The history of the country called Tanganyika began in 1885 when the Germans
colonized East Africa.

Present day Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda became known
as German East Africa.
Following the defeat of Germany in World War I, its colonies were divided among
the victors under the treaty of Versailles.
The British named their colony Tanganyika and ruled over it from 1919 to 9 th of
December 1961 when it gained independence. Its first Prime Minister was Julius
Nyerere.
In 1964, the country merged with the island of Zanzibar to form a new nation
called the United Republic of Tanzania. The reason for the merger was for mutual
economic benefits and to integrate the peoples that lived on the mainland
Tanzania and the smaller island of Zanzibar.
At independence, the Tanzanian Army was formed from about one and a half
battalions of the colonial regional Army known as the King’s African Rifles which
had a sizeable number of British officers as well as nationals from other East
African countries.
Several factors led to the mutiny of the Tanzanian Army (the “Tanganyika Rifles”).
One was low pay and poor conditions. Another was the slow pace of
“Tanganyikalisation” of the army. Thirdly, there was an attempt to recruit fifteen
Israeli trained youth leaders into the army. The soldiers felt that the men were
unsuitable and the method of recruitment irregular.
Political interference by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Defence, Oscar
Kambono did not help matters. He preferred to appoint to key positions officers
who had risen through the ranks with years of service, rather than young well
educated officers.
In the early hours of January 20 th 1964, under the leadership of Sgt. Hingo Ilogo,
the soldiers rounded up both British and African officers and locked them up at

Colito barracks. They then moved into Dar-es-Salaam and took effective control of
the city. Seventeen persons lost their lives in the ensuing melee.
Prime Minister Julius Nyerere fled the country but Oscar Kambono, remained
behind and began negotiations with the mutineers. Eventually, the British officers
were released from the guardrooms and flown out of the country.
Meanwhile, Nyerere made a written request for assistance from the British
government to quell the mutiny, through diplomatic channels. On the morning of
the 25 th January 1964, Royal marine commandos from the carrier Centaur situated
on the East African coastline of the Indian ocean, fanned into the city and put an
end to the mutiny.
Mwalimu Julius Nyerere was subsequently re-instated as Prime Minister. He
disbanded the entire army and sought assistance from the Organisation of African
Unity. A Ministerial Committee met and it was decided that Nigeria be
approached for the needed assistance.
Minister Oscar Kambono arrived Lagos in late March and met with PM Tafawa
Balewa. An act of Parliament was passed and, by the first week of April, 1964 the
3rd Battalion of the Nigerian Army, stationed in Kaduna and commanded by 31
year old Lt. Col James Yakubu Pam, was airborne to Dar-es-Salaam, Tanganyika.
In total, there were 533 soldiers and 24 officers. The mission was under the
general supervision of Brig. Samuel Ademulegun, Commander of the 1st Brigade,
Kaduna.
Lt. Col James Yakubu Pam was of Berom stock from Jos. A brilliant student, he
attended St Paul’s Primary School Jos, Central Primary School Pankshin and
Barewa College Zaria. He performed so well in his academics that he received an
“Exemption from the London Matriculation”, an honour reserved for students
who excelled.
He thereafter enlisted in the army and attended the West African Cadet Training
school, Teshi in Ghana, Eaton Hall Officer Cadet School and the Royal Military
Academy, Sandhurst both in the U.K.

