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[OPINION] Lugard: 80 Years After

Published

8 months ago

April 7, 2025

By Lasisi Olagunju

On 9 June, 1913, Lord Friedrick Lugard minuted on a document that Lagos “could never be made a healthy place.” It was his reaction to a proposed sewage scheme estimated to cost £186,000. He believed that that amount was too vast to expend on an unworthy Lagos. He was Governor of Southern Nigeria at that time.

On January 1, 1914, Lugard became Governor-General of the whole of Nigeria. Thomas S. Gale, who was very critical of his ways, notes that one of Lugard’s first acts “was to close the popular Ereko dispensary in Lagos. He also approved the cancellation of plans for a badly-needed Lagos maternity home” because Lagos people” insisted that it be staffed with indigenous personnel.” Lugard always referenced what he described as “the inherent racial qualities of the coast negro” as justification for the ‘apartheid’ he prescribed for Lagos.

The soil is the crop; the planter the yield. That is why I am writing this. This week marks the 80th anniversary of the death of Lord Lugard. He was the British colonial administrator variously blamed – or praised – for ‘creating’ Nigeria and its principal structural problems. I read him each time I get exasperated by Nigeria; whenever I wonder why we are where we are.

From 1900 to 1906, Lugard was High Commissioner of the Northern Nigeria Protectorate. His blitzkrieg conquered the North but the North counter-conquered him with bewitching love. He was pleased with northern Nigeria and never hid his love for the region and his appreciation for its loyalty to him and to the British crown.

The southern part, particularly Lagos and its environs which he later added to his portfolio, Lugard found very insufferable. His words for the people there share meaning with savagery and its synonyms. Probably if we understand our leaders, past and present, we can design our escape route out of their failure and foibles.

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What were Lugard’s legacies in the North? His North had no western schools when he got there and he did very little to alter that situation throughout his years there. Check paragraph 161 of his ‘Report on Amalgamation’ published in December 1919. He later established two schools for the Muslim area of the North. There were 43 mission schools which Lugard wrote were “confined to the non-Muslim districts.” These mission schools, he wrote, enjoyed neither government’s financial assistance nor inspection and control. Lugard did so ‘well’ here for the North such that “at the time of amalgamation, the total number of pupils in government or mission schools was between 700 or 800 out of a population of some nine million.” Those were his words.

The man was lucky. With no western educated elite, he had no opposition, and he did not have to worry about the emirs. They cooperated with him on everything and he reciprocated their good behaviour by not allowing western culture and its Christian missionaries to disturb their region and religion. Earlier in 1903, after he conquered Sokoto, his speech to the new Sultan and his people ended with a charge that he had no issues with Islam. When he conquered Bida “a walled town that had been giving trouble”, his final words were to the effect that “every man was free to worship God in his own way.” He was wise. He later empowered the emirs with indirect rule which came with lucrative salaries and other inducements.

He was wise. He had superior weapons but he didn’t use them after defeating the north in battle. For these, he was respected in palaces and on the streets. He became the lord of the north, his word was law. Then, he was made governor of southern Nigeria in 1912; he came down to Lagos and encountered a set of Africans – negroes who argued with him. He did not find it funny and he acted and reacted so throughout his years in power.

On 28 March, 1913, Lugard, apparently after encountering the educated elite of Lagos, strongly counselled against giving western education to Africans outside Africa. He wrote in a memo: “It appears to me that residence in Europe is bad for the African. He returns at best an insufferable prig; at worst he is a very objectionable person.”

The amalgamation he midwifed was not for any negro to enjoy. It was for his country’s treasury to breathe and for it to use one slave to sustain another in perpetuity. And he said so. In an August 16, 1915 memo, Lugard wrote that “a great native city lives its life as its forebears did and is little affected by progress. Such a community has no desire for municipal improvement. It neither appreciates nor desires clean water, sanitation, or good roads or streets.” He said more than this. You can read it and other things he said and did in Thomas S. Gale’s ‘Segregation in British West Africa’, page 502. That was the man who led northern Nigeria into today’s Nigeria.

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If anyone thought the white man came to Africa to civilise the uncivilised and show the heathen the way to heaven, Lugard, as early as 1893 knew it was not so and he said so in black and white. He wrote: “It is in order to foster the growth of the trade of this country (Britain) and to find an outlet for our manufacturers and our surplus energy, that our far-seeing statesmen and our commercial men advocate colonial expansion… If our advent in Africa introduced civilisation, peace and good government, abolishes the slave trade, and effects other advantages for Africa, it must not be therefore supposed that this was our sole and only aim in going there. However greatly such objects may weigh with a large and powerful section of the nation, I do not believe that in these days our national policy is based on motives of philanthropy only.” You can read him in his ‘The Rise of Our East Africa Empire’ published in 1893, page 381-382. If that work is too far out of reach, go read Toyin Falola’s ‘Ibadan: Foundation, Growth and Change, 1830-1960’, page 290.

