COLONIAL NIGERIA
Colonial Nigeria was the
area of West Africa
that became the modern day Nigeria, during the time of British rule
in the 19th and 20th centuries. British influence in the region began with the prohibition of slave trade to British subjects
in 1807. The resulting collapse of African slave trade led to the decline and
eventual collapse of the indigenous Edo Empire.
Britain annexed Lagos in 1861 and established the Oil River Protectorate in 1884. British
influence in the Niger area increased gradually over the 19th century, but
Britain did not effectively occupy the area until 1885. Other European powers
acknowledged Britain's power over the area in the 1885 Berlin Conference.
From 1886 to 1899, much of the
country was ruled by Royal Niger Company, authorized by charter, and
governed by George Taubman Goldie. In 1900, the Southern Nigeria Protectorate
and Northern Nigeria Protectorate
passed from company hands to the Crown. At the urging of governor Frederick Lugard, the two
territories were amalgamated as the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria,
while maintaining considerable regional autonomy among the three major regions.
Progressive constitutions after World War II provided for increasing
representation and electoral government by Nigerians. The colonial period
proper in Nigeria lasted from 1900 to 1960, after which Nigeria gained its
independence.
Overview
Through
a progressive sequence of regimes, the British imposed Crown Colony
government on the area of West Africa which came to be known as Nigeria,
a form of rule which was both autocratic and bureaucratic.
After initially adopting an indirect rule
approach, in 1906 the British merged the small Lagos Colony
and the Southern Nigeria Protectorate into a new
Colony of Southern Nigeria, and in 1914 that was combined with the Northern Nigeria Protectorate to form the
Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria.[1]
Administration and military control of the territory was done primarily by
white Britons, both in London and in Nigeria.[2]
Following
military conquest, the British imposed an economic system designed to profit
from African labour. The essential basis of this system was a money economy—specifically
the British pound sterling—which could be demanded through
taxation, paid to cooperative natives, and levied as a fine.[3][4]
The
amalgamation of different ethnic and religious groups into one federation
created internal tension which persists in Nigeria to the present day.[5]
Origins of British influence
In
the 1700s, the British Empire and other European powers had
settlements and forts in West Africa but had not yet established the full-scale
plantation colonies which existed in Americas. Adam Smith
wrote in 1776 that the African societies were better established and more
populous than those of the Americas, thus creating a more formidable barrier to
European expansion.[6][7]
Earlier
elements related to this were its founding of the colony at Sierra Leone in
1787 as a refuge for freed slaves, the independent missionary
movement intended to bring Christianity to Edo Empire, and programs of
exploration sponsored by learned societies and scientific groups, such as the
London-based African Association.
Local
leaders, cognizant of the situation in the West Indies, India, and elsewhere,
recognized the risks of British expansion. A chief of
Bonny in 1860 explained that he
refused a British treaty due to the tendency to "induce the Chiefs to sign
a treaty whose meaning they did not understand, and then seize upon the
country."[8]
Slave trade and abolition
Map
of Negroland and Guinea including the Slave Coast,
1736, by London cartographer Hermann Moll
European slave trading from West
Africa began before 1650, with people taken at a rate of about 3,000 per year.
This rate rose to 20,000 per year in the last quarter of the century. The slave
trade was heaviest in the period 1700–1850, with an average of 76,000 people
taken from Africa each year between 1783 and 1792. At first, the trade centered
around West Central Africa, now the Congo. But in the 1700s, the Bight of Benin
(also known as the Slave Coast) became the next most important
hub. Ouidah
(now part of Benin) and Lagos were the major ports in Biafra. From 1790–1807,
predominantly British slave traders purchased 1000–2000 slaves each year in
Lagos alone. The trade subsequently continued under the Portuguese. In the Bight of Biafra,
the major ports were Old Calabar (Akwa Akpa),
Bonny, and New Calabar.[9]
Starting in 1740, the British were the primary European slave trafficker from
this area.[6]
In 1767, British traders facilitated a notorious massacre hundreds of people at
Calabar after inviting them onto their ships, ostensibly to settle a local
dispute.[10]
In 1807 the Parliament of the United Kingdom
enacted the Slave Trade Act, prohibiting British subjects
from participating in the slave trade. Britain subsequently lobbied other
European powers to stop the slave trade as well. It made anti-slavery treaties
with West African powers, which it enforced militarily. Some of the treaties
contained prohibitions on diplomacy conducted without British permission, or
other promises to abide by British rule.[11]
This scenario provided an opportunity for naval expeditions and reconnaissance
throughout the region. Britain also annexed Freetown
in Sierra Leone, declaring it a Crown Colony
in 1808.[12]
The decrease in trade indirectly
led to the collapse of Edo Empire. Britain withdrew from the slave
trade when it was the major transporter of slaves to the Americas. The French
had abolished slavery following the French Revolution, although it briefly
re-established it in its Caribbean colonies under Napoleon. France sold
Louisiana to the United States in 1803, the same year that it gave up on trying
to regain Saint-Domingue. By the end of the Napoleonic Wars,
it ended slavery in its possessions. Between them, the French and the British
had purchased a majority of the slaves sold from the ports of Edo. The economy suffered
from the decline in the slave trade, although considerable smuggling of slaves
to the Americans continued for years.
Lagos became a major slave port
in the late 1700s and into the 1850s. Much of the human trafficking which
occurred there was nominally illegal, and records from this time and place are
not comprehensive. According to the Trans-Atlantic Slave Voyage Database,
308,800 were sold across the Atlantic from Lagos in 1776–1850. British and
French traders did a large share of this business until 1807, when they were
replaced by Portuguese and Spanish. By 1826–1850 the British navy was
interfering significantly with Lagos slave exports.[13]
Whether British conquest of
Nigeria resulted from a benevolent motive to end slavery, or more instrumental
motives of wealth and power, remains a topic of dispute between African and
European historians.[14]
Many locals remained unconvinced of the Crown's authority to completely reverse
the legal and moral attributes of a social institution through fiat.[15]
Regardless, slavery had decimated the population and fueled militarization and
chaos, thereby paving the way for more aggressive colonisation.[13][16]
Missionaries
Portuguese Roman Catholic
priests who accompanied traders and officials to the West African coast
introduced Christianity to Edo, Benin Empire in the fifteenth century. Several
churches were built to serve the Edo community and a small number of African
converts. When direct Portuguese contacts in the region were withdrawn,
however, the influence of the Catholic missionaries waned. By the eighteenth
century, evidence of Christianity had disappeared.
Although churchmen in Britain
had been influential in the drive to abolish the slave trade, significant
missionary activity for Africa did not develop until the 1840s. For some time,
missionaries operated in the area between Lagos and Ibadan. The first missions
were opened by the Church of England's Church Missionary Society (CMS). Other
Protestant denominations from Britain, Canada, and the United States also
opened missions and, in the 1860s, Roman Catholic religious orders established
missions. Protestant missionaries tended to divide the country into spheres of
activity to avoid competition with each other, and Catholic missions similarly
avoided duplication of effort among the several religious orders working there.
Catholic missionaries were particularly active among the Igbo; the
CMS worked among the Yoruba.
The CMS initially promoted
Africans to responsible positions in the mission field; for instance, they
appointed Samuel Ajayi Crowther as the first Anglican bishop of
the Niger. Crowther, a liberated Yoruba slave, had been educated in Sierra
Leone and in Britain, where he was ordained before returning to his homeland
with the first group of CMS missionaries. The Anglicans and other religious
groups had a conscious "native church" policy to develop indigenous
ecclesiastical institutions to become independent of Europeans. Crowther was
succeeded as bishop by a British cleric. In the long term, the acceptance of
Christianity by large numbers of Nigerians depended on the various denominations
adapting to local conditions. They selected an increasingly high proportion of
African clergy for the missions.
In large measure, European
missionaries assumed the value of colonial rule in terms of promoting
education, health and welfare measures, so they effectively reinforced colonial
policy. Some African Christian communities formed their own independent
churches.
(Note: All of this section to
this point is from Nigeria: A Country Study (1991) prepared by staff of
the Library of Congress of the United States.[17]
The missionaries gained in power
throughout the 1800s. They caused major transformations in traditional society
as they eroded the religious institutions such as human sacrifice, infanticide,
and secret societies, which had formerly played a role in political authority
and community life.[18]
Commerce
The principal commodities of
legitimate trade were palm oil and palm kernels, which were used in Europe to
make soap and as lubricants for machinery, before petroleum products were
developed for that purpose. Although this trade grew to significant
proportions—palm oil exports alone were worth £1 billion a year by 1840—it was
concentrated near the coast, where palm trees grew in abundance. Gradually,
however, the trade forced major economic and social changes in the interior,
although it hardly undermined slavery and the slave trade. The incidence of
slavery in local societies increased.
