COLONIAL ADMINISTRATION IN NIGERIA

In 1900, the British government assumed control of the Southern and Northern Protectorates, both of which were ultimately governed by the Colonial Office at Whitehall. The staff of this office came primarily from the British upper middle class—i.e., university-educated men, primarily not nobility, with fathers in well-respected professions.The first five heads of the Nigeria Department (1898–1914) were Reginald Antrobus, William Mercer,William Baillie Hamilton, Sydney Olivier, and Charles Strachey.Olivier was a member of the Fabian Society and a friend of George Bernard Shaw.

Under the Colonial Office was the governor, who managed administration of his colony and held powers of emergency rule. The Colonial Office could veto or revise his policies. The seven men who governed Northern Nigeria, Southern Nigeria, and Lagos through 1914 were Henry McCallum, William MacGregor, Walter Egerton, Ralph Moor, Percy Girouard, Hesketh Bell, andFrederick Lugard. Most of these came from military backgrounds. All were knighted.

Undated British archival photo of locomotive in Nigeria

Walter Egerton’s sixfold agenda for 1908, as detailed on November 29, 1907, in a telegram to the Colonial Office, is representative of British priorities.

1. To pacify the country;
2. To established settled government in the newly won districts;
3. To improve and extend native footpaths throughout the country;
4. To construct properly graded roads in the more populated districts;
5. To clear the numerous rivers in the country and make them suitable for launch and canoe traffic; and
6. To extend the railways.

Egerton also supervised improvements to the Lagos harbour and extension of the local telegraph network.

From 1895–1900, a railway was constructed running from Lagos to Ibadan; it opened in March 1901. This line was extended to Oshogbo, 62 miles away, in 1905–1907, and to Zungeru and Minna in 1908–1911. Its final leg enabled it to meet another line, constructed 1907–1911, running from Baro, through Minnia, to Kano.

Some of these public work projects were accomplished with the help of forced labour, referred to as “Political Labour”. Village Heads were paid 10 shillings for conscripts, and fined £50 if they failed to supply. Individuals could be fined or jailed for refusing to comply.

 

Frederick Lugard

Frederick Lugard, who was appointed as High Commissioner of the Northern Nigeria Protectorate in 1900 and served until 1906 in his first term, often has been regarded by the British as their model colonial administrator. Trained as an army officer, he had served in India, Egypt, and East Africa, where he expelled Arab slave traders from Nyasaland and established the British presence in Uganda. Joining the Royal Niger Company in 1894, Lugard was sent to Borgu to counter inroads made by the French, and in 1897 he was made responsible for raising the Royal West African Frontier Force (RWAFF) from local levies to serve under British officers.

During his six-year tenure as High Commissioner, Sir Frederick Lugard (as he became in 1901) was occupied with transforming the commercial sphere of influence inherited from the Royal Niger Company into a viable territorial unit under effective British political control. His objective was to conquer the entire region and to obtain recognition of the British protectorate by its indigenous rulers, especially the Fulani emirs of the Sokoto Caliphate. Lugard’s campaign systematically subdued local resistance, using armed force when diplomatic measures failed. Borno capitulated without a fight, but in 1903 Lugard’s RWAFF mounted assaults on Kano and Sokoto. From Lugard’s point of view, clear-cut military victories were necessary because the surrenders of the defeated peoples weakened resistance elsewhere.

Lugard’s success in northern Nigeria has been attributed to his policy of indirect rule; that is, he governed the protectorate through the rulers defeated by the British. If the emirs accepted British authority, abandoned the slave trade, and cooperated with British officials in modernizing their administrations, the colonial power was willing to confirm them in office. The emirs retained their caliphate titles but were responsible to British district officers, who had final authority. The British High Commissioners could depose emirs and other officials if necessary.