HIS 401 Key Points

Nigeria’s First Republic, 1960-1966

Introduction: Nigeria’s First Republic is usually reckoned to have lasted from 1960 to 1966
though the country formally became a Republic in 1963. At independence in 1960, Nigeria was
structured based on the Westminster model of the parliamentary system. There was a bicameral
legislature both at the centre and in the regions. At the centre, there were the House of Reps
directly elected, and a Senate nominated from the regions based on equality of all regions; The
Senate included 12 members from each region; the House of Reps was composed of 174 reps
from the Northern Region, 73 from the East, 62 from the West, 3 and 8 from Lagos and Southern
Cameroons respectively. In terms of party representation, the NPC = 142, NCNC/NEPU = 89,
and AG = 73; there were two heads at the centre, namely, first, the ceremonial, which initially
was the Queen of England represented by the Governor until 1963 when Dr. Azikiwe became the
President; secondly, there was the Prime Minister (Alh. Abubakar Tafawa Balewa) who was the
executive head of government. Based on the fact that none of the major political parties won an
absolute majority at the 1959 General Elections, the government that was formed at
independence was a COALTION between the NPC and NCNC; the AG became the
OPPOSITION; the NPC produced the Prime Minister while the NCNC produced the Senate
President (later Governor-General and President of the Republic); soon after independence, there
was hostility between the coalition and the opposition.
Remote causes of (the crisis that led to) the collapse of the Republic:
Ø Structural imbalance in the emergent nation; the three regions were unequal in terms of
size, population, educational development, etc. The North was twice as large as the two southern
regions and believed to be more populous although backward educationally compared to the
south; the regions were also strong while the centre was weak;
Ø Fear of domination between the majority ethnic groups, between the minorities and
majorities, and between the regions; in addition to “the North-South antagonism,” there was also
the intensification of ethnic diversity and ethnic nationalism characterised by agitations for or
threats of secession (e.g. the North in 1953 & 1966, West in 1962 and East, 1964 & 1967);
Ø Problem of regionalism especially since 1946 and further entrenched by the constitutions
developed in the period leading to independence; the regions were competitive; regional
consciousness, concerns and interests were reinforced or emphasised above national ones; at a
point regionalism and ethnic nationalism became dominant over nationalism;
Ø Emergence/Development of political parties along regional lines (NPC = North; AG =
West; NCNC = East); this contributed to the absence of ‘genuine and truly national political
parties’;
Ø Inter-party political rivalries and ‘cut-throat competitions’, especially for power at the
centre, became synonymous with inter-ethnic and inter-regional conflicts;
Ø The absence of charismatic national political leaders widely acceptable across the regions
and ethnic groups and with long experience of governance at the centre; according to a scholar

1|Page
(Leo Dare), the political leaders were “charismatic obstacles to unity” rather than being
‘charismatic catalysts to unity’;
Ø Disunity and mutual distrust and suspicion among the political leaders and their seeming
lack of faith in the unity of the new nation at independence, and their failure to find real and
practical solutions to various political crises that erupted during the republic;

Immediate Causes: (Crises, conflicts and controversies that dominated the Republic and
eventually led to its collapse):
(1) Hostility and power struggle between the coalition government of NPC/NCNC and the
opposition Action Group with each determined to ridicule and bring down (the “PHD [or Pull
Him Down] Syndrome’) the other leading to such developments as call for the declaration of a
State of Emergency in the West by the Premier of Eastern Region, the arrest, trial and sentence
of Awolowo (10 years), and other AG members including Anthony Enahoro (15 years) over
allegation of treason (September 1962); institution of enquiry into the activities of the National
Bank sponsored by the AG creation of Mid-West Region (August 1963), etc.
(2) Census Crises of 1962 and 1963: attempts by each region to use census figures as
effective weapon either to maintain current dominance or reverse northern domination of the
Central Legislature; the initial figures of the 1962 census were: Northern Region = 21.4 million;
Western = 8.0m; Eastern = 12.3m, and Lagos 0.6m; the figures were disputed especially by the
South; in the second exercise in 1963, the figures showed some increase in the population in the
North and West, i.e. North = 29.7m; West = 10.2m while East and Lagos remained virtually the
same as 1962 figures; the crises contributed to the collapse of the alliance between the NCNC
and NPC leading to the formation of new alliances to contest the 1964 General Election UPGA
versus NNA;
(3) Action Group\Western Region Crisis of 1962; ideological conflict between the party
leader (O. Awolowo) and his deputy (S. L. Akintola) leading to riots in the Western Regional
House of Assembly and the declaration of state of emergency in the region by the Federal
government and appointment of Dr. Moses Majekodunmi as Sole Administrator; in January
1963, the State of Emergency was lifted and Akintola returned to power; later in 1963, he formed
a new party initially named United People’s Party (1963) and later Nigerian National Democratic
Party (1964), which formed an alliance with NPC;
(4) Conflicts within the Coalition Govt. over sharing of dividends of alliance: e.g. the £670m
iron & steel industry project proposed in the 1962-68 National Dev. Plan; conflict between
alliance members over treatment of NCNC allies in the north (NEPU) in spite of ‘cooperation’ at
the centre; collapse of the alliance\coalition and formation of new alliances by 1964, which more
or less pitched the North against the South: the United Progressive Grand Alliance (UPGA of
NCNC and AG+ Northern Progressive Front [NEPU & UMBC]) vs. Nigeria National Alliance
(NNA) of NPC and NNDP of Akintola in the Western region + Mid-West Democratic Front,
Niger Delta Congress; to some extent, the new alliances reflected North vs South dichotomy;

