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Northerners Stance On One Nigeria, Pre-independence - FREDERICK FORSYTH by Nobody: 12:07pm On Nov 26, 2015 |
All bolded texts are that of Federick Forsyth (Award winning British Journalist and Author) who documented the Nigerian Civil war. Britain’s initial decisions in Nigeria had nothing to do with Southerners or Northerners interest, in fact Britain was reluctant to colonize what is today Nigeria, because it was an expensive waste of time The most notable of these traders was Sir George Goldie. This colourful pioneer had, by 1879, succeeded in uniting the British merchants along the coast into a fighting front, not against the Africans but against the French who were their more natural rivals. He and the local consul, Hewett, wanted the British Government to step in and declare the area of the Oil Rivers and the Lower Niger a British colony. The Liberal British Government, however, demurred, believing colonies in such places to be an expensive waste of time. [b] But the British were still unwilling to saddle themselves with another colony. Accordingly Goldie's company was in 1886 granted a 'charter of administration'. For the next ten years Goldie pushed north, establishing a monopoly of trade in his wake, flanked by the Germans in the Cameroons on his right hand and the French in Dahomey on his left... Goldie had neither the men nor the resources to keep them out, and sent heartfelt appeals to London. In 1897 the British Government sent out Sir Frederick Lugard, a soldier and administrator who had seen service in Uganda and Nyasaland. Within a year Lugard had pushed the French out of Nigeria and war with France threatened. The Niger crisis was settled by the Anglo-French agreement of June 1898, which established the basis for the new country's borders. Goldie had neither the men nor the resources to keep them out, and sent heartfelt appeals to London. In 1897 the British Government sent out Sir Frederick Lugard, a soldier and administrator who had seen service in Uganda and Nyasaland. Within a year Lugard had pushed the French out of Nigeria and war with France threatened. The Niger crisis was settled by the Anglo-French agreement of June 1898, which established the basis for the new country's borders. Britain had gained a colony. It had not been conquered, it had not really been explored. It had no name, so later Lady Lugard gave it one - Nigeria. [/b] An Irony. Because of the British penetration through Lagos, Western culture first reached the Yoruba and the other tribes of the West. In the eastern part of the south lived a variety of peoples, predominant among them the Ibos, who lived on both banks of the Niger, but mainly east of it. Ironically, in view of their later speedy development and progress which finally enabled them to overtake the other ethnic groups of Nigeria in terms of European-style development, the Ibos and the other peoples of the East were regarded as being more backward than the rest in 1900. Britain's decisions pre-independence were selfish and had nothing to do with the indigenes prosperity. The period from 1914 to 1944 can be passed over briefly, for British interests during those years had little to do with Nigeria. First there was the Great War, then ten years of British reconstruction, then the Slump. Nigeria got out of this a brief period of prosperity when her raw materials sold well in the arms' race before the Second World War. During this period Britain's colonial policy remained traditional and orthodox: maintain law and order, stimulate the production of raw materials, create demand for British exports, and raise taxes to pay for colonial rule. Northern Nigeria takes its stance [b] In 1944-5 the Governor Sir Arthur Richards, now Lord Milverton, a man who (according to contemporary descriptions), despite his deep love of the North, managed to make himself unpopular, made a tour of the country sounding out local opinion about constitutional reform. It was the North that made it quite clear, and has maintained this attitude ever since, that it did not want amalgamation with the South. The North agreed to go along only on the basis that (1) the principle of separate regional development should be enshrined in the new constitution, and that (2) the North should have nearly fifty per cent of the seats in the legislature (North 9, West 6, East 5). The opposition of the North to amalgamation with the South, given voice in numerous statements by their leaders