There was a time when one military officer governed a territory so large that, decades later, it would become parts of six different Nigerian states. His name was Musa Usman. Born in Enugu in 1940, Musa Usman rose through the Nigerian military at an extraordinary speed and, at just 27 years old, became the military governor of the newly created North-Eastern State in May 1967. He remained in office until July 1975. But who was this young officer? And why should Nigerians today remember him? FROM A MILITARY FAMILY Musa Usman's story was connected to the history of both the military and Nigeria's complex ethnic heritage. His father, Usman Kakagida, was a Kanuri man of Chadian ancestry who had served in the colonial West African Frontier Force. He was stationed at Ankpa, where he married Musa's mother, an Igala woman. Musa was therefore born into a family whose story itself reflected the interwoven histories of Northern and Southern Nigeria. In 1954, as a teenager,...