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Nigeria: The Good, The Bad, The Beautiful, The Ugly. - Politics - Nairaland

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Nigeria: The Good, The Bad, The Beautiful, The Ugly. by naptu2: 5:28am On Oct 01, 2012
Since 2008 I have commemorated Nigeria's independence day with a photologue titled, "Nigeria: The Good, The Bad, The Beautiful, The Ugly". This year, I've decided to post the photologue on Nairaland.

The pictures usually span politics, sports, entertainment, lifestyle, cityscapes, etc.

Sources of the pictures include my book library, Google images, Happy Lagosian, The Nigerian Nostalgia Project and my camera phone.

Contributions are welcome. If you've got any pics that remind you of Nigeria (good, bad, beautiful, ugly), please post them.

Where should I start from? Politics. Yeah, this year I'll do politics, sports, TV, beauty, literature, human rights, cityscape/sights.

Hope you enjoy the pics smiley

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Re: Nigeria: The Good, The Bad, The Beautiful, The Ugly. by naptu2: 5:31am On Oct 01, 2012
[size=14pt]Lagos Treaty of Cessation (1861)[/size]



TREATY WITH LAGOS 1861

Treaty between Norman B. Bedingfield, commander of Her Majesty’s ship “PROMETHEUS” and Senior Officer of the Bights division and William M’coskry esquire, her Britannic Majesty’s acting consul on the part of Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain and Docemo, Oba of Lagos on the part of himself and chiefs.

ARTICLE I

In order that the Queen of England may be the better enabled to assist, defend and protect the inhabitants of Lagos and to put an end to slave trade in this land and the neighbouring countries and to prevent the destructive wars so frequently undertaken by Dahomey and others for the capture of slaves, I, Docemo, do with the consent and advice of my council, give, transfer and by this presents grants and confirm into the Queen of Britain, her heirs and successors for ever, the port and Island of Lagos, with all the rights, profits, territories and appurtenances whatsoever, thereto belonging and as well the profits and revenues as the direct, full and absolute dominion and sovereignity of the said port, Island and premises, with all the royalties thereof, freely, fully, entirely and absolutely.

I do also covenant and grant that the quiet and peaceable possession thereof shall, with all possible speed, be freely and effectually delivered to the Queen of Great Britain or such person as her Majesty shall there unto appoint for her use in the performance of this grant, the inhabitants of the said Island and territories, as the Queen’s subjects and under her sovereignty, Crown jurisdiction and government being still suffered to live there.

Article II

Docemo will be allowed the use of the title Oba in its usual African significance and will be permitted to decide disputes between natives of Lagos with their consent, subject to appeal to the British laws.

Article III

In the transfer of lands, the stamp of Docemo affixed to the document will be proof that there are no other native claims upon it and for the purpose he will be permitted to use it as hitherto.

In consideration of the cessation as before mentioned of the port and Island and territories of Lagos, the representatives of the Queen of Great Britain do promise, subject to the approval of her Majesty, that Docemo shall receive an annual pension from the Queen of Great Britain equal to the revenue hitherto annually received by him; such pension to be paid at such periods and in such mode as may here after be determined.
Lagos August 6, 1861

Signed: Docemo – His X Mark
Telake – His X Mark
Rocamena – His X Mark
Obalekolo – His X Mark
Achebong – His X Mark

Norman B. Bedingfield
Her Majesty’s Ship PROMETHEUS
Senior Officer, Bights Division

W. McCoskry
Acting Consul



Dosunmu was first requested to sign the treaty of cessation aboard the PROMETHEUS. He refused to do so because his chiefs were not with him. the treaty was then presented to him @ his palace on 1st August 1861. Dosunmu refused to sign any paper "giving up his country". He was then threatened by Commander Bedingfield with the bombardment of the town.

