at Kano and Lagos. Regular internal air services by Nigeria Airways connect these two airports with Ibadan, Benin, Calabar, Port Harcourt, Jos, Kaduna, Maiduguri, Sokoto and Yola. Passenger and freight services are operated by the Nigeria Railway Corporation over a total of 2,178 route miles.

The Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation, a statutory body, covers the whole of the Republic through a chain of radio stations. In Lagos State the N.B.C. Television Service runs in association with it. There are separate State-owned companies for sound and television broadcasting in Kaduna (BCNN), Ibadan (WNBS/WNTV) and, before the civil war, Enugu (ENBS/ENTV). The MidWestern State plans to establish its own radio and television station in Benin. A new and more comprehensive national radio network was approved in principle by Federal and State Information Commissioners in November, 1968.

Nigeria has a traditional. but increasingly mixed, economy: farming, forestry and fishing activities contribute just under half of the country's gross domestic product but manufacturing industry and, in particular, petroleum are gaining in importance. The export structure is diversified. Mineral oil forms by far the largest item, but cocoa, palm products, ground-nut produce, tin, rubber, timber, cotton and hides and skins are also important.

Overseas investment, of which over half was British, stood at over £N400 million at the end of 1966, and heavy investment in the oil sector continued throughout the war and is still increasing. Crude oil production at the end of 1971 was at the rate of 1.7 million barrels per day, making Nigeria the world's tenth largest producer.

Federal Government revenue for 1972/73 is estimated at about £N645 million, of which £N343 million is attributed to petroleum. The second National Development Plan, covering the period 1970-74, was issued in November 1970. It calls for an investment programme of £N1,596 million.

The sharp upsurge in economic activity continues, with imports rising in 1971 by 42 per cent and exports by 34 per cent above the level of 1970, and with domestic demand buoyant. The increase in receipts from oil production should enable a high growth rate to be sustained.

HISTORY

The Nigerian plateau in the area around Jos is now regarded as a focal point in early Nigerian history; here was a meeting point for influences from the upper Niger valley, where agriculture had been independently invented around 5000 B.C., and from the civilization of Egypt. We know that the Plateau people practised agriculture by 3000 B.C., and it would seem that increased food supplies allowed the development of more complex societies which pushed their way southward. The Bantu, who subsequently conquered most of eastern and southern Africa with their iron weapons, are thought by some authorities to have originated on the Plateau. By 500 B.C. the remarkable Nok culture had emerged, controlling an area around the Plateau of some 400 square miles, a culture characterized by terra-cotta heads and figurines of a high technical and artistic standard, which reveal an agricultural people, who knew iron-working and had developed a specialised society. The culture lasted for some seven centuries, spread southwards, and influenced the art of Benin and Ife.

Nigerian history is characterised by this pressure of northern peoples on the southern forest belt. The northerners exploited geographical advantages, for their climate allowed them to domesticate cattle and horses and grow cotton and

cereals, so that textiles, leather-working and smithing were able to develop. In the southern tropical forest agriculture depended on root crops and palm products until the later entry of Indonesian and American crops. The north was also in contact with Egypt and North Africa, and strong political state systems, often based on the concept of divine kingship, emerged early in the Christian era. Two main systems emerged in the north. In the area around Lake Chad the shadowy Zaghawa kingdom had by the eleventh century become the Kanem-Bornu empire, the Bornu section of which later became a separate state. The Hausa Bokwoi dominated the area further west as a loose confederation of several states which probably originated at different times between A.D. 100 and the tenth century. These states dominated the politics of the north until the nineteenth century. Both states were profoundly, though never completely, influenced by Islam, brought in by desert traders and later by Fulani immigrants. Both developed extensive foreign trade across the Sahara in leather goods, salt, cloth, slaves and gold. They were intermittently torn by internal civil wars, they fought each other, were invaded from outside (parts of Hausaland were forced to submit to the Songhai empire in the sixteenth century) and menaced by the Jukun state, centred upon Ibi on the River Benue, during the sixteenth century.

As yet little is known of events in the south in mediaeval times. Of the Ibo, the dominant linguistic group in Eastern Nigeria, we know little beyond shadowy legends indicating struggles with invaders from north and west. Though without centralized monarchical institutions, the Ibo survived and multiplied, developing agriculture to support a dense population which by the eighteenth century became a magnet for slave traders. Rather more is known of the Yoruba, the predominant group in the Western State. Their cultural history originated in the founding before A.D. 1000 of Ife, still the spiritual centre of Yorubaland, despite the fact that its political control was eclipsed in the fourteenth century by Oyo, which was in turn displaced by Ibadan and Abeokuta in the nineteenth century. The origins of Benin are also connected with Ife, and the claim of both upon the attention of historians lies in their magnificent sculpture, now regarded by some authorities as a major contribution to mankind's artistic spirit; its humanism and naturalism reflects a highly developed and sophisticated society. The bronze sculptures demonstrate great technical aptitude by the mastery of the complicated 'lost wax' process of casting.

