The 1913 Memorial: A Study of Protest and Discord among the British Political Officers in Northern Nigeria

Abstract

This study focuses on the protest, discord and dissatisfaction among the "privileged" British Political Officers, in Northern Nigeria. Hitherto, it has been assumed that protest and discord were phenomena associated with the oppressed and deprived African people. In most of the published works on the British administrative history in Nigeria, enough light has been shed on the wide gap that existed between the British and the African staff in terms of remuneration, housing and medical care (Nicolson, 1969: 90-150). However the problems faced by the British Political Officers especially in Northern Nigeria remain a neglected theme. Like the Nigerian staff, they were not entirely pleased with their conditions of service. In many instances, they were bitter with the cold attitude of the Colonial Office to their problems. They also detested some obnoxious colonial regulations and often found the policy and style of the Northern political leadership unpalatable and cumbersome. In spite of stiff sanctions against erring political officers, entrenched in the British colonial civil service general order, many of them refused to remain silent over issues that ran counter to their interests.