Again on the 5th of August, the Acting Consul, William McCoskry and Commander Bedingfield went to Dosunmu at the palace, this time with a guard of marines, who were landed and drawn up alongside the Oba's Palace. the draft treaty containing only Article I was read over and translated into the Yoruba and Portuguese languages. At this point the White Cap (Idejo) Chiefs protested, because they feared that they were about to be deprived of their rights to the land of Lagos, which they've had from time immemorial (traditionally, the Oba owns no land apart from his palace. The land of Lagos is vested in the Idejo: land owning white cap chiefs). They solemnly declared that the Oba had no power to give away their lands (indeed, there were threats of an uprising in Lagos, but the presence of the marines kept things quiet).

At this point Dosunmu desired the Commander and Acting Consul to insert such clauses that would satisfy the Idejo that their rights to private ownership of land was not being abrogated, since the Idejo depended on the land for their livelihood and it belongs to them. It was at this point that articles II and III were inserted into the treaty, but the Idejo refused to ratify the treaty.

Governor Freeman arrived on 22nd January 1862, as the first governor and found that the matter of the treaty was still unsettled. after holding several long "palavers" with the Oba and his Chiefs at Government House, he discovered that the real problem lay with the fear of the Idejo that they would lose their land. He also said that the Oba claimed that he was forced to sign the treaty without knowing its contents. the governor claimed that the Oba's assertion was false, since the treaty was translated into Yoruba and Portuguese. He also claimed that he had succeeded in getting the chiefs to ratify the treaty.

The treaty was signed by "Telake", i.e. Talabi (Talabi was a relative of Dosunmu and a prince of royal blood), "Rocamena", i.e Apena (Apena was a magistrate in Lagos at that time), Obalekoro, i.e Obanikoro (Obanikoro was the Archbishop of Lagos) and Achebong, i.e Ashogbon (Ashogbon was the commander in chief of the Oba's bodyguards).

None of the Idejo signed the treaty.

The Idejo families include

Oniru - they owned Iru (present day Victoria Island & Maroko)

Onikoyi - they owned Ikoyi

Ojora - they owned Ijora

Oluwa - they owned Oluwa (present day Apapa)

Oloto - they owned Oto

Onitolo & Aromire families - together they owned Idumota

Onisiwo _ they owned Tarkwa Bay & Ogogoro village

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Re: Nigeria: The Good, The Bad, The Beautiful, The Ugly. by naptu2: 5:33am On Oct 01, 2012
Oba Adeona Fusigboye (Awujale of Ijebu) with William MacGregor (Governor of Lagos) circa 1899



William MacGregor was a medical doctor & so unsurprisingly, most of his achievements in Lagos were in the field of sanitation and healthcare.

He laid the plans for the Iju Water Works, made a lot of progress in swamp reclamation and dug the MacGregor Canal.

The MacGregor Canal divided Lagos into Lagos Island and Ikoyi Island. Most of it was filled in when construction work began on the Third Mainland Bridge. What’s left is the canal that runs from the Lagos Lagoon, past Dolphin Estate, through Obalende & under Awolowo Road, emptying into Five Cowry Creek.
Re: Nigeria: The Good, The Bad, The Beautiful, The Ugly. by naptu2: 5:36am On Oct 01, 2012
Eshugbayi Eleko (Oba of Lagos) & his Grand Council. Circa 1912



Eshugbayi Eleko, the validly appointed King of Lagos by custom had been deposed by the colonial government in 1925. Part of Eleko’s trouble with the colonial government began with the government’s proposed pipe borne water scheme, estimated to cost about ₤130,000 and the subsequent government proposal that Lagosians should pay the cost because it was for their health. Eleko’s objections were that they had not been informed earlier about this scheme, that it was the Europeans who wanted pipe borne water and should pay for it and that the Lagosians’ old well water was still good enough for them. The press, which may be regarded as representing the vocal educated elite, opposed the water rate not because it objected to taxation, but on the American colonists principle of ‘No taxation without representation’. It said the people had not been consulted and therefore the government had no right to tax them. But despite protests, agitations and petitions from Eleko and other anti-government factions, the Iju waterworks was constructed.