Initially most palm oil
(and later kernels) came from Igboland, where palm trees formed a canopy over
the densely inhabited areas of the Ngwa, Nri Kingdom,
Awka, and other Igbo
peoples. Palm oil was used locally for cooking, the kernels were a source for
food, trees were tapped for palm wine, and the fronds were used for building
material. It was a relatively simple adjustment for many Igbo families to
transport the oil to rivers and streams that led to the Niger Delta for sale to
European merchants. The rapid expansion in exports, especially after 1830,
occurred precisely at the time slave exports collapsed. The Igbo redirected
slaves into the domestic economy, especially to grow the staple food crop, yams, in
northern Igboland for marketing throughout the palm-tree belt. As before, Aro
merchants dominated trade in the hinterland, including palm products to the
coast and the sale of slaves within Igboland.
From 1815–1840, palm oil exports
increased by a factor of 25, from 800 to 20,000 tons per year. British
merchants led the trade in palm oil, while the Portuguese and others continued
the slave trade.[6]
Much of this oil was sold elsewhere in the British Empire.[19]
To produce all this oil, the economy of the southern region crossed over from
mostly subsistence
to the production of palm oil as a cash crop.[20]
The Niger Delta and Calabar,
which once had been known for the export of slaves, became notable for the
export of palm oil. The Delta streams were called "oil rivers." The
basic economic units in each town were "houses," family-operated
entities that engendered loyalty for its employees. A "house"
included the extended family of the trader, including retainers and slaves. As
its head, the master trader taxed other traders who were members of his
"house;" he maintained a war vessel, a large dugout canoe that could
hold several tons of cargo and dozens of crew, for the defense of the harbor.
Whenever a trader had become successful enough to keep a war canoe, he was
expected to form his own "house". Economic competition among these
"houses" was so fierce that trade often erupted into armed battle
between the crews of the large canoes.
Because of the hazards of
climate and tropical diseases for Europeans and the absence of any centralized
authorities on the mainland responsive to their interests, European merchants
moored their ships outside harbours or in the delta, and used the ships as
trading stations and warehouses. In time they built depots onshore and
eventually moved up the Niger River to establish stations in the interior. An
example was that at Onitsha, where they could bargain directly with local
suppliers and purchase products likely to turn a profit.
Some European traders switched
to legitimate business only when the commerce in slaves became too hazardous.
The traders suffered from the risks of their position and believed they were at
the mercy of the coastal rulers, whom they considered unpredictable.
Accordingly, as the volume of trade increased, merchants requested that the
British government appoint a consul to cover the region. Consequently, in 1849,
John Beecroft
was accredited as consul for the bights of Benin and Biafra, a jurisdiction
stretching from Dahomey
to Cameroon.
Beecroft was the British representative to Fernando Po, where the prevention
squadron of the British Royal Navy was stationed.
In 1850, the British created a
"Court of Equity" at Bonny, overseen by Beecroft, which would deal
with trade disputes. Another court was established in 1856 at Calabar, based on
an agreement with local Efik traders which prohibited them from
interfering with British merchants. These courts contained majorities British
members and represented a new level of presumptive British sovereignty in the
Bight of Biafra.[11]
West Africa also bought British
exports, supplying 30–40% of the demand for British cotton during the Industrial Revolution of 1750–1790.[19]
Exploration
At the same time, the British
scientists were interested in exploring the course and related settlements
along the Niger River. The delta masked the mouth of the great river, and for
centuries Nigerians chose not to tell Europeans the secrets of the interior. In
1794 the African Association in Great Britain commissioned Mungo Park, an intrepid Scottish physician and
naturalist, to search for the headwaters of the Niger and follow the river
downstream. Park reached the upper Niger the next year by traveling inland from
the Gambia River. Although he reported on the eastward flow of the Niger, he
was forced to turn back when his equipment was lost to Muslim Arab slave
traders. In 1805 he set out on a second expedition, sponsored by the British
government, to follow the Niger to the sea. His mission failed, but Park and
his party covered more than 1,500 kilometers, passing through the western
portions of the Sokoto Caliphate, before drowning when their boats overturned
in rapids near Bussa.
On a subsequent expedition to
the Sokoto Caliphate, Hugh Clapperton learned about
the mouth of the Niger River, where it reached the sea, but he died before
confirming it. His servant, Richard Lander, and Lander's brother John were the
ones to demonstrate that the Niger flowed into the sea. The Lander brothers
were seized by slave traders in the interior and sold down the river to a
waiting European ship.
Initial British attempts to open
trade with the interior by way of the Niger could not overcome climate and
diseases such as malaria. A third of the people associated with an 1842
riverine expedition died. In the 1850s, the benefits of quinine had been found
to combat malaria, and aided by the medicine, a Liverpool merchant, Macgregor
Laird, opened the river. Laird's efforts were stimulated by the detailed
reports of a pioneer German explorer, Heinrich Barth,
who traveled through much of Borno and the Sokoto Caliphate, where he recorded
information about the region's geography, economy, and inhabitants.
First colonial claims
Lagos Colony
Flag
of the Lagos Colony (1886-1906)
As part of an anti-slavery
campaign and a pretext for making inroads into Lagos, Britain bombarded Lagos
in November 1851, ousted the pro-slavery Oba Kosoko and established a treaty
with the newly installed Oba Akintoye, who was more amenable. Lagos was
annexed as a Crown Colony in 1861 via the Lagos Treaty of Cession.
British expansion accelerated in
the last decades of the nineteenth century. The early history of Lagos Colony
was one of repeated attempts to end the Yoruba wars. In the face of threats to
the divided Yoruba states from Dahomey and the Sokoto Caliphate, as represented
by the emirate of Ilorin, the British
governor—assisted by the CMS—succeeded in imposing peace settlements on the
interior.
Colonial Lagos
was a busy, cosmopolitan port. Its architecture was in both Victorian and
Brazilian style, as many of the black elite were English-speakers from Sierra
Leone and freedmen repatriated from Brazil and Cuba. Its residents were
employed in official capacities and were active in business. Africans also were
represented on the Lagos Legislative Council, a largely appointed assembly. The
Colony was ultimately governed by the British Colonial Office
in London.[21]
Captain John Glover, the colony's administrator,
created a militia of Hausa troops in 1861. This became the Lagos Constabulary,
and subsequently the Nigerian Police Force.[22]
In 1880, the British government
and traders demonetized the Maria Theresa dollar, to the considerable
dismay of its local holders, in favor of the pound.[3]
In 1891, the African Banking Corporation founded the Bank of British West Africa in Lagos.[23]
Oil Rivers Protectorate
Queen
Victoria on a stamp of the Niger Coast Protectorate of 1894.
After the Berlin Conference
of 1884, Britain announced formation of the Oil Rivers Protectorate, which included the
Niger Delta and extended eastward to Calabar, where the British consulate
general was relocated from Fernando Po. The protectorate was organized to
control and develop trade coming down the Niger. Vice consuls were assigned to
ports that already had concluded treaties of cooperation with the Foreign
Office. Local rulers continued to administer their territories, but consular
authorities assumed jurisdiction for the equity courts established earlier by
the foreign mercantile communities. A constabulary force was raised and used to
pacify the coastal area.
In 1894 the territory was
redesignated the Niger Coast Protectorate and was expanded to
include the region from Calabar to Lagos Colony and Protectorate, including the
hinterland, and northward up the Niger River as far as Lokoja, the headquarters
of the Royal Niger Company. As a protectorate, it did not have the status of a
colony, so its officials were appointed by the Foreign Office and not by the
Colonial Office.[21]
In 1891, the Consulate
established the Niger Coast Protectorate Force or "Oil Rivers
Irregulars".[22]
Royal Niger Company
Ensign
of the Royal Niger Company (1888-1899)
British
stamps used in 1898 at Akassa by the Royal Niger Company.
The legitimate trade in
commodities attracted a number of rough-hewn British merchants to the Niger River,
as well as some men who had been formerly engaged in the slave trade but who
now changed their line of wares. The large companies that subsequently opened
depots in the delta cities and in Lagos were as ruthlessly competitive as the
delta towns themselves and frequently used force to compel potential suppliers
to agree to contracts and to meet their demands. To some extent, competition
amongst these companies undermined their collective position vis-a-vis local
merchants.
