 
On the Bida-Patigi axis I am talking about towns including Zhima (Jima), Dancitagi, Sati, Gbara, Saci, Kuchi, Nku, Egagi, Nupeko, Egbangi, etc, etc. 
 
On the Bida-Mokwa-Jebba axis I am talking of towns like the two Wuyas, Kutigi, Lanle, Enagi, Takuma, etc, etc. 
 
And on the Enagi-Lafiagi axis I am talking about Enagi, Diko, Cewuru, Lafiagi, Tsaragi, etc, etc. 
 
Some of these are already towns with strong urbanisation tendencies and all they need is just a little push to transform them into not just cities but mega-cities. 
 
I have always said that these Nupe towns will grow into mega-cities the sort that we see extending along the banks of the Danube along the length of Europe. 
 
Nupe settlements naturally tends towards urbanisation and the result will be the emergence of an entire Nupe civilisation of mega-cities extending all the way from the Ilorin reaches of Share-Tsaragi extending through Patigi-Nupeko-Bida, Lafiagi-Chewuru-Enagi, and Jebba-Mokwa-Bida to the Agaie-Lapai, Gawu Babangida-Lambata reaches of the FCT the moment these roads and bridges are constructed around and across the River Niger here in Central KinNupe. 
 
Now that simply means that KinNupe will have the largest extension of mega-cities in the whole of West Africa and, of course, with that incredible traffic of the transport from the South to the North of Nigeria and vice versa passing through KinNupe along this roads, KinNupe will become the commercial centre of not only Nigeria but also the whole of West Africa. 
 
Now, don’t think that I am just daydreaming, these are findings that have been systematically worked out by various fact-finding and fieldwork-investigation committees set up by the Niger State Government on its Vision 3:2020 endeavours the findings of which I have been working on behalf of the Niger State Government. 
 
So, I know what I am talking about. 
 
In essence I am saying that by the time the Bida-Nupeko-Patigi road, the Enagi-to-Lafiagi road, and the Bida-to-Mokwa-to-Jebba road are constructed complete with the three bridges of Nupeko-Patigi Bridge, Diko-Lafiagi Bridge KinNupe will be instantaneously transformed into both the transportation and commercial headquarters of not only Nigeria but also the whole of West Africa. This is because KinNupe will be instantaneously transformed into the most urbanised and most commercial region in the whole of Nigeria. 
 
This is the incredible scenario that awaits the Nupe Nation in the very near future... 
 
.... but more dizzying is the scenario of the dredging of the Niger to the point of the construction of the Baro Inland Port! 
 
The Baro Port 
The incredible and extraordinary beneficial results the dredging of the River Niger right into the heart of KinNupe and complete with an inland port at the Nupe city of Baro will bring to the development of the Nupe Nation is something so exhilarating to believe that it seems to come straight out of a fairy-tale booklet. 
 
If the Federal Government of Nigeria dredge the River Niger into KinNupe and go ahead to build the Baro Inland Port then nothing – I repeat, Nothing, God Willing – will stop KinNupe from becoming the overnight industrial centre of the whole of Nigeria and the rest of West Africa. Edu State or no Edu State! 
 
It is so simple, even for the unaided investigator, to see that an international Baro Inland Port in the heart of Nigeria directly servicing the FCT Abuja will simply means the immediate shift of industrial and economic balance of power from Lagos to the Central KinNupe area. 
 
It is true that the economy of Lagos today is that of 36 different African countries combined. With the dredging of the River Niger and the establishment of the Baro Inland Port the economy of KinNupe will not only overshadow that of Lagos but will be equal to that of at least 50, yes fifty, African countries combined!... 
 
....Now, don’t you think these incredible extrapolations and projections are enough to initiate a secret plot by any brand of the various Nigerian power clichés or blocs to see to it that the Niger is not dredged into the heart of KinNupe and that the project of the Baro Inland Port is frustrated by all means necessary? 
 
Why did the Goodluck Jonathan administration immediately stopped the dredging of the River Niger to the Baro Port if there are not some powerful lobbies at the federal level trying to influence the presidency against the dredging of the River Niger and the building of the Baro Inland Port right here in Central KinNupe? 
 
It is very true that our Nupe leaders are doing virtually nothing about this Niger Dredging and the Baro Inland port issue; but the truth is that our Nupe leaders are more or less actually powerless in the face of the superpowers who are seeing to it that nothing is done about the dredging and the Inland Port. 
 
When our Nupe leaders spent their time wrongly squabbling over where the capital city of Edu State should be located instead fighting for the creation of Edu State, this is kind of unfortunate and ugly result that you get.... 
 
.... If our Nupe leaders have united and fought for Edu State by now we wouldn’t have still been talking about the construction of the road from Bida to Patigi, the Nupeko Bridge, the Lafiagi-Cewuru bridge, the dredging of the River Niger into Central KinNupe and the building of the Baro Inland Port – all these things will have been achieved by Edu State long ago and KinNupe would have long been transformed into the commercial and industrial centre of Nigeria ago. 
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BARO PORT AND NUPEKO BRIDGE

BARO PORT AND NUPEKO BRIDGE By Ndagi Abdullahi KinNupe is faced with innumerable challenges and problems and the Nupe people, p...

EGINNA: FIRST-BORN IN NUPE

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EGINNA: FIRST-BORN IN NUPE 
 
By Ndagi Abdullahi 
 
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A now fast disappearing culture among Nupe women is that a mother doesn’t call or pronounce the name of her first child. They said it is because the mother is so shy of calling the name of her first child. And when the modern Nupe mother calls the name of her first child we are told that it is because she is liberated and civilized unlike the illerate and conservative Nupe woman who still clung to the old Nupe practice of not openly pronouncing the name of her first child. 
 
Well, the fact is that modern Nupe people are, to tell the truth, completely ignorant of the origins and significance of the ancient Nupe practice of mothers not calling or pronouncing the name of their first-borns. That is why they come up with wrong reasons to explain the origin and significance of this very ancient cultural practice among Nupe mothers. 
 
The truth of the matter is that this practice of Nupe mothers not calling or pronouncing the names of their first-born is a very ancient African cultural practice that goes back into very premieval and immemorial times. We explain the origins and significance of this practice below. 
 
In the beginning the first child of a Nupe family is sacrificed to God. Human sacrifice was an integral part of Nupe culture in the beginning. In those earlier days the Nupe family must express its ultimate reverence to God Almighty by sacrificing its first-born to God. 
 
Afterwards human sacrifice became too painful for parents to bear and the first child then used to be left inside a deep forest as a sacrifice to God. The baby is left to die in the forest since the parents could not face the gory sight of their child being slaughtered as a sacrifice to God through the initial process of human sacrifice. 
 
The forest in this case is usually a sacred grove or a shrine specially earmarked for human sacrifices to God. In this case the parents are spared the painful sight of the death of the child even though tey are well aware that their first-born will die by being devoured by wild animals in the forest or through the sheer pagns of hunger and starvation. 
 
But with time even the act of leaving the first child to die in a forest became unbearable to the parents and the first child used to be then given away to a zhigi high priest living in a far away village from that of the parents such that the parents will hardly, or never, see their first born who is assumed to have been sacrificed to God at least figuratively. 
 
It wwas assumed that since the Zhigi high priest is a man of God and since all his life and work are dedicated to seving God, giving him the first-born as an apprentice or servant is another way of sacrificing the first-born to God Almighty. This is done in such a manner that the first-born is given to a zhigi priest in a far away place so that the parents of the child are never to see the child again since it is assumed that the child is not more theirs but belongs to God. 
 
But with time even this practice of never seeing their first-born again became unbearable to the parents and then the first child used to be left with grandparents in the same village or even the same compound with the parents. In this case, however, the parents cannot call the name of the child or even interact with the child since it is assumed that they have sacrificed the child to God. 
 
In the end the child used to be left in the hands of the parents but still the parents cannot call the name of the child because it is still assumed that the child have been sacrificed to God. 
 
Islam and Christianity came and swept away this ancient culture of the Nupes underground because both Islam and Christianity will not condone the sacrifice of a first child to a non-Islamic or non-Christian God. However, and today, Nupe mothers still don’t call the name of the first child. 
 
This culture of sacrificing the first-born to God or the gods is a very ancient one that we saw even in the Semitic scriptures of both the Bible and the Qur’an. Both the Bible and the Qur’an told us the story of Abraham or Prophet Ibrahim attempting to sacrifice his first child, in human sacrifice, to God Almighty. 
 
The practice of sacrificing first-borns to God is a very ancient African culture that goes to the very beginnings of humanity itself as we see in the holy scriptures of the Qur’an and the Bible. 
 
