Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0262/02623.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 28KB | 448 lines

$Unique_ID{COW02623}
$Pretitle{357}
$Title{Nigeria
Chapter 1D.   Toward Independence}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Robert Rinehart}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{region
federal
government
action
northern
regional
group
new
constitution
ncnc}
$Date{1981}
$Log{}
Country:     Nigeria
Book:        Nigeria, A Country Study
Author:      Robert Rinehart
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1981

Chapter 1D.   Toward Independence

     During the years that the 1922 constitution was in effect, it was altered
only slightly to include northern departments in the administrative structure,
and there was criticism that the system prevented the broadening of popular
participation in local administration through representative bodies. British
authorities acknowledged in the early 1940s that a revision of the
constitution was long overdue.

     During the period between the end of World War II and the granting of
independence to Nigeria in 1960, there was continuous experimentation with
forms of self-government. Conferences were held regularly between the British
government and Nigerian leaders to determine the lines along which
self-determination should proceed. In 1946 a new constitution was approved by
the British Parliament and promulgated in Nigeria. Although it did not extend
the elective principle and reserved effective power in the hands of the
governor and his appointed executive council, the so-called Richards
Constitution (after Governor Arthur Richards, who was responsible for its
formulation) provided for an expanded Legislative Council that was empowered
to deliberate on matters affecting the whole country. Separate legislative
bodies, the houses of assembly, were established in each of the three regions
to consider local questions and to advise the lieutenant governor. The
introduction of the federal principle with deliberative authority devolved on
the regions was intended as a recognition of the country's diversity. Although
realistic in its assessment of the situation in Nigeria, the Richards
Constitution undoubtedly intensified regionalism as an alternative to
political unification.

     The pace of constitutional change demanded by vocal Nigerian opinion
quickly outstripped the original timetable for self-determination. Expected
to remain in force for nine years, the Richards Constitution was superseded
in only four. As early as 1948 the incumbent governor, John Macpherson, called
for discussion of needed revisions. The main lines of a new constitution,
based on recommendations from the regional legislatures, emerged from an
interparliamentary conference held at Ibadan in 1950 and were embodied in the
so-called Macpherson Constitution approved by the British Parliament the
following year.

     The most important innovations in the new charter reinforced the dual
course of constitutional evolution taken in Nigeria since the end of the war,
allowing for both regional autonomy and federal union. By extending the
elective principle and providing for a central government with a Council of
Ministers, the Macpherson Constitution gave renewed impetus to party activity
and to political participation at the national level. But, by providing for
comparable regional governments exercising broader legislative powers that
could not be overridden by the newly established 185-seat federal House of
Representatives, the second postwar constitution also gave a significant boost
to regionalism. Although the concepts of wider political participation and
self-government were rapidly gaining acceptance, the idea of national unity
was increasingly questioned by regional factions. Subsequent revisions were
contained in a third constitution enacted in 1954, firmly establishing the
federal principle and paving the way for independence.

     The 1954 constitution stipulated that ministers were responsible to the
legislature in both the federal House of Representatives and the regional
houses of assembly under a British-style parliamentary form of government. The
three regions evolved along parallel lines, but each at a different pace. In
1957 both the Western and Eastern regions became formally self-governing under
the parliamentary regime. Similar status was acquired by the Northern Region
two years later. There were numerous differences of detail among the regional
systems, but all adhered to parliamentary forms and were equally autonomous
in relation to the federal government at Lagos. The federal government
retained specified powers-such as responsibility for banking, currency,
external affairs, defense, shipping and navigation, and communications-but
the regions became the decisive centers of political power within the
federation. Significantly the regional governments also controlled the
budgeting of public expenditures to be based on revenues raised within the
region.

Social and Economic Development

     Constitutional developments to this point had aimed at providing Nigeria
with elected officials and civil servants who had experience and training in
self-government. Many steps taken under colonial rule, however, underscored
the acute differences in social development and the disparities in education
among major ethnic and regional groups whose members would compete within the
federal structure for access to political and economic power. These anomalies
stemmed in part from the unequal capacity of peoples of widely different
cultures to make use of British tutelage in modern procedures. Some groups,
notably in the northern emirates where advancement in many areas still
depended on lineage, proved too tradition-bound to prepare themselves to
compete in sufficient numbers for key positions in trade, industry, education,
and government service. Others, notably the Ibo, were eager to take advantage
of professional opportunities and economic incentives. Because of their
training and ambition, southerners took a disproportionate share of public
sector employment on the federal level in the years leading up to
independence, and they also made significant inroads in private sector
economic development in the north. Northern Muslims were particularly
resentful of the Ibo, who obtained many of the higher civil service posts in
the north, including some in local government. This animosity was intensified
by the clash of two divergent cultures, value systems, and religions.

     Ethnic cleavages appeared to intensify in the 1950s. Political activists
in the southern regions spoke of self-government in terms of expanding
educational opportunities and of directing economic development in such a way
that it would benefit a larger portion of the population. In the north the
traditional rulers gradually grew more interested in modernization but not in
change that might lead to challenges to their control over the dominant NPC
and over local government and courts. Any activity in the north that might
include participation by the federal government (and consequently by southern
civil servants) was regarded as a challenge of this nature. Broadening
political participation and expanding educational opportunities and other
social services were also viewed as threats to the status quo. The northern
elite's dislike of educated southerners in their midst and the presence of
large numbers of immigrants from the south reflected in some part a concern
that southern concepts of democratically elected local governments might prove
attractive to northerners as well.

     The cleavage between the Yoruba and the Ibo was accentuated by their
competition for control of the machinery of modernization. With the British
presence receding, local officials and politicians gained access to patronage
over government jobs, funds for local development, market permits, trade
licenses, government contracts, and even scholarships for higher education. In
an economy with many qualified applicants for every post, great resentment was
generated by favoritism shown by authorities to members of their own ethnic
group.

     In th