In the 1870s, therefore, George Taubman Goldie began amalgamating
companies into the United African Company, soon renamed the National African
Company.[11]
The Royal Niger Company
established its headquarters far inland at Lokoja,
which was the main trading port of the company,[24]
from where it pretended to assume responsibility for the administration of
areas along the Niger and Benue rivers where it maintained depots. It soon
gained a virtual monopoly over trade along the River[3]
The company interfered in the
territory along the Niger and the Benue, sometimes becoming embroiled in
serious conflicts when its British-led native constabulary intercepted slave
raids or attempted to protect trade routes. The company negotiated treaties
with Sokoto, Gwandu, and Nupe that were interpreted as guaranteeing exclusive
access to trade in return for the payment of annual tribute. Officials of the Sokoto Caliphate
considered these treaties quite differently; from their perspective, the
British were granted only extraterritorial rights that did not prevent similar
arrangements with the Germans and the French and certainly did not surrender
sovereignty.
Even before gaining its charter,
the Company signed treaties with local leaders which granted it broad sovereign
powers. One 1885 treaty read:
We, the undersigned King and
Chiefs...with the view to the bettering of the condition of our country and
people, do this day cede to the National Africa Company (Limited), their heirs
and assigns, forever, the whole of our territory...We also give the said
National African Company (Limited) full power to settle all native disputes
arising from any cause whatever, and we pledge ourselves not to enter into any
war with other tribes without the sanction of the said National Africa Company
(Limited).
We also understand that the said
National African Company (limited) have full power to mine, farm, and build in
any portion of our territory. We bind ourselves not to have any intercourse
with any strangers or foreigners except through the said national African
Company (Limited), and we give the said National African Company (Limited) full
power to exclude all other strangers and foreigners from their territory at
their discretion.
In consideration of the
foregoing, the said National African Company (Limited) bind themselves not to
interfere with any of the native laws or customs of the country, consistently
with the maintenance of order and good government...[and] agree to pay native
owners of land a reasonable amount for any portion they may require.
The
said National African Company (Limited) bind themselves to protect the said
King and Chiefs from the attacks of any neighbouring tribes (Ibid.).[11]
The company considered itself
the sole legitimate government of the area, with executive, legislative, and
judicial powers all subordinate to the rule of a council created by the company
board of directors in London. The council was headed by a governor. The deputy
governor served as political administrator for company's territory, and
appointed three officials in Nigeria to carry out the work of administration.
These were the agent general, the senior judicial officer, and the commandant of
the constabulary.[25]
However, the company did accept that local emirs could act as partners in
governance and trade. It therefore hired native intermediaries who could conduct
diplomacy, trade, and intelligence work in the local area.[26]
The company, as was common among
European businesses in Africa, paid its native workers in barter. At the turn
of the century, top wages were four bags of salt (company retail price, 3s 9d)
for a month of work.[4]
Trade was also conducted through a mechanism of barter and credit. Goods were
made available on credit to African middlemen, who were expected to trade them
at a pre-arranged price and deliver the proceeds to the company. The company's
major imports to the area included gin and low-quality firearms.[3]
By the 1880s, the National
African Company became the dominant commercial power, increasing from 19 to 39
stations between 1882 and 1993. In 1886, Taubman secured aroyal charter and his
company became the Royal Niger Company. The charter allowed the company to
collect customs and make treaties with local leaders.[4]
Under Goldie's direction, the Royal Niger Company was instrumental in
depriving France and Germany of access to the region. Consequently, he may well
deserve the epithet "father of Nigeria," which historians accorded
him. He definitely laid the basis for British claims.
The Royal Niger Company had its
own armed forces.[22]
This included a river fleet which it used for retaliatory attacked on
uncooperative villages.[3]
Britain's imperialistic posture
became more aggressive towards the end of the century. The appointment of Joseph Chamberlain as colonial secretary in
1895 especially marked a shift towards new territorial ambitions of the British
Empire.[27]
Economically, local colonial administrators also pushed for the imposition of
British colonial rule, believing that trade and taxation conducted in British
pounds would prove far more lucrative than a barter trade which yielded only
inconsistent customs duties.[3]
Military conquest
The British led a series of
military campaigns to enlarge its sphere of influence and expand its commercial
opportunities. Most of the fighting was done by Hausa soldiers, recruited to
fight against other groups. The superior weapons, tactics, and political unity
of the British are commonly given as reasons for their decisive ultimate
victory.[28][29]
In 1892 the British forces set
out to fight the Ijebu Kingdom, which had resisted missionaries
and foreign traders. The legal justification for this campaign was a treaty
signed in 1886, when the British had interceded as peacemakers to end the
Ekitiparapo war, which imposed free trade requirements and mandated that all
parties continue to use British channels for diplomacy.[11]
Although the Ijebu had some weapons they were wiped out by British machine guns
called Maxim guns.
With this victory, the British went on to conquer the rest of Yorubaland, which
had also been weakened by sixteen years of civil war.[30]
By 1893, most of the other political entities in Yorubaland recognized the practical
necessity signing another treaty with the British, this one explicitly joining
them with the protectorate of Lagos.[11][31]
King
Koko in His War Canoe, London Daily Graphic, March 30,
1895; depicting King Frederick William Koko—onetime
antagonist to the Royal Niger Company
In 1896–1897 the forces of the
Niger Coast Protectorate fought with the remnants of the Benin Empire.
Following the defeat of an unsuccessful foray by Consul General James R.
Phillips, a larger retaliatory force captured Benin City
and drove Ovonramwen,
the Oba of Benin, into exile.[32]
The British had difficulty
conquering Igboland, which lacked central political organization. In the name
of liberating the Igbos from the Aro Confederacy, the British launched the Anglo-Aro War
of 1901–1902. Despite conquering villages by burning houses and crops,
continual political control over the Igbo remained elusive.[33][34]
The British forces began annual pacification missions to convince the locals of
British supremacy.[35]
A campaign against the Sokoto Caliphate
began in 1900 with the creation of the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria, under
the direction of Governor Lugard. The British captured Kano in 1903. Deadly
battles broke out sporadically through 1906.[36]
Lugard was slow to describe these excursions to the Colonial Office, which
apparently learned of preparations to attack Kano from the newspapers in
December 1902. Not wishing to appear out of control or weak, they approved the
expedition (two days after it began) on January 19, 1903.[37]
In general the Colonial Office allowed Lugard's expeditions to continue because
they were framed as retaliatory and, as Olivier commented in 1906, "If the
millions of people [in Nigeria] who do not want us there once get the notion
that our people can be killed with impunity they will not be slow to attempt
it."[38]
Lugard informed the leaders of
conquered Sokoto:
The Fulani in old times . . .
conquered this country. They took the right to rule over it, to levy taxes, to
depose kings and to create kings. They in turn have by defeat lost their rule
which has come into the hands of the British. All these things which I have
said the Fulani by conquest took the right to do now pass to the British. Every
Sultan and Emir and the principal officers of state will be appointed by the
high Commissioner throughout all this country. The High Commissioner will be
guided by all the usual laws of succession and the wishes of the people and
chief, but will set them aside if he desires for good cause to do so. The Emirs
and chiefs who are appointed will rule over the people as of old time and take
such taxes as are approved by the High Commissioner, but they will obey the
laws of the Governor and will act in accordance with the advice of the
Resident. [39]
Political administration under the Crown
Further
information: Northern Nigeria Protectorate, Southern Nigeria Protectorate, and Provinces of Nigeria
The
British Colonial Office in Westminster,
created in the 1860s by architect George Gilbert Scott; illustrated in 1875
Contemporary
photograph of the same building, now housing the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Transition to Crown rule
Concrete plans for transition to
Crown rule—direct control by the British government—apparently began in 1897.
In May of this year, Herbert J. Read published a Memorandum on British
possessions in West Africa, which remarked upon the "inconvenient and
unscientific boundaries" between Lagos Colony, the Niger Coast
Protectorate, and the Royal Niger Company. Read suggested they be merged, and
more use made of Nigeria's natural resources[40]
In the same year, the British created the Royal West African Frontier Force
(RWAFF or WAFF), under the leadership of Colonel Frederick Lugard.
In one year, Lugard recruited 2600 troops, evenly split between Hausa and
Yoruba. The officers of the RWAFF were British. The operations of this force
are still not fully known due to a policy of strict secrecy mandated by the
British government.[41]
Guidelines for running the
Nigerian colony were established in 1898 by the Niger Committee, chaired by the
Earl of Selborne, in 1898.
The British finalized the border between Nigeria and French West Africa with
the Anglo-French Convention of 1898.[42]
The territory of the Royal Niger
Company became the Northern Nigeria Protectorate,
and the Company itself became a private corporation which continued to do
business in Nigeria. The Company received £865,000 compensation for the loss of
its Charter. It continued to enjoy special privileges and maintained a de facto
monopoly over commerce. Under Lugard from 1900–1906, the Protectorate
consolidated political control over the area through military conquest and
initiated the use of British currency in substitute for barter.[3][4]
Colonial administration
In 1900, the British government
assumed control of the Southern and Northern Protectorates, both of which were
ultimately governed by the Colonial Office at Whitehall.
