Did Britain manipulate pre-independence polls in favour of North?

I would advise people never to believe that rubbish from that former British colonial official Harold Smith that the British rigged the 1959 General Elections for the North to control Nigeria.

It is a bunch of lies and disjointed attempt to ravish our country and her history. That man was a hired agent recruited to do that dirty job to entertain whoever was responsible for hiring him to do his bidding. I read this story a long time ago and dismissed it. I never bothered to react to it in the belief that no sensible person familiar with Nigeria will ever believe the rubbish he spewed.

I thought Nigerians will follow the footsteps of Dr. (now Professor) Alkasum Abba of Ahmadu Bello University, who studied Nigerian political history for over 30 years, and dismissed the stuff outright. Unfortunately, the story is still making the rounds. Our younger generation, particularly some of the elite, are not following the footsteps of Professor Alkasum Abba on this matter. I refer to his article in responding to Harold Smith with the title: “The Rigging of Nigerian History” published in 2007, ZAHIR, Journal of History Research, ABU, Zaria, Volume 2 No 1. But for the benefit of our younger generation and anyone who does not know the reality of the issue, I would like to make some remarks on it.

That Mr. Smith was recruited and sent to work in Nigeria in 1955, two years after the conclusion  of the 1953 Nigerian London Constitutional Conference in Lagos. The issue of Nigerian independence was discussed though not concluded during that conference. The 1953 constitutional crises brought about by Chief Enahoro’s motion for independence in 1956 forced the British colonial authorities to convene the conference. The refusal of members of Parliament from the North to attend a further meeting of the House of Representatives in Lagos in protest against the attack by some hooligans against them after the vote in the House against Enahoro’s motion led to the convening of the Conference in London by the Colonial authorities in 1953. In preparation for the Conference, British authorities in Nigeria hurriedly made arrangement for provincial conferences in all the provinces of Northern Nigeria where a document called 9-point Agenda for Northern Nigeria, purportedly as a mandate from the people of the North for northern delegates attending the Conference was tabled and adopted.

We in the NEPU believed the document was the handiwork of the British colonial officials spearheaded by a British colonial information officer in Northern Nigeria called Captain Moloney. Bogus provincial meetings were held and that paper was presented and adopted as the position of Northern Nigeria to the 1953 Constitutional Conference. Few members from opposition parties were invited to the provincial conferences just to give a semblance of public participation in the ruse organised by British officials and called Provincial Conferences.

I was the leader of NEPU Youths Association and Assistant Publicity Secretary of the party then. Some of our members who were invited to the meetings vehemently opposed the 9-point Agenda. They were mostly overruled by the senior Native Authority officials who not only populated those meetings but also presided over them. In order to register our protest at the autocratic way those meetings were handled, the NEPU directed thousands of its supporters all over Kano Province to go to Kano International Airport and register the disapproval of the masses to the so-called 9-point  Northern Agenda to be taken to the London Conference in the name of the masses of Northern Nigeria. Our supporters converged at Kano airport in their thousands. The party decided that the leaders must personally lead the protest at the airport. The then President-General of NEPU, Mallam Abba Maikwaru and others led other party leaders to stage the protest. As a result, big contingents of Native Authority and Nigeria Police personnel were drafted to the airport to enable the Northern delegates to the London Conference through Kano Airport to gain access to the tarmac. Eventually, the police managed to assist the delegates including Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Sir Ahmadu Bello, Mallam Aminu Kano, Abubakar Zukogi and the rest to join the plane. Later that night police swooped on the houses of leading NEPU members and arrested 19 of us and were arraigned before the emir’s court the following day and prosecuted on trumped-up charges of unlawful assembly. All these took place in 1953, two years before Mr. Harold Smith was employed to work in Nigeria. It was at that London Conference that the modalities for Nigerian independence were first discussed.

I took the trouble to give this background to show that Mr. Smith had no idea what it took to influence the outcome of negotiations for Nigerian independence let alone be asked by the Governor-General, Sir James Robertson, who was in charge of the entire British colonial officials working in Nigeria, or any single individual for that matter to rig the 1959 General Elections to favour the North. It should be borne in mind that there were series of elections in Nigeria between 1951 and 1959; these were the 1951 Regional/Federal elections, the 1954 Federal elections, the 1956 Regional elections, and the 1959 Federal elections. All these elections, except that of 1959, were conducted when Mr. Smith was in the UK. Therefore, in giving consideration to the claim by Mr. Smith, it is pertinent to remember that throughout that period, nationalist activism was at its highest. And nationalist leaders such as Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Malam Aminu Kano, Chief J. S. Tarka and hosts of their lieutenants were very much around. It is impossible with an array of such leaders and multitude of their militant lieutenants that one individual can manipulate the outcome of the elections that will pave way for the emergence of leaders who would be given the reign of power in Nigeria’s march for independence.

I invite anyone reading this presentation to have a good look at the results of series of elections that took place between 1951 and 1959 and compare the outcome and see if there was any substantial difference the so-called manipulation by Mr. Smith made to change the outcome in favour of anyone. I hope people will ponder over the results of the elections.  We are mainly talking of elections to the House of Representatives, which were held only on three occasions: 1951; 1954, and 1959. We should compare the number of seats won by the three major political parties, NCNC, AG and NPC as well as their allies in terms of North-South results. There is no big difference in relation to North/South dichotomy in terms of the number of members from the two areas North and South in the House of Representatives. We should consider the number of members of the three political groups in the National Assembly after the 1951 general elections and the 1959 elections in terms of the strength of the three political groupings of NCNC, AG and NPC along with their allies. It will be noticed that with the difference in terms of members of Parliament the situation gave no room for the British colonial authorities or anyone else to influence the outcome of the elections in 1959.

The 1954 Constitution increased the membership of the House of Representatives to 184 on 50:50 formula for the North (as a bloc) and the South (Eastern/Western Regions and Lagos combined). Thus, the North and South had an equal number of 92 seats each.

Given these incontestable facts, I am puzzled as to why some people, including journalists, keep on listening to someone like Harold Smith, who was just a 3rd rate labour officer of the colonial government and whose duties and responsibilities were not associated with the process of the disengagement of the British from Nigeria to make false claims about the 1954 and 1959 elections. Check the census figures for 1921, 1931 and 1952 conducted by the British and the subsequent ones conducted by Nigerian governments since 1963. The North has more than 50 percent of Nigeria’s population since the 1911 census conducted during the two original protectorates, Northern and Southern Protectorates that existed up to 1914 when the two protectorates were merged into present day Nigeria, meaning that they have more population and therefore more voters, and politics is an exercise of numbers.

Yakasai OFR, an elder statesman, was the leader of Northern Elements Progressive Union (NEPU) Youths Association and Assistant Publicity Secretary of the party.