When were Northern Nigeria and Southern Nigeria formally amalgamated?
History of Northern Nigeria theory. Lugard left the protectorate after some years, serving in Hong Kong, but was eventually returned to work in Nigeria where he decided on the merger of the Northern Nigeria Protectorate with Southern Nigeria in 1914. Agitation for independence from the radically different Southern Protectorate however led to a formidable split in the 1940s. The Richards constitution, proclaimed in 1945 gave overwhelming autonomy to the North, including eventually in the areas of foreign relations and customs policy. From 1914 to 1953, the much larger Northern Nigeria was amalgamated with the Nigerian South and it administration was virtually controlled from the
Southern Nigeria Protectorate and culture into the north. Southerners, on their part, were not eager to embrace the extension of legislation originally meant for the north to the south. From its foundation southern Nigeria was administered by a high commissioner. The first high commissioner was Ralph Moor. When Lagos was amalgamated with the rest of southern Nigeria in 1906, the then high commissioner Walter Egerton was made into Governor of the territory. When in 1900 the protectorate passed from the Foreign Office to the Colonial Office, Ralph Moor became High Commissioner of Southern Nigeria and laid the foundations of the new administration, his