THE CONGO and NIGERIA a Study in Contrast
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THE CONGO AND NIGERIA A Study in Contrast The mess in the Congo shows how danger the central (British colonial) government. In 1922 came the first big step along the road from indirect ous it is to give these people responsibility. rule to independence. A Legislative Council was created with an official majority but with nineteen Of course when Nigeria gets independence unofficial members; of these, ten were Africans, in cluding four who were elected. In 1946 the Legis in October it will go the same way as the lative Council was given an African majority, as were Congo. the three newly created Regional Houses of Assembly, The present federal constitution dates in broad out OW OFTFN have expressions of opinion lines from 1954, such as these been heard in South Africa At Ihe lower levels of government the old system H of indirect rule steadily grew into a modern system of during the past few months! The disregard of democratic administration. The bodies through which the histories of the two countries which they this was achieved were legion: village, town and display is serious, because the false analogies district councils, divisional and provincial education which are drawn with our own racial prob by lems may adversely affect our efforts to solve them. HUGH SPOTTISWOODE It was said a generation ago lhat the Europeans in The writer spent 25 years in the Colonial South Africa were a colonial power comparable at Administrative Service, Nigeria, For the lhat time with Britain. France. Belgium or Portugal, with one great difference—that our colonial peoples last few years of hh service, he was were within our boundaries instead of at a comfort* Secretary for Development, Western able distance outside them. While such a comparison Region, may be disputed in some quarters it has enough validity to warrant a brief comparison of the policies adopted by the different powers. committees, provincial development committees, the The avowed aim of Britain and France, at least cocoa advisory committee, the cotton marketing from the beginning of the present century, was to board and many more. The Councils were part of bring their African colonies to a stale of self-govern the machinery of Native administration — the tools ment within Ihe shortest reasonable lime. of indirect rule but with limited legislative powers of their own — and were composed entirely of chiefs and councillors, acting at first under the supervision Training Africans of white administrative officers. The other bodies were creations of the central government and at first The Belgians, however, considered that political they had a majority of Europeans, mostly civil ser development should not be regarded as Ihe primary vants but with a fair sprinkling of bank managers* aim but rather as one that would follow economic commercial agents, and (in the case of educational development in the course of time. Consequently they bodies) missionaries. As time went on African trained Africans to by competent artisans but very majorities became the rule, and even the practice of little else. Only fifteen Belgian Congo Africans have having a civil servant as chairman was abandoned. been awarded university degrees in Europe, while to Membership of these public bodies changed period* the hundreds of Nigerians who have done so must ically, so an increasing number of people obtained now be added the growing stream who are taking first-hand knowledge of ihe techniques and the diffi London University degrees at Ibadan University, culties of modern administration, including financial It was only in 1900 that an arbitrarily defined control and the need to employ experts with technical chunk of Africa was named Nigeria and became a •'know-how". This did much to still Ihe incipient cry: classic example of "indirect ruIcM —a system origin "Throw out the white man. we can do it just as well \ ated by Lord Lugard under which indigenous social It also intensified the demand for higher education. organizations were used to carry out the functions of Most important of all, it created a reservoir of The Black Sash, Dec. |%() >VA. 1%1 13 Oh Swart Svrpi Des. 19601 Feb, 1961 THE CONGO AND NIGERIA—cotumnvd it mil) be argued thai if history had allowed (his period of time the slow Belgian method would in the persons from whom members of the higher legislative end have proved the wiser For it must not be and executive bodies of an independent Nigeria could assumed that everything in the Nigerian garden, be recruited. where the growth of many of the plants has been It was inevitable that at first the choice of Africans forced, will be for ever lovely; personal and tribal was limited to the small class who had adopted jealousies arc inevitable; the country is poor in European ways of life. With the rapid expansion of minerals and in soil fertility; the average standard secondary education, however, the net was thrown of education is still low: and the incidence of bribery wider and it brought in some of the "bad boys" and in all walks of life equally high. But in spite of a "agitators", many of whom have developed into shortage of qualified Nigerians lo fill the top posts useful citizens. Banning them would not have had thftre will be no general breakdown in administration, the same effect. and there is no reason to expect any deterioration in In the Belgian Congo there was little more school race relations, which art now probably better than education than was needed to meet the needs of the they have even been. ruling power, and no thought was given to training The short reply to the criticisms quoted at the be- for self-government until 1959, by which time it was binning of thi& article is therefore: it is dangerous not too late. It must not be forgotten, however, that forty to train Africans for responsibility, and equally years ago it was commonplace lo speak of two hun dangerous not to confer responsibility upon those dred years as the minimum lime necessary lo bring able to shoulder it, Nigeria will if ox go the way of African colonies to responsible self-government, and the Belgian Congo. "Well, anyway, OUR end'* all right." The tihtt-k Sash. Dec. !%<) Fek 1%I 14 Die Snort Svrp, Desm |%l) Feh9 l%l .