Historical Timeline Summary on Nigeria: 1860-2000

BACKGROUND: The territory called "Nigeria" today was part of what was called "The Sudan"
(i.e. the sub-Saharan Savannah stretching from the Atlantic to the Red Sea). This territory began
to be invaded for DOMINATION by the Fulani Caliphate jihadists in the 18th Century from its
Northern fringes, and for COLONIZATION by mercantile European governments in the 19th
Century from the Southern coast. Before then, there were indigenous peoples and civilizations
that dwelled and flourished on either sides of the Niger-Benue trigger region of the African
continent. These indigenous peoples included the Nok civilization of 500 BC, the Kanem-Borno,
Ife (Yoruba) and Benin empires, the Hausa states, and the Nri (Igbo) kingdom that flourished in
the 11th Century AD, as well as the Oyo (Yoruba) empire of the 17th Century, among other
smaller groups of peoples.
NOTE: By 1808 the Fulani jihadist invaders had done with overthrowing and usurping the
Hausa states. In 1823, British Major Dixon Denham and Captain Hugh Clapperton (1788-1827)
entered Borno Empire from the north, crossing the desert from Tripoli and also proceeded to
Sokoto. Hugh Clapperton, Scottish traveller and explorer of West and Central Africa, died of
dysentery on April 13, 1827 in Sokoto.
1842-1857: Freed Slaves in Britain and Sierra Leone pushed the Church Missionary Society
(CMS) for missionary expeditions to bring the Christian Gospel to their homeland for the
liberation of their people from the darkness of idolatry, bloodshed and slavery. The CMS began
with the Yoruba mission led by Henry Townsend in 1842 to Badagry and Abeokuta. Townsend
planted Churches, established skill centres, farm settlements, corn mills and encouraged literacy,
especially the writing and reading of Yoruba language with the publication of Nigeria's first
newspaper, "Iwe Irohin" in 1859! Later, the Niger mission was led by Samuel Adjai Crowther in
1857 to Bonny, Abor, Onitsha and Lokoja. Crowther had earlier worked under Townsend in
Abeokuta since 1843.
1861 (August 5): British mercantile colonization began when Lagos Island (Isale Eko) was seized
from Bini Empire and annexed as by Britain as a base to police the halt to traffic of slaves fed by
Yoruba wars. This was under the threat of force by Commander Beddingfield of HMS Prometheus
who was accompanied by the Acting British Consul, William McCoskry.
1862 (March 5): Lagos was declared a colony and Mr. H.S. Freeman became Governor of Lagos
Colony. This Governor Freeman must be distinguished from the Anglo-African Methodist
missionary from the Gold Coast (Ghana), Thomas Birch Freeman who visited Lagos in 1842 to start
the first Methodist church, even before Townsend arrived Badagry.
1885: Feb 26, The Congress of Berlin gave Congo to Belgium and Nigeria to England.
1893: Oil Rivers Protectorate under the Royal Niger Company was renamed Niger Coast
Protectorate with Calabar as capital.
1890's: British reporter Flora Shaw of The Times of London, who later married Sir Frederick
Lugard in 1902, suggests that the Royal Niger Company Territories country be named "Nigeria"
after the Niger River.
1894: To fend off the French encroachment, the Royal Niger Company, invited Fredrick Lugard
who was then on expedition in Buganda Kingdom of Uganda. The British Government later
appointed Lugard the Governor of Hong Kong in 1907 till 1912 when he came back as the British
High Commissioner to unite Nigeria.
1897: After the Bini killed a British consular diplomat, the British burned and ransacked Benin
City and overthrew Oba Ovonramwen of Benin, one of the last independent West African kings.
16th century brass plaques were looted from the royal palace and sold to the British Museum.
1900: The British Government took direct political control from the Royal Niger Company and the
Niger Coast Protectorates and the Royal Niger Company’s northern territory were renamed the
Protectorates of Southern and Northern Nigeria.
1903: Mar 15, The British conquest of Nigeria was completed; 500,000 square miles were now