The staff of this office came primarily from the British upper middle
class—i.e., university-educated men, primarily not nobility, with fathers in
well-respected professions.[43]
The first five heads of the Nigeria Department (1898–1914) were Reginald
Antrobus, William Mercer, William Baillie Hamilton, Sydney Olivier, and
Charles Strachey.[44]
Olivier was a member of the Fabian Society
and a friend of George Bernard Shaw.[45]
Under the Colonial Office was
the governor, who managed administration of his colony and held powers of
emergency rule. The Colonial Office could veto or revise his policies. The
seven men who governed Northern Nigeria, Southern Nigeria, and Lagos through
1914 were Henry McCallum, William MacGregor,
Walter Egerton,
Ralph Moor,
Percy Girouard,
Hesketh Bell, and Frederick Lugard.
Most of these came from military backgrounds. All were knighted.[46]
Undated
British archival photo of locomotive in Nigeria
Walter Egerton's sixfold agenda
for 1908, as detailed on November 29, 1907, in a telegram to the Colonial
Office, is representative of British priorities.[47]
- To pacify the country;
- To established settled government in the newly won districts;
- To improve and extend native footpaths throughout the country;
- To construct properly graded roads in the more populated districts;
- To clear the numerous rivers in the country and make them suitable for launch and canoe traffic; and
- To extend the railways.
Egerton also supervised
improvements to the Lagos harbour and extension of the local telegraph network.[47]
From 1895–1900, a railway was constructed running from Lagos to Ibadan;
it opened in March 1901. This line was extended to Oshogbo, 62 miles away, in
1905–1907, and to Zungeru and Minna in 1908–1911. Its
final leg enabled it to meet another line, constructed 1907–1911, running from
Baro, through Minnia, to Kano.[48]
Some of these public work
projects were accomplished with the help of forced labour, referred to as
"Political Labour". Village Heads were paid 10 shillings for
conscripts, and fined £50 if they failed to supply. Individuals could be fined
or jailed for refusing to comply.[4]
Frederick Lugard
Frederick Lugard,
who was appointed as High Commissioner of the Northern Nigeria Protectorate
in 1900 and served until 1906 in his first term, often has been regarded by the
British as their model colonial administrator. Trained as an army officer, he
had served in India, Egypt, and East Africa, where he expelled Arab slave
traders from Nyasaland
and established the British presence in Uganda. Joining the Royal Niger Company
in 1894, Lugard was sent to Borgu to counter inroads made by the French, and in
1897 he was made responsible for raising the Royal West African Frontier Force
(RWAFF) from local levies to serve under British officers.
During his six-year tenure as
High Commissioner, Sir Frederick Lugard (as
he became in 1901) was occupied with transforming the commercial sphere of
influence inherited from the Royal Niger Company into a viable territorial unit
under effective British political control. His objective was to conquer the
entire region and to obtain recognition of the British protectorate by its
indigenous rulers, especially the Fulani
emirs of the Sokoto Caliphate. Lugard's campaign
systematically subdued local resistance, using armed force when diplomatic
measures failed. Borno capitulated without a fight, but in 1903 Lugard's RWAFF
mounted assaults on Kano and Sokoto. From Lugard's point of view, clear-cut
military victories were necessary because the surrenders of the defeated
peoples weakened resistance elsewhere.
Lugard's success in northern Nigeria has been
attributed to his policy of indirect rule; that is, he governed the
protectorate through the rulers defeated by the British. If the emirs accepted
British authority, abandoned the slave trade, and cooperated with British
officials in modernizing their administrations, the colonial power was willing
to confirm them in office. The emirs retained their caliphate titles but were
responsible to British district officers, who had final authority. The British
High Commissioners could depose emirs and other officials if necessary.
Amalgamation
A
map displaying Southern and Northern Nigeria, 1914.
Amalgamation of Nigeria was
envisioned from early on in its governance, as is made clear by the report of
the Niger Committee in 1898. Combining the three jurisdictions would reduce
administrative expenses and facilitate deployment of resources and money
between the areas. (Specifically it would enable direct subsidy of the less
profitable Northern jurisdiction.) Antrobus, Fiddes, and Strachey in the
Colonial Office promoted amalgamation, along with Lugard.[49]
Following the order recommended
by the Niger Committee, the Colonial Office merged Lagos Colony and the
Southern Nigeria Protectorate on May 1, 1906, forming a larger protectorate
(still called the Southern Nigeria Protectorate) which spanned the coastline
between Dahomey and Cameroon.[49]
Lugard advocated constantly for
unification of the whole territory, and in August 1911 the Colonial Office
asked Lugard to lead the amalgamated colony.[50]
In 1912, Lugard returned to
Nigeria from his six-year term as Governor of Hong Kong, to oversee the merger of
the northern and southern protectorates. On May 9, 1913, Lugard submitted a formal
proposal to the Colonial Office in which Northern and Southern provinces would
have separate administrations, under the control of a "strongly
authoritarian" governor-general. The Colonial Office approved most of
Lugard's plan, but balked at authorizing him to pass laws without their
approval.[51]
John Anderson
diplomatically suggested:
If it is the necessity for
formally submitting the drafts that hurts Sir F. Lugard, I should be quite
prepared to omit that provision provided that the period of publication of the
draft prior to enactment is extended from one month to two. If an eye is kept
on the Gazettes as they come in this will enable us to warn him of any objections
we may entertain to legislative proposals, and also give Liverpool and
Manchester an opportunity of voicing their objections.[51]
The task of unification was
achieved on the eve of World War I. From January 1914 onwards, the newly united
colony and protectorate was presided over by a proconsul,
who was entitled the Governor-General of Nigeria. The militias and
RWAFF battalions were reorganized into the RWAFF Nigeria Regiment.[52]
Lugard's governmental model for
Nigeria was unique and there was apparently not much planning for its future
development. Colonial official A. J. Harding commented in 1913:
Sir F. Lugard's proposal
contemplates a state which it is impossible to classify. It is not a unitary
state with local government areas but with one Central Executive and one
Legislature. It is not a federal state with federal Executive, Legislature and
finances, like the Leewards. It is not a personal union of separate colonies
under the same Governor like the Windwards, it is not a Confederation of States.
If adopted, his proposals can hardly be a permanent solution and I gather that
Sir F. Lugard only regards them as temporary—at any rate in part. With one man
in practical control of the Executive and Legislative organs of all the parts,
the machine may work passably for sufficient time to enable the transition
period to be left behind, by which time the answer to the problem—Unitary v.
Federal State—will probably have become clear.[5]
The Colonial Office accepted
Lugard's proposal that the governor not be required to stay in-country
full-time; consequently, as governor, Lugard spent four months out of the year
in London. This scheme proved unpopular and confusing to many involved parties
and was phased out.[53]
Indirect rule
Yoruba
sculpture from colonial period depicting the British technique of indirect rule
Emir
of Kano, with cavalry, photographed in 1911
The Protectorate was centrally
administered by the Colonial Civil Service, staffed by Britishers and Africans
called the British Native Staff—many of whom originated from outside the
territory. Under the Political Department of the Civil Service were Residents
and District Officers, responsible for overseeing operations in each region.
The Resident also oversaw a Provincial Court at the region's capital.[54]
Each region also had a Native
Administration, staffed by locals, and possessing a Native Treasury. The Native
Administration was headed by the traditional rulers—emirs in the north—and his
District Heads, who oversaw a larger number of Village Heads. Native
Administration was responsible for police, hospitals, public works, and local
courts. The Colonial Civil Service used intermediaries, as the Royal Niger
Company had, in an expanded role which included diplomacy, propaganda, and
espionage.[55]
Half of all taxes went to the
colonial government and half went to the Native Treasury. The Treasury used a
planned budget for payment of staff and development of public works projects,
and therefore could not be spent at the discretion of the local emir. Herbert Richmond Palmer developed details of
this model from 1906–1911 as the governor of Northern Nigeria after Lugard.[56]
In 1916 Lugard formed the
Nigerian Council, a consultative body that brought together six traditional
leaders—including the Sultan of Sokoto, the Emir of Kano,
and the King of Benin—to represent all parts of the colony. The council was
promoted as a device for allowing the expression of opinions that could
instruct the governor-general. In practice, Lugard used the annual sessions to
inform the traditional leaders of British policy, leaving them with no
functions at the council's meetings except to listen and to assent.