In very ancient times the universal practice in all parts of the world, especially in the age of the Semitic domination of the world, was the sacrifice of the first-born of each and every family to God or the gods. It was a painful human sacrifice that was design to test the faith of the faithful. 
 
That ancient Semitic culture was obsessed with this sacrifice of first-born to God is amply demonstrated by the fact that several verses and passages in the Old Testament either tell of God taking the first borns of humans and animals by force, as for example in Exodus 13:15 regarding the stubborn Egyptians, or commanding Moses to sacrifice the first born of humans and animals to Him. 
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EGINNA: FIRST-BORN IN NUPE

EGINNA: FIRST-BORN IN NUPE By Ndagi Abdullahi A now fast disappearing culture among Nupe women is that a mother doesn’t call or pro...

ANCIENT NUPE MONOTHEISM

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ANCIENT NUPE MONOTHEISM 
 
By Ndagi Abdullahi 
 
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The Theory of Evolution has come to colour and affect the entire worldview of Western scholarship today. Everything that Western scholarship talks about or investigates today is portrayed in evolutionary terms and perspectives, namely, from the point of view that the present is better than the past; that the past is primitive and that the present is advanced. 
 
And so is it that even religion and spiritualism have come to be interpreted in evolutionary perspectives by modern Western scholarship. The claim of Western scholarship today is that religion – and the very concept of God itself – is an evolutionary phenomenon that has been evolving and advancing over the aeons. It is assumed by modern Western scholarship that ancient people were so primitive their very concept of religion and God were inchoate and childish. 
 
Modern Western scholarship, with its evolutionist perspectives, is of the claim that in ancient times the people who invented religion were so primitive they couldn’t conceptualize an Almighty God and that intead they invented the idea of many gods or polytheism. In other words Western scholarship is simply telling us that religion was invented by primitive man and was not revealed by God and that the primitive man was at such an unevolved stage of the evolutionary process when he invented religion that he was only able to come up with polytheism then. 
 
Western scholarship is of the claim that it was only when the idea of religion gradually evolved over the aeons and ages that man was eventually able to come up with the concept of monotheism or an Almighty God. It was after inventing an Almighty God that man was able to finally reject the idea of polytheism. 
 
So is it today that we are being told by crack professors and academicians of Western breedings that ancient man was so primitive his mind could not visualize a monotheistic God and that primitive man could only believe in polytheism. And with this baseless assertion Western scholarship has been desperately trying to convince us that all ancient religions, ‘primitive religons’ as they call them, were polytheistic. 
 
Western scholars and academicians have been foolhardly trying to tell us that in the beginning all religions were polytheistic and that it was only with time and after some evolutionary advancement that some religions are today able to eventually incorporate the concept of monotheism into their theology. 
 
The case of Judaism as a showcase has become classic. Western scholars will always bunt us with the ‘Elohim’ Biblical verses from the Old Testament whereby a plural form of the Hebrew word for god is used in reference to the God of the Israelites instead of the singular ‘Eloah’ and then these scholars will try to convince us that the reason for this was that the Isrealites were initially a polytheistic people and that it was when their religion evolved and advanced that the Isrealites were able to come up with monotheism and finally addressed their God as Yahweh. 
 
The subtle point most people are failing to notice here is that the claim of the Western scholar is that religion is artificial and not revealed – that religion was invented by man and not revealed by God. If religion was invented by man, then Western scholarship would further like us to believe that religion was originally invented by primitive men when man was still at the evolutionary stage whereby his mind was able to conceptualize god only in polytheistic terms. 
 
We are therefore and subtly being made to believe today that all religions started as polytheistic religions and that all religions evolve over the time and that it was only those religions that were able to evolve from the polytheistic unto the monotheistic stages that were able to survive into modern times. 
 
The Western scholar wants us to believe that all the religions we see in the world today as monotheistic faiths were originally polytheistic religions. This, of course, will be very difficult to prove with the case of Islam which was founded by Prophet Muhammad who was strictly monotheistic right from the beginning of his mission. And just as is the case with Islam, but for the Trinity complexity, it will also be very difficult to prove that Christianity was originally a polytheistic faith that eventually evolved into a monotheistic faith. 
 
The truth of the matter is that the ancient peoples were not primitive and they were not so stupid or so feeble-minded as to have been unable to ‘invent’ a monotheistic Almighty God. 
 
In the first place we should mark the fact that ancient mankind was not primitive or stupid as Western scholarship is trying to tell us today. The Semitic scriptures – including the Bible and and Qur’an for instance – made it very clear to us that the first human being, Adam, was not a cave-dwelling, hunter-gatherer primitive idiot as Western scholarship, with its Theory of Evolution drivel is trying to make us believe today. 
 
The Hadith Prophetic Traditions of the Prophet Muhammad in Islam even went the extra step of informing us that Adam, the first human being, was a prophet – in other words Adam the first human being was not an ordinary human being like modern human beings like you and me; Adam the first human being was a human being far higher by all standards than modern human beings. So, and if anything at all, human beings must have devolved from the time of Prophet Adam to modern human beings rather than evolved from the time of Prophet Adam to modern human beings. Please read my books – including ‘The Theory of Devolution’ and ‘Prophet Adam’ – for details on this interesting topic. 
 
Ancient humanity was not primitive or un-evolved. Ancient human beings were highly advanced socioculturally and scientifically. Many actually had cultures and civilizations that were far advanced higher than modern Western civilization. 
 
And ancient people were not generally and overwhelmingly polytheistic as modern Western scholarship is trying to convince us. The religions of the ancient peoples were generally monotheistic religions and it was only modern Western scholarship that came to wrongly paint them as being polytheistic. 
 
The Spirits 
In all parts of the world ancient people didn’t practice polytheism the way Western scholars are mischievously trying to tell us today. Most of the religions that are condemned as polytheistic today were never polytheistic religion in their days. 
 
The ancients believed in a world or realm of spiritual beings who are divinely higher than human beings but lesser than God Almighty. This realm of divine beings included the angels, the daemons, the good Jinns, the ancestral shades representing the spirits of the departed human saints, the unattached spirits of the dead people, and so on an on. 
 
This pantheon of divine spirits is what modern Western scholarship have refused to recognise or believe in and have consequently gone on to accuse the ancients of worshipping ‘lesser gods’ or a ‘multiplicity of gods’ which they termed polytheism. 
 
But the truth is that it is the modern Western scholar who is primitive and stupid for failing to recognize the existence of these spiritual beings some of which are really partly divine beings but of far lesser divinity than God Almighty who created all of them in the first place. 
 
It is a primitive and feeble mind that will fail to perceive the existence of an extra-metaphysical realm qualified by spiritual dimensions. And since the Western mind has failed to perceive this spiritual realm then it is the Western scholar who is feeble-minded and actually primitive. 
 
Ancient peoples from all parts of the world were mostly far more advanced in metaphysical and spiritual matters and issues than modern mankind. Ancient peoples were not polytheists worshipping other gods apart from Almighty God as modern Western scholarship is mischievously telling us today. 
 
The Lost Science of Spiritual Communication 
Just because ancient peoples recognize the existence of spiritual beings like the angels, the Jinns, the ancestral shades, doesn’t mean that the ancient peoples were polytheists worshipping the angels, the Jinns, the ancestral shades, and so on and on as Western scholarship is wrongly telling us today. 
 
The ancients knew that the spirit realm exists and that the spiritual beings – including the angels, the Jinns, the ancestral shades, and even our own selves – live in this spiritual realm. The ancients were in possession of ancient spiritual sciences that enable them to communicate with these spirit realm and these spiritual beings. Communicating with the spiritual realm and the spiritual beings is not tantamount to worshipping the spiritual beings. 
 
But because modern Western culture and Western civilization have lost this ancient science of how to communicate with the spirit realm and the spiritual beings, modern Western scholarship have come to mischievously condemn this science as fetishism, polytheism or outright idolatry. 
 
Everywhere the White man went during the Age of Discovery and the Age of Exploration towards the end of the Medieval Era and on the eve of this Modern Era, the White man condemned all indigenous cultures and religions in all parts of the world outside Europe as ‘fetishism’, ‘shamanis’, ‘animism’, ‘idolatry’ or ‘polytheism’. But the ancient peoples were not polytheists or idolaters as Western scholarship is wrongly telling us today. The truth is that the White man was almost always wrong on all these occasions. 
 
Africans were not Fetishists 
When the White man arrive Africa he immediately condemned all ancient African religions as being primitive and polytheistic and all religious practices of our African ancestors as fetishism. But our African people were not primitive polytheists stooped in fetishism as the White man came and wrongly branded them. 
 
The ancient religions of the African peoples were advanced religions and supremely spiritual systems that perfected the science of spiritual communication. But the White man came and condemned ancient African religions and spiritual systems as fetishism, polytheism and idolatery while at the same time portraying our ancient African ancestors as primitive idiots who could not conceive or fathom advanced monotheistics concepts. 
 
