A historical factual piece on the misconception that Northern Nigeria sustained Southern Nigeria Prior the discovery of Crude Oil by my erstwhile Prof of Sociology. Dept of Sociology and Anthropology Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma
Professor Ijeoma hits Professor Anglo with facts
OPEN LETTER TO PROF. ANGO ABDULAHI
By. Prof B. I. C. IJOMAH
June 21, 2017
Prof. Ango Abdullahi,
OUR attention has been drawn to your statements in Vanguard
of Saturday, June 10, 2017. You are alleged to be in support of
the call on the Igbo to quit. It is unfortunate, grossly
unfortunate, that a scholar of your calibre will be so partisan
as to be unable to see the wisdom in retaining Nigeria as a
corporate entity. I know you have, in the past, been anti-Igbo.
One would have thought that our education exposes us to a
level where we can live even with our enemies. You said in the
alleged publication that, “each year up to the time Nigeria
gained its independence, none of the two regions East and
West was able to produce for its self. I mean none of the
Western and Eastern Regions had the money to effectively run
the affairs of the region until they got financial support from
the Northern Region.” It is this assumption of yours that I want
to address.
First of all it is not true that the North had bailed out Eastern
Region or the Western Region. But you claim that even before
independence none of the regions could live without Northern
subvention. Let me draw your attention to the facts before
independence. You should read W.M.M Geary’s work titled “
Nigeria under the British Rule” published by the Cass and
Company Limited, London (1927).
Subsidizing the North. May I draw your attention especially to
pages 124 and 125. You will see published, General Revenue
for the Northern and Southern Protectorates before the
Amalgamation and the Percentage of Total Revenue
originating from the North. You will see that contrary to your
argument, it was indeed the South that was subsidizing the
North. I am reproducing the tables here for clarity.
I also draw your attention to Abstracts of Revenue, 1809 to
1913 . You will also see that the North could not have survived
without the Imperial grant and the support of the South. When
you look at the third table, Northern Nigeria revenue paid by
the South and the Imperial grant, it will disabuse your mind
and show you that without the South and the Imperial grant,
the Northern government/states could not have existed.
Indeed, one of the reasons for the amalgamation was the fact
that the British colonial government was tired of carrying the
burden of the North and they thought that by merging the
Southern and Northern protectorates, the country would be
stable. Indeed, the circumstances that forced the British
government to amalgamate the Northern protectorate and the
Southern protectorate on January 1, 1914 were motivated
neither by political exigencies nor by a closer cultural
understanding among the diverse elements of the
conglomeration that was later to be called Nigeria. It is
obvious that the primary interest of the British government
was economic.
It was also obvious that the Northern protectorate, because of
its geographical location and cloudy economic prospects, was
not likely to be viable.
In fact, the Lugard administration was finding it rather difficult
to maintain the Northern protectorate which was already
running into deficit. Testifying to the financial difficulty of the
North and the anticipated prosperity that would follow the
projected amalgamation of the Northern protectorate with the
Southern protectorate, Lord Lugard reported that “the
prosperity of the Southern protectorate as evidenced by the
liquor trade, had risen by 57 per cent. In fact, the liquor trade
alone yielded a revenue of One Million, One Hundred and
Thirty-Eight Thousand pounds (£1,138,000) in 1913. This he
believed was the result of amalgamation of the Lagos colony
with the Southern protectorate.
The Northern administration could not have survived without
the imperial grant-in-aid which in the year before the
amalgamation stood at One Hundred and Thirty Six thousand
Pounds, (£136,000) and had averaged Three Hundred and
Fourteen Thousand, Five Hundred Pounds (£314,500) for the
eleven years ending in March, 1912. Besides, the burden of
financing the North seemed to have been resisted and bitterly
criticized by the Southerners. The expenditure of the British
tax payer’s money in financing a colonial territory was a
contradiction of the British colonial policy enunciated sixty
(60) years before by L. Gray which stipulated that “the surest
test for the soundness of measures for improvement of an
uncivilized people is that they should be self-supporting.”
Economic position
This is by L. Gray in The Colonial Policy of the Administration
of Lord Russell, London: Cass and Company Limited, 1853,
page 281″ . Further, the Northern protectorate was not only
land-locked but bounded by territories that fell under the
influence of other European powers. It was, therefore,
inconceivable how the economic position would have
improved without aid from the South.
The only alternative open to Lord Lugard was to amalgamate
the North and the South and thus have a legitimate reason for
the expenditure of revenue from the South in developing the
North. Details of this manouevre was laid bare in a letter
written by Lord Lugard on November 22, 1912 to his wife
explaining how he had used the Southern resources to finance
the Northern deficit.
Regardless of the merit which Sir F.D Lugard saw in his
financial amalgamation of the South and the North, the
prevalence of bitter criticism in the South shows the
unpopularity of the amalgamation. At that time, the export
from the South stood at Five Million, One Hundred and
Twenty-Two Thousand Pounds (£5,232,000) while the export
from the North stood at Two Hundred Thousand Pounds
(£200,000) in 1910. This was very discouraging to the colonial
system and called for urgent remedy. On Tuesday, January 31,
