What you Need to Know About Who Founded Nigeria

It wasn’t until 1914, with the unification of Northern and Southern Nigeria, that Nigeria was officially recognized as a country. Flora Shaw, a British journalist and the future wife of British administrator Lord Fredrick Lugard (Governor General of both the Northern and Southern Protectorates), named and found the region(Nigeria). After the location of the River Niger was mapped out, Nigeria was given that name.

But there were key individuals and events that helped mold Nigeria into what it is today. Hundreds of distinct ethnic groups lived in Nigeria before it became a nation-state, and they seldom interacted with one another. Some of these communities formed commercial partnerships, while others engaged in violent confrontation with one another.

The British Empire dominated Nigeria during the nineteenth century, essentially colonizing the country and its many different ethnic populations. When the territory of the Royal Niger Company were ceded to the British Crown in 1901, Nigeria became a British protectorate. Soon after, in 1914, the protectorate of Southern Nigeria and the British colony of Lagos were combined into a single nation called Nigeria. Beginning in the late 1940s, the independence movement from British colonial control gathered steam in the next decade.

Herbert Macaulay, Nnamdi Azikiwe, and Obafemi Awolowo were three of the most influential people in the movement. They favored increased freedom for Nigeria within the framework of the British Empire. Macaulay was a political leader who promoted Nigerian independence by establishing the Nigerian National Democratic Party (NNDP). As a journalist, Azikiwe established the NCNC, which later united with the Action Group to become the first government in Nigeria to be democratically elected by the country’s citizens in 1959. The Action Group, led by Awolowo, worked to better the lives of its Yoruba constituents. In 1954, the independence movement reached a turning point when the British government called for a constitutional convention.

The Northern, Eastern, and Western regions of Nigeria were each given more autonomy during this summit. Nigeria was officially freed from British colonial authority on October 1, 1960. Nnamdi Azikiwe served as the country’s first president from 1963 until 1966. Azikiwe was a prominent figure in the fight for freedom from colonial authority and a strong supporter of a single, sovereign Nigeria.

It is also noteworthy that the military of Nigeria has played a significant part in the development of the country. Following its independence, Nigeria was controlled by a succession of military regimes that, for the most part, prevented the country’s elected leaders from carrying out their duties. In 1966, General Aguiyi Ironsi led a military coup that ousted the democratically elected government. General Yakubu Gowon took power in Nigeria after a string of coups and countercoups. From 1967 to 1970, he was in charge of Nigeria as the country’s leader throughout its bloody civil war with the breakaway Republic of Biafra.

Significant figures like as Macaulay, Azikiwe, and Awolowo played important roles in the independence struggle. Nigeria is the most populated country in Africa and home to over 250 distinct ethnic groups.