One of his commanding officers in Sandhurst had this to say of him: “I have the
highest regard for this overseas cadet. He is determined to do well and never
spares himself in order to ensure this. He is most receptive, co-operative and
trustworthy.”
He received the Queen’s Commission as 2nd Lieutenant in 1955, the first from the
Middle Belt Region of Nigeria. He became an officer of the West African Frontier
Force (WAFF 45) and later the Nigeria Army (NA 14) at independence in 1960. He
had just returned from further training at the Joint Services Staff College,
Camberley, England when the order came to deploy to Tanganyika.
Lt. Col Pam’s selection for this assignment was also predicated on the fact that he
had participated in several military operations in the Cameroons and in the
United Nations Peace Keeping force in the Congo.
The third battalion had returned from service in Kasai Province of the Congo in
May 1963 when Lt. Col Pam took over command shortly afterwards from Lt.Col
Etches upon his departure as the last expatriate Commander of 3NA.
His orders were clear: chiefly, to ensure internal security, re-train the Tanganyikan
army and mount the normal Ceremonial Guards in the city.
The 3rd Battalion had just returned from service in Kasai Province of the Congo in
May 1963. Lt. Col Pam took over command shortly afterwards from Lt. Col Etches
upon his departure as the last expatriate commander of 3NA.
Meanwhile, Nyerere selected 1,500 young men from the youth wing of his
political party, the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) to form the
completely new Tangayikan Army.
His reason for adopting this unusual selection process was that he wanted an
army which came from national life and not an ėlite force. In his words: “the task
is to ensure that the officers and men are integrated into the government and
party so that they become no more a risk than, say, the civil service.”
Lt. Col Pam was tasked with the responsibility of turning these raw recruits into
competent soldiers within six months and he discharged his responsibilities
competently and efficiently.

Peace and security were maintained and the newly trained soldiers passed out on
1 st September 1964, less than five months after the 3NA set foot in Tanganyika.
On the 21 st September 1964, the 3NA held a Ceremonial Parade and were
honoured by Prime Minister Julius Nyerere. Lt. Col James Yakubu Pam was gifted
a leopard skin, a shield and a spear as a token of appreciation for his outstanding
contribution to Tanganyika which had become Tanzania following its merger with
Zanzibar.
The reconstituted and re-trained Tanzanian Army has remained dedicated and
loyal to the country and its constitution till date.
In 1965, Lt. Col J.Y. Pam jssc was awarded the National Honour of Member of the
Federal Republic of Nigeria (MFR) in recognition of his meritorious service.
Unfortunately, he was killed in the coup d’etat of January 15 th , 1966 before he
could formally receive the honour.
The National Award was subsequently received by his widow, Mrs. Elizabeth Pam
and his children 15 years later.

Prof. Ishaya C. Pam
For: The Family

By Tunde Rahman

Kemi Badenoch’s ill-advised denigration of Nigeria has refused to go away.

Her belittlement of the country of her ancestry is still generating passionate public discourse within and outside the media space, and it appears the matter will not go away anytime soon.

Exasperated by Kemi Badenoch’s misguided attacks on Nigeria, Vice President Kashim Shettima recently counselled her to drop the Kemi in her name and bleach her ebony skin to white to further appease her Tory party and British establishment.

And perturbed and seemingly lost by all that, my daughter, Kemi Mushinat, who recently graduated in communication studies, asked what was wrong with the name Kemi. There is nothing wrong with the name, I explained. But a lot is wrong with Kemi Badenoch (Nee Adegoke), the leader of the British opposition Conservative Party, who opted to behave, as the Yoruba would describe it, “bi omo ale to fi owo osi ju we ile baba e”, meaning like a child who would go out to denigrate her ancestry by pointing the offensive finger at her roots.

Honour and dignity are inherent in the name Oluwakemi, indeed in any name. But what confers dignity, what glorifies a name, is the character the bearer brings into it. Kemi Badenoch left much to be desired, disparaging Nigeria, our motherland. She painted a gory picture of her growing up years in Nigeria from the middle of the ’80s to around 1996, highlighting stories of poverty, infrastructure decay, decadence, corruption, police excesses, and leadership failure. Perhaps some of her narratives could be true, particularly in the time that immediately followed the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) misrule and the indiscretion of the emergent military regime.

However, her stories reek of generalisations and prejudices often associated with most analyses by a section of Western media and commentators. They view Nigeria with their jaundiced lenses, describing the country as made of a Muslim north and Christian south, oblivious of the various Christian minorities in the north and the plethora of Muslims in the south and the multiplicity of ethnic groups in the two divides that make a mockery of any analysis of a monolithic north or south. They view us Africans with many unproven, unorthodox assumptions.

