The Evolution of Nigeria

in blurt •  last year 

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The polity called Nigeria as we know it today was before colonial rule made up of several independent states variously referred to as kingdoms, empires, chiefdoms,etc. Each state was independent of the other but there were numerous layers of relationships among them. The politically strong ones just before the onset of colonial rule were the Sokoto Caliphate, Borno, the Hausa states and Nupe in the
north and Oyo and Benin in the south. This is in addition to several small kingdoms and numerous states without clearly defined political leadership beyond the family or clan referred to as politically non-centralized states. These states were at the on set of British colonial rule gradually amalgamated and administered as one colonial entity known as the colony and protectorate of Nigeria. It was this colonial creation that became independent in 1960 as the Republic of Nigeria.

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The territories that later became Nigeria comprised different states with sovereign
status. Relations between these states were international relations before the colonial onslaught. Considering the constellation of state systems within the area the Sokoto Caliphate to the north and the northwest, Borno to the northeast, the Oyo and Benin empires to the southwest, and the numerous non-centralized communities of the forest belt to the southeast, the possibility of the emergence of a state system similar to the present Nigeria without an external intervention is indeed very
remote. However some scholars such as Billy Dudley have argued that the inter-group relationships such as those of trade, conquests, political association, myths of common origin, etc. could still have provided the basis for a state like Nigeria.

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The name "Nigeria" waş first used by Flora Shaw, who was to become the wife of Frederick Lugard, in an article to the London Times of 1899 to refer to the territories around the River Niger in Northern Nigeria. The name was originally applied to the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria before it later came to be applied to the whole country.

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British interest in Northern Nigeria predated the nineteenth century, however, by the
beginning of the nineteenth century as early as 1879 the British government allowed
British trading companies access to these territories for commercial activities. By
1826 British merchant ships had traded on the Bonny River, and by 1886 up to 1900
the British allowed the United Africa Company (UAC), which later became the chartered Royal Niger Company power to administer the Northern Nigeria territories on its behalf. This meant that the company was the govemment of
Northern Nigeria at this period.
By 1900 the British government took over administration of the territory from the Royal Niger Company and appointed Frederick (later Lord Lugard) as High Commissioner. It was Lugard who proclaimed the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria. What became Nigeria was an amalgamation of various colonial possessions which were acquired over different times and later amalgamated gradually even though the general reference to amalgamation is the one of 1914 which brought the two giant territories of the Northern and Southern protectorates together. In 1900 the Niger Coast protectorate was amalganmated with the Colony of Lagos to form the Protectorate of Southern Nigeria. This is difierent from the Colony of Lagos which had a different status.

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Then in 1906 there was the second series of amalgamation when the Colony of Lagos was merged with the Protectorate of Southern Nigeria to form a single entity known as the Colony and Protectorate of Southern Nigeria. Finally, there was the amalgamation of 1914, which brought the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria and the Colony and Protectorate of Southern Nigeria into one single entity known as the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria on 1st January 1914. In 1861 the British annexed the Territory of Lagos as a colony but administered it by the governor for the West African settlements resident in Sierra Leone between 1866 and 1874 and the governor for Gold Coast Colony between 1874 and 1886.

Reasons for Amalgamation

The British amalgamated Nigeria for the same reasons that made them to colonize it in the first place. That is, to serve their imperial interests. The main reasons for the amalgamation are: First, they wanted a cheap and secure source of raw materials for their industries. Second, they wanted a market for their manufactured goods. Third, they needed a source for generating capital resources for investment in Britain thereby strengthening the British pound sterling against other currencies. Fourth, they needed a manpower reserve for military and other purposes. Fifth, they wanted the ports, water ways, roads, railways, and air spaces for transportation and imperial communication systems. All these would be easier and more efficient only if Nigeria was amalgamated.

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