2|Page
(5) Widespread electoral malpractices during the 1964 General Elections and the crisis that
followed; boycott by UPGA; rejection of results; constitutional crisis following President Zik’s
refusal to call PM, Balewa to form a new govt.; the north still emerged dominant at the end of
the crisis: NPC won most seats from the region and thus needed no coalition to run the new
govt.; contemplation of secession\confederation by the NCNC later dropped;
(6) Western Regional Electoral crisis of 1965; attempt by the AG to regain control of the
government of the region from Akintola and the latter’s attempt to retain power; alleged mass
rigging by Akintola’s NNDP, which was eventually declared to have won the elections; reactions
led to riots: the “Operation Wet E”; in the crisis this time around, there was no deployment of
soldiers or declaration of a State of Emergency by the Federal Government; the crisis and killing
continued until the military intervention in January 1966 that ended the Republic;
(7) Military intervention through the January 1966 military coup, which terminated the life
of the First Republic in 1966;

On the Nigerian Civil War: the conflict lasted from July 6, 1967 to January 15,1970;
Remote causes of the war including such issues/developments that have created tensions and
disunity among Nigerian ethnic groups especially in the period before 1966 including structural
imbalance; fear of domination of Nigeria/other ethnic groups by one group (i.e. fear of northern
domination); ethnic tension caused by mutual distrust, hatred, and hostility (especially in the
struggle for power at the centre); 1962-63 census controversy; 1964 General Election crisis;
1965 Western Region election crisis);
Immediate causes of the civil war including the developments leading to the declaration of
secession of the Republic of Biafra by Lt. Col. Ojuckwu on 30 May, 1967, such as the following:
Ø The January 15, 1966 Coup d’état and its aftermath including the casualties, its
perception by a section of Nigeria as an “Igbo conspiracy” against the north;
Ø The emergence of General Aguiyi Ironsi as the Head of State, his policies including steps
he took towards centralisation such as Decree 34 of May 24, 1966 (which abolished the regions,
and transformed Nigeria into a Unitary state; the public services of the regions and federation
were unified leading to fear of domination of the North by the Igbo), promotion exercise
favoured the Igbo (e.g. April, 1966, out of the 21 officers promoted to Lt. Colonels, 18 were
Igbo), failure to bring January coup plotters to book, and surrounding himself with Igbo civil
servants as advisers, etc.
Ø The July 1966 Counter-Coup and its aftermath including the casualties, its perception as a
revenge for the January 15, 1966 coup d’état, emergence of Lt. Col. Yakubu Gowon, a
northerner as the Head of State
Ø Personality clash between Lt. Cols. Gowon and Odumegwu Ojukwu; refusal of Ojukwu
to recognize Gowon as the rightful candidate to head Nigerian government after the death of
Ironsi; Brigadier Ogundipe, not Gowon, was the most senior in the armed forces;
Ø The killing of Igbo in the Northern Region: following the Unification Decree (Decree 34
of May 24, 1966) by Ironsi in May 1966, there were riots in Jos, Kano, Kaduna, Bauchi, Bukuru,

3|Page
etc. on May 29, 1966, during which many Igbo were killed; later, there was the July and
September 1966 Pogrom in the region: the massacre of Igbo (civilians and military) living in the
north by northerners; some 30,000 reportedly killed while many others fled the north; the failure
or inability of Gowon to stop the killings led Ojukwu to recall all Igbos in the north and directing
all non-Easterners in the Eastern Region to return to their regions as he could no longer
guarantee their safety;
Ø Failure of diplomatic moves such as the Aburi meeting of January 4-5, 1967 and Accord
to resolve the tension and hostility between Gowon and Ojukwu; Gowon’s creation of states in
May 1967;
Ø Developments following Aburi Accord: controversy over the agreements reached at
Aburi; following alleged non-implementation of the Accord by Gowon, Ojukwu threatened to
take “unilateral actions” to implement it; his steps were towards secession from the federation:
Ojukwu ordered all revenues derived from the Eastern Region to be paid to the region’s treasury
instead of the Federal authorities in Lagos; promulgated an edit establishing a regional Court of
Appeal and declared that no more appeals to the federal courts would be allowed; Gowon
imposed an economic blockade against the East to force Ojukwu to revoke his edicts; declared
creation of 12 states in May 1967, and appointed governors for the new states (North-Western,
North-Central, North-East, Kano, Benue-Plateau, Lagos, Western, Mid-Western, East-Central,
South-East, Rivers, and West-Central (later Kwara);
Ø Declaration of the Republic of Biafra by Ojukwu on 30 May, 1967, following creation of
states by Gowon on 27 May and Gowon’s determination to crush Ojukwu-led Igbo rebellion;

4|Page