Nigeria’s political class celebrated Nigeria’s 64th Independence Day on Tuesday, October 1st. However, the majority of Nigerians simply commemorated the day. For while the majority of Nigerians are cultivating and watering the tree of independence, only a minority are enjoying its fruits.
As Africa’s fourth largest economy and the economic powerhouse of Nigeria, Lagos naturally benefited greatly from the independence struggle.
It was the first city to be colonized. This was in 1861. This was followed by the colonization of the protectorates of southern and northern Nigeria between 1895 and 1907. On January 1, 1914, the Lagos Colony and the Protectorates of Northern and Southern Nigeria were merged. Lagos became the capital of the new country. Therefore, colonial equipment and infrastructure began in Lagos and then spread to other parts of Nigeria.
But even before its colonization, Lagos was a cosmopolitan and friendly trading city, home to Europeanized Africans, restless residents, and radical civil society groups. These powers then questioned, insulted, and demanded economic and political rights from colonial powers long before 1914.
Nigeria’s first newspaper, Iwe Irohin, was published in Abeokuta. However, Lagos provided the country with a newspaper that challenged British colonialism, aired public grievances, and called for independence. In fact, a newspaper’s popularity was determined by the extent to which it exposed colonial exploitation, oppression, and injustice, and how harshly it criticized European imperialism in general. They were also recognized for how they challenged colonial forces, defended African rights, promoted African nationalism, and demanded fair play, freedom, and justice for Africans. .
The Observer, based in Lagos, was one such newspaper. The Act, issued on December 4, 1886, called for the creation of a parliament made up of “informalists” who fearlessly criticized the colonial era. “Misgovernment, abuse of power, official terrorism, unspeakable nuisance…in the name of all of Lagos” Dear community, we ask…how long will we meekly submit to taxation without representation? Is it? From Lagos, the cry for political freedom should be loud enough to be heard in Downing Street and even in the Houses of Parliament. ”
Not surprisingly, Lord Lugard, the first Governor-General of Nigeria, said that Lagosians are “seditious and rotten to the core. They are masters of intrigue and conspire incessantly against the government…but , after serving as governor here for 29 years, I can freely say that the people of Lagos are the most despicable, most seditious, dishonest and driven by the most purely selfish motives I have ever seen. Among the people I met.”
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The February 16-22, 1919 edition of the Lagos Weekly Record responded to Lugard’s accusations by saying that his regime had “committed more massacres, more riots than any other regime…Lugard had no tears or honor.” He left without a name,” the editorial said.
However, Lagos published far more radical newspapers in the 1930s and 1940s, the most notable of which were the West African Pilot (WAP) and the Daily Comet (DC). Both newspapers condemned European imperialism, raised the problems facing Nigerians, and accused colonialism of destroying the pre-colonial order without replacing it with a developed social order. They equally championed the cause of the working people and acted as watchdogs for African rights.
James S. Coleman, in his book Nigeria: The Background of Nationalism, writes that as a result of the Lagos coverage and his columns, European officers: Investigation into allegations of “cruel and inhumane” treatment, discrimination, or denial of rights. Thus, the Lagos press treated not only Lagosians but Nigerians in general with political conscience.
Political parties were first born in Lagos. The first was the Nigerian National Democratic Party (NNDP), founded in 1923 and led by Herbert Macaulay. The second was the Lagos Youth Movement, formed in 1934 and led by the distinguished journalist Ernesto Ikoli. In 1936, it changed its name to the Nigerian Youth Movement (NYM) to reflect Nigerian ideas. Others were the Nigeria Reconstruction Group and the Nigeria Youth Circle.
Largely a “party of Lagos,” they criticized, among other things, racism, the humiliation of traditional institutions, forced labor, oppressive taxation, and educational backwardness. They demanded that the human, civil and democratic rights of Nigerians be respected and that the economy be freed from monopolies and liberalized. And society modernizes and develops.
The creation of a supreme labor organization to coordinate workers’ struggles began in 1943 in Lagos. Railway unions went on strike and took to the streets to protest against racial discrimination and demand higher wages and better working conditions. These trade union struggles created political consciousness and ignited a popular struggle against colonialism.
The Nigerian Union of Students (NUS), the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC), and the NNDP joined forces on August 29, 1944 to form the Nigeria-Cameroon National Council (NCNC) with Macaulay as its leader.
NCNC membership spans ethnic, cultural, worker, women, youth, artisan, and trade organizations and has made significant advances in the struggle for democracy and independence.
The Zikist movement was also formed in Lagos. It first came into existence in 1945 at Yaba University as an unregistered student organization. It was inaugurated as a national organization on February 16, 1946 at Tinubu Methodist High School, Lagos, with representatives from all over the country and even Ghana. Its membership included a variety of groups, including teachers, artisans, youth, and labor leaders.
The Zikist movement belonged to the NCNC. Its demands include the immediate liquidation of colonialism in West Africa, the nationalization of basic industries, respect for fundamental human rights, maximization of social services, employment opportunities for all, and a direct attack on development and imperialism. It was.
The 1945 general strike, conceived, organized and coordinated in Lagos, was perhaps the most historic gift that Lagos gave to Nigerians. It created a sense among them that they belonged to one country. The attack also made the colonial forces aware that if they organized themselves, they could rebel against the government, take control of strategic cities, and gain concessions. It shook the foundations of the colonial economy, exposed its vulnerabilities and demystified colonialism in this country.
As Coleman observed, for nationalist politicians, the 1945 strike provided “the opportunity they so eagerly sought: the mobilization of workers in support of the struggle for political progress.” . Furthermore, the strike galvanized the hitherto politically passive and conservative elites of the North into the struggle for independence.
(The 1945 general strike transformed the parochial nationalist demands of the elites into a mass-based agitation for national liberation. It liberalized and popularized the independence struggle. However, it also marked the beginning of British neo-colonialism.
If all Nigerians, regardless of class, gender, place of origin, ethnicity or religion, had benefited from the achievement of independence, perhaps all of them would have celebrated Independence Day on October 1st.
Mr. Ahmed Aminu Ramatu Yusuf retired as the General Manager (Administration) of the Nigeria Meteorological Agency (NiMet) after serving as the Deputy Director-General of the Cabinet Affairs Department in the Office of the President. Email: aaramatuyusuf@yahoo.com
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