Evolution and Institutionalization of Nigerian Political Parties

EVOLUTION AND INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF NIGERIAN POLITICAL PARTIES By RONALD L. HAXTON // I Bachelor of Arts Kansas State Teachers College Emporia, Kansas 1962 Submitted to the faculty of the Graduate College of the Oklahoma State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS May, 1971 ,/ ......... ., ,.,. EVOLUTION AND INSTITUTIONALIZATION ~-,\....... ! / ·..... I OF NIGERIAN POLITICAL PARTIES ', Thesis Approved: the traduate College 788311 DEDICATION This thesis is dedicated to all my former students and colleagues in Ethiopia who have worked and died in ~he quest for change, iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION . 1 Il. MODERNIZATION AND POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT: A THEORETICAL BACKGROUND • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 9 Political Development as InstitutiQnalization • 20 Institutionalization in the African Setting • • • • 23 III. THE POLITICS OF INDIRECT RULE •••• . • • • • . 30 The North--Fulani-Hausa Cutture and the Corning of Indirect Rule. • • • • • • • • • • • • 37 Indirect Rule and the Yoruba Kingdoms • • • • • • • 50 The East--Indirect Rule and Ibo Segmented Culture • 57 lV. THE EVOLUTION OF POLITICAL ORGANIZATIONS IN THE INTER-WAR PERIOD • • • • • • • • • • • • . 65 The Nigerian Council and the Politics of Lagos. • • 67 The Clifford Constitution and the Birth of Party Act iv~ t y ~ , • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Nationalism and Tribalism in an Urban Setting • The Richards Constitution and the Politics of Nationalism • . V. REGIONAL PARTIES ANO THE QUEST FOR INSTITUTIONALI- ZATION • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 90 The Origin of Nigerian Parties. • • • • • • • 90 The National Council for Nigeria and the Cameroons •••••• , • • • • • • 94 The Action Group • • • • • • • • • • 96 Northern People's Congress • • • • • • 100 Autonomy, Adaptability, and Coherence as Factors in Nigerian Party Institutionalization. • • • • • 105 The Northern People's Congress--Party Autonomy, Adaptability and Coherence in a Closed Society. • 112 The Action Group--Institutional Decay with a Split Personality • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 126 National Council for Nigerian Citizens--Party Development and Sub-Ethnic Identities • • • • 140 Chapter Page VI. CONCLUSIONS • 157 Autonomy • 163 Adaptability • • 164 Coherence. 165 A SEiECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY. 168 LIST OF TABLES Table Page I. Coups and Coup Attempts in Modernizing Countries Since World War II. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 26 II. Successful Coups in Modernizing Countries---1945 or Date of Independence Through 1966 • • • • • • • • 26 III, Number of Administrators on Duty in a Sampl~ Selection of Colonies by Years. • • • •" • • • • • • • • 43 •'· IV. Three Elections in the Far North, ~959-1964 • • 125 v. Ethnic Distributipn of Major Party Leaders. • • • • • • • 127 VI. Occupational Distribution of Major Party Lea~ers. • • • • 128 vn .. Three Elections in Western Nigeria, 1957-1961 • . 134 VIII. Three Elections in the Midwest, 1956-1960 ••• . 136 IX. Three Elections in the Eastern Region, 1957-1961. • • • • 147 LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. Pre-1966 Nigeria ••••• , •••••••••••••• • viii (I) ...__.. .. ..--...... .. ___ 0 _ c ./ .., _ NIGER REP . t; () i .Woto ·"\.. / .......... CD ....... ·'--··- · ! " .. / ~ -........... , ( ~ §" SOKOTO .... -, \ I-" CD \/ • t; .-" .. _ !'\. • .....,.j j l .... KANO BORNU _.: . I H () ./ <Ill , .. -·· .·· .. :::3 .· .....··· ,..... r~ ' z c:: .0 :::3.... \ < OAHOMEYj ., W CD .. t; l. .. Ul \ I-" .... ., ., f J .....,; '° ....rt I -··- I-""' CD \ i ILORIN ·,. • Ul ! \ - ·· ."\ ....>"Zj CD 'I I-" ' ... p.. i (I) ' \ rt Ill \ j '"" r / /.· I l ~(I) \ CD t; ( <.... \ () .. CD SCA LE \ 40 0 40 80 IZO ....... \ OF MILES Allee K. Pllllllricll \ Figure 1: Pre-1966 Nigeria CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION In January, 1966, the civilian government of Nigeria fell to mili tary force. The following July, after barely six months in power, this military government was ousted in a second army-sponsored coup d'etat. The First Nigerian Republic had collapsed after less than two years of existence. These coups d'etat are significant for the Nigerian and African political scene for a number of reasons. First, Nigeria's geo-political qf~e is immense. This state contains nearly one-fourth of the combined populations of the nearly forty states of Sub-Saharan Africa. Prior to the military overthrows Nigeria was considered one of the most stable and promising members of the British Commonwealth in Africa. Second, a small segment of Nigeria's 8,000 man army, minute in proportion to the national population of 55 million, was able to take over the powers of the central