Thread by @RemiAdekoya1

Morning All! Day 7 of our #NigerianPoliticalHistory sessions based on my thesis research.

Today we'll be discussing the major events following the 1953 self-government crisis that almost led to the secession of Northern Nigeria and resulted in the fatal Kano inter-ethnic riots.

After the North-South quarrel over the right date for independence and the resulting Kano riots in which dozens were killed (both from North and South), Oliver Lyttleton, Secretary of State for the Colonies, informed the House of Commons it had become clear Nigeria’s regions

could not work together effectively in a tightly-knit federation and Britain would invite Nigerian leaders to discuss a new constitution providing greater regional autonomy. Constitutional conferences, presided over by Lyttleton, were held between July 1953 and February 1954.

One major point of discussion in these conferences was the future status of Lagos. Northern leaders wanted Lagos to no longer be part of the Western Region, but a separated Federal Capital District (kind of like Abuja is today). This because Awo's AG was in power in the West and

Lagos was North's main access to the sea to trade its goods. So they wanted to remove any sort of leverage AG might be able to have over them in future due to this by removing Lagos from AG's control. AG responded with the slogan: 'Lagos Belongs to the West' as in this bulletin:

Zik's NCNC which had supported Awo's AG against Bello's NPC on independence issue, now took sides with the North on this issue as they also wanted Lagos out of AG's control.

A secret memo sent by Lyttleton to the British cabinet in the midst of the heated debate over Lagos, gives us interesting insight into the thinking on Nigeria of Britain’s highest-ranking colonial official at the time.

Lyttleton described the three major Nigerian ethnic groups as:

"The Hausa and Fulani of the North, Muslims and warriors, with the dignity, courtly manners, high bearing and conservative outlook which democracy and the Daily Mirror have not yet debased; and the Yoruba West

and Ibo East, pagan or Christian, with higher education and lower manners and inferior fighting value, somewhat intoxicated with nationalism, though loyal to the British connection at least so long as it suits them...The North with their deep but already somewhat shaken trust

in the British and distrust of their ‘brothers’ in the West and East fear that greater autonomy now suggested for regions will lead to the West seceding when it suits them, especially as the West incorporates Lagos, at once the commercial and political capital and only effective

outlet to the sea for the trade and commerce of the North. The North now insist on Lagos being a federal area under separate administration to safeguard it from becoming a Yoruba preserve and to make sure their access to the sea remains open… We cannot let the North down.

They are more than half the population, more attached to the British and more trustful of the colonial service than the other two…if my colleagues agree, I shall state that we have decided to excise Lagos from the West... to act otherwise would be to alienate our friends,

probably drive them into secession, to cast aside our responsibilities and to leave a dismembered Nigeria to settle its own differences perhaps with the spear."

Lyttleton’s words provide evidence supporting Southern politicians’ oft-repeated claims that the North was systematically favoured by colonial authorities in all colonial-era constitutional negotiations, to the detriment of the South, a perception helping fuel grievances against

Northerners and the British among Southern Nigerian ethnic groups. British government took Lyttleton's advice and excised Lagos from the Western Region. Awo and AG were furious with Awo even telling press "Lagos will be separated from the West over our dead bodies."

Here is a cable Awo sent to Lyttleton protesting the decision. AG was also furious Zik's NCNC went along with this in alliance with Bello's NPC. This, of course, ended the AG-NCNC alliance following North-South independence quarrel. Ultimately, Awo and AG accepted Lagos decision.

The 1953/54 conferences eventually produced the Lyttleton Constitution, which established the firmly federal system under which Nigeria gained independence in 1960.

In the constitution, central House of Representatives had jurisdiction over issues on exclusive legislative lists while jurisdiction over legislation on all issues not on those lists devolved to regional assemblies, except in cases of conflict whereby federal law would prevail.

Majority leader in each regional House of Assembly would be Premier of that region, with own cabinet of ministers. The North kept its 50 percent quota in the central legislature. Each region was given option of full internal self-government by 1956, unless it preferred otherwise.

The period 1951 to 1954 thus proved particularly eventful years in Nigerian politics, characterized by the manifestation of Northern fears of Southern domination in a post-British Nigeria, Southern frustrations at the North slowing the country’s march to self-rule,

a further solidification of ethnic and regional identities visible in the development of more or less coherent ethnic groups with identifiable leaderships, debates over the appropriate political structuring of the country reflecting the viewpoints of these leaderships on national

and sub-national identities and the realization by British colonial authorities that a decidedly federalist structure seemed the only realistic solution for the multi-ethnic diverse country they had created.

Perhaps we shall stop there for today. Tomorrow, we'll take on from here and discuss events from 1954 onwards, a period that can be described as the final stretch to independence. A lovely day to you all😃!