The truth, however, is that all ancient African peoples have been monotheitics right from the begininning. All African peoples from all the nooks and corners of the African continent have invariably believed in the existence of the monotheistic Almighty God right from the beginning. No African people have ever believed in the existence of a polytheistic pantheon of lesser gods to the exclusion of the existence the Almighty God that modern religions are talking about today. 
 
Our ancient African ancestors were not idiots or imbeciles who couldn’t fathom the existence of a monotheistic Almighty God. If anything at all it was the Black African Negro who first came up with the idea of an Almighty God far supreme above the spiritual beings and divinities we call the angels, the Jinns, the ancestral shades, and so on today. 
 
Our ancient African ancestors never equated these divine spiritual beings with God Almighty. In fact our African ancestors made it very clear that it was God almighty who created the spirit realm and its constitiuent spiritual beings like the angels, the Jinns and the ancestral shades. 
 
The Ibos, for instance, were never a polytheistic people. They monoteistically worshipped Almighty God as Chukwu. This Chukwu is the same as the God the Father of Christianity, Yahweh of Judaism and Allah of Islam. 
 
But the Ibos also recognized the existence of many divine spirits that were closer to Chukwu than mortal man. And the Ibos communicated – through rituals and libations – with these divine spirits who the White man refers to as the lesser gods. Whether divine spirits or lesser gods or whatever you call them the Ibos never worshipped these spirits as Chukwu the Almighty God. 
 
Neither were our ancient Nupe ancestors polytheists. 
 
The ancient Nupe people were not polytheists as is being wrongly claimed by modern Western scholarship today. The ancient Nupe people were monotheists who believed in a Supreme God variously referred to as Soko, Gidi, Ginu, Gunnu, Yisa, Etsa, etc, etc, by the various Nupe subtribes. 
 
Almighty God was also addressed with divine epithets notable among which, of course, is Ndaduma. This epithet, Ndaduma, was more or less like a nickname for God Almighty among the Nupe people when they don’t want to call him directly as Soko, Gidi, Ginu, Gunnu, Yisa, Etsa, etc, etc. 
 
The Cult of the Ndaduma is centred on the worship of this Almighty God as the Supreme Creator of the whole of Creation. 
 
The Soko or Gidi or Ginu Almighty God of the ancient Nupe peoples is, of course, the same as the Almighty God of the modern world religions Judaism, Christianity, Islam, etc, ec. 
 
Below God Almighty the ancient Nupe people believed in a pantheon of lesser deities called the Nusa, Nyiza or Nyizagi and the Eba, Ebagi, Bagi or Gbagi. These lesser deities are usually considered to be the departed souls of the ancestral shades and deceased Etsu Nupes. 
 
The Nyizagi, Nyiza, Nyisa or Nusa are the same that are known among the Yorubas as the Onisa or Orisha. 
 
And the Nupe lesser deities of the Nusa or Nyizagi or Bagi or Gbagyi deities are the same that are identified in the Semitic religions as the ilahs, angels, deamons or saints. 
 
Just the way the Muslims and the Christians don’t worship the angels or the daemons or the saints so also was it that the ancient Nupe people did not worshipped the Nusa, Nyiza, Bagi or Gbagi lesser deities. They simply saw these lesser deities as intermediaries – the way some Muslims sects and Christian denominations see the saints or archangels as intermediaries – between them and God Almighty. 
 
At no time in the past did the Nupe people worship a multiplicity of gods the way Western scholarship trying to wrongly tell us today. The Nupe people were never polytheists and never worshipped many gods even before the advent of the monotheistic faiths of Christianity and Islam. 
 
Today we are so used to thinking that our Nupe and African ancestors were primitive imbeciles and even outright idiots. It is so unfortunate that Nupe people and Africans in general will believe that their ancestors were primitive imbeciles until the Europeans and the Arabians came and civilize them. This is what is known as mental slavery. We are still mentally enslaved to the Euroepans and the Arabians. 
 
We are not aware of the fact that the Nupe people and the Africans used to be a cultured and civilized people at a time when the Europeans were primitive imbeciles. Just some six hundred years ago when the Europeans were still living their medieval or Middle Ages and the there were highly advanced cultures and civilizations here in Central KinNupe and several other parts of Africa. 
 
The first Europeans, the Portuguese, to visit the Benin kingdom, which was a Nupe kingdom, in the 14th century rightly observed that the architecture, town planning and other social amenities of Benin city were far more advanced than that of Lisbon, London and many other European cities. 
 
The Portuguese documented the fact that in those days the Edo Benin people were a Nupe people and their religion was not a polytheistic one. The Nupe people were never a polytheistic people. The Nupe people have always been a monotheistic people from time immemorial. 
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ANCIENT NUPE MONOTHEISM

ANCIENT NUPE MONOTHEISM By Ndagi Abdullahi The Theory of Evolution has come to colour and affect the entire worldview of Western sc...

THE BATTLE OF BIDA

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THE BATTLE OF BIDA</h2>
 
By Ndagi Abdullahi (0803 477 0801) 
 
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEuPxwu4PxI5FHoKLEag_p1nvilAX-7KI44nx52XdmcDZlmJN7MtDNF4Ck20hBeJFsfBn1d1STwIPc-FjNj35CBpSl-2RnoFHvieHLOZ7VoI2tg_Y2WlJZAmPKXhk2zHnUXOiyJ2ZCuG0T/s1600/etsu+nupe.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEuPxwu4PxI5FHoKLEag_p1nvilAX-7KI44nx52XdmcDZlmJN7MtDNF4Ck20hBeJFsfBn1d1STwIPc-FjNj35CBpSl-2RnoFHvieHLOZ7VoI2tg_Y2WlJZAmPKXhk2zHnUXOiyJ2ZCuG0T/s1600/etsu+nupe.jpg" /></a> 
 
The Gwagba are autochthonous to KinNupe, that is, they have been in KinNupe right from the beginning. They are the same that are variously known as the Gwari, Gwara, Kwara, Gara, Koro, and so on and on. They have always been a people generally living on the banks of the River Niger in Central KinNupe. 
 
Somewhere around the middle of the first millennium AD, that is around 500 AD, the Yisa people arrived as the Kisra refugees in Central KinNupe. These Kisra or Yisa people came originally from outside the African continent, from the Mediterranean, Arabia and Asia Minor. 
 
The Gwagba and the Yisa at a time merged into the United Kingdom of Zugurma which was also variously known as Zungeru, Zakzak, Zazzau, Zaria, Sagoro, Shango, Songhai, Tsonga, and so on and on. 
 
Zugurma, Songhai or Tsonga, whatever you called it, was later on ousted from suoreme power over KinNupe by the rise of the AtaGara or NdaKolo Empire. The AtaGara was a merger of the Akanda and the Gwagba Nupe peoples. 
 
But then, and in all these, the aboriginal Gwagba and Yisa peoples remained as some of the most influential of the ancient Nupe peoples in KinNupe. 
 
So, when Tsoede came with his Akanda or Kyadya people to establish his Nupeko or Kororofa Empire it was with the Gwagba and Yisa Nupe people that his incoming Kyadya people acculturated and integrated. 
 
The integration of Tsoede’s Akanda or Kyadya into the Gwagba resulted in a an half-caste Nupe people known as the Gwagba. And the integration of Tsoede’s Akanda or Kyadya into the Yisa Nupe people resulted in a half-caste Nupe population known as the Gwasa, Bassa, Agabizhi or the Yisazhi. 
 
There was also a section of Tsoede’s Akanda people who did not mix with either the Gwagba or the Yisa nor with any other of the ancient Nupe peoples including the Bini, the Ife, and so on and on. These unmixed Akanda people who nevertheless settled down in the KinTifin half of the Nupe Nation are the same that are known today as the riverine Kyadya people. 
 
In any case the integration of the emigrant Tsoede Akanda peoples with the Gwagba and Yisa ancient Nupe peoples resulted in a two-housed Tsoede dynasty with a Gwagba sub-dynasty and a Yisa sub-dynasty. These two Tsoede dynasties were always at loggerheads with one another and they were still at loggerheads with one another when the Fulani Jihadists established themselves as the Dendo dynasts in KinNupe. 
 
When the Fulanis arrived KinNupe at the end of the 18th century they met a Nupe Nation divided between the Gwagba Tsoede dynasts headed by Etsu Zubairu Majiya II at Zugurma and the Yisa Tsoede dynasts headed by Etsu Jimada at Gbara and Zhima. 
 
The Dendo dynasts played the two Tsoede dynasts against one another and eventually the Dendo dynasts took over the rulership and sovereignty of the Nupe Nation while both the Gwagba and the Yisa Tsoede dynasts were ousted from power. 
 