Unification meant only the loose
affiliation of three distinct regional administrations into which Nigeria was
subdivided—northern, western, and eastern regions (see fig. 6). Each was under
a lieutenant governor and provided independent government services. The
governor was, in effect, the coordinator for virtually autonomous entities that
had overlapping economic interests but little in common politically or
socially. In the Northern Region, the colonial government took careful account of
Islam and avoided any appearance of a challenge to traditional values that
might incite resistance to British rule.[57]
This system, in which the
structure of authority focused on the emir to whom obedience was a mark of
religious devotion, did not welcome change. As the emirs settled more and more
into their role as reliable agents of indirect rule, colonial authorities were
content to maintain the status quo, particularly in religious matters.
Christian missionaries were barred, and the limited government efforts in
education were harmonized with Islamic institutions.[57]
In the south, by contrast,
traditional leaders were employed as vehicles of indirect rule in EdoLand &
Yorubaland, but Christianity and Western education undermined their sacerdotal
functions. In some instances, however, a double allegiance—to the idea of sacred
monarchy for its symbolic value and to modern concepts of law and
administration—was maintained. Out of reverence for traditional kingship, for
instance, the Oba of Benin, whose office was closely identified with Edo
religion, was accepted as the sponsor of a Yoruba political movement. In the
Eastern Region, appointed officials who were given "warrants" and
hence called warrant chiefs, were strongly resisted by the people because they
lacked traditional claims.
In the early
stages of British rule, it is desirable to retain the native authority and to
work through and by the native emirs. At the same time it is feasible by
degrees to bring them gradually into approximation with our ideas of justice
and humanity. . . . In pursuance of the above general principles the chief
civil officers of the provinces are to be called Residents which implies one
who carries on diplomatic relations rather than Commissioners or
Administrators.
Frederick Lugard, shortly before
becoming High Commissioner of Northern Nigeria.[58]
In practice, British
administrative procedures under indirect rule entailed constant interaction
between colonial authorities and local rulers—the system was modified to fit
the needs of each region. In the north, for instance, legislation took the form
of a decree cosigned by the governor and the emir, while in the south, the
governor sought the approval of the Legislative Council. Hausa was
recognized as an official language in the north, and knowledge of it was
expected of colonial officers serving there. In the South, only English had
official status. Regional administrations also varied widely in the quality of
local personnel and in the scope of the operations they were willing to
undertake. British staffs in each region continued to operate according to procedures
developed before unification. Economic links among the regions increased, but
indirect rule tended to discourage political interchange. There was virtually
no pressure for greater unity among the regions until after the end of World
War II.
Public works, such as harbour
dredging and road and railway construction, opened Nigeria to economic
development. British soap and cosmetics manufacturers tried to obtain land
concessions for growing oil palms, but these were refused. Instead, the
companies had to be content with a monopoly of the export trade in these
products. Other commercial crops, such as cocoa and rubber, were encouraged,
and tin was mined on the Jos Plateau.
The only significant
interruption in economic development arose from natural disaster—the great
drought of 1913-14. Recovery came quickly and improvements in port facilities
and the transportation infrastructure during World War I furthered economic
development. Nigerian recruits participated in the war effort as laborers and
soldiers. The Nigeria Regiment of the RWAFF, integrating troops from the north
and south, saw action against German colonial forces in Cameroon and in German
East Africa.
During the war, the colonial
government earmarked a large portion of the Nigerian budget as a contribution
to imperial defense. To raise additional revenues, Lugard took steps to
institute a uniform tax structure patterned on the traditional system that he
had adopted in the north during his tenure there. Taxes became a source of
discontent in the south, however, and contributed to disturbances protesting
British policy. In 1920 portions of former German Cameroon
were mandated to Britain by the League of Nations
and were administered as part of Nigeria.
Until he stepped down as
governor-general in 1918, Lugard primarily was concerned with consolidating
British sovereignty and with assuring local administration through traditional
leaders. He was contemptuous of the educated and Westernised African elite
found more in the South, and he recommended transferring the capital from
Lagos, the cosmopolitan city where the influence of these people was most
pronounced, to Kaduna in
the north. Although the capital was not moved, Lugard's bias in favor of the
Muslim north was clear at the time. Lugard bequeathed to his successor a
prosperous colony when his term as governor-general expired.
The policy of indirect rule used
in Northern Nigeria became a model for British colonies elsewhere in Africa.[59]
Developments in colonial policy under Clifford
Flag
of British Colonial Nigeria
Sculptural
representation of Africa at the Colonial Office building on Whitehall street;
created by Henry Hugh Armstead
Lugard's immediate successor, Sir Hugh Clifford,
was an aristocratic professional administrator with liberal instincts who had
won recognition for his enlightened governorship of the Gold Coast. The approaches of the two governors
to colonial development were diametrically opposed. In contrast to Lugard,
Clifford argued that colonial government had the responsibility to introduce as
quickly as practical the benefits of Western experience. He was aware that the
Muslim north would present problems, but he had hopes for progress along the
lines which he laid down in the south, where he anticipated "general
emancipation" leading to a more representative form of government.
Clifford emphasized economic development, encouraging enterprises by immigrant
southerners in the north while restricting European participation to capital
intensive activity.
Uneasy with the amount of
latitude allowed traditional leaders under indirect rule, Clifford opposed
further extension of the judicial authority held by the northern emirs. He said
that he did "not consider that their past traditions and their present
backward cultural conditions afford to any such experiment a reasonable chance
of success."[60]
In the south, he saw the possibility of building an elite educated in schools
modeled on a European method (and numerous elite children attended high-ranking
colleges in Britain during the colonial years). These schools would teach
"the basic principles that would and should regulate character and
conduct."[60]
In line with this attitude, he rejected Lugard's proposal for moving the
capital from Lagos, the stronghold of the elite in whom he placed so much
confidence for the future.
Clifford also believed that
indirect rule encouraged centripetal tendencies. He argued that the division
into two separate colonies was advisable unless a stronger central government
could bind Nigeria into more than just an administrative convenience for the
three regions. Whereas Lugard had applied lessons learned in the north to the
administration of the south, Clifford was prepared to extend to the north
practices that had been successful in the south. Sir Richmond Palmer, acting as
lieutenant-governor in the North, disagreed with Clifford and advocated the
principles of Lugard and further decentralisation.[57]
The Colonial Office, where
Lugard was still held in high regard, accepted that changes might be due in the
south, but it forbade fundamental alteration of procedures in the north. A.J.
Harding, director of Nigerian affairs at the Colonial Office, defined the
official position of the British government in support of indirect rule when he
said that "direct government by impartial and honest men of alien race . .
. never yet satisfied a nation long and . . . under such a form of government,
as wealth and education increase, so do political discontent and sedition."[60]
Economics and finance
Looms
in Lagos, photographed in 1910–1913 by H. Hunting of the Patterson
Zuchonis trading company
The British treasury initially
supported the landlocked Northern Nigeria Protectorate with grants, totaling
£250,000 or more each year.[61]
Its revenue quickly increased, from £4,424 in 1901 to £274,989 in 1910. The
Southern Protectorate financed itself from the outset, with revenue increasing
from £361,815 to £1,933,235 over the same period.[62]
After establishing political
control of the country, the British implemented a system of taxation in order
to force the indigenous Africans to shift from subsistence farming to wage labor.
Sometimes forced labor was used directly for public works projects. These
policies met with ongoing resistance[63][64]
Much of the colony's budget went
to payments of its military, the Royal West African Frontier Force (RWAFF).[65]
In 1936, of £6,259,547 income for the Nigerian state, £1,156,000 went back to
England as home pay for British officials in the Nigerian civil service.[66]
Oil exploration began in 1906
under John Simon Bergheim's Nigeria Bitumen Corporation, to which the Colonial
Office granted exclusive rights. In 1907, the Corporation received a loan of
£25,000, repayable upon discovery of oil. Other firms applying for licenses
were rejected. In November 1908, Bergheim reported striking oil; in September
1909, he reported extracting 2,000 barrels per day. However, development of the
Nigerian oilfields slowed when Bergheim died in a car crash in September 1912.
Lugard, replacing Egerton as governor, aborted the project in May 1913. The
British turned to Persia for oil.[67]
European traders in Nigeria
initially made widespread use of cowrie,
which was already valued locally. The influx of cowrie lead to inflation.
Emergence of Southern Nigerian nationalism
British colonialism created
Nigeria, joining diverse peoples and regions in an artificial political entity
along the Niger River. The nationalism that became a political factor in
Nigeria during the interwar period derived both from an older political particularism
and broad pan-Africanism, rather than from any sense among the people of a
common Nigerian nationality. The goal of activists initially was not
self-determination, but increased participation on a regional level in the
governmental process.
Inconsistencies in British
policy reinforced existing cleavages based on regional animosities, as the
British tried both to preserve the indigenous cultures of each area and to
introduce modern technology, and Western political and social concepts. In the
north, appeals to Islamic legitimacy upheld the rule of the emirs, so that
nationalist sentiments were related to Islamic ideals. Modern nationalists in
the south, whose thinking was shaped by European ideas, opposed indirect rule,
as they believed that it had strengthened what they considered an anachronistic
ruling class and shut out the emerging Westernised
elite.
