Herbert Macaulay (1864-1945) was a
Nigerian political leader. One of the first
leaders of the Nigerian opposition to
British colonial rule, he was also a civil
engineer, journalist, and accomplished
musician. Born in Lagos, Herbert Macaulay was the son
of the Reverend Thomas Babington Macaulay,
prominent Lagos missionary and educator, and
the maternal grandson of Samuel Ajayi
Crowther, first African bishop of the Niger
Territory. Receiving his early education in the mission schools of Lagos, Macaulay in 1881
became a clerk in the Public Works
Department in Lagos. He was recognized as a
promising civil servant and in 1890 was
awarded a government scholarship to study
civil engineering in England, where he spent 3 years. Upon his return to Lagos he was
appointed surveyor of crown lands for the
colony of Lagos, a position he held until 1898,
when he resigned the post. Macaulay's resignation seems to have been
precipitated by his growing resentment for the
racial discrimination practiced by Europeans in
the civil service. He established himself as a
private surveyor in Lagos and slowly over the
ensuing years emerged as a spokesman for opposition to British rule in Lagos and all
Nigeria. Macaulay addressed himself to
numerous issues, usually in articles he
contributed to the Lagos Daily Times. He opposed every attempt by the British
authorities to expand their administration,
interpreting these developments as detrimental
to the interests of indigenous Nigerians, who
inevitably would be forced to pay the bills in
taxes. He agitated against the payment of water rates in 1915 and, as a leader of the
Lagos auxiliary of the Antislavery and
Aborigines Protection Society, led the
opposition against government plans to reform
land tenure arrangements in Lagos and
Yorubaland.

Through his antigovernment activities
Macaulay rose to preeminence in Lagos
politics. In 1921 he was sent to London by the eleko, or king, of Lagos to represent him in the legal appeal of a local land tenure case. In
London, Macaulay proclaimed that the British
colonial government was eroding the power
and authority of the eleko, who, he said, was recognized by all Nigerians as the rightful king
of Lagos. This episode embarrassed the
British, although it did not deter their activities,
and established Macaulay as a leading
advocate of the rights of traditional leadership
in Lagos. In 1922 a new Nigerian constitution was
introduced providing for limited franchise
elections in Lagos and Calabar. In order to
contest the three elective seats in Lagos,
Macaulay organized the Nigerian National
Democratic party (NNDP). The platform of the NNDP sought self-government for Lagos, the
introduction of institutions of higher education
into Nigeria, compulsory primary school
education, the Africanization of the civil
service, and non-discrimination in the
development of private economic enterprise. Macaulay's political activities were limited to
Lagos affairs until the very end of his life,
when the quest for independence began to
pervade all Nigeria. He presided in 1944 at the
meeting of the Nigerian Union of Students,
from which ultimately emerged the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC)
, Nigeria's first national political party.
Macaulay was elected president of the NCNC
and was engaged in a national tour for the
party in 1945, when he was taken ill. Returning
to Lagos, he died in the same year.

We learnt all these in Primary 6 social studies.