Reports
| Published date | 01 January 1959 |
| Date | 01 January 1959 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/j.1099-162X.1959.tb01201.x |
Reports
REPORT
OF
THE
NIGERIAN
MINORITIES COMMISSION
AT the Nigeria Constitutional Conference held at Lancaster House in
May
and
June,
1957, it was agreed
that
aCommission of Enquiryshould be appointed
to ascertain facts
about
the fears
of
minorities in
any
part
of Nigeria
and
to
propose means of allaying those fears whether well- or ill-founded.
This
agree-
ment
and
the background to it
are
recorded in
paragraph
24
of
the
Report
of
the Conference (Cmnd. 207).
The
Secretary ofStatefor the Colonies accordingly
appointed aCommission of Enquiry in September 1957,
under
the
Chairman-
ship of Sir
Henry
Willink, Bart., M.e.,
Q..e.,
Master of Magdalene College,
Cambridge.
The
members of the Commission were Sir Gordon Hadow,
C.M.G.,
O.B.E.,
formerly Deputy Governor of the Gold Coast; Mr. Philip
Mason,
C.I.E.,
O.B.E.,
Director of the Institute of
Race
Relations, formerly
of
the
Indian
Civil Service
and
Director of Studies in Race Relations
at
Chatham
House;
and
Mr.
J.
B. Shearer,
C.M.O.,
C.I.E.,
a.B.E.,
formerly
Acting Finance Secretary, Pakistan,
and
Manager
for Greece of the Ionian
Bank Limited.
The
Commission submitted their Report, which was published
on the
rst
August as a White Paper.'
The
Commission prepared the following explanatory note to their report.
Explanatory
Note
When the Constitutional Conference on Nigeria
met
in the
Summer
of
1957, they were faced with alarge
number
of proposals by bodies who claimed
to represent minorities
and
who asked for the creation of additional States
or Regions within the Federation.
On
the recommendation of the Conference,
the Secretary of State dealt with these claims by appointing aCommission to
enquire into the fears of minorities
and
"propose means
of
allaying those
fears".
They
were to advise
what
safeguards should be included in the Consti-
tution
and
"if,
but
only if, no other solution seemed to meet the case"
the
Commission might
"as
a last resort" recommend the setting up of one or more
separate states, with the proviso, however,
that
they should not recommend
more
than
one in each Region, on account of the serious administrative
problems which the setting up
of
astate would involve.
There
are
at
present three Regions in the Federation of Nigeria,
of
which
the
Eastern
and
Western
are
already self-governing, while the Northern has asked
to become self-governing in 1959.
In
each
of
the three Regions, the problem
relating to minorities as presented to the Commission was of a somewhat
similar nature.
In
the Western Region
about
two-thirds of the population belong to the
Yoruba tribe
and
speak the Yoruba language.
Of
the one-third who are not
Yoruba, more
than
half
speak the
Edo
language
and
look on the ancient city
of
Benin as the headquarters of their culture.
It
was on
behalf
of this one-third
who did not speak the Yoruba language
that
fears were expressed.
Similarly in the Eastern Region
about
two-thirds belong to the
Ibo
tribe,
and
about
half
of those who
are
not
Ibo
speak either Ibibio or Efik
and
have acertain
feeling of
unity
as against the Ibos.
I
Cmnd.
505.
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