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controlled by the U.K.
1906: The colony of Lagos was merged with the Protectorate of Southern Nigeria and became its
capital instead of Calabar.
1914 (January 1): The Northern and Southern protectorates were amalgamated to form one
Nigeria. Colonial officer Frederick Lugard was governor-general.
1929 (October): Women in the eastern commercial city of Aba held a rowdy but effective and
victorious protest against high taxes and low prices of Nigerian exports.
1951: The British decided to grant Nigeria internal self-rule, following an agitation led by the
National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons which later became National Convention of
Nigerian Citizens (NCNC), Dr Azikiwe’s political party.
1954: The position of Governor was created in the three regions (North, West and East) on the
adoption of federalism.
1958: Nigerian Armed Forces transferred to Federal control. The Nigerian Navy was born. The
Central Bank of Nigeria was established. These followed the grant of self-rule in 1957.
1959: The new Nigerian currency, the Pound, was introduced.
1959: Northern Peoples Congress (NPC) and Niger Delta Congress (NDC) formed an alliance to
contest parliamentary elections.
1960 (October 1): Independence. Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe became Nigeria’s first indigenous
Governor General.
1960-1966: First Republic of Nigeria under a British parliamentary system. Abubakar Tafawa
Balewa was elected Prime Minister.
1960: Nigeria joined with Liberia and Togo in the "Monrovia Group", seeking some form of a
confederation of African states.
1961 (February 11 and 12): After a plebiscite, the Northern Cameroon, which before then was
administered separately within Nigeria, voted to join Nigeria. But Southern Cameroon became part
of francophone Cameroon. The joining by Northern Cameroun to the North and departure of
Southern Cameroun from the South worn the North majority and dominance over the South in
Nigerian polity.
1961 (June 1): Northern Cameroon became Sardauna Province of Nigeria, the thirteenth province
of Northern Nigeria as the country’s map assumed a new shape.
1961 (October 1): Southern Cameroon ceased to be a part of Nigeria.
1962: Following a split in the leadership of the Action Group (AG) that led to a crisis in the
Western Region, a state of emergency was declared in the region, and the NPC led federal
government invoked its emergency powers and seized the opportunity to administer the region
directly. Consequently the AG was toppled as regional power. Awolowo, its leader, and other AG
leaders, were convicted of treasonable felony. Later in 1963, Awolowo's former deputy and premier
of the Western Region formed a new party--the Nigerian National Democratic Party (NNDP)--that
took over the government. Meanwhile, the federal coalition government acted on the agitation of
minority non-Yoruba groups for a separate region to be excised from the Western Region, leading
to the creation of the Midwestern Region.
1963: Nigeria shed the bulk of its political affinity with the British colonial power to become a
Republic. Nnamdi Azikiwe became the first President. Obafemi Awolowo leader of the Action
Group (AG) became leader of the opposition. The regional premiers were Ahmadu Bello (Northern
Region, NPC), Samuel Akintola (Western Region, AG), Michael Okpara (Eastern Region, NCNC).
Dennis Osadebey (NCNC) became premier of the Midwestern Region just created out of the old
Western region.
1964: Prime Minister Balewa’s Northern Peoples’ Congress (NPC) aligned with a faction of the
Action Group (AG) led by Chief Ladoke Akintola, the Nigerian National Democratic Party (NNDP),
to form the Nigerian National Alliance (NNA) in readiness for the elections. At the same time,
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the main Action Group led by Chief Obafemi Awolowo formed an alliance with the United Middle-
Belt Congress (UMBC) and Alhaji Aminu Kano's Northern Elements Progressive Union (NEPU)
and Borno Youth Movement to form the United Progressive Grand Alliance (UPGA).
1965 (November): Violence erupted in the Western Region between NNA and UPGA, and
criticism of the political ruling class created unease in the new Republic.
1966 (January 15): Junior officers of the Nigerian army, mostly majors overthrew the
government in a hurried coup d’etat. The officers from the East, the West and the North but most of
whom were Igbo, assassinated Balewa in Lagos, Akintola in Ibadan, and Bello in Kaduna, whom
they believed were fermenting the trouble in the Western Region as prelude to the alleged “dipping
the Koran into the ocean” Jihad. The coup leaders pledged to establish a strong and efficient
government committed to a progressive program and eventually to new elections. They vowed to
stop the post-electoral violence and stamp out corruption that they said was rife in the civilian
administration. General Johnson T. Aguiyi-Ironsi, the most senior military officer, and incidentally
an easterner (Igbo), who stepped in to restore order, became the head of state.
1966 (May 29): Massive rioting started in the major towns of Northern Nigeria and attacked the
Igbos and other easterners to avenge the death of senior northerners in the coup.
1966 (July 29): A group of Northern officers and men stormed the Western Region’s governor’s
residence in Ibadan where General Aguiyi Ironsi was staying with his host, Lt. Col Adekunle Fajuyi.
Both the head of state and governor are killed.
1966 (August 1): Lt. Col Yakubu Gowon a young Christian officer from the North became the new
head of state.
1967 (January 4): Nigeria's military leaders travelled to Aburi in Ghana to find a solution to
problems facing the country and to avert an imminent military clash between the north and the
east.
1967 (May 30): On Gowon heeding British advice to renege on implementing the Aburi accord, Lt
Col Ojukwu, governor of the East, declared his region the Republic of Biafra and released Awolowo
jailed by the Federal Government, from prison.
1967 (July 6): First shots were fired heralding a 30-month war between the Federal government
and the rebel Republic of Biafra.
1970 (January 15): The civil war ended and reconstruction and rehabilitation begin.
1970: Government began forceful take-over of Christian mission schools.
1971 (April 2): Nigeria switches with amazing smoothness from driving on the left hand side (like
Britain) to the left, like all its neighbouring countries.
1972: The second Nigerian currency, the Naira and Kobo, were introduced.
1973 (May): Gowon establishes the National Youth Service Corps Scheme and introduces
compulsory one-year service for all university graduates, to promote integration and peace after the
war.
1974: General Gowon said he could not keep his earlier promise to return power to a
democratically elected government in 1976. He announced an indefinite postponement of a
programme of transition to civil rule.
1975 (October): Gowon was overthrown in a coup, on the anniversary of his ninth year in office.
Brigadier (later General) Murtala Mohammed, the new head of state promised a 1979 restoration of
democracy.
1976: The federal government adhering to the recommendations of a panel earlier set up to advise
it, approves the creation of a new Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, away from Lagos.
1976 (February 13): Murtala Mohammed was killed in the traffic on his way to work. But the
coup executed by an easy-going physical education corps Lt colonel, and heralded by a quixotic
announcement on the radio, was botched.

