Thread by @RemiAdekoya1

Morning All! Day 8 of our #NigerianPoliticalHistory sessions based on my thesis research.

Today we'll start with the events following the 1954 Lyttleton Constitution-era, which marked the beginning of Nigeria's final march to independence. We'll focus on inter-ethnic sentiments

For most of 1955 and 1956, Awo, Zik and Bello, all regional Premiers now, focussed on their new powers and responsibilities and in preparation for the next constitutional conference scheduled for 1957. Ethnic animosities were never far below the surface though.

In a 1955 memo to Alan Lennox-Boyd, Secretary of State for the colonies, Bryan Sharwood-Smith, Governor-General of Northern Nigeria, stated:

"It is appropriate to record the increasing tendency of many Northern ministers, particularly Premier Bello, to indulge in anti-Southern

diatribes on the one hand and to evidence a narrowing and more militant Islamist outlook on the other. This despite repeated reminders that a Southern exodus [from North] would result in total collapse [of its civil service] and that one sure way of ensuring this is rabid

racialism, particularly when this is combined with acute religious intolerance."

Later that same year, reporting to London on sentiments among NPC party-members towards Southerners, Sharwood wrote:

"While there is deep dislike and suspicion for Action Group and all its works,

the Yorubas as a race are not unpopular. On the other hand, the Northerner's feeling for the Ibo borders on detestation...it is a situation which must always contain the seeds of violence."

In a 1955 memo to the Colonial Secretary, James Robertson, Governor-General of Nigeria,

also noted Northern anti-Igbo sentiments:

"My brief tour of the Northern Region left me in little doubt that Northerners are bitterly opposed to the Ibo in general and the NCNC in particular. Every Northern minister with whom I discussed the North versus South issue has

emphasized his fear of Ibo infiltration. They have much less fear of the West and seem to think that they can easily come to terms with the Action Group and the Yorubas. Possibly, this feeling is based partly upon the fact that many Yorubas are Muslims."

We see here the suggestion Yorubas in general were viewed more favourably in the North at the time. Antipathies were reserved for AG as a party, not the Yorubas as a people, whereas Igbos were disliked "in general" as Robertson suggested. However, while Yorubas a whole were not

viewed as negatively as Igbos, Northern elite resentment towards AG would soon increase even further as Awo and other party leaders agitated for Northern areas inhabited mainly by Yorubas, such as Ilorin, to be incorporated into the Western Region, in a bid to reduce the North's

numerical and territorial advantage. A 1956 Times editorial notes Awo touring the Ilorin province, "advocating its secession from the North to join its 'kith-and-kin' in the West.. Awolowo has gained considerable personal ascendancy through addressing the [Ilorin] masses, who

understand only Yoruba, whereas the normal language of the NPC leaders is Hausa."

Awo and his party devoted significant resources towards persuading Yorubas in the Ilorin province as well as minorities in the lower North to agitate for secession from the region, vexing Northern

elites and making AG their main political threat, a situation that would have its consequences after independence. It was not that NCNC wasn't making its own efforts to encourage the break-up of the Northern Region or trying to peel away support from NPC by allying with parties

trying to rival it in the North, but its efforts were less well-financed and organized than AG's, making them a lesser threat to Bello's party. As independence approached, Legum asserted Nigeria's regional governments were "hopelessly at odds with each other" and "treat each

other with a mutual aloofness reminiscent of Russia and the United States at the height of the Cold War...Bello makes no bones about the contempt he feels for both his adversaries in the South".

Despite this "Cold War", the 3 leaders, refereed by the British, reached agreements

on key issues at the constitutional conference of 1957, during which both the Eastern and Western Region were granted self-government, with the North opting to wait till 1959.

Again, population strength played the deciding role in structuring the political centre.

It was agreed seats to the federal House of Representatives would be allocated per capita, approximately 1 representative per 100,000 people.

This meant the North would eventually be entitled to 174 of 312 seats in the House of Rep. A central government was established

with Abubakar Balewa, Bello's deputy in the NPC, taking over as Nigeria's first Prime Minister. All 3 major parties, AG, NCNC and NPC, agreed to join his government. However, as independence approached, regional minority groups stepped up separatist agitations. As Sklar observed:

"In every region, there was a dual ethno-geographical make-up - a regional nucleus inhabited by the cultural majority and a peripheral zone of ethnic minorities."

In the eyes of minorities, the major parties were all controlled by the numerically dominant groups in their region

thus they feared independence from colonial rule might amount to the replacement of British overlords with Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa-Fulani overlords. The growth of ethnic nationalism within these major groups, visible in organizations like the Egbe Omo Oduduwa and Igbo State Union

hardly served to reassure worried minorities.

In the North, separatist tendencies were notable among the non-Hausa often Christian or tradionalist peoples of the region's southernmost provinces.

In the West, non-Yoruba minorities agitated for autonomy as did non-Igbos in East.

Bello and NPC were categorical on the issue of separatism in their region: they would not part with "an inch" of Northern territory.

Perhaps we shall stop there for today, tomorrow we'll continue with how these minority agitations were responded to.

Have a great day folks!😃