BY the end of 1899, a number of roads had been constructed in different parts of the South, chiefly by forced labour, and sometimes through voluntary communal efforts. For some of these purposes the first of Nigeria’s external loans, which stood at approximately £8.5m. in 1916, had been raised by 1905.
The British did not fare better during the fourth period. Indeed it can be said with justification that the utter hollowness and hypocrisy of their protestations became more eloquent, more tangible, and more irritating at this time than at any other.
Lest we forget, it had been claimed for or by the British that they had come to Nigeria in order to lead the country and its people, ‘by education, training and example’, to complete self-government as rapidly as possible.
If this was indeed their aim, the education and health of the people should have been the paramount concern of the British Colonial Government in Nigeria. We have’ used ‘education’ here to include the acquisition by Nigerians of experience and skill in public administration.
We have said earlier on, in this and the previous chapters, that the education and health of Nigerians had been left during the third period to Christian missionaries. We should add, in fairness, that towards the close of this period in 1899 a Government School ‘for Islamic pupils was opened in Lagos; that during the period under discussion the Government owned 33 out of 8, I 54 Primary Schools, 9 out of 136 Secondary Schools, 13 out of 97 Teacher Training Institutions, 3,781 out of 6,945 Hospital beds, 71 out of 763 Dispensaries; and that most of the hospitals owned and run by the Government were, until the early forties, known as ‘European Hospitals’ and reserved exclusively for white patients.
All the opportunities which the British had; of affording a chance to qualified Nigerians to acquire experience and skill in public administration at all levels, were ignored, and were only reluctantly seized after the loudest and most acrimonious outcry had been unleashed by Nigerian nationalists. Some examples will be mentioned. The first Nigerian lawyer was called to the Bar in England in 1893; so was the first civil engineer who held a B.Sc. and A.l.C.E. of British Higher Institutions of Learning. The first doctor who held the degrees of Edinburgh University and was enrolled as a member of the British Medical Association returned to the country in the same year. In spite of all these, however, the first Nigerian magistrate was not appointed until 1931. The first Nigerian engineer and the first Nigerian medical officer, who held positions in Government equivalent to those of Britons with identical qualifications, appeared much later. The Legal Department in Nigeria was the exclusive preserve of white lawyers until after the outbreak of the Second World War.
In the Civil Service and in’ foreign-owned mercantile establishments the story is the same. Nigerians possessing the same qualifications as white men were not considered fit during this period to fill equivalent posts, with the result that, at the close of this period, only about 14% of the senior posts in the Civil Service were filled by Nigerians.
We have noted that the first Executive Council was established by Lugard in 1914. But it was during the Second World War that a Nigerian’ was made a member. The second Nigerian member was appointed to the Council in 1947. The Nigerian Council and the Nigeria Legislative Council were inaugurated in 1914 and 1922 respectively. But the first time Nigerians of Northern origin sat in any Deliberative or Legisiative Council was in 1947. Even then, they were there with their Southern colleagues only to participate ‘in the discussion of their own affairs.’
The training of Nigerians in democratic practices only got to a half-hearted start in 1951- the very last year of this period. And at the time of their final departure from Nigeria, the British saw to it that the Northern Region was insulated against some democratic principles such as the enfranchisement of women, and the observance of some stringent but wholesome rules which are indispensable to a free and fair election. Lest we forget, it must be emphasized in this connection that more than 50% of the people of Nigeria live in Northern Nigeria.
As has been hinted above, the paucity of achievements here recorded cannot and should not be placed on the credit side of the British Colonial account. Instead, Nigerian nationalists should take full credit for them. It was their unceasing and often venomous constitutional agitation that had brought about these Lilliputian landmarks.
The conclusion, therefore, to which the facts set out in the last two chapters and the arguments’considered in this chapter lead us is this: the British came to Nigeria in order wholly and solely to promote their private and national economic interests, and to enlarge their colonial spheres of influence. As for their external military activities, it is the easiest thing in the world to see how inseparably and inextricably bound these are with their economic and imperial objectives. At no time did philanthropy or humanitarianism enter into consideration.
But the apologists may rejoin, at this juncture, ~thClt granting this conclusion, the fact remains that Nigerians have benefited in no small measure from the so-called selfish activities of the British. Undoubtedly! But so did the biblical calf which was sedulously fatted for the gastronomic and festal pleasures of its owner
CONTINUES NEXT WEEK
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