Colonial Administration

Lagos was colonized in 1860 with Megregor as head of the administration.Lord FriedrickLugard who later took over from him in 1906, introduced the system of indirect rule to the Northern Nigeria. Traditional institutions existed in Muslim-dominated areas of the North and Islam, which is a dominant religion in the North, demands total submission of the subjects to their rulers and the colonialists capitalized on this and other related factors such as well-laid structure of administration, to make use of traditional rulers for the implementation of British rule.

The British also used the native authority system in which local rules were confirmed and given staff of authority. These people were graded and assigned duties. Some of the existing laws were either condemned or modified to suit the colonial masters. Native courts were also introduced to try localoffenders. They built local prisons, introduced local government authorities, and recruited police personnel to enforce law and order. Administration was set up at ward and village levels. The British colonial master were not prepared to spend British money to administer Nigeria, hence native revenue and tax system were introduced.

However, the people resisted, especially in the South-West and South-East through riots and protests (Aba riots) at the harsh and exploitative administration of the colonial masters.

It should be noted that the indirect rule system was successful in Northern Nigeria, partially successful in the South-West but failed woefully in the South-East.

Lord Lugard left Nigeria in 1922 and was replaced with Sir High Clifford as governor, under whose administration a Legislative Council was set up with three Nigerians as members. The inclusion of Nigerians into the administration did not accord them equal status with the whites thus they were marginalized and discriminated upon. This made the natives to resort to enlightenment campaigns.Political parties and media houses were

establishedfor these purposes.

Also during the Second World War in 1939-1945, Africans were made to fight for their colonial master with the promise that independence would be granted to all their colonies. Consequently, the blacks fought side by side with their colonial masters; thus, white superiority was demystified, and this eventually culminated in the agitation for self-rule in Nigeria. Political activities were intensified until Anthony Enahoro moved a motion for Nigeria‘s independence in the legislative chamber in 1956. Consequently, Nigeria was granted her political independence on October 1, 1960 thus bringing the colonial rule to an end.

Some of the certain activities which contributed immensely to forcing the British to reluctantly grant Nigeria independence in 1960 were:

(a) Formation of political parties and associations. The nationalists formed the earliest political parties. These included: Nigerian national democratic party (NNDP), by Herbert Macaulay; national council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (later citizens) NCNC, led by NnamdiAzikiwe; national youth movement (NYM), led by Ernest Ikoli; action group (AG) led by obafemiAwolowo and Northern people’s congress (NPC), led by Ahmadu Bello.

(b) Organization of strikes and boycotts as powerful instruments to back up their demands;

(c) Organization of labour unions and meetings that put pressure on the colonial employers and government;

(d) Setting up of newspapers such as the Lagos Daily News and the West African Pilot to champion the demand for independence;

(e) Writing of petitions to the secretary of state for the colonies in London. A good example is that which was sent to him in March, 1920 by the delegates to the National Congress of British West Africa;

(f) Taking active part in constitutional conferences;

(g) Tabling and voting in favour of motions/policies favorable to the attainment of self-rule in parliament;

(h) Sending of delegates to the British government in London and to the colonial government in Nigeria to press forward their demands;

(i) Organization of rallies, symposia and lectures to educate the people

(j) The use of other propaganda machinery such as the activities of the West African Students’ Union (WASU) in London to present their position on the need for independence in Nigeria. (oyeneye, onyenwenu and olosunde, 2001:140).

Though the British succeeded in merging the diverse entity called Nigeria into one country, they failed abysmally in resolving the problems attendant on that unification due to lack of interest at the welfare of the natives. This is why the country has been enmeshed in one crisis/conflict or the other till date. Notable examples were thirty months of civil war, military coups and attendant massacre of innocent citizens, etc. in fact, the general instability of the country are well as the most recent crisis in the Niger Delta area of the country are all traceable to the weak administrative structure foisted on Nigeria by the British. The issue of marginalization arising from the dominance of certain parts of the country on others has become an unending phenomenon in Nigeria all as a result of the problems created by this weak administrative structure.

There are some legacies left behind by the colonial administration which has been the bane of Nigeria’s Public Service administration. These are adapted from Maduabum 2006 and listed below:

(1) The discriminatory practices against Nigerians which were introduced by the British, particularly in employment and advancement to responsible position in civil service. This imbued the Nigerian with the spirit of alienation which made him to see the civil service

Nigerian has distanced himself from part-ownership of the civil service; rather, he sees it as belonging to the government of the day.

(2) The dichotomy between the senior and junior staff, which existed even after the departure of the Europeans, patterned the nonchalant attitude of the public servant. This is because;

immense benefits and privileges existed only at the senior level occupied exclusively by the “whites.” The Nigerian senior public servants inherited this discriminatory practice of the former European senior public servants. As a result, they turned themselves into virtually ‘white men’ and never took cognizance of the peculiar environment and cultural values of their country. Thus emerged what Augustus Adebayo (1981:47) described as

“black man in a white man’s skin.” The consequence is that junior public servants do not believe that they are parts of the service.

(3) The merger of departments then headed by the erstwhile professionals as directors into ministries and the generalist administrators banqueting of the enviable position of Permanent Secretary and Accounting Officer of the ministry, subordinated the professionals to the generalist administrators and the categories of Nigerian public servants. The conflict arising there from contributes to instability of the service.