1911, there were attacks on the colonial secretary’s suggestion
that the South should advance a loan of Two Hundred
Thousand Pounds (£200,000) to the North for the completion
of the Baro to Kano railway, in addition to the sum of One
Million, Two Hundred and Thirty Thousand which was required
from the South.
One of the criticisms of the Northern dependence on the
South was voiced out by Honourable Sapara Williams who
contended that before the loan was to be granted, the
Secretary of State should settle the type of relationship that
existed between Lagos and Zungeru, the two administrative
headquarters for the South and the North respectively.
Existing hostility
He contended that as far as he was concerned, that the
Southerners were strangers to anything connected with the
railway after it has passed Offa, the last Yoruba town on the
line. He referred to the existing hostility between the North
and the South, particularly as regards the issues of extending
the Northern boundary of the Southern protectorate to
incorporate Yoruba territories now locked up in the Northern
protectorate. My dear Professor, the hostility of the
Northerners towards the Southerners is not new in the
Nigerian history. Even during the time of Sapara Williams, the
Northerners did not see anything reasonable in the
relationship with the South.
You will recall the massacres of the Igbos in Jos in 1945; you
will recall the massacres of the Igbos in Kano in 1953; you will
recall the massacres that preceded the civil war. If we cannot
live together, Mr. Professor, don’t you think that it is high time
we told ourselves the naked truth.
You will also recall that in 1964, after the crisis that followed
the elections, that Dr. Nnamdi Azikwe had called on Nigerians
to call a round table conference to discuss how we could share
our assets if it was impossible for us to live together. We kept
on patching this unpatchable relationship. In my honest
opinion, this relationship has soured enough that it will take
the wisdom of God to make us love one another.
We went to Aburi and there the leaders agreed that the only
solution to our problems was to have a confederation but
Gowon reneged. You will recall also that the British
government, after the crisis of 1951-1952, realized that this
country could not be a unitary state and they brought in the
1953 constitution which gave us regional autonomy. If the
colonial masters in their wisdom knew that we could not be a
unitary government and gave us what we had at
independence, we should have respected their wisdom.
You will also recall that after the civil war, the regional
autonomy which our independence conferred on us was
violated by the military government led by the Northern
soldiers. We ended up having this contraption that we are
having now; it has not worked. It will not work, unless there is
proper restructuring of the nation. We should stop pretending.
I believe in all sincerity that if we cannot accommodate every
segment of the federation in one Nigeria, we should call a
constitutional conference to decide how this country can be
restructured so that every area can take care of itself and we
can relate on certain agreed basis.
We have slaughtered ourselves enough. We do not want
another civil war in order to justify the existence of “One
Nigeria”.
May I humbly call on all Nigerians to examine the last
constitutional conference which addressed the issue of
restructuring. Let us not leave it to our youths to tell us when
we can stay together or when we cannot stay together. The
youths in Biafra are crying; the youths in the North are crying;
the Niger Delta youths are crying. The middle belt is not happy
with what is happening to them.
Added to these, the strategies of the herdsmen to penetrate
every nook and corner of Nigeria, is raising some issues for
national discourse. The Federal Government has deliberately
refused to call the herdsmen to order. They have killed many
people and ravaged many communities. None of them has
been arrested. Why? In May 2016, I published two articles and
warned that the activities of the herdsmen was a plot which
would soon cover the whole country. The heavy silence of the
Federal Government tends to support the view that the
herdsmen are on an undisclosed mission which only time
would tell.
The Government must listen to the call for restructuring in
order to have a workable nation.
The military, for partisan reasons, jettisoned the
independence constitution and foisted an unworkable
constitution on Nigeria. Let us be humble and accept that we
made a gross mistake by throwing away our independence
constitution. It is now clear that unless we return to a structure
that guarantees regional autonomy, there will be no peace in
this country. The earlier we returned to regional autonomy the
better for us.
Regional autonomy
I want you to look at the tables I have given you to see that
your postulation that the North, before independence, had
been carrying the burden of the South is a fallacy. The
statistics I have given you here were not compiled by me. They
were compiled by the colonial government in 1809 and 1813.
They show that the North has always been the Southern
burden. Even in this administration, without the resources
from the South, the North cannot make it. This is a gospel
truth. But if the North believes it can go without the South,
what prevents us from restructuring so that the North can be
on its own and the South can be on its own.
Let us call on our government to look seriously at this
unworkable structure called Nigeria. We must not allow our
youths to be slaughtered again defending the indefensible.
This federation as it is, is unworkable.
My dear Professor let us come together as scholars and look
at our country very objectively. You may also want to read
some of my works such as: Nigerian Nationalism & the
Problems of Socio-Political Integration and
Quo Vadis ( Where Are You Going) Nigeria?& Other Essays.
My sincere regards
Prof. B.I.C Ijomah