Governor Egerton held out the bait of a town council in which they would participate, but they refused it. There they thought the matter ended, but Egerton suddenly published his House Assessment Ordinance, which, despite denials from the government, the people believed was a prelude towards imposing a water rate. Towards the end of 1908, a mass meeting was called. All the markets were closed, expatriate shops were looted, 15,000 people marched on State House, in response to the call from the Eleko’s bellman (town crier). Egerton was impressed by the traditional elite’s demonstration of
power; so also was the educated elite.

Eleko also fell out with the colonial government when he accepted the invitation from the Central Mosque to approve the appointment of Bashorun Balogun and others. The government believed that this was a purely muslim affair that should have been done in the Central Mosque with its blessings rather than with Eleko’s approval. The government held on to this and used the opportunity to avenge itself for Eleko’s defiance over the water rate levy. It thus withdrew recognition and suspended the Eleko’s stipend. Instead of making life more difficult for Eleko as the colonial government had believed, so as to make him change his mind, the suspension made Eleko more popular. Market women flooded Eleko’s palace with foodstuff, while Chief Oluwa (an Idejo chief) and other members of the Ilu committee made sure that the Oba was financially and materially self sufficient. This was a slap on the face of the colonial government. Seeing this, Yesufu Omo Oba led a pro-government group to the government asking for Eleko to be deposed, while the lawyer Egerton Shyngle led another faction which defended Eleko’s action in approving the Central Mosque appointment. As a result, Eleko was reinstated by Sir Hugh Clifford in 1919.

Finally, the controversial trip of Herbert Macaulay and Chief Amodu Tijani Oluwa to London over the Apapa land case and the statement made by Macaulay to the British press were to have significant effect on the Eleko affair. While in London, Macaulay gave a statement to the British press, saying that Eleko (whose grandfather had ceded Lagos to the British) was the head of seventeen million Nigerians and that Eleko was earning less than the lowest paid European gardener in Lagos, that the pension promised Eleko’s grandfather, Dosunmu, had never been paid, while the colonial government had neither rebuilt his Iga (palace) nor renovated it. This provoked serious reaction from the British government, as the British press played up the statement.

Meanwhile, the colonial government in Lagos was at Eleko’s throat over Macaulay’s statement in London. Eleko denied knowledge of the statement, but admitted giving his staff of office to Oluwa according to native customs. Although his press release of the denial appeared in the newspapers, the government would only be content if Eleko’s bell-ringers (town crier) went round with a denial written on behalf of Eleko by Henry Carr. Eleko bluntly refused. The colonial government reacted by withdrawing its recognition of Eleko as a native chief and stopping his stipend.

On June 10, 1925, nineteen princes (known to be pro-government) signed a letter demanding that Eleko should quit the palace within fourteen days. Their letter was signed by eleven literate princes, while the remaining eight affixed their thumbprints. Another letter was sent to Eleko on June 26 notifying him that Ibikunle Akitoye had been chosen to replace him.

The government sanctioned the deposition and ordered that Eshugbayi should leave Lagos. The Eleko did not comply with the order and on August 8th another order was made against the Eleko. He was thus arrested and exiled to Oyo. Sanusi Olusi was then appointed Oba by the Colonial Government.

Eshugbayi took his case to the Privy Council in London and he was assisted by Herbert Macaulay, who was hell-bent on remedying the damage done to the Eleko by a care free Governor-General.

On reviewing the customary laws of Lagos on the deposition of Eleko and the appointment of another oba, the Privy Council in London found rightly that British administrators in Lagos were beginning to act lawlessly. It stated that no validity could be given to a Lagos custom by the whimsical action of the Nigerian Governor-General of Lagos Colony, because, “it is the assent of a community that gives validity to a customary law”. Hence, the court said that the deposition of Eshugbayi Eleko was completely contrary to customary law. Mr Olusi was politely asked by the Lagos colonial authorities to leave Iga Idungaran soonest. This he did on Wednesday June 28, 1931.

