Producing an objective history of Nigeria can be likened to sifting facts from huge rubble with a sickle- an arduous task but none less within the orbit of possibility if one is to focus on the facts. The challenge lies in attempting to separate the biases of two distinct camps – the camp of those who define Nigeria as a forced union of unwilling entities with practically nothing in common and the camp that opposes the former, insisting Nigeria was an inevitable creation. However, our mandate lies in defining the sovereign entity called and recognized as Nigeria.
The popular position is that Nigeria is a creation of the British Colonial authority which was the political power from the late 19th century until the middle of the 20th century in 1960. It is important to note that the states or city-states as they often designated, that later made up what is known as Nigeria pr-existed the country itself. It is also noted by some research that, these city-states were very much in contact with one another long before the first foreigner set foot on their soil.
Archaeological finding dating as far back as 2nd century BC, suggest movements of people from one community to another for mostly trade related purposes. Evidence of inter-marriages and cultural exchanges among these trade-towns has also been widely documented by Historians. The coming of Islam (to be dealt in detail in subsequent issues) increased these interrelations among these towns. Nonetheless, these evidences do not suggest that the towns were willing to be merged as one entity as the amalgamation did. It also does not mean the possibility didn’t exist. What we can distill from them is that, it is erroneous as some scholars assert, that the amalgamation took place among towns which had nothing absolutely in common.
Until the amalgamation in 1914 by the British colonial authorities, these states existed independently. They had their well established political, economic, social, religious and even educational systems. Sir Hugh Clifford, the second colonial governor, described Nigeria as “a collection of independent Native States, separated from one another by great distances, by differences of history and traditions and by ethnological, racial, tribal, political, social and religious barriers.” (Nigeria Council Debate, Lagos, 1920).
The birth of Nigeria took place on 1 January 1914 when the Northern Protectorate (formed in 1900 based on the Treaty of Berlin 1885) and Southern Protectorate (formed in 1900 from Niger Coast Protectorate) were brought together as one political entity. The merger was accomplished by Sir Lord Lugard a former High Commissioner, who was appointed Governor-General in 1912. However, Major Abubaker Atofarati a naval historian, pointed out that “The building of Nigeria as a multi - national state began in 1900 with the creation of Northern and Southern Protectorates along with the colony of Lagos by the British government.” (CSC, 1992). In other words, in the making of Nigeria, there were three processes. First was the contact that took place among the native states and with the British colonial machinery in the 19th century, second was the build-up to the amalgamation from 1900 and finally the formal merging of the entities in 1914.
The idea of the appellation Nigeria is believed to have originated from Flora Shaw a former journalist and later the wife of Lord Lugard. As with the entire entity, the name was the merging of two key words “Niger” the name of the famous river that traverses the greater part of the country’s land mass and “Area”.
The amalgamation of Nigeria in 1914 set in motion the processes from what would emerge an independent country in 1960. The following are the colonial governors in Nigeria from 1914:
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Sir Fredrick Lugard: 1 January 1912 – 8
August 1918
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Sir Hugh Clifford: 8
August 1919 – 13 November 1925 (b. 1866 – d. 1941)
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Sir Graeme Thomson: 13
November 1925 – 17 Jun 1931 (b. 1875 – d. 1933)
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Sir Donald Charles Bourdillon: 1 November 1935 – 1 July 1940 (b. 1883
– d. 1948)
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Sir John Evelyn Shuckburgh: 1 July 1940 – 1942 (b. 1877 –d.
1953)
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Sir Alan Cuthbert Maxwell Burns: 1942 – 18 December 1943 (b. 1887 – d. 1980)
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Sir Arthur Fredrick Richards: 18 December 1943 – 5 February 1948
(b. 1885 – d. 1978)
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Sir John Stuart Macpherson: 5 February 1948 – 1 October 1954
(b. 1898 – d. 1971)
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Sir James Wilson Robertson: 15 June 1955 – 16 November 1960
(b. 1899 - 1983)
It is instructive to remember the words of Bamber Gascoigne, “The sixty years of Britain’s rule in Nigeria are characterized by frequent reclassifying of different regions for administrative purposes. They are symptomatic of the problem of uniting the country as a single state” In the second part of Nigeria from 1900 – 1960 we shall examine the amalgamation, political developments and nationalism in Nigeria.
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