The statement that "the contribution of Nigerians to the evolution of Nigeria as a nation before 1914 was negligible" is a truism that can't be avoided for this evolution is largely the story of the transformational impact of the British on the peoples and cultures of the country regardless of invariable and some obscured effort to stop the evolution which was achieved effortlessly.
The colonial authorities sought to define, protect, and realise their imperial interest in this portion of West Africa in the upon-hundred years between 1862 and 1960. The British's presence was to pursue their interests, which were largely economic and strategic. In the process of seeking to realise those interests, there were many unplanned-for by-products, one of which was the socio-political aggregation which is known today in international law as the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The first critical step in this uncertain path was taken in 1849 when, as part of an effort to 'sanitise' the Bights of Benin and Biafra, which were notorious for slave trade. From here, the British converted the coastal consulate and its immediate hinterland into the Oil Rivers Protectorate in 1885, which, in 1893, transformed into the Niger Coast Protectorate and later came to be known as Eastern Nigeria.
The second step, along the same path, was taken in 1862 when the British annexed the Lagos Lagoon area and its immediate environs and converted same into a crown colony. They did this in order to be better able to abolish the slave trade which used that area as export point, hence this notable quote, "we think this trade must go on. That is the verdict of our oracle and the priests. They say that your country, however great, can never stop a trade ordained by God himself". The British, generally, prohibited slave trade in 1807 and that was the time then-Nigeria's influence began to be noticed on a global scale. Be that as it may, by 1897, British influence and power had overflowed the frontiers of Lagos and affected all of Yorubaland which was subsequently attached to Lagos as a Protectorate known as Western Nigeria in the 1950s.
The third and final step in this uncharted path came in 1888. The British administered political 'baptism' on Grenye Goldie's National African Company which had successfully squeezed out rivals, British and non-British, from the trade in the lower Niger, following a trade war of almost unprecedented ferocity. As a result of the 'baptism', Goldie's company became the Royal Niger Company, chartered and limited. It also acquired political and administrative powers over a narrow belt of territory on both sides of the river from the sea to Lokoj'a, as well as over the vast area which, in the 20th century, came to be known as Northern Nigeria.
Thus, by about 1897, the three blocks of territory had emerged as British colonial possessions, from moves made during the period of the scramble for Nigeria. The emergence of Nigeria is simply the story of how these three neighbouring and interlocked possessions were brought together by the British, first administratively and then politically.
The move towards administrative union or amalgamation began in 1898 with the appointment, by the British Government, of the so-called Niger Committee chairmanned by Lord Selborne who recommended the creation of two independent provinces, a Maritime Province to be brought into being through the merger of the Lagos Colony and Protectorate with the Niger Coast Protectorate; and then a Sudan Province made-up of territories under the Royal Niger Company.
The year 1900 marks the year that the charter of the Royal Niger Company was withdrawn and the territory under its shadowy control was declared the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria. Similarly, the Niger Coast Protectorate was renamed the Protectorate of Southern Nigeria. In addition, the narrow "strip of Royal Niger Company from Lokoja to the sea", which had divided the Niger Coast Protectorate into two, was united with it, thus bringing the western and eastern halves of that administration together territorially.
The next evidence showing the evolution of Nigeria as a nation before 1914 without the effort of Nigerians continues with the search for unity and rationalisation in the administration of these territories which brought about the appointment of Sir Frederick Lugard, the first High Commissioner of the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria (1900-1906), as the man to implement the amalgamation of the two protectorates. He, thus, became the first head of a unified Nigerian administration.


REFERENCES:
Afigbo A. E. Uya O. E. (2004). THE EVOLUTION OF NIGERIA, 1849 - 1960. Online Nigeria. Retrieved from: nm.onlinenigeria.com/templates/?a=136 on the 15th of January, 2019.

Nigerian Finder. History of Nigeria before Independence (1900 – 1960). Retrieved from: https://nigerianfinder.com/history-of-nigeria-before-independence-1900-1960/ on the 15th of January, 2019