Before Nigeria, Lugard was in several places, doing things his own way. He was in Kenya; then he crossed into Uganda. He chose Kampala as the capital of Uganda and that was after he arrogantly turned down an offer of a camp site from Mwanga, king of the country. That was on the 13th December, 1890. Lugard’s own words best describe his action on this critical occasion: “I declined to accept it nor yet another place shown to me. Eventually I went to the top of a low, gravely knot of waste land and said I would camp there. Its name was Kampala. I got message after message from the king urging me not to use this spot, but I was obstinate and declined to move. Not only was it the only clean and healthy spot around, but I intuitively saw that if I was to do any good in this country it was essential that I should assert my independence from the first, and it appeared to me that Mwanga was even now already engaged solely in finding out to what extent he could order me about, and whether I was afraid of him. Later experience showed me that I had gauged his motives right, nor did he cease thus to endeavour to badger me and pit himself against me in matters of trivial importance, as well as in greater until he learned to his cost that his policy was a mistake.”

Lord Lugard is sorely hated in the South and, I think, very celebrated in the North. The man died on 11 April, 1945. He was 87 years old. When he died, a flurry of reactions and reviews followed his transition. His official biographer, Margery Perham, who wrote in 1945 that Lugard “stands out too far above human stature” denounced some liberals who denounced Lugard “as a dangerous buccaneer.” I saw that in Perham’s ‘Lord Lugard: A General Appreciation’ published in July 1945. The man’s other friends wrote beautiful tributes on him. I read ‘Lugard’ by H. R. Tate, John Eaglesome and Selwyn Grier; published in the July 1945 edition of ‘African Affairs’. If you are interested in what his critics thought of him, you should read ‘Lord F. D. Lugard: An Assessment of His Contribution to Medical Policy in Nigeria’ by Thomas S. Gale. It was published in 1976. For a deeper read of the man and his service to slaves, slavery and slave trade in Nigeria, read ‘Slow Death for Slavery: The Course of Abolition in Northern Nigeria, 1897–1936’ written by historian Paul E. Lovejoy and economist Jan S. Hogendorn. Or read the review ‘Lugard: the Devious Years’ by Barbara M. Cooper. When you read the last two here you can then imagine what sort of leader outlaws slavery without freeing slaves. What kind of man does that?

News

ICPC, Works Ministry Launch Nationwide Audit Of 760 Road Projects Worth N36tn

Published

28 minutes ago

December 9, 2025

Editor

The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and the Federal Ministry of Works have jointly embarked on an unprecedented nationwide audit of 760 federal road projects valued at more than N36 trillion.

This is according to a statement released by J. Okor Odey, spokesperson for the anti-graft commission, which described the feat as one of the most extensive infrastructure verification exercises in Nigeria’s history.

Odey said the Special Tracking Exercise, which commenced on November 14, 2025, deploys combined teams of ICPC investigators, engineers from the Works Ministry, and independent experts from professional bodies such as the Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors (NIQS).

According to the statement, the audit teams are currently operating across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory to conduct physical verification and performance assessments of the targeted projects.

The initiative aims to close financial leakages, strengthen procurement integrity, and guarantee that Nigeria’s massive investments in road infrastructure yield real value for citizens.

The commission said key objectives of the exercise include enhancing fiscal governance, exposing and deterring contract fraud, enforcing contractor accountability, and recovering funds from inflated or failed projects.

The commission emphasised that the collaborative approach was designed to ensure sustainable and cost-effective infrastructure delivery nationwide.

The field activities involve detailed inspections of project sites, scrutiny of contract documents, and evaluation of deliverables.

The commission promised that at the end of the state-by-state assessments, findings would be compiled into a comprehensive national audit report. This will form the basis for sanctions, financial recoveries, and other enforcement actions against individuals or companies implicated in wrongdoing.

“This exercise represents a proactive, system-driven approach to safeguarding our national infrastructure investments,” the commission stated.

“Tracking 760 projects of this magnitude underscores our resolve to partner with government institutions in closing leakages, promoting accountability, and ensuring that public projects translate into tangible public good.”

The ICPC reaffirmed its commitment to strengthening transparency in public procurement and ensuring full value for every naira allocated to federal road projects.

