Thread by @RemiAdekoya1

Morning all! Day 2 of our #NigerianPoliticalHistory sessions based on my thesis research. Yesterday, we discussed how the Nigerian Youth Movement (NYM), founded in 1936 to unite Nigerians of all ethnicities, imploded due to personal rivalries with Zik exiting NYM in 1941. Today..

We'll discuss some major events of 1944-48.

In 1944, Azikiwe co-founded a new political organization conglomerating numerous ethnic and social unions into a political party called the National Council for Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC) which aimed to achieve independence.

Post WWII, events were to occur that would reshape Nigeria’s socio-political landscape, establish the constitutional framework under which political leaders would operate for the next years and set Nigeria firmly on the road to regionalism and solidification of ethnic identities.

In the post-war era, colonial authorities faced an upsurge in organized resistance from Nigerian political movements and workers unhappy with the sharp rise in living costs the wartime economy had brought.

This led to a coordinated 37-day General Strike in 1945 by 17 labour unions demanding wage increases to offset cost of living hikes, a strike which effectively shut down the economy and entire colonial administration.

The strike was called-off only after the government agreed to address workers’ demands. The event shook the British authorities, while propelling to national-hero status Azikiwe, whose newspapers and nationalist political party, NCNC, had very actively supported the strike.

One can easily imagine the psychological boost this successful action provided not only the striking unionists, but all the Nigerians agitating for a greater say in their country's affairs. Nigerians had self-organized, stared down their British overlords and emerged triumphant.

Faced with this increasingly coordinated and assertive nationalist movement and fearing a rise in militant Soviet-inspired communist ideology within the unions, the colonial government decided on a far-reaching program of economic, social and constitutional development

to attempt assuage some of the grievances being raised by these groups before they further radicalized. Against this background emerged the Richards’ Constitution, which came into effect on January 1, 1947.

The Richards’ Constitution (so-named after then Governor-General of Nigeria, Arthur Richards) was a landmark political development, ushering in a new era in Nigerian history and triggering a chain of events ultimately ending in the triumph of regionalist and ethnic politics.

The concept of 'regionalism' was the most distinguishing innovation in the new constitution. It established semi-legislative bodies in each of the three governmental regions, the North, East and West, based on elections from local native administrations.

These regional legislatures were empowered to choose from among their members’ representatives to a central legislative council which would include Northern members for the first time. Previously, there was no central political body with members from both North and South Nigeria.

Awolowo and Azikiwe both criticized the Richards’ Constitution, but from contradictory viewpoints. Azikiwe criticized the concept of regionalism as a ‘divide-and-rule’ strategy meant to ethnicize Nigerian politics, an obstacle erected on the path to achieving Nigerian nationhood.

Awolowo criticized the Richards' Constitution in an opposite direction, saying it had not gone far enough in acknowledging Nigeria’s ethnic diversity and that it was ‘constituted without regard to ethnological factors.’

In 1947, Awolowo argued that rather than just 3 regional assemblies (North, East and West) ‘even as many as 30 to 40 regional Houses of Assembly would not be too many in the future United States of Nigeria.’

Each group ‘no matter how small must be given the opportunity to evolve its own peculiar political institutions and must be autonomous with regard to its own internal affairs,’ stated Awolowo.

Interestingly, Awolowo’s 1947 vision is today’s reality.

He spoke of '30 to 40' regional House of Assembly when there were just 3; Nigeria is currently divided into 36 federating units, each with its own House of Assembly.

While Ahmadu Bello had not yet emerged as the dominant voice in Northern Nigerian politics at the time the Richards’ Constitution was introduced, Northern leaders generally supported regionalization with the fallout from the new arrangements only strengthening this tendency.

As stated earlier, the constitution incorporated the Northern Region into the central legislature for the first time. Northern elites hence came face-to-face with the reality their region’s future was linked to the South.

Yet the North was evidently lagging behind the South in socio-economic and educational development as the latter had generally enthusiastically embraced Western education in contrast to the predominantly Muslim North.

The Richards’ Constitution was a stark reminder of this reality when it emerged there were not enough qualified Northerners to properly represent the region in the planned central legislature or to take posts in the Northern Region’s civil service, staffed mostly by Southerners.

Believing a centralized unitary state would seal Southern domination of their region, Northern elites favoured the allocation of as much power as possible to regions and as little as possible to a central authority.

At a meeting of the Nigerian Legislative Council in March 1948, Tafawa Balewa, who later became deputy leader of the Northern People’s Congress (NPC) and Nigeria’s first prime minister, expressed Northern sentiments at the time in no uncertain terms:

'Many deceive themselves by thinking Nigeria is one…this is wrong. I am sorry to say that this presence of unity is artificial…the Southern tribes pouring into the North in ever increasing numbers do not mix with Northern people…and we look upon them as invaders,' said Balewa.

Perhaps we shall stop there for today. Thanks for reading, have a nice day and see you tomorrow!