Competition and Control in Modern Nigeria: Origins of the War with Biafra
| DOI | 10.1177/002070207002500310 |
| Published date | 01 September 1970 |
| Author | Michael Vickers |
| Date | 01 September 1970 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Competition
and
Control
in
Modern
Nigeria:
Origins
of
the
War
with
Biafra
Michael
Vickers
The
war
between
Nigeria
and
Biafra
has
ended.
The
cost
has
been
high
for
Federal
Nigeria,
but
mostly
it
is
Biafra
which
will
continue
to
pay
the
price
for
failure
in
its
attempt
to
secure
for
itself
a
sovereign republic.
This
paper
will
not
dwell on
the
brutalities
and
horror
of
the
war;
all
who
have
been
witnesses
at
first
or
second
hand, or
who
have simply
followed
through
the
press
the
bloody
path
of
the
war
will
remember
long
its
tragic
events.
In
the
analysis
which
follows
attention
will
be
given
to
the
origins
of
the
war,
largely
in
terms
of
the
significant events
and
developments
during both
the
pre-independence
era
in
the
1950s
and
the
years
of post-independence
civil
political
rule.
I
In
1950
the
enactment
of
the
Local
Government
Ordinance
by
the
authorities
in
the Eastern
Region
served
to
introduce
Niger-
ians
for
the
first
time
into
positions
of
responsibility
and
influ-
ence
in
the
political
hierarchy.
The
provisions
of
the
ordinance
called
for
the
direct
election
of
Nigerians
to
all
councils
at
the
local
level.
The
British
Labour
government
envisaged
this
as
a
radical
and
liberalizing
move
which
would
carry
forward
the
objectives
of
the
famous
1947
despatch.
1
In
this
document
the
Colonial
Secretary
laid
out
what
was
to
be
in
essence
the
blue-
print
for
the
development
of
responsible
government
from
the
grassroots
upwards
in
Britain's
African
colonial
possessions.
It
Formerly lecturer,
Department
of
Political
Science,
University
of
Hfe,
Nigeria;
currently
resident
visitor,
Boston
University;
co-author
of
Structure and
Conflict
in
an
Independent
African
State:
An
Analysis
of Social
and
Political
Development
in
Modern
Nigeria
(forthcoming).
1
Despatch.
from
the
Secretary
of
State
for
the
Colonies
to
the
Gover-
nors
of
African
Territories
(London:
HmSO,
1947).
604
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL
was
anticipated
that
the
introduction
of
this
scheme
would
en-
courage,
through
grassroots
participation,
a
growth
in
under-
standing
by
citizens
in
all
localities
of
the nature
and
function
of
these
governmental
institutions
which
henceforward
would
control
their
lives.
Also,
for
those
who
were
selected
as
represen-
tatives,
it
was
expected
that
exposure
to
the
operation
of govern-
ment
at
this
lowest
of
levels
would
afford
them
the
opportunity
to
grasp
a
fundamental
understanding
of
the
responsibilities
and
duties
of
office.
This
introduction
of
elective
local
government
was
the
starting
point
in
the British
plan
to
invest
an
increasing
number
of
Nigerians
with
greater
authority
over
a
growing
range
of
political
and
administrative
activities
at
progressively
higher
levels
of
government.
This
was
the
over-all plan,
and
from
it
the
British
deviated
very
little
between
these
early
years
and
their
final
withdrawal
on
1
October
1960.2
As
progressive
and
rational
as
this
macro-planning may
have
been,
it
failed
to
set
out
a
system
of
government
capable
of
encompassing
grassroots
demands and
harnessing
the
stresses
generated
in
the
Nigerian
context.
The
1947
despatch "express-
ed
a
far-sighted
and enlightened
policy,
but
took
insufficient
account
of
the
difficulties
of
the
course
it
was
proposing,
for
it
accepted
as
an
ideal
the
type
of local
democracy
which
characterized
the
British
people
in
the
first
half
of
the
twentieth
century.
The
form
was
easy
enough
to
transplant,
but
the
particular
history
and
condition
which
gave
it
life
would
not
transplant
so
easily.
'' 3
The
British
were
interested
and
committed
to
instructing
Nigerians
in
the
rules
of
the
"western parliamen-
tary-democratic
game";
Nigerians,
however,
were
concerned
in
shaping
the
rules
of
another
game
-
the
"Nigerian
political
game."
In
the
course
of
the
development of
the
latter
game
it
became
quickly evident
that
while
the appropriate
institutional
form
was
observed
and
largely
adhered
to
the
primary
goal
of
Nigerians
was
to
employ
these
new
institutions
as mechanisms
to
attain
and
secure
the maximum
available
benefits:
"Once
the
2
An
outline
of
parallel
British
"economic
and
developmental
commit-
ment," which
preceded
the
1947
despatch,
was
set
out
in
a
despatch
dated
12
November
1945,
from the
Secretary
of
State
for
the
Colonies
to
colonial
governors,
Colonial
Development
and Welfare
(Cmnd
6713).
The
1947
despatch was to
provide
the
political
and
administra-
tive
guidelines
whereby
the
goals
of
the
British
"economic
and
devel-
opment commitment"
could be
secured.
3
R.
E.
Wraith,
"Local
Government,"
in
John
P.
Mackintosh,
ed.,
Nigerian
Government
and
Politics
(London,
1966),
p.
210.
Italics
added.
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