My problem is with Badenoch, an African, whichever way you slice it, and the character she has chosen. When Vice President Shettima lambasted her for demeaning Nigeria, Kemi Badenoch thought she had a clincher. “I find it interesting that everybody defines me as Nigerian,” she said. “I identify less with the country than with the specific ethnicity (Yoruba). That’s what I am. I have nothing in common with the people from the north of the country, the Boko Haram where the Islamism is; those were our ethnic enemies and yet you end up being lumped in with those people.”

In that statement, the Tory leader disavowed Nigeria and excoriated the north but exalted the Yoruba. She repudiated the whole, attacking one part of the nation but embracing another. Kemi Badenoch grossly misfired, hiding under the finger of ethnic nationalism.

Perhaps it would have been pardonable if, for instance, she opposed Nigeria’s federal system and canvassed regionalism or confederacy. To condemn one race and elevate another is like playing one part against another. That utterance is dangerous in a diverse and volatile society like ours. The north (read the Hausa-Fulani, Kanuri, Tiv, Birom, Mangu, Ibira, Nupe, and many others who cohabit the entire northern region) is no enemy of the Yoruba as Badenoch insinuated.

The north voted massively for Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, a Yoruba man, to emerge president in 2023, as they did for the late Bashorun MKO Abiola, the winner of the annulled June 12 election in 1993. To label them the enemies of the Yoruba is condemnable.

Badenoch’s Yoruba roots emphasise good character and promote good neighbourliness, religious harmony, peaceful co-existence, respect for elders, and respect for other people’s rights. That is why Yoruba intermarry with members of different ethnic groups. It’s also commonplace in Yorubaland to find members of the same family having adherents of Islam and Christianity cohabiting together without any hassles. Boko Haram or its last vestiges poses a security challenge, perhaps a religious and sociopolitical challenge, for Nigeria, not just for the north or the north-east which is why the government and our armed forces have battled to a standstill and are still battling the insurgents.

Therefore, the values the UK Conservative leader espoused did not represent the Yoruba. They are not the values the Yoruba would showcase, uphold, and promote. Yoruba has a rich history of culture, tradition, leadership, and loyalty to constituted authority.

Badenoch’s formative years, which she derided with negative stories of decadence, perfidy, and corruption, were part of Nigeria’s dark periods when the military held the country and the people by the jugular.

Is Kemi Badenoch now giving the impression that nothing has changed in Nigeria, particularly in Lagos, where she grew up after birth in London? Is she giving the impression there have not been significant improvements in the standard of living and infrastructure, with the rehabilitation of existing roads and opening up of new ones; in transportation with the multi-modal system complemented by water transportation and now the rail system, among other things?

Despite its challenges, there is no doubt there has been a remarkable development in Lagos from the foundation laid by then Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu (now President Tinubu) from 1999 to 2007 till the present Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to the point that Lagos has emerged as one of largest economies in Africa. Lagos State has made significant progress across all indices of development such that if it were a country, it would have ranked the sixth largest economy on the continent.

What has emerged in the entire Kemi Badenoch’s saga is her seeming double-face or multiple-face. When she was campaigning to represent her diverse Dulwich and West Norwood Constituency in the UK Parliament in 2010, she had appealed to the Nigerian community, comprising Yoruba, Hausa-Fulani and Igbo, under the aegis of “Nigerians for Kemi Badenoch,” pleading for help in the election.

A campaign document that surfaced on social media showed she had reached out to all Nigerians in that constituency while highlighting her roots. In that document, Badenoch had said to her Nigerian supporters: “I need your help. I’m running for parliament in the 2010 UK general elections. The race is very tight. Last year, the News of the World surveyed this constituency, and the forecast was that I would win. Things are much tougher this year as the party has dropped nationally in the polls. I need your help.

“I am asking for your help now to support a Nigerian trying to improve our national image and do something great here.”

After winning the election, however, she deployed her situation in Nigeria as a talking point to rally support for her policies, for which she was accused of exploiting her roots for political gains.

Her rhetoric has drastically changed with her emergence as the Leader of the Conservative Party. In the carriage, conduct and statements, she is now out to please the White establishment, particularly the White wing of her Conservative Party, subjugating her people to make Britain look good. She doesn’t mind running down anyone, including the Nigerian people and the British blacks generally.

