₦airaland Forum

AMALGAMATION OF 1914: Was it a mistake?

The late Prime Minister of Nigeria, Sir Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa was reported in 1952 in a speech in the Northern House of Assembly, Kaduna, that 'the Southern people who are swarming into this region daily in large numbers are really intruders.

We don't want them and they are not welcome here in the North. Since the amalgamation in 1914, the British Government has been trying to make Nigeria into one country, but the Nigerian people are different in every way including religion, custom, language and aspiration. The fact that we're all Africans might have misguided the British Government. We here in the North, take it that 'Nigerian unity' is not for us'.

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2012/05/amalgamation-of-1914-was-it-a-mistake/