Mr. Walter S. Rogers
Institute of Current World Affairs
522 Fifth Avenue
New York 36, New York
May 16, 1955
Malta
Dear Mr. Rogers:
[continued from Notes On Nigeria II]
Nigeria is on the verge of self-government, but no definite date has been set yet. A round table conference of Nigerian political leaders is to be held next year to discuss what will be done. The big problem is whether Nigeria will remain intact or will split up. When the British were ready to withdraw from India, the problem was whether there should be a Pakistan or not. In Nigeria there are two possible Pakistans. Antagonisms between the West, the East and the North run high. Each region has its own government, with its own Premier and cabinet, and there is a federal government in Lagos.
In addition to the regional antagonisms, there is the problem that the north is not eager to have full self-government at this time. While the south has forged ahead with western education and other aspects of advancement, the Muslim north, suspicious of change, has lagged behind. Northern leaders now fear that self-government would result in the south dominating the north. They want the British to remain until the northern masses have acquired enough western education to compete with the south as equals. The Premier of the northern region, a Fulani noble named Ahmadu the Sardauna of Sokoto, even invited those Englishmen kicked out of the independent Sudan to come to northern Nigeria to work. He and other northern leaders fear that western education will undermine their Islamic society, but confronted with the rising south, they feel they have no alternative.
The northern cabinet has thirteen Africans and three British officials in it. The two southern regions have rejected even that much British participation and all their ministers are Africans. The British have surrendered most of their power in the south and something less than that in the north. But British governors in each region still have certain veto powers.
The regions have been told that they can have full self-government next year (thus doing away with the governors’ remaining powers). But there is a proviso: self-government for any region cannot interfere with the proper working of the federation.
This loose federation is centered in the federal House of Representatives and the federal Cabinet in Lagos. The north, with more than half of Nigeria’s population of 31 million, has 92 seats in the house. The east and west each have 42 seats.
The federal Cabinet is composed of three British officials and ten Africans. The federal government deals with a long list of subjects much as posts, currency, banking and defense. As African ministers outnumber the Europeans, they can set the policy. However the Governor-General, who presides over the Cabinet, has certain veto powers, and powers to declare that a law has been passed. Owing to the regional antagonisms, there is no federal Prime Minister. The federation is not of the most solid sort and owes a lot, if not all, to the presence of the British.
The British are eager to keep Nigeria together. There are strong economic reasons why the federation should be reserved. The north otherwise would have no access to the sea. The south depends on the north for meat and other animal products. But economics do not always determine the future course of nations. Nigerian leaders of all views admit that federation is desirable, but there are strong centrifugal forces. If not into two or more fully independent countries, Nigeria might develop into two or more countries with something like a Benelux arrangement with each other. Europe stands as an abiding monument to “tribalism” among white people. One should not expect Africans, whose divisions are as deep as those that separate Frenchmen, Germans and Poles, to abide by artificial boundary lines agreed to in Europe during the scramble for Africa. Some Africans talk of war. “If there is a war, it wouldn’t be the first time in history,” one leading politician said to me. “There are ideas that must be ironed out.”
One afternoon in Lagos I had tea with a leading Gold Coast politician. “We’re really going ahead in the Gold Coast,” he said, and with scarcely a pause for breath, he rattled off a long account of what is going on there. I interrupted to ask him what he thought of Nigeria. He Sneered. “These people fight among themselves all the time,” he said. “It will take them thirty years to get where we are. But now in the Gold Coast…” And he was off again.
* * *
Several months ago there was a cause celebre in the local courts. It raised a lot of bitter feelings among the Europeans in Nigeria and those feelings still persist.
A peddler had entered the back yard of the home of a European pottery officer and was bitten by the European’s dog. The European was brought to court and the prosecution said he deliberately set the dog on the African. He also kicked the African, the prosecutor said.
The European denied it, saying he dog attacked the peddler before he could intervene. The Judge then sentenced the European to twelve strokes with a cane and a fine of 125 ($350.) The European appealed and an African appeals Judge cancelling the flogging and reduced the fine to 25 ($70). The European paid the fine and left Nigeria.
* * *
The tarmac road from Lagos to Ibadan winds first through a dense tropical forest. There are occasional cultivated clearings, but otherwise the thick tangle of trees, bushes and vines comes right to the edge of the road.
“Mammy wagons”—trucks converted into make-shift buses—hurtle up and down the road at high speeds, carrying mammy traders and other Africans from one town to the next. The mammy wagon drivers are about the most reckless drivers I have ever encountered. I had to run partly into the ditch several times to avert head-on collisions. Many mammy wagons have sayings painted across the front. One was “Trust in God.” That was rather appropriate. Another had “Live and Let Live” emblazoned across the front, which is a startling proposition to expound in that business. Others included “God’s Time is Best” and “God’s Case No Appeal.”
In former days this coastal belt was one of the most unhealthy places in the world and West Africa was called “The White Man’s Graveyard.” Malaria, yellow fever and other diseases took heavy tolls from European expeditions. In 1841 four British ships were sent up the Niger to make treaties with the local chiefs to stop the slave trade. A total of 145 Europeans entered the river aboard those ships. Two months later 48 of them were dead. Sir Richard Burton, who visited Lagos in 1882, described the house of the British Governor and Consul as “containing a dead consul once a year.” One had died in 1859, his successor in 1860 and that man’s successor in 1861. An old saying used to sum up the situation:
“Beware and take heed of the Bight of Benin,
For few come out though many go in.”
Health conditions in Nigeria have improved tremendously since those days. The use of malaria prophylactics and mosquito netting, the introduction of yellow fever and other inoculations and swamp drainage and other mosquito control work have cut fatalities drastically. But still Nigeria is no health spa. The climate is hot and humid and, after a long stay, Europeans find that their energy and will power begin to wilt and that their tempers flare up on the slightest provocation. Tours of duty for colonial officials are much shorter than in other colonies. Men under 35 years of age serve 18 months; those between 35 and 45 serve 15 months, and those over 45 serve only 12 months. Each gets a week’s leave for every month spent in Nigeria.
* * *
There are no hotels in Ibadan and the government operates rest houses for travelers. In my room I found a sign advising patrons to sleep with their wallets under their pillows.
Ibadan has acquired a lot of importance these days. The University College for Nigeria is situated there and it is the capital of the western regional government.
A political party known as the Action Group won the western elections and formed the government of the region. The Action Group is an off-shoot of the old established National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC), which is in power in the eastern region.
In previous years the Action Group commanded little popular support. The situation changed in 1953 when the Action Group came out with a demand for full self-government in 1956. That caught the attention of the masses and Action Group candidates carried the field in the western regional elections.
The Action Group remains a Yoruba organization, however, and it carries next to no influence in the Ibo east. By contrast the NCNC has some strength in the west. Although the Action Group won the regional elections, NCNC candidates took a majority of western seats in the federal house at Lagos.
Observers say that although the Action Group rode to power on the cry of self-government in 1956, it now is becoming wary of it. The NCNC is the stronger of the two parties, with a secure position in the east and some strength in the west, and self-government might mean NCNC rule.
Action Group leaders say they favor federation, with strong regional governments and a Governor-General with reserve powers to keep the federation together. Their opponents in the NCNC would like to see a strong central government and, underneath that, several weak little states.
* * *
★
Read more:
Notes On Nigeria (I)
Notes On Nigeria (II)
Notes On Nigeria (IV)