Will this advance her politics or status? I do not think so. The British respect culture and tradition. Running down a country’s history and culture may not attract much attention. Britain also respects her relations with other countries, particularly Nigeria, given our age-long relationship. Nigeria is a significant trade and investment partner of the UK in Africa. According to the UK Department for Business and Trade, as of December 20 2024, the total trade in goods and services (exports plus imports) between the UK and Nigeria amounted to £7.2 billion in the four quarters up to the end of Q2 2024, an increase of 1.2% or £86 million in current prices from the four quarters to the end of Q2 2023.

Britain would not want to harm that substantial trade partnership and excellent relationship between the two countries in any way.

Also, several Badenoch’s Conservative Party members do not share her attitude towards Nigeria. In Zanzibar, I recently ran into Jake Berry, a top Tory Party member and former cabinet member in the UK. While discussing the Badenoch matter, he said most Conservative Party members disagreed with her.

Kemi Badenoch has recorded an outstanding achievement in two decades of entering British politics. She joined the Conservative Party at the age of 25. Today, she stands not just as the Leader of the biggest party in Britain’s history but also as the highest black person in the United Kingdom. Her extraordinary accomplishment should have been used to inspire young people to achieve similar feats and as a foundation to inspire positive change in her country of origin, not to denigrate Nigeria or cause division and disaffection among her people. It is not too late for Badenoch to rethink and toe the line of rectitude.

Rahman is the senior special assistant on media matters to President Tinubu.

By Chidi Anselm Odinkalu

By the time Muhammadu Buhari ran for a second presidential term in 2019, it seemed clear that the judicial process in many parts of the country had been actively co-opted in the intimidation of civic opponents of the government, both real and imagined.

The case of Steven Kefas was a defining moment in that process.

Steven was a compelling activist and amplifier of the crisis of human security in Southern Kaduna under former governor, Nasir el-Rufai.

For this, el-Rufai arranged his abduction from his residence in Rivers State on 8 May 2019. From there they bundled Steven into interminable detention in Kaduna, on the imagined crime of criminally defaming Cafra Caino, an acolyte of the governor who was also chair of the Kajuru Local Government Council.

For this invented crime, el-Rufai had Steven charged before a Magistrate in Kaduna, who refused him bail even when the crime was clearly a misdemeanour. Steven renewed his application for bail before the Federal High Court in Kaduna where the presiding judge, Peter Mallong, incredulously ruled that his suit was “an abuse of court process” because the Magistrate had previously refused bail. Turning judicial precedent on its head, Peter Mallong held that the decision of the Magistrate was binding on the Federal High Court.

Gloria Ballason, who argued Steven’s case, was also my lawyer when el-Rufai sought to abduct me too in circumstances that would have been not dissimilar to what he did to Steven. On the eve of the presidential election in 2019, el-Rufai went public with claims of the massacre of scores of Fulanis in Kajuru, a community against which he appeared to have an implacable beef. The following morning, I publicly rebutted his claims. The security services were pointedly unable to support his claims.

After the 2019 elections, el-Rufai instructed my prosecution before the Magistrates Court in Kaduna on the fanciful charges of incitement and injurious falsehood. The case did not even have a charge number. The magistrate called up the case on two successive occasions and, when I did not show up, decided the time was ripe to issue a warrant for my abduction. Contrary to my entitlements under the Nigerian constitution, they did not even bother to bring the charges to my attention. It seemed as if the entire objective from the beginning was to set me up for abduction.

Informed off-record about the case by sympathetic law enforcement agents subsequently, Gloria Ballason first issued filings objecting to how the court had chosen to proceed. Thereafter, she instituted proceedings before Peter Mallong’s Federal High Court in Kaduna against el-Rufai and the police, arising out of these facts, alleging the breach of my constitutional rights.