After the privy Council directive of June 1928 in favour of Eleko, Herbert Macaulay’s “Lagos Daily News” published an article alleging that the colonial government was planning to plant gunpowder in the car that would bring Eleko back from Oyo, so that it could explode and kill him. For his publication, Macaulay was given six months imprisonment with hard labour, without option of a fine, while his co-owner of the paper, Dr Caulcrick, was fined £50 with the alternative of a month jail term.

Eshugbayi Eleko later resumed Obaship of Lagos in 1931. in 1933, however, Eshugbayi Eleko died.

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Re: Nigeria: The Good, The Bad, The Beautiful, The Ugly. by naptu2: 5:43am On Oct 01, 2012
Clockwise: Dr (Sir) William MacGregor (Governor of the Colony of Lagos), Lord Frederick Lugard (Governor of Northern Nigeria) & Sir Percy Girourd (Governor of Northern Nigeria)






"There is the chronic and abiding trouble of the secret sedition and disloyalty of Lagos…they are masters of secret intrigue and they have been plotting against the government ceaselessly. I could show you that Lagos has for 20 years past opposed every governor and has fomented strife and bloodshed in the hinterland…I have spent the better part of my life in Africa; my aim has been the betterment of the Natives for whom I have been ready to give my life. But after 29 years and after nearly 12 years as Governor here, I am free to say that the people of Lagos are the lowest, the most seditious and disloyal, the most prompted by purely self-seeking money activities of any people I have ever met." (Lord Lugard to F. Lugard, 9 December 1916)

"Of all Liberties, freedom to know, to speak and to criticise stands first: this freedom is the bugbear of tyrants…A press that is not free cannot achieve a higher standing as an institution than that of a gramophone industry…" (Herbert Macaulay)
Re: Nigeria: The Good, The Bad, The Beautiful, The Ugly. by naptu2: 5:46am On Oct 01, 2012
Eromosele The Great (1876-1921). Onojie of Irrua (picture from a photograph recovered at the ancestral shrine).



Eromosele could be disarmingly nice while planning a ruthless demonstration of his power. Once he took unto himself a wife. He became so fond of this new acquisition that he forgot the one hundred and one other women pinning away unseen in the harem. He could give anything to please this bride. They spent practically the whole day together.

One afternoon, as they sat together on the main throne, the girl lay across his lap and stroked his white beard. Gleefully she said, “Unbelievable! To think this is the Eromosele that all Irrua dread!” “M-h’m!” Eromosele smiled bitterly without ever opening his mouth.

He gave his bride an extra caress, called his chief steward and whispered into his ears. The romance continued until a few hours after which the steward returned, bowed deeply and murmured, “Thy will has been done my lord!”

Eromosele gave one deep yawn and told the bride that it was time they went in for a nap. They arose and the Onojie, anxious to please his beauty, stepped back for her to lead. At the door to the inner quadrangle, the wife discovered that what she nearly stepped upon was a human head. She jumped back, inviting the husband to take a look. With “What’s that?” he made the young woman take a closer look. She screamed, for the head was that of her father! “Go on”, commanded the unruffled monarch. She stepped across and again, she nearly put her delicate foot on something on the other side; she looked, then she fainted. Her mother’s body lay across the other side of the gate! The Onojie fondly put his arm around the girl’s waist and smiled, this time with the beard spread from ear to ear: “That is THE EROMOSELE Irrua knows!”.

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Re: Nigeria: The Good, The Bad, The Beautiful, The Ugly. by naptu2: 5:49am On Oct 01, 2012
Frederick Lugard

Re: Nigeria: The Good, The Bad, The Beautiful, The Ugly. by naptu2: 5:51am On Oct 01, 2012
Lugard's arrival at Calabar on a tour of the Central and Eastern provinces. Dec 1912

Re: Nigeria: The Good, The Bad, The Beautiful, The Ugly. by naptu2: 5:53am On Oct 01, 2012
Lord Lugard

Re: Nigeria: The Good, The Bad, The Beautiful, The Ugly. by naptu2: 5:55am On Oct 01, 2012
Re: Nigeria: The Good, The Bad, The Beautiful, The Ugly. by naptu2: 5:57am On Oct 01, 2012
Herbert Macaulay

