The Coker Commission of Inquiry, formally established by the Federal Government of Nigeria in June 1962, constitutes one of the most consequential investigations of the First Republic era — its findings not only implicated the highest echelons of Western Region leadership but accelerated the political collapse that culminated in the declaration of a state of emergency in May 1962 and, ultimately, the republic's violent end in January 1966.
The Commission was constituted by Federal Prime Minister Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa under the Tribunals of Inquiry Act in response to widespread allegations of financial impropriety in the management of Western Region statutory corporations. Its political context was inseparable from the rupture within the Action Group (AG) between party leader Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Western Region Premier Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola — a feud that had already produced fistfights on the floor of the Western House of Assembly in May 1962. The Federal Government, aligned with the NPC/NNDP coalition, used the investigation as an instrument against Awolowo's opposition.
The Commission was chaired by Justice G. B. A. Coker of the Federal Supreme Court, assisted by two other members. It examined the affairs of six major statutory bodies: the Western Nigeria Development Corporation (WNDC), Western Nigeria Finance Corporation, Western Nigeria Marketing Board, Western Nigeria Housing Corporation, Western Nigeria Investment Corporation, and Daily Service Newspapers.
The four-volume Coker Commission Report, submitted in 1962–1963, made devastating findings. Vast sums of public funds — running into millions of pounds — had been unlawfully extracted from the statutory corporations and channelled into AG party coffers and private pockets. The WNDC had advanced unsecured loans to front companies connected to the AG. The Marketing Board, custodian of farmers' produce proceeds, had been systematically looted. The report identified Chief Obafemi Awolowo as the principal beneficiary and architect of the scheme. Chief Akintola, by contrast, emerged with a relatively cleaner bill of health.
Awolowo was subsequently prosecuted for treasonable felony — politically intertwined with the Commission's atmosphere — convicted in September 1963, and sentenced to ten years' imprisonment. He served until August 1966, when General Yakubu Gowon released him following the military coup. The corporations were reorganised and several officials dismissed. The Coker Report remains a canonical document in the study of corruption, corporate governance failure, and the weaponisation of accountability processes in Nigeria's First Republic.