naptu2:
I once saw a picture of it and a picture of the signing ceremony, but I was unable to see the contents. I can however provide some information that might help your search.

The document was signed by Princess Alexandria (on behalf of the Queen) and Tafawa Balewa at the Independence Hall of the Federal Palace Hotel on Victoria Island.

I do not think that it is like the US declaration of independence. Remember that the US got its independence via a war, while we didn't fight a war to get our independence. Remember that the US declaration of independence was signed by the 13 colonies while they were still at war with Britain and also remember that the US constitution did not exist at that time. Whereas, in the case of Nigeria, the 1960 constitution already existed by the time that the Nigerian declaration of independence was signed. That's why the 1957 and 1958 constitutional conferences and the 1960 and 1963 constitutions are more important to nigerians than the 1960 and 1963 declarations of independence.


(The Independence Hall is now part of Federal Palace Hotel's casino).

Suprnov3r:
This is a serious question that needs to be addressed. Lawmakers have to be called out to request for this document. It will be a starter for peaceful resolution of this restructuring crisis

tsdarkside:
why do you care about it ....

go ask the ancestors that signed it...

Reyginus:
When was Nigeria's Declaration of Independence signed?

naptu2:


1) 1960. Signed by Princess Alexandria and Tafawa Balewa at the Independence Hall of the Federal Palace Hotel (I can't remember if it was on October 1st or 2nd).

2) 1963. Another declaration was signed when Nigeria became a republic. This was in tandem with the 1963 constitution which made Nigeria totally independent (the Queen was no longer our head of state and the Privy Council was no longer our highest court).

gartamanta:
Nigerian Declaration of Independence? No such document exists because the various ethnic nationalities never formally came together to declare their allegiance to a Nigerian Nation.

Reyginus:
Do you have any link to this so I can verify and possibly know more about it?

naptu2:


I watched a video of the 1960 ceremony and saw a picture of the document a long time ago. I'm still searching for the picture and video, but the information is also presently on the Federal Palace website and on other material about the hotel.

I haven't seen any evidence of the 1963 document, but I was told about it.

Reyginus:
You mean this site http://www.suninternational.com/federal-palace/

naptu2:


Nope. It's the parent company's website (Sun International). You can also see other links below. I'm still going to try and find the picture and video I saw, but it's a long time since I saw it (more than ten years ago).



http://www.suninternational.com/stories/travel/legend-of-giants/
http://www.dailytrust.com.ng/sunday/index.php/business/576-nigeria-is-good-investment-destination-but

https://hotels.ng/hotel/29298-the-federal-palace-hotel-lagos

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Palace_Hotel

Here is a picture of the Independence Hall (President Carter of the US and General Obasanjo signed another agreement here in 1978).

www.nairaland.com/attachments/3291595_1042158115951175674122118703552695996407887n_jpeg41bde9686de579a602498519b7c8f82e

LoveDecay:
Nigeria does not have a declaration of independence. Nigeria, did not fight for independence it was peacefully offered because of the trend in the Region. This is why Nigeria is still the best nation in sub-saharan africa, these issue we are going through by the special grace of God - we shall overcome.

BIAFRA can have one, South Sudan can have one, America can have one, they shed blood for it and fought for it hence a declaration.

Please, learn to use scholar.google.com to ask these stupid questions you have. Stop behaving like IPOB and Bokoharam or El-Zaky followers who have weak reasoning power. if thier is such a term.

PS: nairaland need autocorrect, i am not correcting the speliing correctio

Reyginus:
Yeah. I've read it all even the redirect but still didn't see it. What do you think is responsible for the secrecy? Or is it a document signed by some Nigerians for the British? Are you even sure there's anything in the content of the back cover you saw? If there's who reasoned it and when? So many questions begging for answers.

naptu2:


1) Personally I believe it's because it's not that important. In politics and administration there's something called "the ecology of politics". What this basically means is that before implementing any policy or programme, you have to look at the context of the particular place. That determines if the policy or programme is workable. What worked somewhere else might not work in the particular place that you want to implement it.

