Evolution of Nigeria, 1849-1960 (Part 1)
Today:Saturday, November 21, 2009
The third and final step in this uncharted path came in 1888. The British administered political 'baptism' on Grenye Goldie's National African Company which had successfully squeezed out rivals, British and non-British, from the trade in the lower Niger, following a trade war of almost unprecedented ferocity. As a result of the 'baptism', Goldie's company became the Royal Niger Company, chartered and limited. It also acquired political and administrative powers over a narrow belt of territory on both sides of the river from the sea to Lokoj'a, as well as over the vast area which, in the 20th century, came to be known as Northern Nigeria.
Thus, by about 1897, the three blocks of territory had emerged, as British colonial possessions, from moves made during the period of the scramble for Nigeria, best characterised as having been marked by fits and starts. The emergence of Nigeria is simply the story of how these three neigh- bouring and interlocked possessions were brought together by the British, first administratively and then politically, as discussed below.
The move towards administrative union or amalgamation (a term that was later to occupy a place of disproportionate importance in Nigerian history) began in 1898 with the appointment, by the British Government, of the so-called Niger Committee chairmanned by Lord Selborne. Its main term of reference was to look into and advise on the future management of the affairs of the three territories, i.e. on the form of administration that would best promote efficiency and economy in the pursuit of British interests in the region. The com- mittee recommended that the administrative goal to be aimed at for the three territories was amalgama- tion, but that for the time being, such a course of action was premature and inadvisable because the experienced colonial administration to preside over the affairs of the large territory that would arise from the union did not then exist. It also felt that the infrastructure for communication, which alone would conduce to efficient administration, did not also exist.
It thus recommended the creation, for the meantime, of two independent provinces, a Maritime Province to be brought into being through the merger of the Lagos Colony and Protectorate with the Niger Coast Protectorate; and then a Sudan Province made-up of territories under the Royal Niger Company. But, before this report could be considered and accepted by the Imperial Government, a vanguard action started by Henry McCallum of Lagos, who was also a member of the Committee, led to a decision to go it easy with the amalgamation of the two Southern administrations.