The Gwagba tried to revolt against the divide and rule mischief of the Dendo dynasts but they were dwelt with in such a drastically punitive manner that to this very day, a century and half later, they have not recovered from the pangs of that punishment. 
 
The Yisa wisely collaborated with the Dendo Fulani dynasts but they had to face the humiliation of being held captive at Bida under the watchful eyes of the Dendo dynasts. Etsu Mu’azu Yisa and his son Etsu Idirisu Gana, both of the Yisa Tsoede dynasty, were held captives in Bida by the Dendo dynasts in the second half of the 19th century. 
 
In this way the Dendo dynasts unwittingly turned both the Gwagba Tsoede dynasts and the Yisa Tsoede dynasts into their bitter enemies. Though powerless against the Dendo Fulani dynasts, the Gwagba and the Yisa Tsoede dynasts were embittered by the treatment the Dendo dynasts meted out to them and both waited patiently for the day they will be able to exact their revenge on the Dendo dynasts. 
 
The Dendo dynasts at Bida also had serious problems with the riverine Kyadya peoples. A mighty Bida Emirate, that is so expansionism-minded, could not allow the Kyadya people to enjoy the total control they used to have over the River Niger in the pre-Fulani days. The wrestling over the River Niger also transformed the riverine Kyadya into bitter, this time around open, enemies of the Dendo dynasts at Bida. The Kyadyas revolted several times against the Dendo dynasts at Bida. 
 
And the same Bida Emirate became rather tyrannical over its vassal states most notably including, in the context of our present discussions, the northeastern peoples of Yoruba land. These various Yoruba peoples under the rule and sovereignty of the Bida Emirate subsequently became another bloc of bitter enemies of the Dendo dynasts at Bida. 
 
The Bida Emirate, and its Dendo Fulani dynasts, was accordingly surrounded, within and without, with all manners of enemies who were just bidding their times for the right moment to bring about the downfall of the Bida Emirate. The Gwagba, the Yisa, the Kyadya, the northeastern Yorubas, and so on and on. 
 
It is in this scenario of the Bida Emirate surrounded by a plethora of enemies that the White man arrived KinNupe from Europe. The White man came in as a big and formidable player in the socio-political setting of the Central Sudan. 
 
In the beginning the White man allied with the Etsu rulers of the Bida Emirate. This was because at the beginning the White man and the Bida Emirate had commercial and mercantilic interests in common. The Bida Emirate immediately became the biggest business partner of the White man on the entire Guinea Coast. 
 
Etsu Masaba was particularly the Etsu Nupe who was on the best of terms with the White men. Then Umaru Majigi was also on good terms with the White men. In fact the British allied with and supported the Bida army under Etsu Umaru Majigi against the Kyadya people during the 1882 Ganigan Revolt of the Kyadya people against Bida sovereignty. The British supported the Bida army against the Kyadya people in order to protect and safeguard their own, British, commercial and mercantilist interests in the Nupe Nation. 
 
And it was Etsu Maliki who became the wealthiest Etsu Nupe because his reign coincided with the time that the commerce between the White men and the Bida Emirate reached its zenith. 
 
Anti-Bida Alliances 
But Europe was changing and the Industrial Revolution that began in the second half of the 18th century had completely transformed Great Britain from an agricultural nation into an industrial nation that doesn’t need human labour in the form of slave labour for agriculture any more. That was when the Abolitionist Movement became famous in Europe and the same Europeans who have gruesomely engaged in the Transatlantic Slave Trade now became the hypocritical campaigners against slave trade. 
 
The mercantilic slave trader then became replaced by the imperialist colonialist White man on the Guinea Coast. Having no interest in commerce and being more interested in colonialism, the new White man saw no reason to be cordial or friendly with the Fulani rulers of the Bida Emirate. That was how the relationship between the White men and the Bida Emirate began to deteriorate. 
 
In 1885 the Royal Niger Company, headed by the George Taubman Goldie declared that it has obtained a treaty in which the new Etsu Maliki of Bida had agreed to place himself and the Bida Emirate under the protection of the R.N.C. 
 
While Etsu Maliki and his ruling council were busy arguing and disproving the dubious claims of the R.N.C. the British Government granted the R.N.C. a royal charter to rule over its colonial possessions in the Nigeria area. With this the mischievous George Taubman Goldie officially declared that the Bida Emirate is a dependency of the British Government. 
 
The R.N.C. then systematically began to encroach on Bida Emirate territories when, in 1888, the R.N.C. declared Lokoja a territory of the R.N.C. and independent of the Bida Emirate. 
 
The animosity between the Bida Emirate and the British colonialists deepened further due to these mischievous and imperialist designs of the R.N.C. led by George Taubman Goldie. 
 
In 1891 George Taubman Goldie visited Etsu Bubakar at Bida. He assured the Etsu Nupe that the R.N.C. will not attack Bida. But he warned that if the Bida forces do not stop their aggression against the British the R.N.C. might be left with no option than to attack Bida. 
 
But the same double-speaking George Taubman Goldie went ahead to instigate the Kabba people, who were a subject people to the Bida Emirate in those days, to rebel against Bida rulership. Through his agent, William Wallace who is the Agent General of the Royal Niger Company, George Taubman Goldie roused the Kabba people against Bida Emirate. 
 
As a matter of fact William Wallace at Lokoja provided the Kabba people with weapons and other things they needed to revolt and rebel against Bida. In 1892 Wallace even got the Kabba people to complain, through Captain Bower in Lagos, to the British Government about his so-called ‘Bida misrule’ over the Kabba people. 
 
Soon the Bida rulers and overlords back at Bida came to know of the R.N.C.’s empowerment of the Kabba and others with weapons to rebel against the Bida army. 
 
To add salt to injury the R.N.C. blatantly declared further stretches of areas around their Lokoja base as independent of Bida sovereignty. Lokoja was part of Bida territory before the R.N.C. began their aggressiveness and now the British came and illegally declared that Lokoja and a great stretch of area throughout the Lokoja general area as protectorate of the Royal Niger Company. 
 
The Bida Emirate felt insulted and affronted by this action of the R.N.C. 
 
Early on, back in 1895 and immediately after ascending the throne as the new Etsu Nupe, Etsu Bubakar had sent a section of the Bida cavalry, the most powerful section of the Bida army, to cross the Niger and camp at the town of Ogidi in Kabbaland in present day Kogi State. This Bida army, under General Mayaki Ndajiya, was sent to ogidi in order to check and forestall any attempt by the Kabba and all other northeastern Yoruba people at rebelling against Nupe rule over them. 
 
But the R.N.C., under the leadership of George Goldie, had become busy instigating the people of Kabba against Bida rule. As a matter of fact the R.N.C. became a major promoter of the Ogidi Alliance of the Kabba people against the Bida army at Ogidi. The Bida army therefore failed to easily defeat the Ogidi Alliance as Bida had initially hoped to. As a matter of fact the battle between the Bida army and the Ogidi then dragged on for years as the Ogidi people were secretly funded and openly supported by the British R.N.C. against Bida sovereignty and against the Bida army at Ogidi. 
 
Then there came about the incidence, on the 26th of June 1896, whereby the Bida army at Ogidi captured two White army officers of the R.N.C. and their forty-five accompanying native African soldiers of the R.N.C.. The R.N.C. White men and the native Africans were members of an R.N.C. constabulary that have illegally wandered off the ‘British Protectorate’ of Lokoja and have brazenly approached the Bida army camped at Ogidi. 
 
A skirmish ensued between the R.N.C. patrol team and the Bida army at Ogidi. The two White officers and many of the native African soldiers of the constabulary were wounded and arrested by the Bida army. They were held captive for a while but eventually released. Their weapons and the Union Jack were, however, confiscated. 
 
George Taubman Goldie then used this incident to launch a successful propaganda warfare against the Bida Emirate. He painted Bida as a recklessly bloodthirsty emirate that vampirishly fed on slave-raiding through which it was depopulating, destroying and demoralising all of the Middle Niger area. He also accused the Emir of Bida as being the one who was instigating the Ilorin, Ibadan, New Bussa and other powers against the British in Nigeria. He reasoned, therefore, that Bida must be conquered and subdue through a war in order to safeguard the British Government’s interests in Nigeria. 
 
The success of this propaganda eventually convinced the British Colonial Office to provide George Goldie with the army he needed to invade and conquer Bida, the seat of the Bida Emirate. The R.N.C. Governing Council had also earlier on, in April 1896, approved at a meeting that the Bida Emirate should be conquered by the R.N.C. through an all-out war. 
 