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1976 (February 14): General Mohammed is succeeded by General Olusegun Obasanjo who
pledged to pursue his predecessor’s transition programme.
1976 (September 2): The Universal Primary Education Scheme (UPE) was introduced, making
education free and compulsory in the country.
1977: Nigeria hosted FESTAC the festival of arts and culture drawing black talent and civilization
from around the world.
1979: Nigeria got a new constitution for the second democratic republic.
1979 (October 1): General Obasanjo handed over to Alhaji Shehu Shagari as first elected
executive President and the first politician to govern Nigeria since 1966. Five parties had competed
for the presidency, and Shagari of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) was declared the winner.
The other parties were: Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), Nigeria People’s Party (NPP), Great Nigeria
People’s Party (GNPP), People’s Redemption Party (PRP).
1983: The conduct of the general elections was criticised by opposing parties and the media.
Violence erupted in some parts of the west.
1983 (September): Shagari was re-elected president of Nigeria in August-September 1983.
1983 (December 31): Following a coup d’etat, the military truncated Nigeria’s second democratic
experiment and returned to power.  Major-General Muhammadu Buhari was named head of state.
1985 (August 27): Following accusations of callousness and overzealousness that led to economic
stagnation, gagging of the Press and gross human rights violation, Buhari was overthrown in a
palace coup. The army chief, General Ibrahim Babangida took over power.
1986:  The seat of government was officially moved from Lagos to Abuja to hurriedly forestall any
counter coup (There was a failed coup led by Major Gideon Orkar on 22 April 1990).
1993 (June 12): After several postponements by the military administration, presidential
elections were held. Businessman and newspaper publisher Moshood Abiola of the SDP took
unexpected lead in early returns.
1993 (June 23): Babangida on national television offered his pretentious reasons for annulling
the results of the Presidential election which was clearly won by Abiola contrary to their schemes.
At least 100 people were killed in riots in the southwest, Abiola's home area.
1993 (August 26): Under severe opposition and pressure, Babangida resigned as military
president and appointed an interim government headed by Chief Ernest A. Shonekan.
1993 (October): A ragtag group of young people under the name of Movement for the
Advancement of Democracy  (MAD) hijacked a Nigerian airliner to neighbouring Niger in order to
protest official corruption. Nigerian troops stormed and liberated the plane at the N’djamena
airport, Republic of Niger.
1993 (November 17): General Sani Abacha, defence minister in the interim government and
most senior officer, seized power from Shonekan, abolished the constitution.
1994: Abiola, who had escaped abroad after the annulment, returned and proclaimed himself
president. He was arrested and charged with treason.
1995 (July): Former head of state, Obasanjo was sentenced to 25 years in prison by a secret
military tribunal for alleged participation in an attempt (widely believed to have been fictional) to
overthrow the government. 
1996 (May): Nnamdi Azikiwe, Nigeria's first president, died.
1998 (June 8): General Abacha died suddenly and mysteriously. The official cause of death: heart
attack. Nigerians swarmed the streets rejoicing.
1998 (June 9): Gen. Abdulsalaam Abubakar was named Nigeria's eighth military ruler. He
promised to restore civilian rule promptly.
1998: A month after General Abacha's death the United Nations General-Secretary Kofi Annan

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arrived in Nigeria to conclude deals for the release of Chief Abiola.
1998 (July 7): Abiola died in detention of a heart disease, curious occuring a week after Annan’s
visit, before he could be released in a general amnesty for political prisoners. Rioting in Lagos led to
over 60 deaths.
1998 (July 20): Abubakar promised to relinquish power on May 29, 1999.
1999 (February 15): Former military ruler Obasanjo won the presidential nomination of the
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). 
1999 (May): A new Constitution was adopted. It was based on the 1979 Constitution.
1999 (May 29): Former Military Head of State, Olusegun Obasanjo, was sworn in as Nigeria's
democratically elected civilian President.

Ifechukwu U. Ibeme