1 Census dates for each Region vary. The total for Nigeria is a mid-1953 estimate, and includes allowance for population growth between the dates of the individual census and mid1953. The 1931 census figures are regarded by most observers as being somewhat understated and much less accurate than the 1952-53 census, consequently the relative figures are not strictly comparable.

Projected estimates of 1952-53 census calculated on growth rate for each Region of nearly 2 percent per annum ; Lagos rate estimated at 4 percent per year.

Source: Nigeria Department of Statistics, Population Census of Nigeria, 1952-53, Lagos.

points up the significance of economic internal distribution of food supplies and helps explain the heavy emphasis on current governmental efforts to improve transportation facilities.

Of the total population in mid-1953, some 16,000 inhabitants were of non-African origin, giving a ratio of approximately 2,000 Africans to every non-African. These were distributed as follows: Lagos Township, 4,393; Eastern Region, 2,578; Western Region, 2,852; Northern Region, 4,897; Southern Cameroons, 634. Approximately 68 percent of the non-African population was of British nationality. The remainder represented various nationalities, but included 1,360 Lebanese, the majority of whom are active in retail and wholesale trade. In 1953 there were 925 persons classified under the census as of American nationality. Over half resided in the Northern Region, and, undoubtedly, the bulk of American residents were concerned with missionary or educational activities.

Tribal Cultures

The tribal makeup of Nigera is completely lacking in homogeneity. Some 250 tribal groupings were differentiated in the census returns, but 3 stand out and are broadly identified with the 3 political regions. The West is peopled predominantly by Yorubas who are mainly a peasant farming people producing cocoa for export in addition to palm oil, yams, cassava, and kola primarily for the internal market. The Eastern Region is the center of the various subtribes of the Ibo people who, also, are small farmers; this Region is the heaviest producer of palm oil and kernels. Many of the Ibo people have shown an inclination for clerical and whitecollar jobs and are well represented in Government and trade. In the Northern Region, the Hausa people predominate and also pursue agricultural activities on a peasant farming basis.

The Hausas are aggressive traders, and Hausa tradesmen are a common sight in all parts of Nigeria. These three tribal groupings roughly account for over half of the population.

The distribution of population on the basis of religion is difficult to ascertain. In the north, Mohammedanism is the religious preference of the great majority, although "pagan islands" exist among the older resident native groups. In the west, Islam and Christianity are the religious preferences of about one-third each of the population, with the remaining third still so-called pagan. The Eastern Region has few converts to Mohammedanism, and is heavily Christian but almost half the population in mid-1953 were believed to be pagan.

Throughout the country, vigorous efforts are being made to stamp out illiteracy, and an increasing proportion of Regional expenditure is being devoted to primary education. As of 1953, however, only 12 percent of the total population 7 years of age or over (estimated at 22,500,000) were regarded as literate and only 6 percent had completed or were above elementary educational standards (the first 4 years of primary school). In view of the strides being made, these figures must now be regarded as outdated, but they do point up the magnitude of the problem illiteracy presents.

Urbanization

The economy of Nigeria has developed since the turn of the century, while a trend towards increasing urbanization has been evident. As in other African areas, urbanization has accelerated the "westernization" of the population, but also has created social and economic problems in providing adequate housing, sanitation, welfare, and employment opportunities. The character and degree of urbanization, however, has varied from Region to Region.

In the west and north, large urban communities exist, some of which, go back in history many centuries. Especially in the west, the towns are not inhabitated by a permanent population. Rather, many of the inhabitants work their farmlands part of the year and take up residence in the town for the remainder. Ibadan, for example, the center of Yorubaland and the heart of the cocoa belt, has a population of some 460,000. Yet its population in between cocoa crops may be far above its "normal" estimate

-some observers estimate a fluctuation of 100 percent. Having a townhome is a factor giving great social prestige, and a common sight is half-finished houses of mud, sometimes surfaced with cement, which may take years in construction as the builder's income permits (or as the

heavy rainfall takes its toll both on new and old dwellings).

In the east, large towns are not traditional. Those that have grown to substantial size reflect the influence of more purely economic than social forces. Thus Enugu owes its existence to the coal mines and Port Harcourt to shipping.

Including Lagos Township, the Federal capital and principal economic center, there were 35 towns with a population of over 30,000 in 1953. Six of the towns exceeded 100,000 in population of which all but Kano were located in the western part of Nigeria (see table II, appendix J).

Political Setting

ORIGIN OF FEDERATION

While the present legal status of the Federation of Nigeria is that of a colony and protectorate, the country has achieved virtual self-government, and stated British policy has been to prepare Nigeria for full sovereignty within the British Commonwealth. Present constitutional development in Nigeria, however, is the result of a long series of constitutional conferences and changes dating back to the turn of the century.

The penetration and extension of British influence within Nigeria were carried out by three different sets of officials representing, respectively, the Colonial Office, the Foreign Office, and the Chartered Company-the Royal Niger Company. Each administered large areas in its own right with little definition of boundaries. In 1861, the island of Lagos and the adjacent coastal area had been annexed to the British Crown as a colony, and in 1893 a protectorate was proclaimed in the southern Niger delta area. Meanwhile, the Chartered Company was consolidating its own rule in the interior along the Niger and Benue Rivers.

The first move towards administrative consolidation came when, in 1900, the Chartered Company ceased to be a governing body and its areas were absorbed into the newly proclaimed Protectorates of Southern Nigeria and Northern Nigeria. In 1906, the Crown Colony of Lagos was administratively united with the Protectorate of Southern Nigeria so that both the North and South were still separately administered.