The southern nationalists were
inspired by a variety of sources, including such prominent American-based
activists as Marcus Garvey and W.E.B. Du Bois. Nigerian
students abroad, particularly at British schools, joined those from other
colonies in pan-African groups, such as the West African Students Union, founded in London in
1925. Early nationalists tended to ignore Nigeria as the focus of patriotism.
Their common denominators tended to be based on newly assertive ethnic
consciousness, particularly that of the Yoruba and Igbo. Despite acceptance of
European and North American influences, the nationalists were critical of
colonialism for its failure to appreciate the antiquity, richness and
complexity of indigenous cultures. They wanted self-government, charging that
only colonial rule prevented the unshackling of progressive forces in Nigeria
and other states.
Political opposition to colonial
rule often assumed religious dimensions. Independent Christian churches had
emerged at the end of the nineteenth century. European interpretations of
Christian orthodoxy in some cases refused to allow the incorporation of local
customs and practices, although the various mission denominations interpreted
Christianity in different ways. Most Europeans tended to overlook their own
differences and were surprised and shocked that Nigerians wanted to develop new
denominations independent of European control. Protestant sects had flourished
in Christianity since the Reformation; the emergence of independent Christian
churches in Nigeria (as of black denominations in the United States) was another
phase of this history. The pulpits of the independent congregations became
avenues for the free expression of critics of colonial rule.
Colonial
Lagos circa 1910
In the 1920s, Nigerians began to
form a variety of associations, such as professional and business associations,
such as the Nigerian Union of Teachers; the Nigerian Law Association, which
brought together lawyers, many of whom had been educated in Britain; and the
Nigerian Produce Traders' Association, led by Obafemi Awolowo. While initially
organized for professional and fraternal reasons, these were centers of
educated people who had chances to develop their leadership skills in the
organizations, as well as form broad social networks.
Ethnic and kinship organizations
that often took the form of a tribal union also emerged in the 1920s. These
organizations were primarily urban phenomena that arose after numerous rural
migrants moved to the cities. Alienated by the anonymity of the urban
environment and drawn together by ties to their ethnic homelands—as well as by
the need for mutual aid—the new city dwellers formed local clubs that later
expanded into federations covering whole regions. By the mid-1940s, the major
ethnic groups had formed such associations as the Igbo Federal Union and the
Egbe Omo Oduduwa (Society of the Descendants of Oduduwa), a Yoruba cultural
movement, in which Awolowo played a leading role. In some cases,
British assignment of people to ethnic groups, and treatment based along ethnic
lines, led to identification with ethnicity where none had existed before.[68]
A third type of organization
that was more pointedly political was the youth or student group, which became
the vehicle of intellectuals and professionals. They were the most politically
conscious segment of the population and created the vanguard of the nationalist
movement. Newspapers, some of which were published before World War I, provided
coverage of nationalist views.
The 1922 constitution provided
Nigerians the chance to elect a handful of representatives to the Legislative
Council. The principal figure in the political activity that ensued was Herbert Macauley,
often referred to as the father of Nigerian nationalism. He aroused political
awareness through his newspaper, the Lagos Daily News.
He also led the Nigerian National Democratic Party
(NNDP), which dominated elections in Lagos from its founding in 1922 until the
ascendancy of the National Youth Movement (NYM) in 1938. His political platform
called for economic and educational development, Africanization of the civil
service, and self-government for Lagos. Significantly, Macauley's NNDP remained
almost entirely a Lagos party, popular only in the area whose people already
had experience in elective politics.
The National Youth Movement (NYM)
used nationalist rhetoric to agitate for improvements in education. The
movement brought to public notice a long list of future leaders, including H.O. Davies
and Nnamdi Azikiwe. Although Azikiwe later came to
be recognized as the leading spokesman for national unity, when he first
returned from university training in the United States, his outlook was
pan-African rather than nationalist, and emphasized the common African struggle
against European colonialism. (This was also reflective of growing
pan-Africanism among American activists of the time.) Azikiwe had less interest
in purely Nigerian goals than did Davies, a student of Harold Laski
at the London School of Economics, whose political
orientation was considered left-wing.
By 1938 the NYM was agitating
for dominion status within the British Commonwealth of Nations, so that Nigeria
would have the same status as Canada and Australia. In elections that year, the
NYM ended the domination of the NNDP in the Legislative Council and worked to
establish a national network of affiliates. Three years later internal
divisions arose that were dominated by major ethnic loyalties. The departure of
Azikiwe and other Igbo members of the NYM left the organization in Yoruba
hands. During World War II, Awolowo reorganized it as a predominantly Yoruba
political party, the Action Group. Yoruba-Igbo rivalry became increasingly
important in Nigerian politics (see Ethnic Relations, ch. 2).
Second World War
During World War II, three
battalions of the Nigeria Regiment fought in the Ethiopian campaign. Nigerian
units also contributed to two divisions serving with British forces in
Palestine, Morocco, Sicily, and Burma, where they won many honors. Wartime
experiences provided a new frame of reference for many soldiers, who interacted
across ethnic boundaries in ways that were unusual in Nigeria. The war also
made the British reappraise Nigeria's political future. The war years, brought
a polarization between the older, more parochial leaders inclined toward
gradualism and the younger intellectuals, who thought in more immediate terms.
The rapid growth of organized
labour in the 1940s also brought new political forces into play. During the
war, union membership increased sixfold to 30,000. The proliferation of labor
organizations fragmented the movement, and potential leaders lacked the
experience and skill to draw workers together.
The Action Group was largely the
creation of Awolowo, general secretary of Egbe Omo Oduduwa and leader of the
Nigerian Produce Traders' Association. The Action Group was thus the heir of a
generation of flourishing cultural consciousness among the Yoruba and also had
valuable connections with commercial interests that were representative of the
comparative economic advancement of the Western Region. Awolowo had little
difficulty in appealing to broad segments of the Yoruba population, but he
worked to avoid the Action Group from being stigmatized as a "tribal"
group. Despite his somewhat successful efforts to enlist non-Yoruba support,
the regionalist sentiment that had stimulated the party initially continued.
Segments of the Yoruba community
had their own animosities and new rivalries arose. For example, many people in
Ibadan opposed Awolowo on personal grounds because of his identification with
the Ijebu Yoruba. Despite these difficulties, the Action Group rapidly built an
effective organization. Its program reflected greater planning and was more
ideologically oriented than that of the NCNC. Although lacking
Azikiwe's compelling personality, Awolowo was a formidable debater as well as a
vigorous and tenacious political campaigner. He used for the first time in
Nigeria modern, sometimes flamboyant, electioneering techniques. Among his
leading lieutenants were Samuel Akintola of Ibadan and the Oni of Ife.
The Action Group consistently
supported minority-group demands for autonomous states within a federal
structure, as well as the severance of a midwest state from the Western Region.
It assumed that comparable alterations would be made elsewhere, an attitude
that won the party minority voting support in the other regions. It backed
Yoruba irredentism
in the Fulani-ruled emirate of Ilorin in the Northern Region, and separatist
movements among non-Igbo in the Eastern Region.
The Northern People's Congress (NPC) was organized
in the late 1940s by a small group of Western-educated Northern Nigerians. They
had obtained the assent of the emirs to form a political party to
counterbalance the activities of the southern-based parties. It represented a
substantial element of reformism in the North. The most powerful figure in the
party was Ahmadu Bello, the sardauna (war leader)
of Sokoto.
Bello wanted to protect northern
social and political institutions from southern influence. He insisted on
maintaining the territorial integrity of the Northern Region. He was prepared
to introduce educational and economic changes to strengthen the north. Although
his own ambitions were limited to the Northern Region, Bello backed the NPC's
successful efforts to mobilize the north's large voting strength so as to win
control of the national government.
The NPC platform emphasized the
integrity of the north, its traditions, religion, and social order. Support for
broad Nigerian concerns occupied a clear second place. A lack of interest in
extending the NPC beyond the Northern Region corresponded to this strictly
regional orientation. Its activist membership was drawn from local government
and emirate officials who had access to means of communication and to
repressive traditional authority that could keep the opposition in line.
The small contingent of
northerners who had been educated abroad—a group that included Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and Aminu Kano—was
allied with British-backed efforts to introduce gradual change to the emirates.
The emirs gave support to limited modernization largely from fears of the
unsettling presence of southerners in the north, and by observing the
improvements in living conditions in the South. Northern leaders committed to
modernization were also firmly connected to the traditional power structure.