government with relative ease, assassinating several top civilian leaders in the process. Third, in the context of events fol- · 1owing the second coup d'etat in July, 1966, the role and composition of the armed forces further e~posed the deep ethnic cleavages .. :which underlay the Nigerian social and political order. Steadily escalating tribal conflict provided the setting for the disintegration of the Firs~ Republic and the eventual outbreak of civil war in 1967. Finally, fol lowing independence in 1960, Nigeria had been hailed as the model of a 2 1 workable, competitive multi-party system. In retrospect, this seems to~ be .a classic case of political overestimation. The three tribal based political parties which had so overwhelmingly dominated the politics of the First Republic were bitterly condemned by both military re- gimes. The Nigerian civil war followed many years of sporatic political tension, intertribal party struggle, and political violence. Periodic disorder and bloodshed, which reached peaks during election periods, be- came a distinguishing characteristic of post-independence Nigerian politics. The political forces at work in Nigerian party evolution make the military overthrows of 1966 particularly significant and may well provide indication of the future role of both parties and armies in Nigeria and other Sub-Saharan political systems. Like many other states of Africa the international boundaries im- posed by the colonial power consolidated a great number of disparate ethnic groups within the confines of the Nigerian federal state. The large number of tribal groupings in Nigeria exhibited extraordinary diversity in their traditional social order, political organization, and religious affili·~tions,.,. These deep contrasts to a large degree con- ditioned the varying degrees of success of British colonial practices and policies. During the last two decades of the colonial period there emerged modern institutions--political parties--whose formative activi- ties and later electoral struggles further enunciated Nigerian ethnic -diversity. Party growth took place in a political milieu which was 1 For the purposes of this stuay these three parties include the Eastern based NCNC (National Council of Nigerian Citizens), the North ern based NPC (Northern People'' s Congress), and the Western based AG (Action Group). 3 characterized by dysrhythmic economic and political development between the Northern and Southern areas and by the deep rooted strength of traditional elites and attachments in all regions. These factors were to be of critical importance to the efforts being made to institutionalize national organizations--parties in particular--with support spanning all major tribal groupings. It was very obvious very early in Nigerian party development that whatever the potential viability of the Nigerian federation, traditional elites and tribal orientations would be formi- dable obstacles to national integration and party institutionalization. This study focuses on some of the factors which prevented the institutionalization of Nigerian political parties at a regional or national level. Although there have been significant differences among scholars on the definition and nature of political development there has been consensus on the vital aggregative role of the political party. The party has been the predominant modern political form to have evolved in the developing states and, as in the case of Nigeria, is 2 fundamental to any analysis of political development. It is an as- sumption of this study that the failure of Nigeria to institutionalize a strong national party system has contributed significantly to the difficulty of maintaining a viable national political order. There has been a great deal of attention by observers of African politics devoted to the three largest tribes which were included in the 2For this study the author found Samuel Huntington's work, "Polit ical Development and Political Decaly, 11 (World Politics, March, 1965) very useful for the purposes of definition and methodology used in this study. The author accepts Huntington's definition of political de velopment as the "'.Lnstitutionalization of organizations and procedures." Institutionalization is defined as "• •• the process by which organi zations and procedures acquire value and stability." 4 colony of Nigeria. These tribes were the Fulani-Hausa of the North, the Ibo of the East, and the Yoruba of the West. Though Nigeria i& a composite of nearly 200 tribal groupings, these three tribes are central to any analysis of Nigerian political evolution and party development. An extremely critical stage in Nigerian political evolution oc- curred during the time of British indirect rule in areas of the Fulani- Hausa, Yoruba, and Ibo. Early in the century Nigeria was divided into three regions administered by the traditional tribal elites

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