1865 – British parliament ordered their government, with no exceptions, to desist from creating new colonies and to withdraw from existing settlements including Lagos. The British government initially complied and stalled creating new colonies. French and German colonial activities in West Africa caused the British government to change course. Colonies were perceived as expression of military might and political power. To avoid parliamentary scrutiny, the British government never again sought parliamentary approval for its colony activities.
1913 – British government obtained the Nigeria Colony Act by an Order in Council (euphemism for an act by the Royal Family) dated 22 November 2013 to enable amalgamation to take place. However, prior to that on 3 July 1888, Britain signed a non-cession, trade-and-friendship treaty with Yorubaland ostensibly to develop Yorubaland. Further, in 1866, Britain passed the Berlin Act which obligated the British government to develop Yorubaland as was in situ. Britain reneged on both and in defiance, on 1 January 1914, amalgamated Yorubaland into Nigeria with the primary intention of shifting the financial burden of her Northern Nigeria to Yorubaland.
1914 – Prior to amalgamation, Britain officially recognised Ilorin and its environs as part of Yorubaland. The River Niger provided a natural landmark separating Yorubaland from Northern Nigeria, the protectorate that Lugard was administering at that time. But Lugard in his Amalgamation exercise removed these northern Yoruba territories and incorporated them into Northern Nigeria. There was resistance to this ethnic gerrymandering from Lagos, but Lugard overrode them. Lugard’s intention with this unreasonable act was to beef up the population of Northern Nigeria.
1959 – The British deliberately made several features of the Nigeria constitution undemocratic. In particular, they abolished in the East and West but not in the North, the electoral college that they previously used to elect members of the Federal House. The consequence of this was that the North had the largest number of seats despite the fact that the electorate in the North was smaller than the electorates in the East and West respectively as Northern women were non participants. And election rigging was sewn into the fabric of Nigerian politics.
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