BBC documentary

Britain rigged election before Nigerian independence

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2007/aug2007/nige-a09.shtml

By Barry Mason

9 August 2007

A BBC radio documentary on the events leading up to the independence of
Nigeria, Britain's former colony, charged the British government with
interference in the election to ensure the result was in line with its
interests (see "Rigging
Nigeria<http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/document/index.shtml>
").

The programme cited two files held in the British National archives covering
the period leading up to independence in 1960 that to this day remain closed
to the public and will remain closed for another 50 years.

One file contains material relating to the governor general at the time of
independence, Sir James Robertson, and the other material on Dr Azikiwe,
known as Zik, who was leader of the nationalist pro-independence political
party, the National Council of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC).

Mike Thomson, the investigator on the programme, spoke to Harold Smith who
had gone out to work as a British Colonial Officer in the 1950s after
graduating from Oxford University. Smith was based in the then capital,
Lagos, working in the ministry of Labour, then headed by Festus Okotie-Eboh,
a flamboyant politician who was treasurer of the NCNC. The NCNC was based in
the Eastern Region of Nigeria. Under colonial rule the country was divided
up into three regions, North, East and West.

One day Smith was given a secret file containing a minute that ordered him
to get involved in regional elections taking place in the late 1950s in the
run up to independence. He was to make vehicles, staff and other resources
available to the NCNC colleagues of Okotie-Eboh who was standing in the
elections. Smith was shocked at the request. He explained that the election
had to be fixed because the plan was that the Northern region would hold
power on independence.

Thomson asks, "Could an allegation of British government involvement to rig
an election or at the least to favour a particular party be substantiated?"

He interviewed Professor David Anderson, Director of the African Studies
Centre at Oxford University. Asked if such manipulation of an election
result could have happened Professor Anderson replied: "In almost every
single colony the British attempted to manipulate the result to their
advantage.... I would be surprised if they had not done so."

Nigeria's Northern region constituted three quarters of the land mass of the
country and had roughly half the population. Professor Anderson explained
that the North, with its Islamist culture, was very conservative and had
enjoyed a close relationship with its British colonial rulers. The British
had ruled through the emirs.

The British government was concerned that the result of independence might
lead to partition. They regarded the Northern region as a bulwark against
opposition. Professor Anderson explained that British analysts at the time
thought that West Africa as a whole with its high levels of poverty was
highly vulnerable to communism.

The politics of the North was dominated by the Northern Peoples' Congress
Party (NPC). Britain was aware that the NPC would be unable to rule an
independent Nigeria by itself and would need the support of a major party in
the East or West.

This is why, explains Smith, he had been ordered to help the party of Dr
Azikiwe (Zik), in the East, the NCNC. He explained: "They had to fix Zik of
course, there was stuff they have got him for that could send him to prison
... [they] forced him to do a deal with the North."

Smith is adamant the orders to help the NCNC came from the top, the governor
general Sir James Robertson. Smith described Robertson as "a thug and he had
a terrible reputation....We loved Africans, but these people who came to do
this job were a different breed, these were the ex-SOE [British Secret
Service outfit set up during the Second World War] and MI6."

According to Smith his colleagues reluctantly went along with the orders to
aid the election campaign. Smith refused and asked to see Robertson.

He describes his meeting with Robertson. Robertson said, "I want you to know
that everything you have alleged about the elections is correct.... You know
too much and I want you to know how much trouble you are in. The Colonial
Service is just like the army, you know what happens if you disobey orders
on active service and that is what is going to happen to you."

Smith added that Robertson was so angry he half expected him to produce a
pistol and shoot him.

Smith showed Mike Thomson the copies of correspondence he has sent to the
"great and the good" over the years in his campaign to highlight his
allegations. Thomson remarked that without recordings of the conversations
Harold Smith claims took place and no copies of the orders it is difficult
for him to prove his case.

However, Thomson was able to quote from some documents that give a hint of
what happened. One document is a letter written by Sir Peter Smethers who
was a private parliamentary secretary at the British Colonial Office
throughout most of the decolonization period and had been present at most of
the independence negotiations, including that of Nigeria.

Writing of the Northern political class he says, "The attraction of the Kanu
rulers was that they had a long and successful experience of government ...
offered the obvious choice to head the new experiment. It was difficult to
see an alternative to the early stages of independence."

Smethers died last year at the age of 92.

The other document was from the memoirs of Robertson, who died in 1983. He
explained that in the elections that took place in 1959 to choose the
government that would rule after independence, before the result was known
there were rumours that the NCNC in the East and the so-called Action Group
in the West were considering a coalition and would be able to form a
majority in the House of Representatives.

He explained how he thought this might result in the North leaving the
federation. Part of his role was to appoint as prime minister whoever he
thought best able to command a majority in the House of Representatives. He
invited Abukakr Tafawa Balewa, the Northern leader, to form a government
even before the result of the election was known. He did so without
consulting the secretary of state in the British government.

Thomson also explains how the British carried out a census in Nigeria in the
years leading to independence and were accused of overestimating the numbers
in the North to give them a higher representation in the parliament.
Professor Anderson agrees it was certainly in the interests of Britain to
have done that.

Both Professor Anderson and Mike Thomson applied under the Freedom of
Information Act to gain access to the two files but have been refused.

Anderson told the programme:

"Clearly someone in the British government, when those files were
classified, did not want us historians to learn something about what they
contain and that raises my suspicions that those files might contain
information about whatever deals were brokered between the British
government and the NCNC. Because it is certainly the case that the NCNC
would not have won the election it did without British support. Nor could it
have formed a coalition with the NPC at independence without British
support. So I would love to see what's in those two files about Sir James
Robertson and Dr Azikiwe."
See Also:
**
The Congo: How and why the West organised Lumumba's assassination Review of
two BBC documentaries: *Who Killed Lumumba?*, and
*Mobutu*<http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/jan2001/lum-j10.shtml>

[10 January 2001]

¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html

To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