A flyer from 1947 surfaced on social media last week publicising an event entitled “How can Nigeria help Britain”, organised by the Pan African Federation of Great Britain. Speakers at the event included a delegation of the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC) headed by Nnamdi Azikiwe (Zik). Zik at the time was a firebrand nationalist leading the agitation for the independence of Nigeria from British colonial rule, which made him an “enemy” of the British state. The NCNC delegation were meant to be on a “goodwill mission”. But that wasn’t how it was seen in official circles at the centre of the British government.

This was clear from a letter published under the British Documents on the End of Empire Project (BDEEP) by the the Institute of Commonwealth Studies in the University of London. The letter came from George Beresford-Stooke, Chief Secretary to the colonial government in Nigeria, to A B Cohen, who was the Assistant under-secretary (director) for the Africa Division in the Colonial Office, “describing views of Nigerian govt on Dr Azikiwe’s personality, his methods, his delegation and his financial support”.

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