Unaware that the British R.N.C.had secretly concluded plans to attack and conquer Bida, Etsu Abubakar dispatched a very large section of the Bida army across the River Niger to Udi to reinforce the Bida army already fighting the Ogidi Alliance in Kabba. Etsu Abubakar sent this very large cavalry of the Nupe army across the army to Ogidi and Udi in July 1896, that is, some three or four months after the British R.N.C. have secretly concluded plans to attack Bida. As it turns out, this was a fatal mistake on the part of Etsu Abubakar as Bida was then left virtually defenceless with the remaining small Bida army when the British R.N.C. forces arrived to attack Bida. 
 
The Bida army under Makun Muhammadu camped at Udi and immediately became busy fighting the Kabba rebels of the Ogidi region. Unknown to the Bida army and Etsu Abubakar back at Bida the R.N.C. company leaders have realized the adavantage of seizing this opportunity to go to attack Bida at this critical time when the major section of the Bida army is on the other side of the River Niger fighting the Ogidi Alliance. 
 
The R.N.C. company army left Lokoja on the 6th of January 1897 and headed for Bida for the great battle. It was a large army comprised of 30 European officers and 513 native African soldiers. Major A.J. Arnold was the Commander of the army but George Goldie automatically became the head of the army since he decided to accompany the company army to the attack on Bida. 
 
On the way to Bida, and under the directives of George Goldie, the R.N.C. dispatched a detachment to go and dislodge the Bida forces encamped at Udi. While encamped at the village of Sura Geoge Goldie sent 403 R.N.C. troops to go and fight the Bida army at Udi. But the Bida army, under Muhammadu Makun, after learning of the advancing R.N.C. detachment of 403 troops, deserted their Ogidi camp before the arrival of the British forces. 
 
The British forces were not happy that the Bida army fled the Udi camp of Ogidi. The British had hoped to engage and defeat the Bida army at Ogidi. The R.N.C. forces, led by George Goldie, then totally destroyed the Udi camp which had been deserted by the Bida army. 
 
Next the R.N.C. marched back to Kabba where they were received with wild celebration and jubilation by the Kabba people. George Goldie then addressed the Obaro of Kabba and his Kabba subjects to the effect that the British have liberated the Kabba people from Bida rule. 
 
In any case the R.N.C. forces went ahead to illegally declare the Kabba District independent of Bida rule. While the people of Kabba and northeastern Yorubaland in general celebrated the Bida authorities were deeply displeased for losing one of their most cherished and economically viable territories, namely, the Kabba District. 
 
The jubilant and grateful Kabba people then rendered all helps and assistance they could to the R.N.C. forces which were then headed towards Bida for a full-fledged battle with the Bida army. The Kabba people, thanking the British for securing them independence from Bida, supplied food, porters, guides and even volunteer soldiers free-of-charge to the R.N.C. British forces headed for a battle with the Bida forces. 
 
Meanwhile the British R.N.C., through William Wallace, have secretly gotten in touch with Etsu Idris Gana who was held captive at Bida by the Dendo dynasts. William Wallace asked Idrisu Gana to support the British R.N.C. against the Bida in return for which Wallace promised Idrisu Gana that after the defeat of Bida in the forthcoming war the British will free Idrisu Gana from the Dendo Dynasts and will reinstate Idrisu Gana as the Etsu Nupe of the entire Nupe Nation. Idrisu Gana eagerly pldeged his support for the British R.N.C. and secretly ordered all his supporters not to support or fight along with the Bida forces during the forthcoming Battle of Bida. That was how Bida lost a large population of soldiers and warriors who were supporters of Idrisu Gana from Gbara, Dokomba, Lemu and Bida. 
 
The R.N.C. also employed a two-pronged strategy in its combat with the Bida Emirate. While George Taubman Goldie set out with the R.N.C. forces to attack Bida, William Wallace, the Agent General of the R.N.C., was busy rousing the Kabba people and the Riverine Kyadya people against the Bida Emirate. 
 
Wallace remarkably succeeded in stirring the Kyadya people against the Bida Emirate. The Kyadya people have become very bitter against Bida ever since their defeat by the Bida forces during the Ganigan Revolt of the Kyadya peple against the Bida Emirate sovereignty back in 1882. Now it is the same British who assisted the Bida army in defeating the Kyadya people during the Ganigan Revolt that are now hypocritically supporting the Kyadya against the Bida army and Bida Emirate sovereignty. 
 
William Wallace reached an agreement with Prince Yahaya Marike, the exiled leader of the Kyadyas who lived at Lokoja under the aegis of the British. Prince Marike is the most influential and a most respected Kyadya leader around. And with the promise of being installed as the Kuta of the Kyadya and the granting of full independence to the Kyadya people from the Bida Emirate, Prince Marike mobilised all the Kyadya people against the Bida Emirate on behalf of the British R.N.C. forces. 
 
So was it that the Kyadya canoe men refused to transport the returning Bida forces across the River Niger. The Bida army had to take the long, circuitous and deadly route of Kusogi back to Bida. Along this route the Bida army lost many of its rank and files through death and desertion. Yet the Bida army couldn’t reach Bida to defend Bida before the arrival of the R.N.C. forces. 
 
On the other hand, and on the order of Yahaya Marike, the Kyadya gave their full support and backing to the R.N.C. forces. None of the Bida troops, not even a single individual, was able to cross the River Niger back to Bida as the Kyadya canoemen, under the order of Prince Yahaya Marike, absolutely refused to transport the returning Bida army across the River Niger. 
 
Apart from that William Wallace was also in command of a British flotilla of ten heavily armed British ships on the River Niger as the British R.N.C. army patrolled the River Niger from Jebba to Eggan in order to ensure that the main body of the Bida army under Makun Muhammadu is prevented from crossing the River Niger to prevent them from getting to Bida before the R.N.C. forces. 
 
The Battle of Bida 
On the 22nd of January the main body of the R.N.C. forces arrived at Egban, also known as Kpatagban, a Kyadya port-town on the banks of the River Niger. The Kyadya people of Egban eagerly welcomed the R.N.C. forces and offered them all assistance they required. 
 
Yet it was these same Kyadya peoples of Egban who, on the order of Yahaya Marike, have refused to ferry the Bida forces across the River Niger thereby forcing the Bida forces to take the deadly route of Kusogi on their way back to Bida, that eagerly transported the R.N.C. forces across the River Niger at Egban. 
 
The British stern-wheelers, named Empire and Liberty, headed by William Wallace, also came to meet the main body of the R.N.C. at Egban that very day the 22nd. 
 
William Wallace related that his flotilla was continuously pestered by the bulk of the Bida army that was still stranded on the right banks of the River Niger and that was trying to cross the River Niger back to Bida. But the British patrol, together with the help of the Kyadya canoemen, had successfully prevented the Bida army from crossing the River back to Bida. 
 
In any case, the R.N.C. forces at the Egban port-village received reinforcements from Lokoja. Two doctors also came along with the reinforcement from Lokoja. And there were also Captain Sangster, Lieutenant Parker, Second Lieutenant Day and Captain Anderson – who also all came along with the reinforcement from Lokoja. 
 
The next day, that is on the 23rd, a small section of the R.N.C. forces crossed the River Niger and went and camp some two miles away. They camped beside a creek that was strategically used to obstruct any harassment from the Bida forces. 
 
The next day, on the 24th, the bulk of the Royal Niger Company forces crossed the River Niger. When the bulk of the R.N.C. forces arrived the creek where the small detachment have earlier on encamped, the entire force was transported by boats across the creek. 
 
It was on the other side of the creek, that is after crossing the creek, that the R.N.C. forces organised themselves into a combat-ready expedition. All in all the expedition had two mighty Whitworths guns, a number of pounders, including 12,9 and 7-pounders. 
 
In terms of manpower the expedition consisted of 35 Europeans and 240 native Africans. 
 
On the other hand, and by this time, Etsu Abubakar back in Bida have been fully informed of the advancing British R.N.C. company forces coming for a full war with Bida. Bida was also now fully aware of its costly mistake of sending a greater part of its army across the Niger to fighting the Ogidi Alliance in Kabbaland. Now that the major section of the Bida army under Makun Muhammadu was stranded on the other part of the River Niger as the Kyadya canoemen have refused to transport them across the Niger, Bida is left visrtually defenceless with the very small remnants of the Bida army. 
 
Etsu Abubakar immediately sent for assistance and refinforcement from various Emirates of the Sokoto Caliphate including from Ilorin, Kontagora, Agaie, Lapai, Zaria and others. But it was only Agaie and Lapai that were able to send their armies immediately to the assistance of Bida. 
 
Meanwhile, and on the 25th the R.N.C. company force began its determined march towards Bida. The forces have to drag the heavy guns and weaponry across a difficult swamp. It was a terrible and exhausting experience crossing that swamp with all that heavy weaponry being carried along by nothing but sheer human labour. 
 