Contact with Europe began in the fifteenth century with the Portuguese, and at first this contact seemed likely to have profound results, for it brought missionaries to Benin, who introduced the art of writing, and made converts among the royal family. Benin's territory expanded when the lucrative spice trade allowed her to purchase firearms, and, after the discovery of America, new plants revolutionised the diet of all the forest peoples. But by the seventeenth century the Portuguese began to lose interest, developing the richer trade of the Indian Ocean. Moreover, with the development of plantations in America and the West Indies, the demand for slaves from West Africa rapidly began to overshadow all other activities. The effects of the slave trade were overwhelmingly negative, for it could easily be developed from existing forms of slavery, using African middlemen. It needed no technical innovations, and as the slaves were bought from coastal states without the buyers penetrating inland there was very little external influence of new ideas. The firearms which were exchanged for the slaves strengthened and made aggressive the southern states; Benin

expanded from Lagos to Bonny, and her influence on the Niger was felt as far north as Onitsha; and Oyo fought her Yoruba brothers to carve a way to the sea. In this trade Britain had by the eighteenth century secured the major share, yet this had resulted in no colonial activity in Nigeria. Paradoxically it was the movement in Britain against the slave trade which began to involve the British in Nigerian affairs. In 1807 the slave trade was made illegal for British subjects, the Royal Navy began to patrol the coast, and the Sierra Leone colony became the resettlement area for slaves liberated at sea, the majority of whom were Nigerians. The anti-slavery groups, however, were sceptical of blockade, and pressed instead for the development of missionary work and ‘legitimate commerce' to check the trade at its source in the interior. At the same time the rise of the British chemical and soap industries created a demand for palm oil and other vegetable oils capable of providing a substitute traffic. Missionaries settled in Abeokuta in the 1840s to begin a 'sunrise within the tropics' through 'the Bible and the Plough'. Africans liberated at sea from the slave ships played a major role in this process. Samuel Adjai Crowther, a liberated Yoruba, accompanied the British Niger Expedition of 1841, later returning to found a chain of Anglican missions on the Niger, staffed entirely by liberated Africans. In 1846 he became the first African Bishop of the Anglican communion. Such African Christians may be described as the first modern Nigerian nationalists; they had a vision of a united Christian country, transcending tribal divisions, in the valley of the Niger. Crowther, though a Yoruba, worked for most of his life among the Efik, Ibo, Ijaw, Ibibio and Nupe people.

Whilst missionary penetration of the Niger proceeded so did the commercial. After 1854, when W. B. Baikie demonstrated that quinine could reduce European mortality from malaria, shallow-draught trading steamboats annually ascended the river.

Meanwhile events had occurred in the north profoundly affecting the history of modern Nigeria. In May 1804 Shelu Usuman dan Fodio, a Fulani religious teacher, declared a jihad or holy war upon the Hausa state of Gobir. Giving flags to his generals he succeeded during the next thirteen years of his life in overthrowing most of the Hausa rulers, replacing them with Fulani Emirs. The impulse of the movement was Muslim reforming zeal, and it led to the creation of an empire with many features of Islamic administrative character, the lasting value of which was proved in the subsequent history of the area. When Usuman died his son Bello was left as Sultan of Sokoto, with his brother Abdullahi as Emir of Gwandu, twin suzerains of the state. The effects of this revolution might well be compared to those of the Norman Conquest of England. A state-system was created which transcended tribal loyalties, possessing a common religious and judicial basis, an aristocratic lingua franca and a system of education through Koranic schools. Though some Hausa states, notably Gobir, resisted successfully, the Fulani movement spread beyond Hausaland; a new Emirate in Adamawa was established, Nupe conquered, the Yoruba state of Ilorin made Muslim, and the Yoruba capital of Oyo destroyed. The Yoruba might well have been crushed between the Fulani in the north and Dahomey to the west had not Ibadan and Abeokuta beaten them off with the help of liberated slaves and European weapons.

With missionaries and traders moving into the south and up the Niger, it was inevitable that the British Government should become involved. British Consuls were appointed, and in 1861, after ten years of fitful interference in its affairs,

Lagos was annexed partly at the behest of the Christian party in Abeokuta, who desired a docile and friendly port. Thereafter it was impossible to keep out of local politics, despite the Parliamentary Select Committee of 1865, which decreed no more expansion but eventual withdrawal. Further involvement arose on the Niger from the opposition of African middlemen to British trade in the oil-producing regions, and naval expeditions on the river became annual from the 1860s.