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Re: Nigeria: The Good, The Bad, The Beautiful, The Ugly. by naptu2: 5:59am On Oct 01, 2012
Herbert Samuel Heelas Macaulay



Herbert Samuel Heelas Macaulay & Henry Rawlinson Carr

Henry Carr stated that “Lagos was led by a little clique of ambitious and vainglorious men led by an evil genius who owned a sensationalist newspaper (the Lagos Daily News)”. “Among all the human monsters with whom we have been brought into contact, none has displayed the devilish ingenuity of this man”. Macaulay was a “desperate enemy of society; my hatred will only finish with my life”. Macaulay was, in Carr’s opinion, a disquieting factor in the public peace and should be banished “as a crooked mind and a dangerous fool”.

According to Herbert Macaulay’s malicious account, in a pamphlet published in 1924 entitled “Henry Carr must go”, Carr’s father was Amuwo Carr, a liberated Saro emigrant, popularly known as Daddy Shope, who deserted his wife Rebecca Carr, “a devout Christian woman” to settle in Abeokuta as a happy polygamist. The young Carr helped his mother after school hours by selling fufu and beads. Carr replied that the pamphlet was “nothing but the ravings of a lunatic…(of) a mind coarse, of gross perception, and with a disastrous lack of delicacy”.

To Macaulay, Carr was “a disappointed and disgruntled parvenu”, whose one passion was to clamour for promotion.

A fierce hatred existed between Henry Carr and Herbert Macaulay and the political troubles of Lagos were largely due to the antipathy between them. Carr believed that the best way to secure a better life for Lagosians was by working with and through the colonial government. He had risen through the colonial service to occupy the highest position held by an African; the post of Resident (commissioner) for the Colony. He was a successfully assimilated African (the ideal common to many of the modern elite of his day), who believed that it was right for the African to be as European as possible. Carr declared himself and people like him “not Europeanised natives, but men transformed (transfigured) into Europeans”. Therefore, he argued, blacks who, like himself, came from a certain class ought to be allowed to go on leave to England, just as their white counterparts did, “for health reasons”.

Macaulay disagreed. He found expression in his idea of nationhood, in his recognition of the customs of the people, their institutions and their land. The government’s assault on native rights and Macaulay’s defence of them were the main causes of neo-traditional nationalism, without which, political nationalism would have been considerably delayed.

Herbert Samuel Heelas Macaulay

Herbert Macaulay was born on 14 November 1864, into an already famous family; his grandfather was Bishop Crowther, first black bishop of the Anglican Church and his father was Reverend T.B Macaulay, first principal of CMS Grammar School, Lagos. His father was a strict disciplinarian and Macaulay grew up in a rigid Victorian household. “Seven”, once wrote Macaulay, “is a holy number…I was the seventh child of my parents…I was a holy child, innocent and lovable…my mother generally dressed me in a suit of purple silk velvet knickerbockers…(and) coat to match…but excessive kneeling at prayers soon left a circular worn patch in the velvet breeches”. “I was presented every day to Governor Glover who used to visit my father every evening”. Macaulay attended the Lagos Grammar School and became the first Nigerian to be sponsored by the colonial government for a professional course abroad when he won a scholarship to study land surveying and civil engineering at Plymouth, England in 1890 (some say the scholarship was awarded as an appreciative gesture for the work of his grandfather, Bishop Ajayi Crowther). He also studied piano tuning in London.

Returning to Nigeria in 1893, Macaulay joined the colonial civil service as government surveyor in charge of crown grants, a function that not only introduced him to the land situation in Lagos, but also gave him an insight into the irregularities of the colonial administration. Macaulay served the government diligently until he became disenchanted with its racist policies. Macaulay’s first personal experience of colonial injustice was when, as a surveyor, he was given a salary of £120 per annum, despite Governor Carter’s recommendation that his minimum pay should be £250 (the amount being paid to his British colleagues). This and a succession of other events led to Macaulay’s resignation from the service.