By the time the advance guard reached the little village of Lokitsa they had to fire at a group of scouting Bida warriors who then scampered away. 
 
When the bulk of the forces reached Lokitsa it was decided to camp there for the day. The exercise of crossing the difficult swamp had exhausted everybody. 
 
While camped at Lokitsa, a reconnoitre group went forward to inspect the way forward. The reconnoitre group heard Nupe warriors beating drums and shouting battle cries in surrounding villages in preparation for the battle with the R.N.C.. There was a little skirmish between the reconnoitre group of the R.N.C. and a group of Nupe warriors they ran into. There were no casualties on both sides but a member of the reconnoitre group was slightly injured. 
 
This was the first direct combat between the R.N.C. forces and the Bida warriors and it then evidently became clear to the R.N.C. that the Bida army was ready for a serious battle with the R.N.C.. 
 
First Day of the Battle of Bida (26th January 1897) 
On the 26th the R.N.C. group left first thing in the morning sometime around 6 a.m. in the morning. Major Cunningham led the advance guard. 
 
Behind the advance guard was the Derbyshire Regiment made up of the Number 3 and Number 5 companies. Members of the Number 3 Company include Lieutenant Burdon, Lieutenant Tighe and L. North Lancashire Regiment. Members of the Number 5 Company included Captain Sangster, Lieutenant Pereira, Lieutenant Vandeleur who was in charge of the Maxim guns of the Number 3 and Number 5 companies, D.S.O., and the Scots Guards. 
 
George Taubman Goldie and William Wallace also went along with this group that followed behind the advance guard. 
 
Half a mile behind these two groups was the main body. The porters, carriers and the guns were in this main body. 
 
Around 8 a.m. the R.N.C. forces came across groups of Bida cavalry hiding behind palm trees in the distance. The R.N.C. forces occasionally fired at them and they fled in confusion. This manner of confrontation continued for a while as the R.N.C. forces continued with their steady march towards the Nupe capital city of Bida. 
 
Eventually the R.N.C. forces sighted the main body of the Bida army. Bida had mustered a large army of some 30,000 strong warriors. And this is despite the fact that the main body of the Bida army is stranded across the River Niger. The large Bida army was standing along a ridge of a ravine on the outskirt of the great city of Bida. 
 
The Royal Niger forces stationed themselves some two miles from the ridge. From that position the Royal Niger Company forces started firing at the Bida army. The impact of the four Maxim guns drove the bulk of the Bida army away from where they have concentrated at the ridge between them and the Royal Niger Company forces. 
 
By this time the place have been cleared for the in infantry of the R.N.C. the moved forward. Then it was decided that the main body of the R.N.C. should camp once more. 
 
After camping, Major Arnold then reinforced the advanced guard with the Number 4 and Number 7 companies and also with two Maxim guns. Then the advanced guard began to move towards the enemy with two companies in the middle and another two spread out to the sides. It was actually a square formation with a Maxim gun at each of the four corners. 
 
Leaving the main body behind at the camp this strategic square formation continued to move forward until they crossed the ravine and right unto the ridge that was previously occupied by the Bida army. And all this while that this square formation was moving forward there was continued firing of the heavy guns at the Bida army. 
 
Yet Bida warriors kept coming up close to the position of the moving Royal Niger Company force. It, accordingly, turned out to be a difficult and dangerous battle. The problem was that while the advance guard and the two companies in the middle were able to move in relative safety the two companies spread out and guarding the sides came under heavy attack from the marauding Bida warriors who were employing guerrilla tactics to attack and fled. 
 
It was in one such attacks that Lieutenant A.C. Thomson and a group of native R.N.C. soldiers came under serious attack. In the attack Lieutenant Thomson was killed and several of the natives with him wounded. The R.N.C. forces were, however, able to collect the body of Lieutenant Thomson and also the wounded natives. 
 
The body of the dead Lieutenant Thomson and the wounded naive soldiers were all brought and placed at the centre of the moving square formation. Doctor Cargill was placed in charge of the dead and the wounded. 
 
From the first ridge the R.N.C. formation moved on unto flat lands and on again until they eventually sighted the great city of Bida. The Bida army was now concentrated on a second ridge, this one of the Landzun stream which dissects a section of the great city of Bida. 
 
The Bida army numbered some thirty thousand warriors each battalion and troop led by its own chief, titled royalty or war general. It was one of the largest such gathering one could ever see in this part of the Central Sudan – thirty thousand people gathered in one place at the same time! 
 
There were drumming, battle cries, battle songs, and so on and on. 
 
Coming face to face with such a gargantuan army of some 30,000 strong Bida army, the R.N.C. detachment decided to pause and stand still for a while. The R.N.C. detachment was actually taken aback by the sight of such a gargantuan Bida army. The detachment was hardly up to 300 people, the Europeans and the natives combined, and here there faced with a 30,000 strong Bida army. 
 
In the end the detachment began to retreat, back towards the camp. The retreat of the R.N.C. detachment threw the Bida army into wild and jubilant excitement. The Bida army, numbering in the tens of thousands, then descended on the R.N.C. square formation of just some 300 men all in all. 
 
Major A.J. Arnold therefore further consolidated his four companies into a more compact square with a Maxim gun still at each of the four corners. The loads and baggage of the porters and carriers were placed in the centre of the square. Major Arnold then led the attack on the Bida army. Despite this the Bida warriors attacked the R.N.C. formation viciously. There was noise everywhere and there were gun shots and the pounding of the Maxims can be heard every now and then and all around. It was a hell of a battle with both sides determined not to lose out. 
 
The Company to which belong Captain Sangster, Major Cunningham and Lieutenant Festing was the company that really came under the main onslaught of the Bida army as it was the one on the frontline against the attack of the Bida warriors. 
 
Also Lieutenant Pereira and his group of native soldiers almost got decimated by the Bida army when the natives delayed in dismounting the Maxim gun of their company. They narrowly escaped death in the hands of the triumphant Bida warriors though. 
 
But there was heavy casualty on the part of the Bida army. The Maxim guns and the pounders caused a lot of havoc among the body of the Bida army and brought down a lot of the Bida warriors. Almost many of those Bida warriors who dare come close to the square formation got gunned down by the R.N.C. forces. 
 
In all these the R.N.C. square formation made its way slowly but steadily back to the camp where the main body is still waiting. When the square became visible to the main body of the R.N.C. at the camp there was immediately covering fire for the square from the camp. This immediately led to a gradual dispersion of the innumerable Bida warriors who have besieged the square. Covering fire from the camp brought down many more of the Bida warriors and in the end the Bida army was forced to leave the square formation alone. 
 
The members of the square formation were actually happy to see that the Bida army have, unwisely enough, left the main body of the R.N.C. at the camp untouched. If the Bida army had concentrated its attention on attacking the main body of the R.N.C. at the camp it most probably would have succeeded in winning the battle that day. But instead the Bida army wasted its time and energy on the small R.N.C. detachment, the square formation, that went towards Bida and retreated back. 
 
But by this time the Bida army was attacking both the square detachment and the camp itself. The attack on the square formation was so vicious that one of the 7 pounders, that is the gigantic guns, was left behind as the R.N.C. forces carrying it came under life-threatening attack. 
 
In any case the square formation joined the remaining R.N.C. forces at the camp. And instead of laying down to rest the entire camp became a beehive of activities as ammunitions were shared out and heavy guns positioned in preparation for further attacks from the Bida army. 
 
In the meantime, Major Arnold sent two companies, Number 1 and Number 3 companies, to go and assist those with the 7 pounders back to the camp. 
 
The main problem on the mind of the R.N.C. forces at that time was the arrival of the two 12 pounders which were still on the way. Without the 12 pounders it is quite possible that a remobilised Bida army of some 30,000 warriors might be able to eventually crush the entire R.N.C. forces at the camp. 
 
And before long the Bida warriors resumed their attack, this time around on the entire camp itself. And this is despite the fact that the camp was well positioned and well-protected. Bida snipers severely wounded two native soldiers of the R.N.C. who had to be rushed to the centre of the camp formation while all other members of the R.N.C. forces at the camp opened fire on the attacking Bida forces. 
 
Before long the camp was under serious attack from the Bida army that have regrouped and mobilised itself around the R.N.C. camp with the expressed intent to wipe out the camp. Though surrounding the camp from reasonable distances and hiding behind the trees and villages in the surroundings the Bida army seemed to be planning or bidding its time to attack at a most propitious time. 
 
But this time around it all look like the R.N.C. forces cannot make it against this sea of some 30,000 Nupe warriors who also have the advantage of fighting a battle in their homeland. 
 
