Prior to 1914, Nigeria, as we know it today, was administered as two distinct political entities, each with a Lieutenant Governor. These were the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria and the Protectorate of Southern Nigeria, the latter of which, had included the Colony of Lagos.
Due to severe economic difficulties experienced by the North, the British colonial administration decided to bring the two Protectorates together through its policy of amalgamation which took effect from January 1, 1914, with Lord Lugard as Governor General of the country.
Information available revealed that the Northern Protectorate was consistently run on deficit budgets, and had depended mainly on direct taxation and imperial grants which “averaged £314,500 for the eleven years up to 1912”. But in the other hand, the Southern Protectorate always had surplus budgets, and had collected a “comfortable revenue of £1,138,000 in 1913”.
It was therefore the need to balance this huge economic gap between the North and the South that necessitated the 1914 amalgamation so as to ensure central economic control and fair apportionment of customs revenue. Railway lines were built from the South to the North for purposes of evacuating farm products from the landlocked North to seaports in the South for onward shipment overseas.
At the same time, the colonialists had imposed the Northern political system of Indirect Rule on the South, which had brought a lot of dislocation in several areas of the South, particularly in the East, where the chieftaincy system was strange.
Throughout the period of colonial rule, the colonialists always treated the North as a favoured child, and played the North against the South. They made the North to look monolithic, to have only one language (Hausa), one religion (Islam), and one political party, the NPC, while the South was identified with cacophony of voices, multiplicity of religious beliefs, and different political parties, and therefore very difficult to unit.
They made politicians from the South began to see themselves as strange bedfellows, and to fight each other, while they were busy preparing grounds for their counterparts from the North to takeover the reigns of power upon the departure of the colonialists.
On attainment of independence, Nigeria was handed over to the North, while the South kept themselves busy quarrelling and fighting for the interest of the North. The North would go into an alliance with either the NCNC in the East, or with the Action Group loyal to Samuel Akintola in the West, so as to remain in power, while the Southern politicians would be busy killing themselves.
This was what led to the 1962 Treasonable Felony Trial, the 1962/63 National Census crisis, the 1964 General Elections imbroglio, the 1965 Western Nigeria Elections fiasco, the January 1966 Military Uprising, the killing of Southners in the North, and the subsequent civil war. In all these instances, the South was always on the receiving end, while the North continued to dictate the course of events.
This has been the pattern since this political experiment called Nigeria came to be. It is only in the course of religious misunderstandings like the Maitasine uprising and the Boko Haram insurgency as well as the herdsmen attacks that the North began to kill themselves. Otherwise, it was always the North versus the South, with the South being killed, or the South killing themselves for the interest of the North.
Safe for the January 15, 1966 coup, all the other military coups d’etat staged in the country were carried out by Northern military officers, and they used it for the interest of the North, to create more states and more local government areas in the North, and to funnel the wealth from the South to develop the North.
Today, when two Northern Fulani Muslims are struggling to be President, the South will be killing themselves – Chibuike Amaechi versus Governor Nyesom Wike, Tempriye Sylvia versus Governor Henrieke Dickson, Godswill Akpabio versus Governor Udom Emmanuel, etc. We were told that about forty lives were lost in the last Presidential election, but how many of them were from the North?
The North were not foolish when they insist that Nigeria must not be restructured. They want the South to continue to be their handmaids or slaves.
