For the past few weeks, we have been looking at the history of Southern and Northern parts of Nigeria before the colonial era. One very unique feature of Nigeria before the arrival of the Europeans is; various parts of Nigeria operated in full autonomy. That is; they had their own laws, political codes, and administrative heads without a recourse to any standardized law. However, many things changed with the arrival of the Europeans. Here, we will do a survey of the amalgamation process and emergence of Nigeria as a political entity.
[People of Nigeria. Image from Pixnio. CC0 licensed]
Creation of Nigeria
Most of you may have already known that Nigeria was once a British colony. Much more than this, the British have also been given credit for the creation of Nigeria. However, if you are familiar with the history of Nigeria, you sill agree with me that the British were not the the first Europeans that arrived Nigeria. Long before the arrival of the British, the Portuguese found their way into Nigeria and the very first contact they made was in 15th century and that was in Bini (present day Edo state, Southern part of Nigeria) during the reign of Oba Ewuare of the ancient Bini kingdom.
Long after the arrival of the Portuguese, the British then made their way to Nigeria. During the early days of British arrival in Nigeria, the very unfortunate connection with Nigeria was for slave trade (that is; Trans-Atlantic slave trade). Just to let y'all know, Nigeria was a victim of human (slave) exportation which lasted for almost 65 years. By the end of 16th century, the trade heightened and became the dominant trade item between Nigeria and the British.
Paradigm Shift in Trading
After about 65 years of cruel human trade, there was a paradigm shift to legitimate trade. Remember, one of the factors that triggered slave trade was because of the need for manpower to work on the massive sugarcane plantation in New World. They needed manpower and they found the black Africans (particularly Nigerians) as being able to work for hours without getting tired. However, during the first industrial revolution, machines arose and they saw no need for human labour when machines were more efficient - that was how the paradigm shift started.
Asides this; some activists (the likes of William Wilberforce) started seeing the ill and cruel treatment being meted out to the black slaves and they started advocating for the abolishment of this kind of inhuman trade. During that period also, missionaries started visiting Nigeria and they joined in the fight against slave trade through their gospel of peace. During the period of legitimate trade in Nigeria, the Europeans introduced a policy known as "Gun-boat" to checkmate and ultimately stop slave trade activities. They paraded the sea, and any boat that they captured trafficking humans will be commandeered and the slaves freed to Freetown (Sierra Leone).
[Slave trade in Nigeria. Image from Wikimedia Commons. Author: Luciana Mc Namara. Public domain]
During this period, Nigeria was a separate entity with Lagos being one of the British colonies. This was the reason they moved to unite the various protectorates into a single entity in a process known as amalgamation.
First Amalgamation - 1906
Long before the 20th century, like we said before, Nigeria was politically separated, and the various parts of Nigeria that had been before the Europeans (British in particular) operated individually. However, by 1900, there was a standardized system introduced, which led to the first amalgamation process. The first amalgamation process took place in 1906 which involved Lagos being amalgamated with the Southern protectorates of Nigeria, thereby giving rise to a new entity.
At that time, the government of Nigeria was under the British rulership, so the amalgamation process was done without prior consent from Nigerian populace. One of the major reasons of the 1906 amalgamation was for economic reason - to raise finance from the stronger protectorate and use it to run the weaker protectorate. This led to the second amalgamation process.
[One Nigeria. Image from Pxhere. CC0 Licensed]
Second Amalgamation - 1914
This is arguably the main amalgamation and it happened in 1914. This amalgamation involved the Southern and Northern protectorates of Nigeria and that was how "one Nigeria" came into existence. At that time, the Northern part of Nigeria was not as financially stable as the Southern, so the amalgamation helped to even out the lapses and the surplus that were generated by the Southern part was used to run the Northern part too.
The brain behind the 1914 amalgamation was Sir Fredrick lord Lugard. Together with the British imperial officers, there were able to run the amalgamated Nigeria, but the question is; was the amalgamation process beneficial or disadvantageous to Nigeria as a whole? Well, we'll find out in out next post.
Prior to the amalgamation by lord Lugard, he was a British soldier who later became a high commissioner and then went on to become the governor of the defunct Northern protectorate of nigeria - this was how he rose to the top row and finally had his way and merged the Northern and Southern protectorates.
During the pre-amalgamation era and almost throughout the colonial era till immediately after the civil war, the Pounds Sterling was the legal tender and currency of Nigeria, of course, it was brought to Nigeria by colonialism. After the civil war, Nigeria's indigenous Naira and Kobo were introduced and many other things that were brought by colonialism (like driving pattern - right hand drive) were also changed. This was how Nigeria emerged as a political entity.
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