Northern Nigeria Protectorate - Administration

Administration

The British Administration began with Frederick Lugard as the first High Commissioner. In 1907, Lugard left Nigeria for Hong Kong and Percy Girouard became the new High Commissioner. Girouard had a long history of rail construction in Canada and Africa and was tasked with substantial railroad construction in the Protectorate. In 1909, Henry Hesketh Bell, the governor of the Uganda Protectorate was appointed high commissioner. In 1912, it was estimated that the area of Northern Nigeria was approximately 255,000 miles (410,000 km) and had a population of about 10 million people. Charles Lindsay Temple became the acting Head Commissioner in 1911 and 1912 and began overseeing, with close collaboration with Lugard, the creation of the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria

One defining characteristic of administration in Northern Nigeria Protectorate was the inclusion of chiefs and emirs as "native authorities" fitting into British administration. Taxation proved very difficult in the protectorate for the first years of British rule. Lugard's attempts to institute poll taxes were foiled by the emirates, the need to introduce coin controversy, and attempts to tax trade were opposed by powerful merchants. This created a substantial deficit in the budget of the Protectorate and public works projects had to be paid by grants from the British Empire. As a result, the British often had significant shortages of British personnel before 1907. These pragmatic concerns resulted in incorporation of the traditional authorities within the British structure.

These same financial and administrative challenges resulted in discussions led by Lugard for the unification of the Lagos Colony, the Southern Nigeria Protectorate, and Northern Nigeria. The disparities between the protectorates was to be corrected by creating a central administration in Lagos, with custom revenues from the south paying for the projects in the north. The unified Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria began in 1914 and had two lieutenant governors with one responsible for the area of the southern province and another responsible for the northern province. The administration in the north remained largely separate and included and deepened the use of native authorities. These divisions have been found to persist in many respects to this day.