Macaulay then engaged in politics in order to fight for the rights of Nigerians. In 1912 he led a delegation to protest against the government’s decision to place lands in the Northern Provinces of Nigeria “under the control of the Governor who shall hold and administer them for the use and common benefit of the natives” and to do likewise in the Southern Provinces. He was subsequently jailed for this. He was also a key character in the celebrated Oluwa land case. Macaulay also founded the Lagos Daily News as a means of enlightening the people. In 1922 he founded the Nigerian National Democratic Party (NNDP), Nigeria’s first political party. When Nnamdi Azikiwe formed the NCNC in 1944, Macaulay was made its first national president. It was in the course of leading the party in a nationwide campaign tour in 1946 that he was taken ill and died in Kano on May 7, 1946.

Macaulay and Carr share the distinction of being the greatest bibliophiles in Nigerian history. No one can possibly write about Lagos history and politics without consulting the thousands of files collected by Macaulay on just about every subject in Lagos history. He was known as the “Wizard of Kirsten Hall”, because of his ability to obtain classified information, which he used to devastating effect. His network of informers would be the envy of a modern intelligence service. He paid handsomely for this information, but his real asset was that those who gave him information genuinely believed that he would use it in the national interest.

Herbert Macaulay was an extremely superstitious man. His files were filled with documents of fortune tellers and diviners, with full instructions on taboos and other occult practices. To give an example, one Mustapha, an Indian diviner, warned Macaulay about women: he should not receive any food from any woman; allow a woman into his bedroom or have an affair with any woman before she had a “bath in your presence in your home”.

Macaulay was also a great socialite: he electrified the social life in Lagos before what Echeruo called the “death’ of the peculiarly Victorian Lagos society at the end of the nineteenth century. He was a regular feature at the numerous “at homes”, “conversaziones” concerts, shows, etc., that were part of Lagos society. It was in this milieu that he came to acknowledge the gift that was to stand him in good stead during his quarrel with the government over the Eleko – his remarkable genius for organising things and people.

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Re: Nigeria: The Good, The Bad, The Beautiful, The Ugly. by naptu2: 6:02am On Oct 01, 2012
Henry Rawlinson Carr



Henry Carr was born on August 15 1863 in Lagos. He was the son of Sierra-Leonean emigrants of Egba origins, Amuwo Carr and Rebecca Carr. He had his elementary education at the St Paul’s (Breadfruit) School between 1869 and 1870, but finished schooling at the Olowogbowo Wesleyan Elementary School, also in Lagos, which he attended from 1871 to 1873. In 1874, he enrolled at the newly opened Wesleyan Boys High School in Freetown, Sierra Leone. He entered Fourah Bay College in 1877 and obtained, with honours, the Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics and physics in 1882, at the age of 19. He was the first student of the college to obtain an honours degree. He left for Britain an enrolled at Lincoln’s Inn, St Mark’s College in Chelsea and the Royal College of Science in South Kensington, also in London.

On his return to Nigeria in June 1885, after an absence of 12 years, Carr was appointed senior assistant master at the Church Missionary Society (CMS) Grammar School, in Lagos. In 1889, he was invited by the colonial governor to join the civil service as Chief Clerk and Sub-Inspector of Schools for Lagos, becoming, the following year, the Assistant Colonial Secretary for Native Affairs. He later returned to the Department of Education as Provincial Inspector, then Chief Inspector of Schools in Southern Nigeria and Commissioner (Resident) of the Colony of Lagos, from which post he retired on August 1 1924, at the age of 61. He was appointed to the Legislative Council in 1928 and served as an adviser to the government until 1941.

In 1906, Henry Carr received the Master of Arts and Bachelor of Civil Law Degrees from Durham University. In the King’s Birthday Honours of 1920 he was made a Companion of the Imperial Service Order. Later, he received the Commander of the Order of the British Empire and also the honorary degrees of Master of Science and Doctor of Civil Law.

Henry Carr died on March 6 1945.

