Module 4,5&6 p&c

• Colonial Nigeria was ruled by the British Empire from the mid-nineteenth century until 1960 when Nigeria achieved independence
• British influence in the region began with the prohibition of slave trade to British subjects in 1807
• Britain annexed Lagos in 1861 and established the Oil River Protectorate in 1884
• From 1886 to 1899, much of the country was ruled by the 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 (Northern protectorate, Southern protectorate and the Colony of Lagos)
• 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
• Numerous ancient African civilizations settled in the region that is known today as Nigeria, such as the Kingdom of Nri, the Benin Empire, the Oyo Empire and the Sokoto Caliphate long before the coming of the Europeans to the region
• The Portuguese were the first Europeans to come to the region that is known as Nigeria to establish trade with the Benin Kingdom, Lagos, and other regions along the coast, in the 15th century
• From the 15th century, European slave traders arrived in the region to purchase enslaved Africans as part of the Atlantic slave trade, which started in the region of modern-day Nigeria; the first Nigerian port used by European slave traders was Badagry, a coastal harbor
• Britain outlawed or prohibited slavery in 1807 and pushed for forms of "legitimate commerce" such as palm oil and cotton, and in so doing developed an internal infrastructure to facilitate these markets
• By the 1820s, the British had made connections with the Sokoto Caliphate, whose highly structured society, aristocracy, and religion struck colonial administrators as more "civilized" than the war‐torn or aggressive groups they encountered in the South
• With the discovery of quinine in the 1850s, colonial explorers and missionaries who had been unable to enter the southern interior due to risk of malaria began contacting a wider range of groups; the British then had treaties and trade policies in place throughout the North and the South
• In the 1850s, the British used trade policies to influence African politics, including deposing rulers who stood in the way of the lucrative palm oil trade and other raw materials for their industries abroad
• The Lagos Colony and Protectorate was established in 5 March, 1861 and became an annex of Britain
• In the 1880s, competition with French colonial powers in Africa prompted a policy shift and in 1884 the northern and southern (also known as the Oil River Protectorate) "protectorates" were established
• During the Berlin Conference of 1884–1885, European leaders determined who had rights to what "spheres of influence"
• In May, 1906 Lagos colony and Protectorate, and Southern (also known as the Oil River Protectorate) protectorate were united into the 'colony and protectorate of Southern Nigeria
• The two protectorates which are northern protectorate and, colony and protectorate of Southern Nigeria were joined in 1914 under British governor‐general Frederick Lugard, and the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria was established
• Through a progressive sequence of regimes, the British imposed Crown Colony government on much of the area of West Africa which came to be known as Nigeria, a form of rule which was both autocratic and bureaucratic
• The British adopted an indirect rule approach, administration and military control of the territory was conducted primarily by white Britons, both in London and in Nigeria
• Sir Frederick Lord Lugard instituted a policy of indirect rule through native authorities, who collected taxes and performed other local administrative tasks
• In the North, Lugard worked through the Fulani ruling classes, who used the British in order to retain their power and to acquire wealth
• Colonialism


  The policy or practice in which a developed country takes control over less developed countries, occupying it with settlers and exploiting it economically
• The colonization of Nigeria started in 1898 when the British government administered the territory along three (3) constituencies or units: The Lagos colony, The Southern Protectorate, and The Northern Protectorate
• In May 1906, the Lagos colony and the Southern Protectorate were merged or joined and given a new name; that is, the Colony and the Protectorate of Southern Nigeria
• In 1914, the Colony and the Protectorate of Southern Nigeria was amalgamated with the Northern Protectorate to form the Protectorate of Nigeria under the purview and control of Sir Lord Frederick Lugard
• Indirect Rule System


  A policy of political administration used by the Britain where the traditional rulers and their political institutions were used as agencies for controlling their colonial territories
• Indirect rule was absolutely successful in northern Nigeria because the traditional rulers were authoritative heads who were never questioned by their subjects
• Indirect rule was partially successful in Western Nigeria because the traditional system was constitutional monarchy and there were more elites in the region who were democracy oriented
• Indirect rule was not so successful in eastern Nigeria because the traditional rulers were not easily identified due to egalitarianism in the community and absence of centralized authority
• The May 1906 amalgamation is known as the first ever amalgamation of the British in Nigeria, where the Lagos colony and protectorate were merged with the protectorate of Southern Nigeria to form the new colony and protectorate of Southern Nigeria
• The second amalgamation was in January 1914, where the British government amalgamated Northern and Southern Nigeria, with the principal reason being to allow the surpluses acquired in the south to be used in the North
• Colonial rule was forcibly imposed on the people of Nigeria, and the colonial intention has never been for the benefit of Nigerian people, but rather exploitative
• The history of the evolution of political parties in Nigeria dates back to the Clifford Constitution of 1922, and the parties formed prior to independence in 1960 were all regionally and ethnically based
• The oldest of the three major parties was the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC) which was formed in 1944
• The Nigerian nationalism was welcome both in the country and abroad, and three major trends characterized the strength of nationalistic spirit: the peoples protest against the colonial system, the activities of black diasporas in the New World, and the presence of an articulate class of Nigerian elites
• The Nigerian Youth Movement (NYM) is best known as the "first true nationalist organization" that emerged in Nigeria in 1936
• The National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroon's (NCNC) was created on 26th August 1944, with the aim of achieving internal self-government for Nigeria