In other news, Justice Josephine Obanor of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), sitting at Jabi, Abuja, has affirmed the powers of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to investigate scholarship funds in Kano State.

Officials from the Kano State Ministry of Higher Education, led by the Permanent Secretary, Dr Hadi Bala, and those from the Kano State Scholarship Board, had dragged the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and the ICPC before the court, alleging that invitations sent to them by the commission violated their fundamental rights.

Their invitation, which requested that the officials provide documents and clarification on allegations against them, was part of the ICPC’s investigation into a petition received by the commission, alleging financial impropriety in the administration of scholarship funds in the state.

Delivering judgment in the case brought before the court in the suit marked FCT/HC/CV/2857/2025, the judge upheld the power of the anti-graft agency to carry out its statutory mandate of investigation.

Justice Obanor held that an invitation letter from ICPC for investigative purposes does not constitute a breach of fundamental rights.

News

Gbaboyor’s Allegations Against Otuaro Baseless, Malicious — PAP Office

Published

2 hours ago

December 8, 2025

Editor

The Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) has described the recent allegations made by Mr Jude Gbaboyor against the Administrator of the Programme, Dr Dennis Otuaro, as baseless and malicious.

In a video circulating on Facebook, which he purportedly recorded in the United States, Gbaboyor levelled grave and unfounded accusations against Dr Otuaro, including claims of murder, ritualism, and kidnapping.

Reacting to the video, in a statement issued by the Special Assistant on Media to the Administrator, Mr Igoniko Oduma, on Monday, stated that the video in which he called for the Administrator’s removal, “represents yet another desperate attempt by Gbaboyor to defame Otuaro’s character and undermine the credible work of the Programme.”

The statement added that “Gbaboyor now a fugitive committed the crimes of cyberstalking among others and decided to flee the country to evade arrest and prosecution.”

The statement emphasized that the said Gbaboyor was dismissed from the PAP due to his “unacceptable conduct some years back and should be discountenanced by the reading public.”

The statement reads, ‘’This is not the first time Gbaboyor has made outrageous and unsubstantiated claims against the PAP boss. His persistent campaign of calumny prompted the PAP Administrator to formally petition relevant security agencies, citing cyberstalking and criminal intimidation.

“When invited by the Nigeria Police Force to answer questions regarding these spurious allegations, Gbaboyor fled the country, effectively making himself a fugitive from justice.

‘’It is instructive to note that Gbaboyor’s relentless attacks on Dr Otuaro began only after the Administrator rejected his request for reinstatement at the Amnesty Office, from which he was previously dismissed several years ago due to his lack of character.

“Having failed to ingratiate himself with the PAP leadership and secure reemployment through proper channels, Gbaboyor has resorted to character assassination and the dissemination of false information.

‘’Particularly troubling is Gbaboyor’s appeal to the President of the United States to interfere in what is purely a personal matter under local jurisdiction. This represents a profound insult to Nigeria’s sovereignty and a misguided attempt to internationalise personal grievances.

‘’The Presidential Amnesty Programme urges members of the public to disregard these irresponsible acts and baseless allegations in their entirety. If Gbaboyor genuinely believes in the veracity of his claims, he should demonstrate the courage of his convictions by returning to Nigeria to substantiate them before the appropriate authorities and courts of law.

‘’Instead, his flight from lawful police invitation and subsequent attacks from abroad reveal the true nature of his campaign: a calculated effort to malign a public servant from the safety of foreign shores, beyond the immediate reach of Nigerian law enforcement.

‘’Under Dr Dennis Otuaro’s leadership, the Presidential Amnesty Programme has remained focused on its mandate of fostering sustainable peace and development in the Niger Delta region. The Programme will not be distracted by spurious allegations from misguided and individuals pursuing personal vendettas.

‘’The Presidential Amnesty Programme reaffirms its commitment to transparency, accountability, and the rule of law and will continue to pursue all legal remedies available to protect the integrity and reputation of the Administrator and the agency.”

News

OPINION] General Christopher Musa: Lessons And Warnings

Published

2 hours ago

December 8, 2025

Editor

By Lasisi Olagunju

Better a child is confirmed dead than a child is unaccounted for. I am not sure we remember that about 250 pupils of St. Mary’s Catholic School, Papiri village in Niger State, remain in captivity. They’ve been with their abductors since November 21 without Nigeria losing a day’s sleep. And we say Donald Trump was wrong to say we are “a disgraced country.”

