Constitutionalevent1951 — first nationwide constitutional consultation· Chapter 45

The Macpherson Constitution

Governor Sir John Macpherson's constitution was the first to be drafted after province- and region-level consultation across Nigeria. It collapsed within three years over the 'self-government in 1956' motion.

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Sir John Macpherson (Governor 1948–1955) launched in 1948 the most extensive constitutional consultation in colonial African history: village, divisional, provincial and regional conferences feeding into the 1950 General Conference at Ibadan. The 1951 constitution that emerged created Regional Councils of Ministers, a Federal Council of Ministers, and elected majorities in all three regions.

The constitution collapsed in March–April 1953 over the Self-Government Motion: Anthony Enahoro (Action Group) moved that Nigeria become self-governing in 1956; Northern Region members under the Sardauna of Sokoto opposed the timetable; the Western and Eastern delegations walked out; the Kano Riots of May 1953 followed. The Lyttelton Constitution of 1954 replaced it, establishing the federal structure that took Nigeria into Independence.

Era context

The political and economic reality

The government(s), economy and national reality across the period 1951–1954.

British colonial administration

Sir Frederick Lugard → Sir James Robertson

1900–1960

National reality

Amalgamation of the Northern and Southern Protectorates (1914) under indirect rule. Marketing boards extracted cocoa, palm oil and groundnut surpluses; political agitation built through the press and the trade union movement.

Crises of the period

Aba Women's War (1929)
Iva Valley shooting of striking miners (1949)
Kano riots (1953)

GDP (World Bank)

Pre-independence; no national accounts series

Cabinet (selected portfolios)

Full ministerial roster being compiled.

Government administered by Governors-General and Residents. The first indigenous federal ministers were appointed under the 1954 Lyttelton Constitution.

Source · Toyin Falola, A History of Nigeria (CUP, 2008)

Methodology

Tier 1 · primary

Courts. Gazettes. National archives.

Tier 2 · corroborating

OCCRP. HRW. BudgIT. TheCable.

Tier 4 · tertiary, flagged

Wikipedia only where primary is pending. Always labelled.

The political and economic reality

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