ever since, was in 1947 (the year of the inauguration of the Richards Constitution) expressed by one of the Northern members, Mallam Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, later to become Prime Minister of Nigeria. He said, 'We do not want, Sir, our Southern neighbours to interfere in our development. . .. I should like to make it clear to you that if the British quitted Nigeria now at this stage the Northern people would continue their interrupted conquest to the sea.' It was the North which in a sense was the most realistic. Northern leaders made no secret of their separatist wish. After Richards came Sir John Macpherson who introduced a new virtually unitary constitution. But the damage had been done. The North had learned that it could get its way by threatening to pull out of Nigeria (thus sending shivers down the British spine), and the Macpherson Constitution yielded to a fresh one in 1954. During the various regional conferences summoned by Macpherson during 1949, the Northern delegates claimed fifty per cent representation for the North at the Central Government, and at the General Conference at Ibadan in January 1950 the Emirs of Zaria and Katsina announced that 'unless the Northern Region is allotted fifty per cent of the seats in the Central legislature, it will ask for separation from the rest of Nigeria on the arrangements existing before 1914'. They got their wish, and Northern domination of the centre became an inbuilt feature of Nigerian politics. The North also demanded and obtained the loosest possible form of Federation, and made no secret of their deep conviction that the amalgamation of North and South in 1914 was an error. The expression of that conviction runs right through Northern political thinking from the end of the Second World War to Independence. In March 1953 the Northern political leader Sir Ahmadu Bello told the House in Lagos: 'The mistake of 1914 has come to light, and I should like it to go no further! [/b] HYPOCRISY BEGINS By the time of the 1953 conferences which yielded the fourth constitution, the North had modified its views on separatism to 'a structure which would give the regions the greatest possible freedom of movement and action; a structure which would reduce the powers of the Centre to the absolute minimum. What the Northerners were demanding, and apparently with the will of the overwhelming body of Northern opinion behind them, was a Confederation of Nigerian States. This was what Colonel Ojukwu, Military Governor of the Eastern Region, asked for at Aburi, Ghana, on 4 January 1967, after 30,000 of the Eastern people had been killed and 1,800,000 driven back to the East as refugees. Even then, he only asked for it as a: temporary measure while tempers cooled. If the Northerners had got their wish in 1953, or the Easterners in 1967, it is likely that the three Regions would today be living in peace. Throughout the decade Northern speeches and writings revealed a steadily growing dislike of the Easterners in their midst. Time and again speakers in the Northern House voiced their deep conviction that 'the North was for the Northerners' and that the Southerners should go home. (Most of these Southerners were from the East.) Sporadic violence against Easterners had occurred in the past, notably during the bloody Jos Riots of 1945. 1 Like 1 Share |
Re: Northerners Stance On One Nigeria, Pre-independence - FREDERICK FORSYTH by laudate: 12:10pm On Nov 26, 2015 |
Rubbish!! A very pointless thread! |
Re: Northerners Stance On One Nigeria, Pre-independence - FREDERICK FORSYTH by Nobody: 12:14pm On Nov 26, 2015 |
laudate: Why? Why did the Northerners suddenly change their stance? Why are they suddenly in love with people they loathed so much? 4 Likes 1 Share |
Re: Northerners Stance On One Nigeria, Pre-independence - FREDERICK FORSYTH by StOla: 12:35pm On Nov 26, 2015 |
Promhize: Because a man called Major General Aguiyi Ironsi decreed a unitary government - thus actualizing the Northern fears at domination by the South. The North simply put Ironsi where their own leaders before him had been put, and took over the country with a unitary government, looking others in the face and asking "how are you enjoying this unitary now?". Those who decreed the unitary government have been crying for freedom ever since. Kind of like raping a rapist. 7 Likes 1 Share |
Re: Northerners Stance On One Nigeria, Pre-independence - FREDERICK FORSYTH by Nobody: 12:53pm On Nov 26, 2015 |
