Nigeria Amalgamation Document 1914

There is a posting with the above title that has surreptitiously been making the rounds in the social media. The posting alludes that some leaders of ethnic nationalities led by emirs and chiefs signed the document for the amalgamation of the northern and southern parts of the country in 1914.

The posting starts with a seemingly innocuous question: ‘Many Nigerians have asked if there were parties from the southern and northern protectorates that partook in the declaration of Nigeria, or did the British on their own sign the document in the absence of the people involved?’

Then the document goes on to say that “these were the Nigerians present at the amalgamation: HRH Maiturare Sarkin Musulumi and Sultan of Sokoto, Usuman Dan Maje who later became Emir of Kano, Sir Kitoyi Ajasa a lawyer, HRH Oladugbolu Alaafin of Oyo, HRH R. Henshaw (Obong of Calabar), Abubakar Shehu of Borno”.

Ever since the posting emerged, questions were asked if the document is authentic. I found it difficult to be categorical either way because the posting is not supported with an attachment of the authentic document.

And in all my association with Nigerian history both as a subject of study in the classroom and of passionate pursuit, I have never came across this painted scenario. I reason that may be it is those vociferous advocates of restructuring on the basis of ethnic nationalities that are out to score a point in the quest to advance their narrative. No. They would need to do more than posting this unverifiable document. This is because from all available sources, Fredrick Lugard, then colonial Governor-General of Nigeria was always named as the sole architect of the amalgamation of northern and southern parts of the country to form a unified entity. The British as the colonial power didn’t need the agreement of any ethnic group to make an administrative arrangement that they felt was convenient for them.

Most of the colonial administrators both at the centre and the regions left behind a memoir or a biography. Lugard left tons of documents. His wife Flora Shaw, reputed to have coined the name Nigeria, was an accomplished writer even before she married him in 1902. She had been the colonial editor of the Times and had a number of novels to her credit. The book she wrote on their stay in Nigeria, ‘The Tropical Dependency’, is one of the definite books on the early years of Lugard in Nigeria as High Commissioner of Northern Nigeria. He himself wrote the ‘Dual Mandate’ (1922). His biographer Margery Perham left us with two volumes of Lugard’s biography 1956 and 1960, plus four volumes of his edited diaries published between 1959 and 1963. In all these and many other books by many writers, there had been no allusion to a meeting of emirs and chiefs to sign any purported document to amalgamate the northern and southern protectorates.

It is necessary to clear this issue now and declare that purported document going around as fake before some misguided compatriots start using it as a reference for calling a conference of ethnic nationalities to define our existence. We have seen how fake narratives get woven into truthful accounts and end up befuddling and contaminating worthwhile debates. What actually happened in that period, beginning from 1900, can be gleaned from plenty of sources. After the British have consolidated their grip they administered the territory from two ends: Lagos, capital of the Southern Protectorate and Zungeru, headquarters of the Northern Protectorate.

However, at a stage towards the end of 1911, for their own administrative convenience the British colonialists saw the need to administer the two territories as one and Lugard who had served as High Commissioner of the Northern Protectorate from 1900 to 1906 and was then stationed in the colony of Hong Kong as governor was tipped as the man for the job. He was returned as Governor of both the Southern and Northern Nigerian Protectorates in 1912 and was given the task to merge the entities into one. On arrival in Lagos he went to work at once preparing all the legal documents and in March 1913 returned to London to make his presentation to Whitehall. His proposals were accepted in September and he returned to Nigeria.

In January 1914 the new Government of Nigeria was so proclaimed alongside fitting ceremonials held simultaneously in Lagos and Zungeru, then the capital of Northern Region. The ceremonies in Lagos and Zungeru were to swear in the Governor, Fredrick Lugard and his lieutenants, Charles Lindsey for the north and Alexander Boyle for the south. The Lieutenant-Governors were to hold sway in the regional capitals.  To commemorate the event a grand durbar was later in the year held in Kano where for the first time northern emirs and chiefs were brought together accompanied by a rich display of over 30,000 richly embroidered horses. Lugard later prepared a detailed report titled ‘Amalgamation of Northern and Southern Nigeria and Administration 1912-1919’ which he submitted to the British Parliament.

The story of leaders of ethnic nationalities signing amalgamation document in 1914 is a hoax. It is now what is referred to as fake news.