The Bida army however waited too long, and wrongly so. For, sometime around 4 p.m., the 7 pounders arrived the R.N.C. camp. Immediately, and with great sigh of relief from all members of the R.N.C. camp, the 7 pounders were mounted and put to action. 
 
The first shot from one of the 7 pounders landed in the midst of a battalion of Bida army who were thrown in all direction, including some horses and their riders being flung far into the air, by the explosion and impact of the 7 pounder. The effect of this new weapon was devastating on the Bida warriors. They were so frightened they all fled in all directions. 
 
But then a second, a third, and many more poundings and explosions from the 7 pounders followed immediately one after the other. Before they know it the Bida army was in complete disarray as the casualty rate was geometrically unprecedented and totally unexpected by the Bida army. 
 
A second phase of the battle between the R.N.C. and the Bida army this fateful day was son in full course. Wild battle cries, frenzied gun battles, the thumping sound of the heavy guns, and so on and on, were all over the place again. 
 
The Bida army brought an old and obsolete canon from Bida. They fired the canon at the R.N.C. camp several times but the canon was as good as useless. 
 
Meanwhile the shells from the 7 pounder guns of the R.N.C. forces continued to wreck havoc on the Nupe army. One of the explosions from the 7 pounded landed in the midst of the Agaie battalion that have come to assist the Bida army in its fight against the R.N.C.. That explosion not only decimated many of the Agaie warriors but instantly killed the war general of the Agaie people. This war general was General Buhari who was the Kpotun of Agaie. 
 
The tragic death of Kpotun Buhari who was the head of the Agaie forces led to the immediate withdrawal of the Agaie forces from the battle. The Agaie forces were so destablilized by the unexpected death of their war general and the death of so many of their warriors that they simply packed their things and headed back to Agaie with immediate effect. 
 
The instantaneous death of Kpotun Buhari of Agaie and the withdrawal of the Agaie contingent also demoralised the entire Bida army and before long, and with more explosions from the 7 pounders, the Bida army made a hasty retreat back to Bida thereby leaving the R.N.C. camp completely alone. 
 
When the Bida army left the members of the R.N.C. at the camp settled down to a meal. They were all hungry; they have been fighting all day long. And the night was already fast approaching. 
 
Then the 12 pounder giant guns arrived around 8 p.m. in the night. The entire camp celebrated the arrival of the giant guns. Immediately the gun was pointed in the direction of Bida and a sophisticated compass bearing was used to aim a shell at Bida setting it at some 5400 yards away. The giant gun was fired and, as the R.N.C. forces were to learn later, the gigantic shell landed right in the middle of Bida city killing many people, causing great havoc and confusion among the citizens of Bida, and generating a general and demoralising sense of defeat and a dreadful fear of the White man among the people of Bida. 
 
Pandemonium broke out in Bida as many houses caught fire and major sections of the city became engulfed in fire resulting from the explosions of the 12 Pounder giant gun rocked the city that night. 
 
Meanwhile, and that very night, the R.N.C. forces members buried their own deaths including the Transport Officer Johnson who was a Briton. 
 
Then by 11 p.m. another shell from the giant 12 Pounder gun was fired at the city of Bida again. This, of course, threw Bida into total conundrum and absolute confusion. The psychological effect of defeat on the Bida forces was absolute. 
 
That very night Etsu Bubakar and his courtiers fled Bida. Accoding to the late Emir of Lapai, Etsu Muhammadu Kobo of blessed memory, Etsu Abubakar secretly fled Bida in the midnight of that day the 26th of January, 1897, accompanied by two horsemen. 
 
Second Day of the Battle of Bida (27th January 1897) 
Traveling throughout the night Etsu Abubakar arrived Lapai in the morning of the 27th of January 1897. The then Emir of Lapai, Emir Abdulkadir, commiserated with Etsu Abubakar and asked the latter to spend a night at Lapai. But Etsu Abubakar told Emir Abdulkadir of Lapai that staying for another day at Lapai can endanger the life of both of them. 
 
More soldiers from the Bida army arrived to join Etsu Abubakar at Lapai and later in the day Etsu Abubakar in the company of some forty Bida horsemen left Lapai. They were accompanied by the Emir Abdulkadir of Lapai for some distance outside Lapai. Then a guide provide by the Emir Abdulkadir of Lapai led Etsu Abubakar and his retinue of horsemen across the Gurara River to the Gbagyi village of Pai. From Pai Etsu Abubakar then continued his flight to Kontagora. 
 
Meanwhile, and back in Bida, in the morning of that very day the 27th January 1897 the Bida army was back with a renewed vigour. The small number of the R.N.C. forces and the very large number of the Bida forces convinced the Bida army that they can somehow still destroy and wipe out the small R.N.C. forces. 
 
Almost as soon as it was morning scouts and snipers from the Bida army have already taken positions in the villages close to the position of the R.N.C. forces who have now decamped and have already formed their usual square formation that was gradually inching towards the city of Bida. 
 
After crossing a ridge on their way towards the walls of Bida the square formation of the R.N.C. forces came under attack from the Bida forces. Again, and just as they did the day before, the Bida army attack the R.N.C. forces with a large crowd of the Bida cavalry. 
 
But the Bida forces couldn’t decimate the square formation as they had hope and instead only succeeded in occasionally harassing the R.N.C. square from the flanks and the rear of the square formation. The square formation was a perfect formation against the attack of the Bida army. Besides, the square formation was also covered with a large cloud of dust that protected the members of the R.N.C. from the Bida cavalry due to poor visibility on the part of the Bida forces. Accordingly, and despite the large cavalry, the Bida army was able to kill only a few members of the R.N.C. forces in the square formation. 
 
On the other hand the R.N.C. forces were firing volleys of shells from the big guns at the Bida cavalry and inflicting heavy loses on the Bida army. 
 
Some 2500 yards from the walls of Bida the R.N.C. square formation paused for a standstill. From this position the R.N.C. forces used one of the big guns to fire a shell at the walls of Bida. A powerful shell demolished a part of a wall and a village adjacent to the wall thereby setting off a great conflagration of fire to both the wall and the village. This frightened the Bida forces who began to retreat into the city of Bida through the Western gate as Liuetenant Robinson used the big gun under his control to fire more shells at both the retreating Bida forces and more parts of the Bida walls. 
 
With confusion and retreat on the part of the Bida army Major Arnold directed the R.N.C. square formation once more as it began to move towards the walls of Bida until it was just some 500 yards away from the walls of Bida. Here the square halted again and this time around rounds upon rounds shells from the heavy guns were fired continuously into the city of Bida. The shells from the heavy Pounders and the Maxim big guns were deliberately directed at the Etsu Nupe Abubakar’s Palace. 
 
The firing of shells from the big guns into Bida city continued till noon. Although the Bida army tried to fire back with some of their rifles, it was already clear to both sides that Bida had lost the battle as the many rounds of shelling from the big guns of the R.N.C. square formation have already destroyed a significant part of the Bida city and have set so many houses and parts of the city on fire. There was utter confusion and a general sense of dread and defeat inside the city. 
 
Then a detachment from the R.N.C. square formation was sent to enter the city of Bida through a breach in a wall beside which a village adjacent to the wall was in great fire. This detachment consisting of Lieutenants Festing, Gillespie, and Margesson were, under the cover of more shelling from the Maxim big guns, able to enter the city of Bida without much difficulty. Then the R.N.C. forces began to fire incendiary rockets at various houses, quarters and neighbourhoods within the city of Bida. Soon the sky above the city of Bida was replete with a sea of incendiary rockets all coming from the R.N.C. square formation also. The thatched roofings of most of the houses in Bida caught fire and the entire city looked like it was engulfed in a great and unprecedented conflagration of fire. 
 
With this total scenario of demolition and conflagration the Bida army simply retreated to the other, northern, side of the city from which they eventually fled the city as the R.N.C. forces eventually took over the entire city. Many of those who try to escape from the burning city of Bida through the south gates were shot at and killed by the main body of the R.N.C. company forces who were still positioned to the south of the city. 
 
Remnants of the Bida forces eventually dispersed and fled in all directions as they finally conceded defeat. The R.N.C. company forces, on the other hand, simply pitched tents where their square formation had previously halted some 500 yards away from the walls of Bida. The officers and the soldiers settled down to assess the situation while reconnaissance detachments were sent out to fight any remants of the Bida army that may be found in the surrounding villages or the immediate vicinity. 
 
Only seven R.N.C. soldiers have been killed. One British officer, Lieutenant Thomson, was also killed thereby bringing the total casualty of the R.N.C. company to eight. But, and on the other hand, several hundreds of warriors from the Bida army lost their lives in the battle. 
 
After assessing all this carnage and colossal loss of lives four detachments of the R.N.C. company forces triumphantly entered Bida and occupied the city in the afternoon. Some of these troops later on marched out of the city and back to the camp some 500 yards from the city. 
 