One year after the case was instituted, in October 2020, Peter Mallong issued his decision. He claimed that the affidavit in support of my court processes, sworn to by a litigation clerk in the law firm of my lawyers, was incompetent because the deponent was someone other than me. It was as if he had never heard of the Fundamental Rights (Enforcement Procedure) Rules, which allowed for what the litigation clerk did. As a result, Peter Mallong said my case was incompetent and his court lacked jurisdiction over it. After holding that he lacked jurisdiction, however, Peter Mallong went on to “dismiss” my case.

The judgment was manifestly crooked on the face of the record. A judge can only dismiss a case that s/he has had the opportunity to consider but a judge cannot consider a case over which s/he lacks jurisdiction. So, a judge who rules that he or she lacks jurisdiction cannot thereafter decide to dismiss the same case. That is exactly what Peter Mallong did. Having accomplished such crookedness, he then went on to award punitive costs against me.

It was this kind of casuistic and crooked jurisprudence that emboldened el-Rufai and his ilk to routinise the persecution of Nigerian citizens by abduction under the cover of law. I was lucky. Steven Kefas was not. Gloria Ballason’s tenacity and an international campaign eventually enabled to Steven to make bail after 162 days in pre-trial detention in Kaduna prison.

According to Steven, while he suffered prolonged pre-trial detention for an imaginary crime framed against him for being a critic of government, he witnessed kidnappers caught in the act being released without charges. Steven’s explanation is that: “What the oppressive elites do in Nigeria is that they will hire rogue lawyers to help them draft all manner of petitions to get critics and ‘enemies of the government’ abducted and locked up….”

This appears to be the perfect description for what is happening in an ongoing case involving the prosecution of Precious Eze, Olawale Olurotimi, Rowland Olonishuwa and Seun Odunlami before the Federal High Court in Lagos. The accused are all bloggers who run different platforms as citizen journalists or aggregators.

On 19 September, Country Hill, a law firm acting on behalf of Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO) and its CEO, Segun Agbaje, wrote a petition in which they complained against the accused for what they called “acts of cyberbullying, criminal extortions (sic) and conducts (sic) likely to cause a breach of public peace” arising reportedly from material published on their blogs about Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank). Importantly, the complaint omitted any mention of the sums that any of the suspects allegedly extorted or sought to. Subsequent investigation by the police showed clearly that upon the material being brought to their attention by intermediaries, the suspects had voluntarily pulled down the publications complained of.

Acting on this petition, nevertheless, the police promptly arrested and detained Precious Eze and Olawale Olurotimi, both of who have been held in pre-trial custody since then. By the date you read this, each of them would have been in pre-trial custody for over 91 days. That is more than double the maximum duration of 42 days of pre-trial custody allowed by the Administration of Criminal Justice Act.

It took the police just four days to conclude investigation. Michael Abu, the chief superintendent of Police (CSP) who led the investigation into GTBank’s petition, wrote in his report of 23 September, with reference to Precious Eze and Olawale Olurotimi, that “these types of people be used as scapegoat” and recommended that they be “charged  to court for the offence (sic) of conspiracy, cyberbullying, attempt to extort money through fraudulent means and conduct likely to cause the breach of peace.”

On 14 October, the police re-arraigned them. Ten days later, the amended charges filed against them included six counts of cyberbullying and two each of conspiracy and extortion. To prosecute them, GTBank secured the “fiat” of the Inspector General of Police to instruct a high-powered team of ten lawyers, including three Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs). This is a classic example of “oppressive elites” capturing the criminal process for destructive purposes against poor citizens.

Until now, the people who orchestrate these kinds of travesties and their judicial and legal co-travelers have enjoyed earthly impunity. Judges like Peter Mallong made this possible. The one lesson, however, of the Dele Farotimi case is that citizens now have the wherewithal to make these kinds of perversion of the legal and criminal process costly for those who orchestrate them.

In this case of Precious Eze and Olawale Olurotimi, that should be even moreso, given that the travesty is procured at the instance of a commercial and corporate actor. We are both citizens and customers. In this dual capacity we have the muscle to resist the determined conspiracy of politicians and corporates who seek to muzzle and destroy an informed and responsible civics. It is not too late for GTBank to retrace its steps.

Odinkalu, a lawyer, teaches at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and can be reached through chidi.odinkalu@tufts.edu.