Anguish, helplessness and despair are not pleasant words to describe the state of anyone; but they perfectly fit the conditions of the parents of the missing kids. One distraught father told the BBC: “If they (the bandits) hear you speak about them, before you know it they’ll come for you. They’ll come to your house and drag you into the bush… I feel so bitter, and my wife hasn’t eaten for days… We are not happy at all. We need someone who will help us and take action.”

So, who will help them? Some of the kids, mere five-year-olds, sleep and wake up there in the bush; they must be wondering why they have to be in someone’s ‘prison’ while the country appears to have moved on. It is terrible.

It is “’Bout time this town had a new sheriff”, a law enforcer says in ‘High Plains Drifter’, a 1973 film that is about retributive justice, about criminals getting what they deserve; about a crime-wracked town that sounds almost like Lagos – it is Lago. The new sheriff is ‘The Stranger’ who brought precision guns, “reversals and exposures” and swept the town clean of crime and criminals. Read the text – it reads like Nigeria. And there is apparently a new sheriff in the Nigerian town. He is said to be Christopher Musa, smooth-talking, clean-shaven, debonair and handsome. But how far can he go?

“Be careful. You’re a man who makes people afraid, and that’s dangerous.” Sarah Belding says in the film above. Nothing should rattle a battle-tested General, yet Christopher Musa, the new minister of defence, must feel more than a flicker of awe at the sheer tumult of the welcome he has received so far. He must be even more afraid of the character of the system that has hired him. To help parents such as the quoted above, Musa has been drafted from retirement. But, what he is joining is no war council; it is a cruise party; the ship he has just boarded is not a warship built for battle against criminals. It is a yacht, a vessel for leisure, for politics, for power, and for wealth.

The man came highly recommended with very rare national acceptability. I’ve always believed that history rewards competence and exposes pretenders. If I say that your next position is encased in your present performance, I will be right. I look at the new Minister of Defence, General Musa. The whole world marked his script as our Chief of Defence Staff and said he passed. I do not have access to the marking scheme, but what I know is that the man is very fortunate. He has a sweet tongue and a good head but he has also worked hard to earn the epaulettes that light the path of his active engagements.

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Every feat and office has its witnesses. Julius Caesar did not become Rome’s most powerful figure by bribing consuls and senators and sowing discord in opposition forces. He worked positively hard in his journey of service. He was a General who solved problems. And a leader who solves problems becomes naturally indispensable. That is why Musa had to come back so soon after Nigeria retired him.

I cannot remember any appointment made by this president that has universal appeal and endorsement as we’ve seen with Christopher Musa’s. From the initial speculation to the announcement, to his Senate appearance and screening, the man suffered neither darts nor missiles. Even the fissures and factions of Nigeria spared him the usual smears. Everyone, everywhere owned him. He appeared (appears) loved by all.

A General will always earn the loyalty of his troops if they see and feel in him personal courage, discipline, and strategic clarity. Caesar did not directly lobby for leadership; his results made Rome accept his destiny. History says his rise was built on an extraordinary record in the Gallic Wars (58–50 BCE). In that war he subdued the major tribes of Gaul, captured numerous fortified towns, and brought almost the entire region covering much of what is today France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and parts of Switzerland, Italy, and Germany under Roman rule. By transforming Rome’s power Caesar transformed his own political destiny. History adds that he, as a General, displayed extraordinary engineering genius by building a bridge across the Rhine in just ten days and by leading two bold expeditions to Britain. The Roman General accomplished these feats and stunned Europe; his competence imposed him on his world.

Musa was sworn in on Thursday to pursue his own destiny; his hours started counting almost immediately. There is an experience of leisure and luxury called honeymoon. Every English word possesses a history, its etymology. The history of ‘honeymoon’ is rooted in medieval times when newlyweds shared a honey-fermented drink called mead for a moon cycle (a month of thirty days). It was a rite of fortune steeped in symbolism and was believed to usher the couple into a union blessed with good fortune, sweetness, and fertility. For today’s many newlyweds, rich or poor, honeymoon is “a cachet of distinction” which they all insist they must enjoy. But this beautiful bride, Musa, cannot have a honeymoon. I hope he knows. Accepting to be defence minister of Nigeria at this point is the same as accepting to fetch hot coal with one’s bare palm. With his two palms, and with all his faculties perfect, the new minister went for Nigeria’s smoldering balls of embers. What he accepted is a hot plate. You don’t go that far and still think you can pause and rest. He cannot.