In this particular case, the declaration of independence is not as important to Nigerians as the 1957 and '58 constitutional conferences and the 1960 and 1963 constitutions. These were the means by which nigerians decided how they wanted to live after independence and these were the means by which they exerted their independence. Remember that the conferences and the 1960 constitution were in place before the declaration was signed. This is very different from the situation in the US where the declaration of independence was the first means by which the 13 colonies could independently decide how they wanted to live.

2) General Nigerian incompetence and laxity.

There are tons of important nigerian historical materials that are not on the internet and are difficult to find. That's one of the problems I have on nairaland, because there are a lot of things I've seen in the past that are not on line (to young people today, if something is not online = it doesn't exist). A few days ago I was telling a nairalander how a lot of videos about Nigeria's history have been wiped off by officials at the NTA.

I'll give you another example. I personally saw President Babangida sign the order to move the Federal Government from Lagos to Abuja in 1990. He signed it with a golden pen and gave everybody present gifts of golden pens. Good luck finding that document. I've even read seasoned internet historians say that there were no ceremonies to mark the movement of the capital (they say that Babangida fled Lagos in a hurry and without ceremony because of the SAP riots and Orkar Coup). I watched those ceremonies and attended some of them (the carnival on Catholic Mission Street, the commissioning of 3rd Mainland Bridge, the tree planting ceremony at City Hall, the state banquet at City Hall, the signing ceremony at Dodan Barracks, the flight around Lagos, etc). Good luck finding videos and pictures of those events.

naptu2:


1) Personally I believe it's because it's not that important. In politics and administration there's something called "the ecology of politics". What this basically means is that before implementing any policy or programme, you have to look at the context of the particular place. That determines if the policy or programme is workable. What worked somewhere else might not work in the particular place that you want to implement it.

In this particular case, the declaration of independence is not as important to Nigerians as the 1957 and '58 constitutional conferences and the 1960 and 1963 constitutions. These were the means by which nigerians decided how they wanted to live after independence and these were the means by which they exerted their independence. Remember that the conferences and the 1960 constitution were in place before the declaration was signed. This is very different from the situation in the US where the declaration of independence was the first means by which the 13 colonies could independently decide how they wanted to live.

So, for example, the US declaration of independence was an agreement between the 13 colonies. No representative of the British Government signed it. The nigerian declaration of independence was signed by Princess Alexandria on behalf of Great Britain and Tafawa Balewa on behalf of Nigeria. Now the 1957 and '58 constitutional conferences resulted in agreements between the three regions (each region sent 10 delegates and five advisers. The composition of the delegations reflected the ethnic groups in each region), the Federal Nigerian Government (Balewa and his ministers) and the British Government.


2) General Nigerian incompetence and laxity.

There are tons of important nigerian historical materials that are not on the internet and are difficult to find. That's one of the problems I have on nairaland, because there are a lot of things I've seen in the past that are not on line (to young people today, if something is not online = it doesn't exist). A few days ago I was telling a nairalander how a lot of videos about Nigeria's history have been wiped off by officials at the NTA.

I'll give you another example. I personally saw President Babangida sign the order to move the Federal Government from Lagos to Abuja in 1990. He signed it with a golden pen and gave everybody present gifts of golden pens. Good luck finding that document. I've even read seasoned internet historians say that there were no ceremonies to mark the movement of the capital (they say that Babangida fled Lagos in a hurry and without ceremony because of the SAP riots and Orkar Coup). I watched those ceremonies and attended some of them (the carnival on Catholic Mission Street, the commissioning of 3rd Mainland Bridge, the tree planting ceremony at City Hall, the state banquet at City Hall, the signing ceremony at Dodan Barracks, the flight around Lagos, etc). Good luck finding videos and pictures of those events.