Most internal problems were concealed, and open opposition to the domination of
the Muslim aristocracy was not tolerated. Critics, including representatives of
the middle belt who resented Muslim domination, were relegated to small,
peripheral parties or to inconsequential separatist movements.[69]
In 1950 Aminu Kano, who had been
instrumental in founding the NPC, broke away to form the Northern Elements
Progressive Union (NEPU), in protest against the NPC's limited objectives and
what he regarded as a vain hope that traditional rulers would accept
modernization. NEPU formed a parliamentary alliance with the NCNC.
The NPC continued to represent
the interests of the traditional order in the pre-independence deliberations.
After the defection of Kano, the only significant disagreement within the NPC
was related to moderates. Men such as Balewa believed that only by overcoming
political and economic backwardness could the NPC protect the foundations of
traditional northern authority against the influence of the more advanced
south.
In all three regions, minority
parties represented the special interests of ethnic groups, especially as they
were affected by the majority. They never were able to elect sizeable
legislative delegations, but they served as a means of public expression for
minority concerns. They received attention from major parties before elections,
at which time either a dominant party from another region or the opposition
party in their region sought their alliance.
The political parties jockeyed
for positions of power in anticipation of the independence of Nigeria. Three
constitutions were enacted from 1946 to 1954. While each generated considerable
political controversy, they moved the country toward greater internal autonomy,
with an increasing role for the political parties. The trend was toward the
establishment of a parliamentary system of government, with regional assemblies
and a federal House of Representatives.
In 1946 a new constitution was
approved by the British Parliament at Westminster
and promulgated in Nigeria. Although it reserved effective power in the hands
of the Governor-General and his appointed Executive Council, the
so-called Richards Constitution (after Governor-General Sir Arthur Richards, who
was responsible for its formulation) provided for an expanded Legislative
Council empowered to deliberate on matters affecting the whole country.
Separate legislative bodies, the houses of assembly, were established in each
of the three regions to consider local questions and to advise the lieutenant
governors. The introduction of the federal principle, with deliberative
authority devolved on the regions, signaled recognition of the country's
diversity. Although realistic in its assessment of the situation in Nigeria,
the Richards Constitution undoubtedly intensified regionalism as an alternative
to political unification.
The pace of constitutional
change accelerated after the promulgation of the Richards Constitution. It was
suspended in 1950 against a call for greater autonomy, which resulted in an
inter-parliamentary conference at Ibadan in 1950. The conference drafted the
terms of a new constitution. The so-called Macpherson Constitution, after the incumbent
governor-general, went into effect the following year.
The most important innovations
in the new charter reinforced the dual course of constitutional evolution,
allowing for both regional autonomy and federal union. By extending the
elective principle and by providing for a central government with a Council of
Ministers, the Macpherson Constitution gave renewed impetus to party activity
and to political participation at the national level. But by providing for
comparable regional governments exercising broad legislative powers, which
could not be overridden by the newly established 185-seat federal House of
Representatives, the Macpherson Constitution also gave a significant boost to
regionalism. Subsequent revisions contained in the Lyttleton Constitution, enacted in 1954, firmly
established the federal principle and paved the way for independence.
Self governing regions (1957)
In 1957 the Western and the
Eastern regions became formally self-governing under the parliamentary system.
Similar status was acquired by the Northern Region two years later. There were
numerous differences of detail among the regional systems, but all adhered to
parliamentary forms and were equally autonomous in relation to the federal
government at Lagos. The federal government retained specified powers,
including responsibility for banking, currency, external affairs, defense,
shipping and navigation, and communications, but real political power was
centered in the regions. Significantly, the regional governments controlled
public expenditures derived from revenues raised within each region.
Ethnic cleavages intensified in
the 1950s. Political activists in the southern areas spoke of self-government
in terms of educational opportunities and economic development. Because of the
spread of mission schools and wealth derived from export crops, the southern
parties were committed to policies that would benefit the south of the country.
In the north, the emirs intended to maintain firm control on economic and
political change.
Any activity in the north that
might include participation by the federal government (and consequently by
southern civil servants) was regarded as a challenge to the primacy of the
emirates. Broadening political participation and expanding educational
opportunities and other social services also were viewed as threats to the
status quo. An extensive immigrant population of southerners, especially Igbo,
already were living in the north; they dominated clerical positions and were
active in many trades.
The cleavage between the Yoruba
and the Igbo was accentuated by their competition for control of the political
machinery. The receding British presence enabled local officials and
politicians to gain access to patronage over government jobs, funds for local
development, market permits, trade licenses, government contracts, and even
scholarships for higher education. In an economy with many qualified applicants
for every post, great resentment was generated by any favoritism that
authorities showed to members of their own ethnic group.
In the immediate post-World War
II period, Nigeria benefited from a favourable trade balance. Although per
capita income in the country as a whole remained low by international
standards, rising incomes among salaried personnel and burgeoning urbanization expanded
consumer demand for imported goods.
In the meantime, public sector
spending increased even more dramatically than export earnings. It was
supported not only by the income from huge agricultural surpluses but also by a
new range of direct and indirect taxes imposed during the 1950s. The transfer
of responsibility for budgetary management from the central to the regional
governments in 1954 accelerated the pace of public spending on services and on
development projects. Total revenues of central and regional governments nearly
doubled in relation to the gross domestic product (GDP—see Glossary) during the
decade.
The most dramatic event having a
long-term effect on Nigeria's economic development, was the discovery and
exploitation of petroleum deposits. The search for oil, begun in 1908 and
abandoned a few years later, was revived in 1937 by Shell and British
Petroleum. Exploration was intensified in 1946, but the first commercial
discovery did not occur until 1956, at Olobiri in the Niger Delta. In 1958
exportation of Nigerian oil was initiated at facilities constructed at Port
Harcourt. Oil income was still marginal, but the prospects for continued
economic expansion appeared bright and accentuated political rivalries on the
eve of independence.
The election of the House of
Representatives after the adoption of the 1954 constitution gave the NPC a
total of seventy-nine seats, all from the Northern Region. Among the other
major parties, the NCNC took fifty-six seats, winning a majority in both the
Eastern and the Western regions, while the Action Group captured only
twenty-seven seats. The NPC was called on to form a government, but the NCNC
received six of the ten ministerial posts. Three of these posts were assigned
to representatives from each region, and one was reserved for a delegate from
the Northern Cameroons.
As a further step toward
independence, the governor's Executive Council was merged with the Council of
Ministers in 1957 to form the all-Nigerian Federal Executive Council. The NPC
federal parliamentary leader, Balewa, was appointed prime minister. Balewa
formed a coalition government that included the Action Group as well as the
NCNC to prepare the country for the final British withdrawal. His government
guided the country for the next three years, operating with almost complete
autonomy in internal affairs.
Constitutional conferences in the UK (1957-1958)
The preparation of a new federal
constitution for an independent Nigeria was carried out at conferences held at Lancaster House
in London in
1957 and 1958, which were presided over by The Rt. Hon. Alan Lennox-Boyd, M.P., the British Secretary of State for the Colonies.
Nigerian delegates were selected to represent each region and to reflect
various shades of opinion. The delegation was led by Balewa of the NPC and
included party leaders Awolowo of the Action Group, Azikiwe of the NCNC, and
Bello of the NPC; they were also the premiers of the Western, Eastern, and
Northern regions, respectively. Independence was achieved on October 1, 1960.
Elections were held for a new
and greatly enlarged House of Representatives in December 1959; 174 of the 312
seats were allocated to the Northern Region on the basis of its larger
population. The NPC, entering candidates only in the Northern Region, confined
campaigning largely to local issues but opposed the addition of new regimes.
The NCNC backed creation of a midwest state and proposed federal control of education
and health services.
The Action Group, which staged a
lively campaign, favored stronger government and the establishment of three new
states, while advocating creation of a West Africa Federation that would unite
Nigeria with Ghana and Sierra Leone. The NPC captured 142 seats in the new
legislature. Balewa was called on to head a NPC-NCNC coalition government, and
Awolowo became official leader of the opposition.
Independent Nigeria (1960)
By a British Act of Parliament, Nigeria became an
independent country (as a Commonwealth realm) within the Commonwealth on October 1, 1960. Azikiwe was
installed as governor-general of the federation and Balewa
continued to serve as head of a democratically elected parliamentary, but now
completely sovereign, government. The governor-general represented the British monarch
as head of state and was appointed by the Crown
on the advice of the Nigerian prime minister in consultation with the regional
premiers. The governor-general, in turn, was responsible for appointing the
prime minister and for choosing a candidate from among contending leaders when
there was no parliamentary majority. Otherwise, the governor-general's office
was essentially ceremonial.
The government was responsible
to a Parliament composed of the popularly elected 312-member House of
Representatives and the 44-member Senate, chosen by the regional legislatures.