Carr’s erudition was phenomenal. When he died in 1945 he left a library of 18,000 books each, of which, Rossiter believes, showed marks of a personal selection. Carr left his library, which formed the foundation of the library of the University of Ibadan, to the Nigerian Government.

Carr’s rivalry with Herbert Macaulay was fierce. As far as Carr was concerned, Macaulay was an egotist who could never conceive of himself as making a mistake or look upon an opponent as anything but a villain. The politics of Lagos, which Macaulay dominated after 1919, were, according to Carr, simply a contest in competitive mass bribery, an appeal to the cupidity of the people. Lagos affected by “rampant racialism and nationalist feeling”, began to show a strain of primitivism. Nationalism was a disease that Carr wished Lagos could avoid.

According to Macaulay, Carr’s appointment as provincial commissioner was highly irregular. The post was created mainly to remove Carr from the education department, where he ought to have become director of education; Carr was given none of the functions which Lugard in his 1918 political memoranda specified as part of the office of resident. Lagos was not a province; therefore, the resident could not be the senior government official in the area and not being a province, the resident could not exercise, as Lugard’s memoranda expected residents to do, a close supervision over Lagos.

Carr invented numerous excuses for avoiding uneducated Africans, for whom he had an aversion. But he was a tremendous fighter for his own welfare and prestige within the colonial service.

Carr was essentially an elitist: he had no patience with the masses, whom he considered to be “sheep-like-ready to follow where they are led”. He was not much impressed by the argument that majority of the people might want what he considered unprofitable. He characterised the illiterate masses as swayed more by emotion than reason, with emotions more suited to market women than men. Lagos politics he thought “a kind of systematic insanity”; the people of Lagos had refused to think for themselves: they had placed their trust in a leader who retained his hold over them “by stirring up mob emotions, by using tricks, mass propaganda, hate drill and all kinds of mumbo-jumbo”. Their profession of patriotism was a smoke screen to hide spite, greed, dishonesty and vanity.

Carr was therefore a good example of Malcolm X’s veritable “house Negro”. Unloved by all sections of Lagos community, he found solace, again like the “house Negro”, in Christianity.
Herbert Macaulay could not have been more different from Carr in character, looks and personality. Macaulay was flamboyant and resplendent, while Carr was quietly conservative. Macaulay was ebullient, effervescent and charming. Carr was foreboding, dour, shy, stolid and withdrawn. Macaulay had the most improbable handlebar moustache, which made him look like a cunning playboy and he was something of a daredevil. The indigenes of Lagos could understand and love Macaulay as they never could Carr.

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Re: Nigeria: The Good, The Bad, The Beautiful, The Ugly. by naptu2: 6:04am On Oct 01, 2012
Re: Nigeria: The Good, The Bad, The Beautiful, The Ugly. by naptu2: 6:06am On Oct 01, 2012
Omo n'Oba n'Edo Uku Akpolokpolo Akenzua II (Oba of Benin) with Queen Elizabeth II (of the United Kingdom) & Prince Philip (Duke of Edinburgh)

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Re: Nigeria: The Good, The Bad, The Beautiful, The Ugly. by naptu2: 6:08am On Oct 01, 2012
Oba Akenzua shakes hands with Queen Elizabeth. With them is Chief Obafemi Awolowo (Premier of the Western Region)

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Re: Nigeria: The Good, The Bad, The Beautiful, The Ugly. by naptu2: 6:09am On Oct 01, 2012
Queen Elizabeth @ State House Marina in 1956


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5e75cgmKEF0
Re: Nigeria: The Good, The Bad, The Beautiful, The Ugly. by naptu2: 6:12am On Oct 01, 2012
Ereko Market decorated for the visit of Queen Elizabeth II in 1956

Re: Nigeria: The Good, The Bad, The Beautiful, The Ugly. by naptu2: 6:14am On Oct 01, 2012
Oba Adeniji Adele II (Oba of Lagos) introduces his chiefs to Queen Elizabeth II