And, that was how the Battle of Bida came to an end. 
 
The Days After the Battle of Bida 
The next day, the 28th of January 1897, the R.N.C. company forces simply rested at their camp still outside the city. It was on the 29th of January 1897 that the main body of the R.N.C. eventually decamped and moved into the city of Bida. 
 
Inside the city of Bida the invading forces of the British R.N.C. company occupied Etsu Abubakar’s Palace where Geoge Goldie, the head of the R.N.C. forces, made his quarters. Goerge Goldie also planted the British flag over the Emir’s Palace. Other officers and soldiers pitched their tents at the market place, the public square and some of the neighbouring houses to the palace. 
 
The next day, on the 31st of January 1897, George Goldie left with two R.N.C. companies through the northern gate of Bida to a place just outside the gate where large number of merchants, caravans and long distance traders had gathered. These are people from all over Hausaland, from some other parts of the Central Sudan and from North Africa across the Sahara and even from as far as the Mediterranean. George Goldie addressed them, informing them that ‘Nupe Rule’ have ended and that it is now the new dispensation of the R.N.C. company that is the order of the day. 
 
That same day a reconnaissance company of the R.N.C. captured Prince Isa from a nearby village. Prince Isa was the junior brother to Makun Muhammadu who was stranded with the main body of the Bida army at Kusogi on the other side of the River Niger. When Prince Isa was brought and lodged at Bida by the R.N.C. forces his mother, also mother to Makun Muhammadu and a very influential and powerful personage in those days, willingly surrendered herself, with a retinue of over two hundred people, to the R.N.C. at Bida. 
 
The next day, the 1st of February 1897, the R.N.C. camp forces organized a racing competition at an ad hoc racecourse they made outside the gates of the city of Bida. This competition they organize in celebration of their victory over the Bida army. 
 
On the 2nd, that is the following day, the R.N.C. forces began to evacuate Bida. Before and during the evacuation, however, the R.N.C. Company forces, under the directives of George Goldie, deliberately but callously dynamited and destroyed many key and eminent buildings including the Emir’s Palace in Bida. On the 3rd of February the entire R.N.C. company force finally left Bida and headed back to Lokoja. 
 
But George Goldie was still at a loss as to who should be installed as the new Etsu Nupe after the flight of Etsu Abubakar. The Ndeji have refused to be installed as the new Etsu Nupe by George Goldie. And Makun Muhammadu have similarly refused to be made the new Etsu Nupe. 
 
But, and in the end, the mother of Makun Muhammadu was able to prevail on her son to accept to being installed as the new Etsu Nupe. The old mother of Makun Muhammadu was held captive by George Goldie as a bargaining chip against Makun Muhammadu. With his mother’s entreaties, including a letter she wrote to him passionately begging him to agree to George Goldie’s demands Makun Muhammadu was left with no option than to acquiesce to George Goldie’s demands. And so was it that on the 5th February 1897 George Goldie, arriving in his launch boat, met Makun Muhammadu and the remnants of his scattered Bida army at their camp at the village of Kusogi on the other side of the River Niger. 
 
The meeting between George Goldie and Makun Muhammadu was attended by a large number of people. The Kyadya, the Ganagana and other Nupe natives gathered, beating drums, singing and shouting battle cries, on one side of the River Niger behind George Goldie and his R.N.C. company soldiers while the Bida army, in large numbers, gathered behind their leader Makun Muhammadu and Mayaki Ndajiya on the other on another side of the River Niger. 
 
Makun Muhammadu initially refused to come out from among his people and to enter George Goldie’s launchboat to which he was invited. In the end the launchboat was moved close to the bank and Makun Muhammadu, standing on the bank, then communicated with George Goldie. After much discussion between the two, Makun Muhammadu and George Goldie, a treaty was eventually drawn up in English and Arabic wherein the British officially and formally installed Makun Muhammadu as the new Emir of the Bida Emirate. 
 
George Goldie was very happy that Makun Muhammadu had at last been cowered into being installed as the new Emir of the Bida Emirate. George Goldie, the R.N.C. Company’s board of directors, have decided long ago that Indirect Rule, as was obtained in India, was the best system of governance to be adopted by the British in the colonial ruling of the colonies. 
 
After signing the treaty George Goldie then allowed the Kyadya canoemen to transport the stranded Bida army across the River Niger. And at the end of the meeting George Goldie went back to Lokoja where he immediately became very busy preparing for the R.N.C.’s attack on the Ilorin Emirate. 
 
Unknown to George Goldie, however, Makun Muhammadu never really agreed with the R.N.C.’s decision of installing him as the new Emir. Instead Makun Muhammadu still saw Etsu Abubakar as the legitimate and de facto Etsu Nupe. Makun Muhamadu in fact refused to go to Bida to sit on the throne as the new Etsu Nupe. Instead he went directly to Lemu where Etsu Abubakar was by then after returning from Kontagora. 
 
At Lemu, which is very close to Bida, Makun Muhammadu repudiated his installation as the new Emir of Bida and instead pledged his allegiance and loyalty to Etsu Abubakar as the legitimate Emir of Bida. In fact Makun Muhammadu asked Etsu Abubakar to follow him back to Bida so that Etsu abubakar can continue with his rulership as the Emir of the Bida Emirate. But Etsu Abubakar asked Makun Muhammadu to proceed to Bida first and that he, Etsu Abubakar, will remain for a while at Lemu to observe and assess the situation first before coming back to Bida. 
 
So Makun Muhammadu went back to Bida from Lemu and the British R.N.C. authorities then got the wrong impression that Makun Muhammadu was the new Emir at Bida. But while Makun Muhammadu was at Bida as the de jure Emir of Bida, Etsu Abubakar was at Lemu as the de facto Emir of Bida. It was from Lemu that Etsu Abubakar ruled Bida in those days. 
 
The White people at the R.N.C. had underestimated the strength of Nupe royal culture and they have also deluded themselves into believing that there is a rift or in-fighting among the three royal families of the Dendo dynasty at Bida. George Goldie had all along believed that he had succeeded in playing Makun Muhammadu against Etsu Abubakar when he coerced Makun Muhammadu into acceting to be installed as the new Emir of Bida. But he was completely wrong as Makun Muhammadu immediately repudiated the installation and instead left Kusogi for Lemu to pay his homage and allegiance to Etsu Abubakar as the bona fide Emir of the Bida Emirate. 
 
After ruling Bida from Lemu for some six months, from February to August 1897, Etsu abubakar came back to Bida from Lemu as the legitimate Emir of Bida. 
 
When Etsu Abubakar came back to Bida he was welcomed and his return celebrated by everybody. He immediately began to rebuild the buildings destroyed by the R.N.C. forces. As far as the people of Bida were concerned Etsu Abubakar remained the Emir of Bida. 
 
 
But the return of Etsu Abubakar to Bida surprised and alarmed the British especially when Etsu Abubakar supported the Emir of Lapai in the latter’s battle with the British. In June 1898 the R.N.C. attacked Lapai and burnt down Lapai town even as the Emir of Lapai fled Lapai through Gurara to Pai. Actually a large army of Lapai forces complemented by Bida and other forces fought a fierce battle, the Battle of Lapai, with the R.N.C. force a place close to Gulu. The commanding officer of the R.N.C. at that Battle of Lapai was killed and buried at Gulu. 
 
The R.N.C. authorities were mad at Etsu Abubakar for not only coming back to Bida but for also assisting Lapai with Bida army against the R.N.C. during the Battle of Lapai. The R.N.C., accordingly, decided to come to Bida to remove Etsu Abubakar from power for the second time. 
 
By that time, in late 1899, the charter of the R.N.C. have been revocated by the British Government and the R.N.C. and other British forces in the Central Sudan have been absolved into the newly formed West African Frontier Force, W.A.F.F. 
 
So was it that in 1901 the W.A.F.F., led this time around by Frederick Lugard, marched on Bida again.  Etsu Abubakar fled Bida once more and the British once again prevailed on Makun Muhammadu to be installed, or re-installed, as the Emir of the Bida Emirate. In February 1901 the British reinstalled Makun Muhammadu as the Emir of the Bida Emirate again. 
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THE BATTLE OF BIDA

THE BATTLE OF BIDA By Ndagi Abdullahi (0803 477 0801) The Gwagba are autochthonous to KinNupe, that is, they have been in KinNupe ri...

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BARO PORT AND NUPEKO BRIDGE

EGINNA: FIRST-BORN IN NUPE

ANCIENT NUPE MONOTHEISM

THE BATTLE OF BIDA

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BARO PORT AND NUPEKO BRIDGE

EGINNA: FIRST-BORN IN NUPE

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THE BATTLE OF BIDA

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