StOla: It was nobody's fault that northerners were scared like rats and cockroaches of being dominated by the igbos. The them Emirs rejected western education as it meant Enlightenment for the dullards they ruled over. Take a look at this animalistic behaviour: In May 1953 a delegation from the Action Group, the leading Yoruba political party, was due to visit Kano, the largest city of the North. Intense fomentation of public opinion against the visit was undertaken by Mallarn Inua Wada, Kano Branch Secretary of the Northern People's Congress. In a speech two days before their scheduled arrival Wada told a meeting of section heads of the Native Administration: 'Having abused us in the South these very Southerners have decided to come over to the North to abuse us.... We have therefore organized about a thousand men ready in the city to meet force with force. ...' The Action Group's visit was cancelled, but on 16 May a series of massacres began. Failing to find Yorubas the Hausas",set about the Easterners with what the official report compiled by a British civil servant termed 'a universally unexpected degree of violence'. It is of note that the Igbos were in the north due to Britain’s lack of manpower to fill positions of clerk, junior executives, accountants, engineers and others in the north, and the Northerners were to dull to hold such meagre positions. In his autobiography My Life, Ahmadu Bello recalled the strong agitation for secession by the North and added that 'it looked very tempting'. He admits he decided against it on two grounds, neither having any connexion with the ideal of Nigerian Unity that possessed the British. One factor was the difficulty of collecting customs-dutics along a land border, the other the unreliability of access to the sea through a neighbouring independent country. Your reason is a stale cliche. 1 Like 1 Share |
Re: Northerners Stance On One Nigeria, Pre-independence - FREDERICK FORSYTH by Warlord3000(m): 1:01pm On Nov 26, 2015 |
Hmmm there is no smoke without fire.. |
Re: Northerners Stance On One Nigeria, Pre-independence - FREDERICK FORSYTH by zendy: 1:13pm On Nov 26, 2015 |
Promhize: Oil and seaport 1 Like |
Re: Northerners Stance On One Nigeria, Pre-independence - FREDERICK FORSYTH by zendy: 1:18pm On Nov 26, 2015 |
StOla: For how long will you people keep promoting this lie? How can you say that Ironsi introduced unitary rule when all four regions were in place as at the time he was killed and all four still had the essential ingredients of federalism such as resource control and regional autonomy? 2 Likes |
Re: Northerners Stance On One Nigeria, Pre-independence - FREDERICK FORSYTH by laudate: 1:30pm On Nov 26, 2015 |
zendy: Go back into the archives and read up on what Aguiyi-Ironsi did. The 4 regions were federating units in name only, after he took over. During his short regime Aguiyi-Ironsi promulgated a raft of decrees. Among them were the Constitution Suspension and Amendment Decree No.1, which suspended most articles of the Constitution (though he left intact those sections of the constitution that dealt with fundamental human rights, freedom of expression and conscience were left intact). 2 Likes |
Re: Northerners Stance On One Nigeria, Pre-independence - FREDERICK FORSYTH by Nobody: 1:45pm On Nov 26, 2015 |
laudate: And what about this by Sir Ahmadu Bello himself In his autobiography My Life, Ahmadu Bello recalled the strong agitation for secession by the North and added that 'it looked very tempting'. He admits he decided against it on two grounds, neither having any connexion with the ideal of Nigerian Unity that possessed the British. One factor was the difficulty of collecting customs-dutics along a land border, the other the unreliability of access to the sea through a neighbouring independent country. |
Re: Northerners Stance On One Nigeria, Pre-independence - FREDERICK FORSYTH by laudate: 1:48pm On Nov 26, 2015 |
Promhize: Go and ask Ahmadu-Bello himself. You know where he was buried. |
Re: Northerners Stance On One Nigeria, Pre-independence - FREDERICK FORSYTH by zendy: 3:52pm On Nov 26, 2015 |