In general, the regional
constitutions followed the federal model, both structurally and functionally.
The most striking departure was in the Northern Region, where special
provisions brought the regional constitution into consonance with Islamic law
and custom. The similarity between the federal and regional constitutions was
deceptive, however, and the conduct of public affairs reflected wide
differences among the regions.
In February 1961, a plebiscite
was conducted to determine the disposition of the Southern Cameroons and
Northern Cameroons, which were administered by Britain as United Nations Trust
Territories. By an overwhelming majority, voters in the Southern Cameroons
opted to join formerly French-administered Cameroon over integration with
Nigeria as a separate federated region. In the Northern Cameroons, however, the
largely Muslim electorate chose to merge with Nigeria's Northern Region.
References
1.
John M. Carland, The Colonial
Office and Nigeria (1985), pp. 1–2. "Crown Colony Government in
Nigeria and elsewhere in the British Empire was autocratic government.
Officials at the Colonial Office and colonial governors in the field never
pretended otherwise. In fact, autocratic, bureaucratic rule was the true legacy
of British colonial government in Africa."
2.
Carland (1985), The Colonial Office and
Nigeria, p. 48.
3.
Robin Hermann, "Empire Builders and
Mushroom Gentlemen: The Meaning of Money in Colonial Nigeria", International
Journal of African Historical Studies 44.3, 2011.
4.
Ken Swindell, "The Commercial
Development of the North: Company and Government Relations, 1900–1906", Paideuma
40, 1994, pp. 149–162.
5.
Carland, The Colonial Office and
Nigeria (1985), p. 90.
6.
David Richardson, "Background
to annexation: Anglo-African credit relations in the Bight of Biafra,
1700–1891"; in Pétré-Grenouilleau, From Slave Trade to Empire
(2004), pp. 47–68.
7.
See Adam Smith,
The Wealth of Nations (1776), Vol. 2 p. 112.
(Quoted in Richardson, 2004). "Though the Europeans possess many
considerable settlements both upon the coast of Africa and in the East Indies,
they have not yet established in either of those countries such numerous and
thriving colonies as those in the islands and continent of America."
8.
Isichei, A History of Nigeria
(1983), p. 362.
9.
David Etlis, "African and
European relations in the last century of the transatlantic slave trade";
in Pétré-Grenouilleau, From Slave Trade to Empire (2004), pp. 21–46.
10. Randy J. Sparks, The Two Princes of Calabar: An
Eighteenth-Century Atlantic Odyssey; Harvard University Press, 2004; ISBN
0-674-01312-3; Chapter 1: "A Very Bloody
Transaction: Old Calabar and the Massacre of 1767".
11. Anietie A. Inyang & Manasseh Edidem Bassey,
"Imperial Treaties and the Origins of British Colonial Rule in Southern
Nigeria, 1860-1890", Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences 5.20,
September 2014.
12. Asiegbu, Nigeria and its British Invaders (1984), p.
xxiii. "After the Abolition Act in 1807 making the trade in African slaves
illegal for British subjects, Britain did not stop there: For the next quarter
of a century successive British Governments embarked on a kind of aggressive
diplomacy, bullying and bribing other European nations, especially Spain and
Portugal, to toe the anti-slavery line with England. / On the West African
Coast itself British anti-slavery policy became very evident not only in the
establishment of the free colony or Settlement of Freetown in Sierra Leone for
the recaptives or freed slaves. A detachment of the all-powerful British Navy,
the West African naval squadron, was stationed in West African waters to patrol
along the coastline and to intercept any slave ships or vessels equipped for
the slave trade, and to bring slave vessels captured for trial before British
controlled courts in Freetown. At the same time Britain embarked on securing
from African rulers, in consideration of payments to these rulers, what became
known as anti-slave trade treaties. By these treaties the rulers engaged to
stop the traffic in slaves in their respective territories. In the process of
enforcing these anti-slave trade policies on the west coast with its powerful
navy Britain discovered the military weakness or inferiority of the African
states in relation to its own military power."
13. Olatunji Ojo, "The Organization of the Atlantic Slave
Trade in Yorubaland, ca.1777 to ca.1856", International Journal of
African Historical Studies 41.1, 2008. "Slave production in the
interior raised exports from Lagos ten fold, making it West Africa's leading
slave port. The most accurate trade figures are found in the Trans-Atlantic
slave voyage database (TSD), which put the number of slave exports between 1776
and 1850 at 308,800. Of that number only 24,000 slaves were shipped before 1801,
while 114,200 and 170,600 were sold during 1801–25 and 1826–50, respectively.
Exports from Badagry lagged far behind, with about 37,400 slaves sold during
1776–1860."
14. Asiegbu, Nigeria and its British Invaders (1984), pp.
xiv–xv. "Here again, European and African scholars have been at
loggerheads and in the same kinds of conflicts as had featured in their
interpretations of the primary motives of the British anti-slavery movement and
abolitionism in the mid-19th century, namely, British self-interest or imperial
ambitions on the one hand, and British humanitarian feeling for Africa on the
other hand."
15. Tamuno, The Evolution of the Nigerian State (1972),
p. 6. "To the British, traffic in human beings after 1807 was both
'uncivilised' and illegal. As the century went on, a strong feeling developed
that the slave trade, as an aspect of piracy, stood condemned in international
and municipal law. This change in moral tone over the slave trade at first
seemed incomprehensible to generations of people in Southern Nigeria who within
a relatively short period were presented with two different concepts of right
and wrong. Their scepticism about the correctness of such conflicting standards
persisted into the early twentieth century."
16. Warren Whatley & Rob Gillezeau, "The
Impact of the Slave Trade on African Economies", World Economic
History Congress, Utrecht, May 23, 2009.
17. Helen Chapin
Metz, ed. "Influence of Christian Missions", Nigeria: A
Country Study, Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress, 1991, accessed
18 April 2012
18. Tamuno, The Evolution of the Nigerian State (1972),
pp. 11–12.
19. Bouda Etemad, "Economic relations between Europe and
Black Africa c. 1780–1938"; in Pétré-Grenouilleau, From Slave
Trade to Empire (2004), pp. 69–81.
20. Tamuno, The Evolution of the Nigerian State (1972),
p. 14. "The most significant economic development in Southern Nigeria
since 1807 was the transition from the pre-colonial emphasis on subsistence
agriculture to an increasing concentration on production for sale."
21. Carland, The Colonial Office and Nigeria (1985), p.
2.
22. Asiegbu, Nigeria and its British Invaders (1984), pp.
xxv. "In the Lagos Colony Captain John Glover, as administrator of the
Colony, created between 1861 and 1862 the famous Hausa militia ('Glover's
Hausas') which became the nucleus of the Lagos Constabulary (itself splitting
after 1895 into two bodies, one a civil police force, the other a military
unit). The earliest recruits into the Lagos militia came from the liberated
African yard or depot which glover had established in the Colony for the reception
of run-away domestic slaves from the surrounding local communities. In the
Niger territories, the Royal Niger Company organized its own constabulary
forces between 1886 and 1899; at the Niger Coast Protectorate the Consular
Administration, with its headquarters at Calabar, established after 1891 the
Niger Coast Protectorate Force or Constabulary, sometimes known as the 'Oil
Rivers Irregulars' (which under Consul Annesley acquired the name of the 'forty
thieves'). Thus by 1897 when the WAFF was created, British West Africa had in
some form or other known, like French West Africa, almost half a century of
European or British military presence and activity."
23. Tamuno, The Evolution of the Nigerian State (1972),
pp. 15.
24. "Northern Nigeria: The Illo Canceller and Borgu
Mail" by Ray Harris in Cameo, Vol. 14, No. 3, Whole No. 90,
October 2013, pp. 158-160.
25. Afeadie, "The Hidden Hand of Overrule" (1996), p.
10–12.
26. Afeadie, "The Hidden Hand of Overrule" (1996), p.
12–13. "Specifically, the Company sought to secure the cooperation of the
traditional rulers in ensuring peaceful conditions for trade. For this
objective, the Company chose to administer the African inhabitants of the Niger
Sudan through their traditional rulers and their political institutions. […]
They needed special personnel: such officials who knew the local conditions and
who could communicate between the Company and the indigenous people. […] These
intermediaries assisted government diplomacy and helped to establish and
maintain relations between the company and the traditional rulers. They
gathered information which was needed for policy-making in administration. Some
of them also manned Company stations and served as District Agents."
27. Afeadie, "The Hidden Hand of Overrule" (1996), p.
13–15.
28. Isichei, A History of Nigeria (1983), p. 372–373.
29. Asiegbu, Nigeria and its British Invaders (1984), pp.
xiv, xxviii–xxx.
30. Isichei, A History of Nigeria
(1983), pp. 365–366.
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