Before 1880, however, the British were reluctant to extend political control; the climate was still deadly to European officials, and trade and missions seemed to flourish without the expense of a colonial régime. After 1880 the situation changed rapidly with the arrival of missionaries, traders, and treaty-making explorers in the service of both France and Germany. The British responded with three methods of extending control; Lagos, ruled by the Colonial Office, expanded by treaties with Yoruba states; areas under consular rule were transformed by treaties into the Oil Rivers Protectorate in 1884; and on the Niger, where Sir George Goldie had amalgamated the British traders and bought out the French firms, his company was given a Royal Charter granting administrative powers in 1886. Renamed the Royal Niger Company it was placed under the somewhat sketchy control of the Foreign Office. From these bases British control was extended gradually in the next twenty years. The rule of the African middlemen in the Oil Rivers was broken by the deposition of rulers like King Jaja of Opopo, who opposed the penetration of British traders and missions into his markets. Force was used against Benin in 1897, and by the Niger Company against Ilorin and Nupe in the same year. The Ijebu were conquered by force in the 1890s, but elsewhere in Yorubaland treaties were the more usual method of control. A renewed period of rivalry with France resulted in the creation of much more direct control during the Colonial Secretaryship of Joseph Chamberlain (1895-1902). The frontiers were settled by agreements with France, the West African Frontier Force was established under Colonel (later Lord) Lugard, the Royal Niger Company was deprived of its administrative powers in 1900 and, northern and eastern Nigeria placed under Colonial Office supervision. Lugard was made Governor of Northern Nigeria, and gradually occupied the Emirates militarily. Similar military moves led to the gradual conquest of the Ibo people. Despite this forceful assertion of control, the British rejected, where they could, the idea of ruling directly, and thereby destroying indigenous political institutions. 'Indirect rule' had been practised by both the Royal Niger Company and the Lagos authorities, and it was cheaper, more economical in men and less likely to provoke opposition than direct administration. The classic system was developed by Lord Lugard in the north, where the area continued to be ruled by the Fulani Emirs, with their systems of justice and taxation reformed of their more unsatisfactory characteristics and developed to suit the colonial régime. In Yorubaland a similar policy was attempted, especially after 1914 when Nigeria was united administratively into one dependency. In the west, however, the system was more difficult to administer for the chiefs were not feudal rulers and did not fit easily into the hierarchical system. Among the Ibo indirect rule was almost impossible, and the British resorted to the expedient of creating warrant chiefs, a policy which contributed to widespread rioting in the 1920s. Among many educated Africans indirect rule became unpopular for its emphasis on preserving traditional culture, excluding them from administration and the native courts. Probably the policy was maintained after it had served its purpose;

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yet it did protect Africans; its corollary was the British refusal to allow white settlement or plantations such as those demanded by Lord Leverhulme in the 1920s. This protective element allowed economic development, especially in agriculture, to take place through Nigerian enterprise. Transported by a new network of railways, or carried in Nigerian owned lorries on a vastly extended road system, a large export trade in cocoa, groundnuts, leather, cotton and vegetable oils developed.

After the 1914-1918 War, part of the adjacent German colony of Kamerun was placed under British mandate by the League of Nations, and renamed the British Cameroons. It was administered as an integral part of Nigeria. On the formation of the United Nations, the Cameroons became a Trust territory. At a plebiscite held in the Northern Cameroons in November 1959 the territory voted to defer a decision on its own future and did not therefore achieve independence in 1960 as part of Northern Nigeria. The Cameroons ceased to be a part of Nigeria when Nigeria became independent but a plebiscite was held in February 1961 to decide whether the Cameroons should join Nigeria or the Cameroun Republic. At this second plebiscite the Northern Cameroons voted to become part of Nigeria and formally became part of the Federation on the 1st June 1961 and is now the Sardauna Province of the North Eastern State. The Southern Cameroons at the same plebiscite opted to join the Republic of Cameroun and did so on the 1st October 1961.

From 1960 to 1967 Nigeria was originally a Federation of three and subsequently four regions (after the creation of Mid-Western Nigeria following a referendum held on 13th July 1963). On 27th May 1967, regions were abolished and 12 states were created.

CONSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

When in 1914 Northern and Southern Nigeria were amalgamated, a Nigerian Council, consisting of six African and thirty European members, but without executive or legislative authority, was set up alongside the Lagos Executive Council. The Governor was not bound to give effect to any Resolution of the Council unless he thought fit to do so.

In 1922 a new constitution was introduced, providing for a Legislative Council of 46 members, of whom ten were Africans, four of these being elected. The Council was empowered to legislate for the Colony and for the Southern Provinces of Nigeria, while the Governor continued to legislate by proclamation for the Northern Provinces.

No further changes in the Constitution were made until 1947, when the 'Richards Constitution' was introduced (so-called after the Governor, Sir Arthur Richards, later Lord Milverton). The objects of this Constitution were to promote the future unity of the country, to express its diversity and to increase discussion and management by Nigerians of their own affairs. A Legislative Council was set up for the whole of Nigeria, with 45 Members, of whom 28 were Africans (4 elected and 24 nominated) while the Executive Council was still composed mainly of official members. But the biggest change brought about by the 1947 Constitution was the setting up of Regional Houses of Assembly in Eastern, Western and Northern Nigeria, with a House of Chiefs for the Northern Region. These Assemblies were created for the purpose of linking the Central Legislative Council and the Native Authorities, and were required to consider and advise by resolution on any matters referred to them by the Governor.