IGBOZURUOKE FORUM

Lord Frederich Lugard, first Governor-General of Nigeria

Casely Hayford, leader of NCBWA

Sir Hugh Clifford, architect of the Elective Principle in Nigeria

Olayinka Heelas Herbert Macaulay, leader of NNDP,first prominent political party in Nigeria                                               

By Boniface Alanwoko,

At the last count, we have about 29 political parties in Nigeria.  Beginning with the giants and well known, like the All Progressives Congress APC, (the party in power), Peoples; Democratic Party PDP, (the opposition party); the light weights, APGA, Labour Party etc., down to those who seem to only exist in the INEC’s register. In this category, we have the Mass Movement of Nigeria MMN, People’s Salvation Party PSP and Action Alliance AA, just to mention a few.

In the earliest Nigerian republic we had parties like the Nigerian National Democratic Party NNDP, Nigerian Youth Movement NYM, National Council of Nigeria and Cameroons, later National Council of Nigerian Citizens NCN, for mentioning.

Unfortunately, credit for the evolution of political parties in Nigeria has always gone to Sir Hugh Clifford, whose constitutional initiatives in 1922 contained an amendment that gave rise to The Elective Principle that was first in the Nigerian political firmament and indeed that of tropical Africa.

Unlike in the provisions of the Legislative Council of 1914, the 1922 Constitution, which came into effect in 1923 and  known as The Clifford Constitution, veered completely from the old order and made the following provisions, according to records from Essentials of Government for West Africa, by Francis Adigwe, Solicitor and Advocate of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.

The new Council which contained 46 members had 27, including the Governor as official members. Of the remaining 19 members who were known as unofficial members (members without portfolios in a governing council), 15 were the governor’s appointees while four were elected. Three of the elected members came from Lagos while the remaining one came from Calabar.  In all there were 10 Africans in the Council including the four elected members.

Conditions attached to the elective posts include being a male adult who must be a British subjects or a British protected person (whatever the British meant by that), having resided in a particular area for 12 months and having a gross income of 100 Pounds.

Incontrovertibly, it was the elective principle that galvanized the populace and brought remarkable political activities to Lagos, especially, Lagos Island and to a high degree, to the Calabar municipality. However, the elective principle contained in the Clifford Constitution, was the aftermath of events that started in 1920.

After the inauguration of the National Congress of British West Africa (NCBWA), its branch was established in Lagos in 1920.

The NCBWA which was led by a lawyer , Casely Hayford, from Ghana was an association that  comprised educated and affluent members of the five British West Africa, namely: The Gambia, Sierra Leone, Gold Coast (now Ghana) and Nigeria.

Immediately, the association’s branch berthed in Lagos, it teamed up with other African elites, especially, from Nigeria to launch severe criticism of the composition of the Nigerian Council created by Lord Lugard,  in 1914. In fact, the association followed their combative posture by sending a delegate to London in 1920 to hand over a well articulated petition to the then Secretary of State, Lord Milner, in London.

Among the demands of the delegate were the establishments in each territory in British West Africa a Legislative Council in which half must be elected and the other half nominated; the appointment of Africans to judicial offices; and the establishment of a West African University, among others.

Although the demands of the delegate were turned down and the disillusioned travelers retuned to scathing criticisms from both the governors of the Gold Coast and that of Nigeria who used unflattering terms to disparage the delegates.  In his contemptuous remarks, the governor of Nigeria, Sir Hugh Clifford sarcastically accused the Nigerian members of the delegate of not only being unrepresentative of the Nigerian people but also being ignorant of prevailing Nigerian conditions then, (whatever that means).

However it became clear the affront of the NCBWA had unsettled these colonialists who must quickly take actions one way or the other to avert any upheaval.

Consequently, in 1922, he abolished the Nigerian Council and the old Legislative Council and replaced them with a Legislative Council and a new Executive Council, an action which was in line with a demand of the NCBWA.

Therefore, while tribute would be paid to Sir Hugh Clifford for being magnanimous to make concessions despite the posture he had presented against the Nigerian delegate, the ultimate commendation must go to NCBWA, without whose prompting, the elective principle that galvanized the creation of Nigerian first political parties and electioneering in Nigerian would not have taken place.