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LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION IN THE NQRTH He was born in 1916 in Maiduguri of the old Borno Province into afamily of religious Teachers and Imams. His father, Mallam Hamsanilmam was one of the ChiefAlkalisof Bomo. He started his Elementary School in Yerwa in 1929 and finished in 1930. He also did his Primary and Middle Schools in the town between 1930 and 1934 when be proceeded to Katsina Higher College from where he graduated in 1938. Between 1938 and 1939 Ibrahim was a student of the Public Works Department School in Kaduna. He was in the Bomo Native Administration between 1939 and 1954 where he served variously in the Shehu's Council and as Supervisorof works. In between Ibrahim Imam was also a vocal and radicalpolitician. He was in the Northern Peoples Congress (NPC) where he had a brilliant political career and rose to become the party's General Secretary. Heworked assiduously to establish and strengthen the party in mostpartsof the region touring extensively with Alhaji Isa Kaita to establish party branches. It wasfrom this position that he resigned in 1954atthe Jos conventionof the party. Subsequently, he joined the Bomo Youth Movement (BYM), later becomingthe leader of the opposition in theNorthern House ofAssembly. Ibrahim Imam tranformed the BYM intoa majorpoliticalforceforging alliances with the Action Group (AG) and the NEPUall in the attempt to enlarge the scopeof coverageof the BYM. Infra while he was the erudite leaderof opposition in the Northern House, he was also Federal Vice President of the Action Group under which he contested election into the Federal House of Representatives in 1959 but lost. Ibrahim Imam's majorpointof opposition was his clamourfor the abolition oftheNA system which he believed wasat variance with his programmefor the total emancipationof theNorth. Itis on record that as the General Secretaryof theNPC he was the architeaof the NPC'sfamous eight-pointprogramme designed to secure the complete autonomy of the north vis-a-vis the south. Ibrahim Imam was virtually a one-man opposition in the Northern House of Assembly. He was a consistent, out spoken and well-informed advocate of political reform. In the emirates especially in matters involving civil liberties. Itis on record that he was removed from the Borno NA for criticising the integrityof the other membersandthe Shehu's right to builda two storey building orto use.an umbrella. Ibrahim Imam was an astute debater and participated in various conferences. In 1953, he attended the Nigerian Constitutional Conference in London as an NPC delegate. In 1958, he attended the All-African People's Conference of Nationalists from sovereign and colonial countries in Accra Ghana. During the conference, which was proposed by Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana and chaired by Tom Mboya of Kenya, he met and rubbed minds with other great African Nationalists like Patrice Lumumba of Congo andRotimi Williams and Anthony EnahorofromNigeria. Ibrahim Imam however, was in the Sudan in 1948 for educational purposes. He was also on a Commonwealth Parliamentary Association course to study parliamentary procedure in 1960. This great champion of civil liberties was to later join forces with the ruling NPC in counteringpress attacks on the north as a region and on the Sardauna as the leaderofNorthern Nigeria. Ibrahim Imam's political activism was terminated in 1966 in the bloody coup of thatyear which consumed very important Nigerians of that time including Sir Ahmadu Bello Sardauna of Sokoto and Premier of Northern Region, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa the Prime Minister of Nigeria, Brigadier Zakari Maimalari, the first professional soldier, Chief S. L Akintola, Premierof the West and Chief Festus Okoti-Ebo. The great Nigerian who later became Chairman of Nigeria-Arab Bank died in London on the 24th April, 1980. "I have tried toput the thoughts of the destiny ofNorthernNigeria behind mel artairs, final cannot, igowoeawt these thoughts: I get up with, them. Th are there• when I experience RhastTMe ^ say my prayers orsit tof converse with afriendor rto read a local daily" Sa'adu Zungur 1944
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