Formation: The Making of Nigeria from Jihad to Amalgamation

The Federal Republic of Nigeria, given its place as the most populous black nation in the world, Africa's largest economy and quite possibly its biggest failed state, has had a compendium of literature written about it; From Frederick Forsyth's The story of Biafra to the Martin Meredith's state of Africa to Karl Maier's this house has fallen to the late Stephen Ellis' This Present darkness to Max Siollun's excellent trilogy- Oil, Politics and Violence, Soldiers of Fortune and Nigerian Soldiers of Fortune- There's been a plethora of non-Nigerians and Nigerians alike providing their take on a country, which is to all intents and purposes, a multitude of nations within a nation or as Winston Churchill's much-quoted description of Russia: " A riddle wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma".

What we haven't had, until now, has been a first-class forensic examination of the historical underpinnings of the making of the entity called Nigeria and the reasons for the endlessly intractable problems that the country has faced and continues to face since its independence from Great Britain in 1960. Do you want to know why the Niger Delta is still an unresolved headache for the local population and the Oil majors which operate there? are you interested in why Borno, located in the North East of the country, has been susceptible to all kinds of trouble with the government of the day not being able to resolve?

Ever wondered if the conflict between Obafemi Awolowo (Ijebu) and Samuel Ladoke Akintola (Ogbomosho)in the south-west, was nothing more than a continuation of the deadly internecine warfare among the Yorubas in the 19th century which has had the most deleterious effect for everyone else, leading to, in our time, the first of many coups from the 1960s to the late 1990s? Have you ever thought about why Lagos remains the commercial capital and the most strategically important trading area in the entire continent? Have you ever sought to understand the transatlantic slave trade from a Hausa, Igbo, Nupe or Yoruba perspective and sought to place the events of the 18th and 19th centuries in a global context?

Does anyone think it's an accident of history that Egbas are the predominant Yorubas, producing the likes of Wole Soyinka, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, Ernest Shonekan and Moshood Abiola? Has anyone ever tinkered on how the Aro maintained a stranglehold on the Eastern Igbo hemisphere through the ages? Have history buffs of the 21st century tried working out how the great Benin civilization came to a blazing end with its artefacts ending up in the British museum? Are you an envoy to Nigeria, seeking to truly understand what makes the place tick? Then Formation is the must-read book for you.

In focusing on Nigeria's pre-colonial history, Messrs. Fawehinmi and Fagbule have successfully undertaken an incredibly ambitious project, an extensively breathtaking scholarship on its subject, captured in thoroughly modern and enjoyable prose, (replete with references to popular culture) This review simply looks to capture the profound insights gleaned from reading this exceptional work(I happily confess to having read the book five to six times, back to back, even during my Covid illness in January). I must also add the caveat, that any flaws captured in this article are entirely my fault and nothing to do with the quality of this phenomenal work of the authors.

Islamic Caliphate Era

In a book which is serially populated by an extraordinary cast of characters, drawn from a wide range of sources, Formation commences its storytelling in a place called Gobir, in modern-day Sokoto State, where a migrant group of merchants, itinerant preachers made their home. It is among this migrant group that we are introduced to the very first of the seminal figures, in this book- Usman Dan Fodio. Over the course of chapters 1–3, we witness the evolution of the young zealot, who spoke out against the quirks of the Hausas, amassed followers, who weren't Muslims at the time and had visions of establishing an Islamic caliphate. We get to see that Dan Fodio wasn't the very first who wanted a revolution; Indeed his mentor, Sheikh Jubril, with whom he had spent a year learning and reading voraciously about Islam, had tried and failed. This evidently provided a few lessons for the would-be successful revolutionary.

By the time Dan Fodio embarked on his first major offensive on the 21st of June 1804, enlisting his brother, Abdullahi and his progeny, Mohammed Bello, we see the revolutionary Fulani army deploy the strategy of "square" formation of fighting, for the very first time in the book. This is a method that entailed, tactical organization and bravery, leading the charge against a numerically superior army. We see how the armies serving under the Fodios lose their way in helping themselves to gold and silver from their vanquished foes, much to our hero's dismay.