laudate: Nonsense. Suspension of parts of the constitution, limitation of press freedom and centralising of powers. These are the hallmarks of every Military rule, anywhere in world. There was no way Ironsi could rule as if he was a civilian ruler. What is important here is if Ironsi introduced the unitary system. Who abolished the regions? Who created States? Who took away resource control and federal fiscal policy? Certainly not Ironsi. Therefore, Ironsi cannot be blamed for the unitary system. But even if Ironsi was the one who did this, who sustained it? Those who killed Irondi said that one of the major reasons they did this was his introduction of unitary rule, why didn't they keep the regions and abrogate the decree when they came to power? Why did the go against the confederation they agreed to in Ghana? Let's not fool ourselves. Murtala and co wanted to pull the North out of Nigeria, but when they were reminded of Oil, they reversed. The North had to get to the oil and the unitary system they claimed they were against was the perfect opportunity to do that. To this day, they are the major proponents of the unitary system 4 Likes |
Re: Northerners Stance On One Nigeria, Pre-independence - FREDERICK FORSYTH by Nobody: 5:26pm On Nov 26, 2015 |
zendy:Exactly. |
Re: Northerners Stance On One Nigeria, Pre-independence - FREDERICK FORSYTH by Duru1(m): 5:35pm On Nov 26, 2015 |
laudate: Ironsi did not take over any government in the zoo called Nigeria. Gen Ironsi was invited to lead a nation without a government, in this case the government has been sacked by a group of junior military officers. One of the drawback about Nigeria is lack of intellectual honesty. 1 Like |
Re: Northerners Stance On One Nigeria, Pre-independence - FREDERICK FORSYTH by laudate: 10:34am On Nov 27, 2015 |
Duru1: Hehehe.... I laugh in Greek. Lack of intellectual honesty is something you would know about, since you practice it a lot. Go and read what happened in the meeting held by the old cabinent ministers, including the late Prince Abyssinia Akweke Nwafor-Orizu the old Senate President and Aguiyi-Ironsi when he took over. In July 2000, at a public book launching ceremony in Nigeria, Chief Richard Akinjide stated: |
Re: Northerners Stance On One Nigeria, Pre-independence - FREDERICK FORSYTH by laudate: 10:47am On Nov 27, 2015 |
zendy: The unification decree paved way for Gowon to come in later and create the states. Stop trying to rewrite history with your silly theories that have no basis in reality. Guy, your lack of understanding and knowledge is so painfully obvious yet, you keep refusing to educate yourself. When Aguiyi-Ironsi promulgated the Unification Decree No. 34 decree, what was it designed to achieve?? Then you turned round to say: " What is important here is if Ironsi introduced the unitary system....." What do you mean by 'If'? Oh, are you saying he did not introduce the unitary system?? And are you really being honest by claiming that: "therefore, Ironsi cannot be blamed for the unitary system?" Must you lie to get your points across? And then you went further to do a distracted dance into the realm of ridiculous antics by trying to deflect attention from Aguiyi-Ironsi and claiming that Gowon did not undo the unification decree done by Ironsi, instead he went ahead to create states. Abeg, stop this silliness. The issue under discussion was that Aguiyi-Ironsi was the first person who destroyed the autonomy and federating structure of the regions, by enacting the unitary system. Every other thing that caused the decline of the regions started with that singular act. Stop trying to exonerate Ironsi, by beating around the bush and throwing Gown, Murtala Mohammed and co. into the mix! Stick to the topic please, and stop digressing using half-baked submissions. 1 Like |
Re: Northerners Stance On One Nigeria, Pre-independence - FREDERICK FORSYTH by zendy: 2:08pm On Nov 27, 2015 |
laudate: Oh so now it is Ironsi that paved the way for unitary rule? It's no longer him that introduced it? You Yorubas can peddle all the lies you like to protect you Hausa-Fulani overlords but one thing is certain. The zoo must fall!! |
Re: Northerners Stance On One Nigeria, Pre-independence - FREDERICK FORSYTH by laudate: 2:19pm On Nov 27, 2015 |
zendy: Abeg, go siddon! How old did you even say you were, again? Nigeria is NOT a zoo. It has not fallen from 1960 till now, and you think it is your childish taunts that would make it fall? And yes, Ironsi not only introduced and paved the way for unitary rule.... In fact, he established it. The Unification Decree No. 34 still stands as evidence of that fact. And one thousand attempts by you to re-write history, will not change that evidence. Finally, if you do not provide proof that Laudate is Yoruba, may it never be well with you in this lifetime and the next. Just swerve, jare! 2 Likes |
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