The 1914 Amalgamation of British Administrative Units in Nigeria and the Rhetorics for Secession

Abstract

The British amalgamation of its administrative units to what later became known as Nigeria in 1914 have over the years been subjected to implausible arguments, that the amalgamation was not conceived with the consent of Nigerians. Secondly, that such contraction had lapsed since 2014 and, therefore, Nigeria should ceased to exist. All these arguments have over years led to
rthorics for secession and disintegration of the country, particularly among politicians. They failed to understand and acknowledge that the British, like the rest European colonising powers, conceived such idea at the famous Berlin Conference of 1884/5 long before they embarked on the physical conquest of the African continent. Secondly and more importantly, the present
Nigerian areas were, hitherto to the advent of British and other European powers, equally coerced under arbitrary rulers and warlords in Empires, Kingdoms and small nation states. This paper adopts historical approach to re-examine the amalgamation arguments, linking perocolonial, colonial and postcolonial elites’ power play in Nigeria.