Waziri Ibrahim

Ibrahim was born on February 26, 1926 in Yerwa, Maiduguri. His father, Baba Alhaji Ibrahim Ibn Mohammed was an Islamic scholar; he named the new born after a friend who was then Waziri of Borno.[2] Waziri's early childhood was in Damaturu where his father was the Imam of a local mosque. He attended Damaturu Elementary School (1936-1939), followed by studies at Maiduguri Middle School (1940-1943) and then Kaduna College, 1944-1947. At Kaduna College, he was classmates with Prof Umaru Shehu; before completing his studies, it was the desire of the then Chief Education Officer of Borno, Kashim Ibrahim that Waziri should enter the teaching service after graduation. However, Waziri did not go further in training after Kaduna College nor did he teach, instead he chose to work with U.A.C. as a trainee manager in 1948. At the firm, he climbed clerical and administrative ranks from acting as a cashier and storekeeper at U.A.C.'s, Maiduguri branch in 1951. He then worked at Jos in 1952 before becoming a labour and staff manager for Benue division in 1953. By the time he left the firm, he was district manager of Kaduna.

In politics, Waziri was initially a member of NEPU, he organized the Damaturu branch of the association in 1950 and was the branch chairman in 1951. However, towards the end of the 1950s, Waziri joined NPC and was appointed the Federal Minister of Health in 1958. In 1960, he was part of the Nigerian delegation to the United Nation's when the country was accepted as the 99th member of the organization. In 1962, as minister of Economic Development, he presented to the parliament an ambitious capital expenditure budget over a six-year span based on a 4% annual growth in GDP and investment of resources in productive projects to foster development. Among the major planks of the budget, was the development of the Kainji Dam. However, close to half of the capital expenditure's revenue were to be obtained through foreign aid.

In 1962, Nigeria conducted a controversial census that was rejected by political leaders from the Eastern and Western region, the office of the census officer was under Waziri's ministry. Accusations of over counting were thrown around on all sides with Waziri accusing the Eastern region of inflating population figures while the southern leaders labeled the Northern head count as over-inflated. The controversy generated by the head count led the cancellation of the census results and official figures were never publicly acknowledged.[3]

After the military coup of 1966, he went into private business. During the Nigerian Civil War, he was involved in arms dealing and consultancy and afterwards, he established a defense consultancy firm. Waziri established a group of companies under the corporate name Herwa which included a tin mining venture in Jos and a soap and flour mill in Maiduguri. He opened a 5 million naira Herwa clinic in Kano. He entered the fishing industry after buying out Stephen Tolbert's fishing concern and in addition, imported frozen fish under the corporate name Nigeria Cold Stores.[4]

In 1978, Waziri joined politics again, he co-founded the NPP with members of Club 19 and Council for National Unity, however a disagreement arose between Waziri and some party members who were largely disciples of Azikiwe such Adeniran Ogunsanya. Leaders of Club 19 and Council for National Unity opposed Ibrahim's ambition of becoming both the party's chairman and its presidential candidate. The conflict deepened after the party's first convention in 1978 and subsequently led to his exit from the party.[5] He then formed the Great Nigeria People's Party.[6] He was an unsuccessful presidential candidate in the 1979 election, but was popular in its Kanuri base. His party won the gubernatorial election in Borno where the Kanuri are majority and also nearby Gongola state.

Waziri's first marriage was to a Shuwa Arab lady, Fatime, he later married two other Wives, the last being Fatimah, daughter of Kashim Ibrahim.[7]

He was the father of Khadija Bukar Abba Ibrahim.

• Paul Mamza. [Nigeria’s unsung heroes (7): POLITICS WITHOUT BITTERNESS: CAPTURING THE MESSAGE OF ALHAJI WAZIRI IBRAHIM]. Kwenu! Monday, October 10, 2005.
• Helen Chapin Metz, ed. THE SECOND REPUBLIC, 1979-83. Nigeria: A Country Study. Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress, 1991
• Shehu Shagari, Beckoned to Serve
• Ngozi Anyaegbunam. Waziri Ibrahim: Politics without bitterness. Daily Times of Nigeria Publishers (1992) ISBN 978-978-2171-00-9
• http://nigerianwiki.com/
• Ben Lawrence. Revisiting Nigeria's Political History. Niger Delta Congress, March 2002.