Nigeria is the most populous African nation; it is also the nation with the highest number of black people. She is a nation of over 250 ethnic nationalities; it’s a marvel how so many diverse people could come together.
The earliest written record of a foreign visit to the geographical region of Nigeria was by Hanno the Carthaginian. He sailed down the West African coast probably as far as Cameroun in the 5th century bc. The earliest recorded Europeans to visit were the Portuguese circa 1485; they were sent by Prince Henry the Navigator and led by the explorer, Alfonso D’Aveiro. The Portuguese later exchanged ambassadors with the Olu (Paramount ruler) of Warri and sent some priests to evangelize his kingdom. This was not successful because the Europeans fell prey to malaria, caused by mosquito bites. They tried to train Africans as priests but this was also not successful as they rejected celibacy, this was too far for a people who had been practicing polygamy for generations . The contact was soon lost when Portugal ceased to be a major European power.
The next major contact with the Europeans was with the slave traders. A European priest stationed in South America famously or infamously stated that one African is as strong as four South American Indians he said this because they Indians were being worked to death, and so began the “slave rush” in Africa as Africans replaced the Indians in the plantations and mines. West Africa was the focal point and the “Nigerian” coast where most of the slaves were sold from was called the “Slave Coast” just as Ghana was called Gold Coast and its francophone neighbor Ivory Coast.
The Liverpool merchants played a big role in the transatlantic slave trade; they were part of the starting point of the “golden triangle” where their ships sailed from Europe to West Africa, the second point of the triangle. They bought the slaves and sailed to the Americas the third point, and returned back to Europe, the starting point with their profits. By the 1800’s when slavery and slave trade was abolished after great work by the abolitionists the Liverpool merchants, in order not to lose all their investments started exploring the possibilities of other legitimate trade. They found many opportunities but they felt the middle men at the coastal cities were preventing them from making as much profit as they wanted. They now sent in the explorers who looked for land and water routes to the hinterland so the middlemen could be bypassed. Explorers like Mungo Park, Hugh Clapperton, the Lander brothers, William Baikie explored the hinterland trying to set up trade routes, and they were closely followed by the missionaries. At first they were hampered by the deadly mosquito, as very few white men were immune to malaria fever. This led to funded research to find the cure for malaria, the French discovery of the effects of Quinine and Sir Ronald Ross’ research led to significantly less malaria deaths, so West Africa ceased to be the “white man’s grave”.
Gunboat diplomacy was used to solve the middle man problem leading to banishment and detention of Ovonramwen Nogbaisi the Oba of Benin, Nana Olomu, a Warri Chief, and King Jaja of Opobo. During this period British companies in the area came together under Sir George Taubman Goldie to form the United African Company (UAC). This company was later chartered and the name changed to the Royal Niger Company (RNC). It represented Great Britain’s interest at the 1884 Berlin conference that partitioned Africa to various European powers, the RNC also administered the region of present day Nigeria from 1884-1899, all these occurred because Britain did not have the funds for a large scale administration at the time so they let the RNC lay the groundwork for them (public private partnership). Sir Goldie started indirect rule in Nigeria because of the shortage of qualified administrators and laid the foundation for the Nigerian army and the police. On the first of January the British took formal control of Nigeria from the RNC, and its first Governor-General was Lord Lugard, the commander of the army under Sir Goldie’s RNC. Sir Goldie was an unassuming man as the name Goldisia was suggested for the region just like Rhodesia after Sir Cecil Rhodes was the former name of Zambia and Zimbabwe which was also company ruled, instead the name Nigeria referring to the Niger River area was accepted by him.
In 1993 for three months Nigeria was ruled by a former CEO of UAC Chief Ernest Shonekan.
Right now we have over a hundred thousand politicians running the country but things are going haywire, but then in the days of the RNC as little as 300 men oversaw the nation’s affairs perhaps more efficiently?
rerodan 