現代ナイジェリア政治の一考察-連邦制の成立-

現代アフリカの政治と国際関係

抄録

Modern Nigeria was the creation of British ambitions and rivalries in West Africa. Nigeria still is inhabited by a large number of ethnic groups, ranging in population from a few thousands to many millions, speaking several hundred languages. The variety of customs, languages and social organizations can be classified into a number of linguistic groups, which gives a fairly good indication of their wider cultural affiliations. Geographically, Nigeria can be divided into three main blocs: North, West and East, and this corresponds with the main religious beliefs, that is Islam in the North, various types of animism in the West and Christianity in the East.
South Nigeria (the East and the West combined) is rich in agricultural and natural resources, while Northern Nigeria, in spite of its vastness, is limited by a dry climate and overall poverty of its soil. The British amalgamation of 1914 provided a means by which the impoverished Northern Protectorate could share with the South the enormous revenue the latter acquires from custom receipts.
The British found the system of indirect rule rather cheap. Furthermore, ruling through local princes was convenient and less fraught with Muslim fanaticism.
A great variety of types of administration in Nigeria continued throughout the duration of the Cliford Constitution in spite of a policy of unification for Nigeria. Sir Arthur Richards' Constitution tried to express in a constitutional form the reality of Nigerian politics of divide and rule. Nationalists of every hue and color objected to the Richards' Constitution because it was imposed from above, without any consultation whatever. Sir John Macpherson's Constitution called for winning the good-will of all the Nigerians at the grass-roots level. Ironically, however, this period was dominated by the factionalism of nationalism and regionalization.
The N. C. N. C. ceased to enjoy countrywide support and the tribal political parties, NPC in the North and Action Group in the West, began to play a dominant role in constitution making. In spite of the good intentions of Macpherson, his Constitution soon proved unworkable because of the secessionist threats. The Kano riots were the climax of these frictions. When Chief Awolowo in 1953 openly threatened that the Western Region would secede unless Lagos was given back to the West, Oliver Littleton, then Secretary for the Colonies told Awolowo the British government would use force to bring any region that rebelled against the Nigerian government back into the union. Under the Littleton Constitution there was no open violence until after independence, but the latent force of disunity remained.
The role of tribal nationalism is explicitly shown in Frederick Forsyth's “The Making of an African Legend: The Biafra Story”.