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Re: Nigeria: The Good, The Bad, The Beautiful, The Ugly. by naptu2: 6:15am On Oct 01, 2012
Prince Adeniji Adele (c. 1920)

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Re: Nigeria: The Good, The Bad, The Beautiful, The Ugly. by naptu2: 6:17am On Oct 01, 2012
Oba Adeniji Adele II (Oba of Lagos)

Re: Nigeria: The Good, The Bad, The Beautiful, The Ugly. by naptu2: 6:39am On Oct 01, 2012

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Re: Nigeria: The Good, The Bad, The Beautiful, The Ugly. by naptu2: 6:41am On Oct 01, 2012
The Governor-General, Sir James Robertson, checks an elector's registration card during his tour of polling stations. Federal elections of Saturday, December 12th, 1959. (Picture from "The Nigerian Federal Elections of 1959: Politics and Administration in a Developing Political System" by KWJ Post)

Re: Nigeria: The Good, The Bad, The Beautiful, The Ugly. by naptu2: 6:43am On Oct 01, 2012
The Race-Course, Lagos "scoreboard" showing results of the Federal elections of Saturday, December 12th, 1959.

Re: Nigeria: The Good, The Bad, The Beautiful, The Ugly. by naptu2: 6:45am On Oct 01, 2012
Princess Alexandria & Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa. Oct 1st 1960



Princess Alexandria in Nigeria (march to independence)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqp85MuZxPQ
Re: Nigeria: The Good, The Bad, The Beautiful, The Ugly. by naptu2: 6:46am On Oct 01, 2012
Sir James Robertson (Governor General) & Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa (Prime Minister). Oct 1st 1960

Re: Nigeria: The Good, The Bad, The Beautiful, The Ugly. by naptu2: 6:56am On Oct 01, 2012
Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa (Prime Minister of Nigeria), Princess Alexandria (representative of Queen Elizabeth II) & Sir James Robertson (Governor General of Nigeria) @ State House Marina. Behind them are Tafawa Balewa’s ministers (including Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh, Alhaji Muhammadu Ribadu, Otunba T.O.S Benson & Raymond Njoku).

Re: Nigeria: The Good, The Bad, The Beautiful, The Ugly. by naptu2: 6:59am On Oct 01, 2012
Nnamdi Benjamin Azikiwe (Governor General of Nigeria)



Video: Nnamdi Azikiwe's inauguration as the first African Governor General of The Federation of Nigeria on November 16th, 1960 at the Race Course in Lagos.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b75L8z1xxdI
Re: Nigeria: The Good, The Bad, The Beautiful, The Ugly. by naptu2: 7:01am On Oct 01, 2012
Alhaji (Sir) Abubakar Tafawa Balewa (Prime Minister of Nigeria), Otunba T.O.S Benson (Minister of Information, Nigeria) & General Dwight David Eisenhower (President of the United States).




Alh. Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa official visit to USA in July 25-28 1961


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT5m9Fn9RBg
Re: Nigeria: The Good, The Bad, The Beautiful, The Ugly. by Mustay(m): 7:04am On Oct 01, 2012
Nice collections. Some of us need to go back to the past so we know where we are coming from. May they read and learn before writing carelessly.
Re: Nigeria: The Good, The Bad, The Beautiful, The Ugly. by naptu2: 7:05am On Oct 01, 2012
Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa at the UN General Assembly.

Re: Nigeria: The Good, The Bad, The Beautiful, The Ugly. by naptu2: 7:08am On Oct 01, 2012
Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and Kids



Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa took his only annual leave in 1963, which he decided to spend in his village. A British photojournalist came down to Lagos to interview the Prime Minister, but was told that the P.M was on vacation. He asked to which country, but was shocked to hear that the P.M was in his village. On getting to the village, there was no evidence or paraphernalia to show that a “big man” was there; everyone was busy with their chores. He met a farmer with his donkey, carrying bales of sugarcane for the P.M’s home and he was utterly speechless when the farmer said, “I just left him. You will see him sitting on the floor with his kids, eating the sugarcane that I just gave them”. He met them like that and took this picture.

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