The company, during its tenure of administrative power under the charter, had organized its territories south of the confluence, into trading districts, over each of which there was placed a European agent. The executive powers in Africa were entrusted to an agent general with three provincial and twelve district superintendents. There was a small judicial staff directed by a chief justice, and there was a native constabulary of about 1000 men, trained and drilled by white officers. The company kept also upon the river a fleet of about thirty steamers. The entire direction of the proceedings of the company was, however, in the hands of the council in London, and the administrative control of the territories was practically from first to last vested in the person of Sir George Goldie. The local work of the representatives of the company was mainly commercial. When, on the surrender of the charter, Sir George Goldie withdrew from the company, the administrative element disappeared. No administrative records were handed over and very little machinery remained. Two enactments, however, bore testimony to the legislation of the company. One, which by force of circumstances remained inoperative, was the abolition of the legal status of slavery, proclaimed in the year of Queen Victoria’s jubilee (1897). The other, more practical, which has remained in operation to the present day, confirmed and enforced by the succeeding administration, was the absolute prohibition of the trade in spirits beyond the parallel of 7° N.
While the development of the Royal Niger Company’s territories was proceeding in the manner described, the regions under direct British control were also being opened up and law and order introduced. In 1893, when the title Oil Rivers Protectorate was changed to that of Niger Coast Protectorate, a regular administration was established (subject to the Foreign Office in London) under Sir Claude Macdonald, who was succeeded as commissioner and consul-general in 1896 by Sir Ralph Moor (1860–1909). Progress in Southern Nigeria, 1885–1906.Under these officials peace was gradually established between various tribes, trade routes opened and progress made in civilization. The work was one of extreme difficulty, largely because there was no central native authority with which to deal. Small military expeditions had constantly to be employed to break up slave-raiding gangs or reduce to order tribes which blocked trade routes or made war on other tribes living peaceably under British protection. The most serious military operations were against the Beni, a peaceful mission to the king of Benin having been massacred in the bush in January 1897. The operations were completely successful and the Benin country was added to the protectorate (see Benin). In 1900, as stated, the southern portion of the Niger Company’s territories was added to the protectorate, the change in administration being effected without difficulty of any kind. Sir Ralph Moor continued until 1904 to govern the country under the style of high commissioner. The efforts of the administration to better the condition of the natives without undue interference with customary law met with encouraging results, and the submission of the Aros to the government in 1902 brought to an end the system of tribal warfare for the purpose of making slaves, while the enforcement of a proclamation of 1901 prohibiting the buying, pawning or selling of slaves had a salutary effect. Trade steadily developed, and owing to the large sums paid as duty on imported spirits, the revenue of the protectorate was sufficient to cover the expenditure.
In Northern Nigeria in 1900 the establishment of British authority remained still to be effected. The man selected for the post of first high commissioner was Colonel—afterwards better known as Sir Frederick—Lugard, who had conducted one of the Royal Niger company’s most successful expeditions into the western portion of the interior and had already been employed by the British government to raise and organize the West African Frontier Force.
The transference of influence from the company to the government was officially effected on the 1st of January 1900, on which day the Union Jack was hoisted at Lokoja, and the formation of a local administration was entered upon. The number of civilians in the employ of the government was very small, and the administrative machinery Northern Nigeria brought under control.had to be evolved under the pressure of a somewhat acute military situation. The headquarters of the West African Frontier Force had been at Jebba, not far from the point at which Mungo Park had lost his life upon the river. Neither Jebba nor Lokoja was considered suitable for the permanent capital of the protectorate, and survey parties were sent out, with strict orders to avoid conflict with the nominally friendly natives, to find a more suitable site. This was selected on a branch of the Kaduna river in the south-western corner of the province of Zaria, at a place of which the native name of Zungeru was retained. The ruler of Zaria, while professing friendliness, was, however, unable or unwilling to restrain the rulers of Kontagora and Nupe from aggression. These two potentates raided for slaves to the borders of the rivers and openly threatened the British position on the Niger. The Ashanti War of 1900 claimed the despatch of a strong detachment of the West African Frontier Force, and it was not until the return of the troops in February 1901 that Nupe and Kontagora could be effectively dealt with. In that year both provinces were subdued, their emirs deposed, and letters of appointment given to new emirs, who undertook to rule in accordance with the requirements of humanity, to abolish slave-raiding and slave dealing, and to acknowledge the sovereignty of Great Britain. Illorin and Borgu with a portion of Kabba were already under British rule. The rulers of other neighbouring provinces offered their allegiance, and by the end of the year 1901 nine provinces, Illorin, Kabba, Middle Niger, Lower Benue, Upper Benue, Nupe, Kontagora, Borgu and Zaria had accepted the British occupation. These territories, with the exception of Zaria, were all in the more or less immediate neighbourhood of the valleys of the Niger and the Benue, and Zaria bordered upon the Kaduna. For all these territories an initial system of administration was organized, and British residents were appointed to each province. Seventeen legislative proclamations were enacted in the first year dealing with the immediate necessities of the position, and providing for the establishment of a supreme and provincial court of justice, for the legalization of native courts of justice, and dealing with questions of slavery, importation of liquor and firearms, land titles, &c. In the autumn of 1901 the emir of Yola, the extreme eastern corner of the territories bordering upon the Benue, was, in consequence of the aggressions upon a trading station established by the Niger Company, dealt with in the same manner as the emirs of Nupe and Kontagora, and a new emir was appointed under British rule. In 1902 Bauchi and Bornu were brought under British rule. In Bauchi the emir was deposed and a new emir was appointed. In Bornu the extension of British authority was very willingly accepted as a guarantee against other European encroachments, and the legitimate Shehu was restored to the throne under British protection. Military stations were established in Bornu and in Bauchi, and both provinces were included in the system of British administration. Later in the same year an act of treachery culminating in the murder of a British resident, Captain Moloney, in the province of Nassarawa, led to the military subjugation of that province. The murderer fled northwards through Zaria to Kano, which was still an independent Mahommedan state. The emir of Zaria was found to be in treasonable correspondence with the emir of Kano. It was thought desirable to arrest and dethrone him, and his prime minister was temporarily appointed to administer the province under British protection. To all these provinces British residents were appointed, and British legislative enactments became applicable to them all. By the end of the year 1902 British administration had been extended to the whole of the provinces in the south, east and west of the protectorate. The important Mahommedan states of Sokoto, Gando, Kano and Katsena remained independent. These states were regarded as the stronghold of Fula supremacy. The emir of Sokoto held the position of religious as well as political head of all the lesser states of Northern Nigeria, and in response to friendly overtures on the part of the British administration had declared that between Sokoto and Great Britain there could be nothing but war. Katsena was the centre of local learning, while Kano was at once the commercial and the military centre of power. By the end of 1902 it had become evident that a trial of strength between the Mahommedan powers and the new British administration was inevitable. The Mahommedan rulers were themselves of comparatively recent date. In fighting them there was no question of fighting the whole country. On the contrary it was presumed with justice that their overthrow would be hailed
