The Opposition:

The Nigerian Elements Progressive Union (formerly the Northern Elements Progressive Union, NEPU) and the United Middle Belt Congress (UMBC) together form the only significant opposition to the dominant NPC in Northern Nigeria. NEPU, though formed before the NPC has, however, never won enough seats in any election to constitute an opposition in a parliamentary sense. It was not represented in the Northern Assembly between 1952 and 1956. In 1956 it won seven seats, its ally, the BYM, winning two more, in a House of 131 elected members. It was represented in the Federal Parliament for the first time in 1959 when it won eight of the 174 seats from the North. In the 1961 regional elections, its representation fell from seven to one, and even that was won by the NCNC to which NEPU was allied. The UMBC, unlike NEPU, is localized in the areas known as the ‘Middle Belt’ of the North. In the 1956 regional elections, its two rival wings together won eleven seats. And in the 1959 federal elections, the UMBC with its allies, the AG and the ITP, secured twenty-five seats. During the 1961 regional elections, the UMBC, now essentially a Tiv protest movement, won only nine seats, seven of which were in the Tiv Division of Benue Province, the other two coming from the Tangale-Waja Constituency in Bauchi Province and Jos North West Constituency of Plateau province respectively. Thus, in the Regional Assembly of 177 members elected in 1961, the opposition is represented by only ten members. ¹