ABSTRACT
What evolved into the Nigerian Union of 1 January, 1914 was the merger by Sir (Later Lord) Frederick Lugard, of southern and northern protectorates under British colonial rule.1 That development marked the political transformation into a single entity, o f states which had lost their sovereignty after the failure of
resistance to British conquest of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. For Nigerians at this time, particularly the educated elites from southern protectorates, the merger was an opportunity for nation-building, albeit, within the context of participation in colonial administration and ultimately, of selfgovernment which made them to look forward to the ‘dawn of freedom’. However, the official policy of British Colonial administration was hostile towards Nigerian nationalists whose idea of self-government was in terms of a single and unified Nigerian nation. For instance, Sir Hugh Clifford as Governor of Nigeria denied that the country constituted a single nation. According to him:
This opinion was a reflection of the British mind, of lack of faith in the future of a nation they had established through imperial adventures. But Nigerian nationalists put up a strong case, effectively against the European opinion, affirming the peculiar virtues and values of their own society as revealed in its institutions and its historical traditions and thus constructing the intellectual foundations for their claim to the right to manage their own affairs. This, to a large extent, determined the nationalist motivation, objectives and organisation.
