Thread by @BusinessDayNg

In March 1953, Ahmadu Bello dismissed declarations of Nigerian unity as empty rhetoric, stating that the country’s inhabitants were no more a nation in 1953 than they had been before the British arrived.@RemiAdekoya1 on why Bello called Nigeria a "mistake"
businessday.ng/columnist/arti…

@RemiAdekoya1 After northern politicians blocked the 1953 self-government motion, southern leaders accused them of being colonialist lackeys. Northern politicians were booed and insulted by southern crowds on leaving the House of Representatives’ building in Lagos

businessday.ng/columnist/arti…

Following this, northern elites favoured seceding from Nigeria and were restrained solely by practical considerations. The north was landlocked and dependent on southern coastal links to transport its goods.
businessday.ng/columnist/arti…

Northern elites worried southern leaders might block transportation of goods across their lands if the north seceded.

businessday.ng/columnist/arti…

Awolowo threatened as much, saying if Britain let the north secede “we shall declare our independence immediately and we will not allow the north to transport their groundnuts through our territory.” Groundnuts were a key northern export at the time.

businessday.ng/columnist/arti…

In this atmosphere, AG leaders decided on an “educational tour” of the north to promote their self-government motion.

Inter-ethnic violence eventually erupted in Kano, leading to 277 casualties, including 36 deaths – 15 northerners and 21 southerners
businessday.ng/columnist/arti…

After the Kano riots, Oliver Lyttleton, Secretary of State for the Colonies, informed London it was clear the regions could not work together in a tightly-knit federation and Nigeria needed to be decentralized.

businessday.ng/columnist/arti…

Lyttleton described “Hausa-Fulanis” as “Muslims and warriors, with the dignity, courtly manners, high bearing and conservative outlook which democracy has not yet debased.”

businessday.ng/columnist/arti…

He then described Yorubas and Igbos as people “with higher education, but lower manners and inferior fighting value, somewhat intoxicated with nationalism, though loyal to the British connection at least so long as it suits them.”

businessday.ng/columnist/arti…