The year 1914 is a milestone in the political evolution of Nigeria, for it was on January 1 of that year that North and South were amalgamated to form the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria, with Sir Frederick Lugard1 as its first Governor.

Lugard is regarded, and justly so, as the prime mover in the unification of Nigeria; under his direction, many of the basic administrative policies were developed, policies that carry through to the present tíme. These policies recognized

the desirability of retaining, insofar as possible, African concepts of land tenure and the traditional organs of internal administration both of which already existed in the highly organized system of Moslem Emirates in the north and, to a lesser extent in the hereditary chieftainships of the west. This is the basis of the policy of indirect rule, which is manifest today in the retention of native authorities for internal local administrative purposes.

Despite the fact that Nigeria had been united politically since 1914, separate internal legislative facilities were maintained until 1947 for Lagos Township, the South, and the North. For the South and Lagos Township, advisory legislative councils existed while for the North, legislative powers were vested in the Governor alone.

Constitutional Developments Since 1947

In 1947, a new Constitution came into operation which laid the groundwork for the present Federal structure. A Legislative Council was established which for the first time had legislative powers for the whole of Nigeria and also, for the first time, had a majority of African nonofficial 2 members. At the same time, representative Houses of Assembly were established in the Northern, Eastern, and Western Regions (for the North, a House of Chiefs was also established). These Regional organs could only advise the Central Legislative Council but exercised local powers to expend funds allocated to the Regions from the Central Government.

In 1951 the Constitution was revised to provide expanded powers to the Regions; they now could legislate on subjects of Regional interest but such legislation was subject to concurrence by the Central Legislature. Existing Regional legislative organs were retained but a bicameral body was established in the West, similar to that in the North, with the creation of a House of Chiefs.

1 Later Lord Lugard. He retired as Governor of Nigeria in 1919.

2 Official members were those simultaneously holding official positions within the Government administration.

However, pressure for increased Regional powers coupled with friction between the Regions and the Central administration led to further constitutional amendments, which provided for a large measure of Regional autonomy within a Federal system of government. These changes were introduced by the Nigeria (Constitution) Order in Council, 1954, effective October 1, 1954.

The Federation of Nigeria

The 1954 Constitution was the result of a series of conferences in London and Lagos and attempted to resolve the knotty problem of maintaining the unity of the country while recognizing regional differences.

To this end, Nigeria was proclaimed a Federation consisting of three Regions; each Region has its own exclusive powers, but the Central, or Federal Government, has powers which cover all the Regions. Lagos became a Federal township governed directly by the Federal Government, while the United Nations Trust Territory of British Cameroons was divided into two parts, north and south. The northern part was integrated into the Northern Region while the Southern Cameroons became a separate quasiFederal territory with its own legislature.

Legislative powers resting with the Federal government exclusively are in an Exclusive List and cover banking, currency and customs, external affairs, defense and police, mining, interregional water resources, transportation and communications, and certain higher educational institutions. Certain powers in a Concurrent List, including such subjects as labor and social welfare, may be dealt with by both Regional and Federal Governments. All other powers not specifically enumerated in either list are left to the Regions. (See appendix D for complete texts of both the Exclusive and Concurrent lists.)

STRUCTURE OF GOVERNMENT

On both Federal and Regional levels, there are legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government.

The Federal government consists of: (1) Federal House of Representatives of 184 members elected direct-92 from the North, 42 each from East and West, 6 from the Southern Cameroons, and 2 from the Federal township of Lagos; (2) Federal Executive (the Central Council of Ministers) consisting of the Governor General (as President); 3 other officials (the Chief Secretary, the Financial Secretary, and the Attorney General) and 10 Nigerian Ministers appointed from the House of Representatives by the Governor General'; and (3) Federal Supreme Court.

On the Regional level, bicameral legislative bodies a House of Chiefs and a House of Assembly-function in the North and West, while a single House of Assembly legislates in the East and also in the Southern Cameroons. Regional Executive Councils similar in function to the Federal counterpart are maintained; they are presided over by a Regional Governor representing the Crown and are composed of 9 or more members known as Regional Ministers, 1 of whom is designated as Premier. Ministers hold seats in the Regional Legislatures and are appointed by the Governor on the recommendation of the respective Regional Premier. A slightly different arrangement exists in the Southern Cameroons where the Executive Council, headed by a Commissioner, is an advisory body.

Ministers in both Federal and Regional Councils exercise executive control over the departments of government that deal with the subjects of their portfolios. In effect, the Nigerian Constitution of 1954 made the far-reaching change of splitting the civil service into 4 components a Federal and 3 Regional services (officers serving in the Southern Cameroons belong to the Federal civil service).

Certain powers remain exercised by the Governor General and Regional Governors, but these powers have been reduced by successive constitutional changes.

These constitutional changes meant farreaching modifications in the economic field as well. The governmental system of Marketing Boards for export produce was regionalized and the reserve funds accrued by these Boards allocated to the separate Regional Boards. Likewise, the Constitution provided for the direct apportionment to the Regions of fixed proportions of the various Federal revenues. For instance, 15 percent of the import duties collected by the Federal Government on all items, except tobacco and gasoline, go to the North; 20 percent to the West; 1412 percent to the East, and 0.5 per cent to the Southern Cameroons.