That abokiii lecturer have been school free, no school fees required. Let's see if Afonjas will put their own nosy mouth

Lemme also draw back history o that stupid anti-igbo prof notice under clifford constitution 1922, the north were not also recognized even as a protectorate cause they were still sulking from British, back to 1944 Richard constitution the level of their dependences to the south and eastern region were high and the level of their religion played a vital role in submissiveness to their gullible nature...
However that doesn't stop. The master from supporting them based on the fact that indirect rule was more successful in the north than any other region!!!
Even as at today they still feed from the south no wonder they fear for restructuring of the country to true federalism...
My submission am tired of this yahoo yahoo set of government

Wisdom always silence Foolishness every single time.

Now lets wait and see what the deranged conductor professor has in reply.

Am sure he'll start attacking persons, instead of provide equally intelligent facts to support his rather ignorant claims.

Now we can differentiate between a real professor and a supposed professor who got his professorship through political Jingoism.

A politically incoherent professor of confusion.

This will probably be buried here. As Seun and his moderators will do anything to keep his pay master happy.

Our neighbors are funny but serious people. They brag about destroying the ibos and their properties. They brag about taking over our properties. When they said one Nigeria, we started developing. We started building. Then, they started making roles and laws to stop us from having rights to our properties. When we started building industries and pharmaceutical companies they started making it hard for ibo man to own business. We invest a lot in education, train our daughters more than our sons, they introduced quotas to stop them from reaching their heights. They set higher cut off marks for our children to enter higher institutions at the same time, made it easy for their own children. They use every arms of government to impede on our progress.

ochobaba:
Lemme also draw back history o that stupid anti-igbo prof notice under clifford constitution 1922, the north were not also recognized even as a protectorate cause they were still sulking from British, back to 1944 Richard constitution the level of their dependences to the south and eastern region were high and the level of their religion played a vital role in submissiveness to their gullible nature...
However that doesn't stop. The master from supporting them based on the fact that indirect rule was more successful in the north than any other region!!!
Even as at today they still feed from the south no wonder they fear for restructuring of the country to true federalism...
My submission am tired of this yahoo yahoo set of government

The source in your pic is about as credible as NTA's weather forecast

[color=#990000][/color]Who does not know that Ango Abdullahi is a quota system professor?!

backed by valid scholarship