Whatever he says or has said will be used to judge him. And he has been talking: He says he won’t negotiate with bandits: “No negotiations with any criminal, because those things compromise security. If you negotiate with them, they will never abide by it. It is just a monetary tactic, what they do is try to buy more time to acquire more arms, and then they will come out again. We have seen it repeatedly,” he said. The man insists that bandits are traitorous criminals, they do not want peace: “Terrorists are enemies of Nigeria; they have no respect for human life. We are going to go after them fully, working together with all security agencies…”

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General Musa will not negotiate with terrorists but the forces he will meet on the battlefield here are more than the bandits, Boko Haram and their brother terrorists. He knows there are powerful people who profess negotiation because bandits are their brothers. A war against bandits is against such men of means.

Musa needs the support of his appointers to deliver. This is where I pity him. His makers may have already achieved their aim: respite from Donald Trump and his troublesome band, home and abroad. In other words, the positive review which the president has got from the new minister’s choice may have been the end the system wanted; nothing more. I may be wrong; if I am wrong here I will be happy. US-based Professor Moses Ochonu put it more elegantly in a Facebook post: “While having a competent and uncompromised defense minister helps, the problem ultimately is not about who is the minister. Rather, it is whether there’s the political will, unsoiled by political and electoral calculation, to go after the terrorists, and whether the Tinubu government is willing to humbly admit that its non-kinetic counterterrorism strategy has not only failed but has emboldened the terrorists, and is, as a result, ready to move to a more offensive posture.” Musa should read this again as he prepares for this phase of his life and career.

The new minister can talk, and he has been talking. Musa wants Nigeria fenced round to combat terror. He said: “Border management is very critical. We have had countries that because of the level of insecurity in their country had to fence their borders. Pakistan fenced 1,350 kilometers of border with Afghanistan; that was the only time they had peace. Saudi Arabia and Iraq, 1,400 km border, is completely fenced.” Geography says Nigeria’s total boundary stretches roughly 4,047 km by land and 853 km along its coastline, giving it an approximate total perimeter of about 4,900 km. Now, let me ask Musa: Which of our own neighbours is our own Afghanistan? The truth is that we are the Afghanistan of Africa. We, not our neighbours, are the danger to be fenced off. The new minister and his team can change our story and our status. They won’t do that with weird ideas like border fencing which is potentially another project etched in the image of an elephant painted white.

But, then, I wonder where the fencing idea came from. The intelligent General from Southern Kaduna has probably forgotten that Boko Haram in the North-East started as a Nigerian start-up. The group has essentially remained a Nigerian brand exporting abhorrence to Chad, Niger, Cameroon, even Benin.

Again, has Musa, the gadfly, forgotten that banditry in the North-West has its roots in the historical tension between the Hausa and the Fulani? Did he listen to a recent interview by the chairman of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), Alhaji Bashir Dalhatu, where he admitted that banditry and terrorism in northern Nigeria is self-inflicted? For the records, Bashir Dalhatu said: “We have fifteen million out-of-school children roaming the streets. If we had taken care of that, it would not have gotten out of hand.” The General should read Dalhatu’s lips and ask himself what a fence would do to prevent the multi-million idle hands from becoming the devil’s workshop. A fence will be as useless as a door locked against the enemy within.

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The Musa that I watched on TV has no deficit of education. Leadership has never been an accident of luck. Those who attained it worked for it; the best among them are the truly educated ones. Because of his apparent good education, this Musa is not like the one at the gate whispering peace to bandits. His voice has been very shrill against the enemy, but he needs more than his voice to win this war. The enemy is not the Wall of Jericho. He should fight criminals and battle those who excuse their crimes.

The man has a model to copy in legendary British Iron lady, Margaret Thatcher who had the IRA extremists to pummel almost four decades ago. In the midst of “The Troubles” and their bombs, Thatcher reminded her country that: “Crime and violence injure not only the victim, but all of us, by spreading fear and making the streets no-go areas for decent people…To be soft on crime is to betray the law-abiding citizen. And to make excuses for the criminal is to offer incentives to dishonesty and violence. Crime flourishes in a culture of excuses…” Thatcher did not just talk and go to bed; she followed her talk with concrete actions and degraded the enemy.

Our new minister needs good Nigerians to succeed and he already has them. If he will keep them, he must be felt more in action rather than in words. A billion words are mere hot air, they can’t fill a basket. Everyone knows this. Policies and actions that terminate banditry and terrorism are what will sustain his name and legacy of heroism. He will achieve that only when he fences off bloodline politics and treats crime as crime.

I go back to Thatcher. To our president and his minister, I recommend the words of the Iron Lady uttered on October 12, 1990 (35 years ago). She told her Conservative Party that “crime is not a sickness to be cured; it is a temptation to be resisted, a threat to be deterred, and an evil to be punished.”