Nigeria as a Colony
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make sure it doesn't show how great it is that British came in
greater distinction re different areas (eg Lagos)?
In 1900, the British government took control of the Royal Niger Company’s
territories. The northern areas were given a new name (the Protectorate of
Northern Nigeria) and a new capital (Zungeru). The southern areas expanded to the
Niger delta and were renamed the Protectorate of Southern Nigeria, and Lagos
remained its capital. On January 1, 1914, the two protectorates were amalgamated
to create the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria, ruled by governor-general Sir
Frederick Lugard.
Lugard governed through indirect rule, in which traditional chiefs used native
customs to instill new rules. However, the British officials retained the ability to step
in and unfortunately they didn’t always appreciate the local customs. Over time,
there became two levels of government: local and central. Local government, based
on indirect rule, most greatly affected the citizens. The central government had
greater power, but because it was ruled by the governor-general who reported to
the secretary for the colonies in London, it felt more distant (and disconnected).
The last thing that the British wanted was an uprising, so they separated the
Nigerians from each other as much as they could. Xxx (Christianity and Western
education) (spread more quickly) in the south and caused more development than
in the north. This (disparity) was the impetus of future political problems between
the two regions.
Increasingly, it became harder for the British to govern their Nigerian colony.
Whenever there were disputes, the British offered political reforms in order to stave
off any other thoughts that might be even more radical. Nigerians wanted better
political representation, so the Nigerian Legislative Council was established in 1914.
In 1922 it grew in size. However, it only had limited power. Finally, in 1946 a more
fair structure was established—each group of provinces had a House of Assembly,
there was a House of Chiefs, and Lagos had a central Legislative Council.
In the 1920s, Pan-Africanism took root and blacks worldwide rallied to free black
people from white oppression. Nigerians joined the fight. The first Nigerian political
party, the Nigerian National Democratic Party (NNDP), was established in 1923 by
Herbert Macaulay, later considered the “father of modern Nigerian nationalism.”
Even greater efforts to end British rule emerged. In 1934, a new political party, the
Nigerian Youth Movement, was formed and its representatives were elected to the
Legislative Council. In the 1940s, political activities diversified so that more people
could join, such as in 1944 when Macaulay and Nnamdi Azikiwe gathered 40
various/distinct/different groups to form the National Council of Nigeria and the
Cameroons (NCNC). Opposition to British rule was more diverse than ever, coming
from the youth to soldiers to the media—whom the political leaders now used to
mobilize other Nigerians against the British.
Rather than succumbing to defeat, the British countered by offering to revamp the
colonial system (representational), but soon disputes arose as to whether authority
came from the local or central government. After already going through several
other constitutions, the Lyttelton constitution of 1954 instituted a system that was
entirely federal. In the three regions of Nigeria and the Southern Cameroons, there
was a governor, premier, cabinet, legislature, and civil service. The Federal Territory
of Lagos—which had a weaker federal government—instead had a governorgeneral, bureaucracy, House of Representatives, and Senate.
Fifteen years prior, the southern protectorate had been split in two—Western and
Eastern. In 1954, when Nigeria was reconstructed into a federal state, they were
joined with the northern protectorate to become the new state’s Western, Eastern,
and Northern regions. Although the Western and Eastern regions were able to
internally self-govern beginning in 1957, the Northern region chose not to until
1959. This was because the northerners—educationally less advanced than the
south—were scared that they wouldn’t get fair representation in the federal
government if they didn’t have that extra time to get up to speed.
Nigeria gained its independence on October 1, 1960.