Nigerian Struggles - Nigerian Trade Unions Protest

Nigerian Trade Unions Protest

The Nigerian Trade Union Congress sent the following cable to Oliver Stanley, British Colonial Secretary: “Nigerian Trades Unions disfavor the constitution in its present unsatisfactory form. Approval by the Legislative Council is unauthorized. Workers’ claims have been flagrantly ignored Memorandum follows.” One of the main points in the memorandum of the TUC was that “the proposed constitution should provide for
adult suffrage irrespective of income.” At the huge May Day 1945 celebration of the TUC in Lagos a resolution demanded full adult suffrage for the people of Nigeria. There are no essential differences between the new constitution and the old. The projected “reforms” do not in any respect constitute progress toward Nigeria’s independence.
The real power still rests in the hands of the Governor and his Executive Council. The new “reforms” simply serve to reinforce the alliance between the British and autocratic native rulers in opposition to the will and desires of the people. The primary functions of the chiefs under this system of indirect rule are to
maintain imperialist “law and order,” secure forced labor, recruit troops in time of war, and, above all else, collect the extortionate taxes imposed by the British authorities. Before the conquest of the country by the Europeans the
authority of the chiefs derived from the people and from elected councils of elders. They were subject to the will of the people. If he became autocratic and tyrannical, the chief could
be removed by the people. Today under the system of indirect rule, the chiefs are servants of the British overlords. The people are recognizing the true role of the chiefs as agents of British rule and asserting themselves in opposition. The Colonial authorities, aware of the dangers of this rising
tide of popular discontent, are attempting to arrest the growing democratic aspirations of the people by tieing the chiefs more closely to themselves under the new constitution.
The West African Pilot, reviewing these proposals, said: “Any system of government which nourishes feudalism or advances a baronial class who must thrive at the expense of the lower classes is undesirable ... The powerful indirect rulers of the north enjoy good salaries (5,000 pounds per annum) and Oriental palaces, they have nothing to complain about. But the classes under them have no justice, no education and their health is not enviable. The building up of a ruling class, vested with power, supplied with money and set up to live in pomp and luxury side by side with a poor and underfed peasant class, will have exactly the same result as such a
system has had in other countries – namely, the people seek the destruction of such institutions.”
* * * *
The economic and political events of the past five years in Nigeria culminating in the triumphant general strike of the organized workers against the government confirm anew the Trotskyist theory of the permanent revolution applied to the struggles of the colonial peoples. In his report to the Third
Congress of the Communist International in 1921 Trotsky predicted: “The combination of the military nationalistic oppression of
foreign imperialism, of the capitalist exploitation by the foreign and native bourgeoisie, and the survivals of feudal disabilities are creating the conditions in which the immature proletariat of the colonial countries must develop rapidly and take the
lead in the revolutionary movement of the peasant masses.”

Source - Fourth International, October 1945
Robert L. Birchman
Class Struggles In Nigeria

NIGERIAN STRUGGLES

It is important to mention that Nigerian politicians collaborated with the British in the later part of the colonial period in order to acquire power, these were seen in the nineteenth century but the efforts made by the Nigerian masses in resisting British colonial conquests and domination were phenomenon that it made the British aware of the bitterness of the people.

Quite a number of the emirs who rejected British rule were killed, deposed, exiled or imprisoned. In order to ensure the loyalty of the new emirs and their successors, they were made to take an oaths of allegiance on the Quran.

From the roles of collaborators, a lot of the educated elite, especially those who resided in Lagos, assumed the position of the protesters against the discrimination by the British. Their protests were mainly motivated by narrow self interest.

Their protests complemented the other forms of opposition which were continually mounted against British domination by other segments and institutions of the Nigerian society. These included student's protests, christian movements, the Mahdist in northern Nigeria, women protests etc. These came into existence as a result of the deterioration in the living conditions of Nigerians. It is noticeable that the Nigerian peoples struggled to achieve and resist the control and domination of the British. 

THE STRUGGLES PUT UP BY NIGERIANS AGAINST BRITISH COLONIALISM AND FOR INDEPENDENCE

The struggle for the attainment of independence started in the early 1930s and ended in the 1940s. The masses who bravely struggle against the British domination and eventually force them to give up control over the country. However most of the top politicians who are regarded as "nationalists", founders of modern Nigeria or fathers of Nigeria's nationalism, collaborated with the British. Most of them came later only after the struggle had taken place already, the British had made a decision and conclusion that it was no longer interested in dominating and occupying Nigeria.

The masses struggles were the major factor for the transition to independence and the masses movement also were pitched against the forces of the colonizer.
It is important to understand that the struggle towards independence were the people because they were actually the one who fought for Nigeria's independence but they were not given their rightful and proper place in the history of this Country.

In history, top Nigerian politicians of the First Republic, dead or alive, were credited with the struggle and acquisition of independence of Nigeria. On the other hand, the masses who bravely struggled and fought against the British domination were only seen as a mere spectators or just followers.
While the masses resisted colonial domination, politicians collaborated with the British in order to safe guard their interests and partake in the British colonial exploitation of the Country.