His son, Sultan Bello, undergoes a bit of examination in the book too. His position confirmed as the number one man, after a mini power struggle with his Uncle, Abdullahi. The highlight of Sultan Bello's time as a lead player of the Islamic Caliphate is as follows:

Big Government policy: Unlike his father who ran a "small government", Sultan created several government posts.

Expansion of Ribats: Ribats are walled border towns, whose raison d'etre was to attract human capital, using generous tax as incentives. When this didn't work out, these bordered walls became slaveholding ghettos, from where humans were trafficked to the west.

Sedenterization of the usual nomadic Fulanis, thus leading to the mixing of the immigrant and host tribes, thus rendering one indistinguishable from the other.

Instituting a fiscal system, which paid for the running of the caliphate.

The martial Ribats meant nearly 200 years of unbroken military occupation of a civilian populace in Northern Nigeria which ended in 1999 when a democratically elected government was voted into power.

Usman Dan Fodio, for all of his proselytizing, was someone whose views on female education was as forward-looking as it got- Indeed it is through his highly literate daughter, the multilingual Nana Asmau(who spoke four languages and wrote in three) and her husband Gidado, with their son, Waziri Junnaidu, that the authors were able to provide breathtaking detail on the life and times of the great reformer.

The Consequences of the Establishment of the Islamic Caliphate for the South West and the "beginnings of the Clapham Sect Era"

The success of Dan Fodio and his progeny (Sultan Mohammed Bello) in establishing the caliphate in the area, known today as Northern Nigeria had ramifications for its neighbours further south, not least of which was the secession of Ilorin in 1824, from the Great Oyo empire by the great warrior chief Afonja, aided by his Fulani allies. This single act, left the empire, wide open, thus leading to other major players breaking away. Just as this was shaping up, James Monroe, who was the secretary of state under Thomas Jefferson, completed the purchase of Louisiana from France, which meant a lucrative opportunity for the selling and purchasing of slaves. A major beneficiary of this was Ghezo of Dahomey (today's Benin republic), who simply traded his way to great wealth. The breakaway of major states led to the further destabilization of Yoruba land, more internecine wars, this time, between the Owus and the Ijebus.

This internal strife led to the escape and establishment of Abeokuta by Yoruba refugees of 150 distinct groupings of settlements. This was brought about by Balogun Sodeke, an exceptional war hero and great peacetime leader, who ruled by consensus. Understanding the precariousness of being surrounded by enemies on all sides and the need for its economic survival and physical security, Balogun Sodeke's perspicacity in setting up a ruling council (Ogboni) and exploiting the new city's close proximity to Lagos proved a major game-changer for the Independent city-state and the port city, itself.

The new economic opportunities in Egba, attracts a new migrant class known as Saros (a rogue pronunciation of Sierra Leone) Saros are essentially slaves who were lucky not to make the middle passage journey, settled in Freetown, a city set up by the Brits in the 1792 and mostly populated by Yorubas. These talented entrepreneurs picked up old abandoned vessels captured by the British Preventative Squadron.

Of this enterprising migrant class, one stood out like a sore thumb. Captured as a young boy in 1821, traded a number of times over and brought to Freetown, This young man, who had shown great aptitude for languages and leadership was the first of his generation to be enrolled at a college setup for young Africans wanting a better education.

This man, Samuel Ajayi Crowther would be at the center of missionary, intellectual and commercial activity over the course of the 19th century Pre-colonial Nigeria; Indeed he is the beating heart, conscience and face of this period of extraordinary native agency, which the authors creatively termed "the Clapham Sect Era".

Bishop Ajayi Crowther would play a critical role in shoring up the independence of the new city-state, making the most of his contacts within the leadership of the church missionary society (CMS) in setting up a number of schools and churches. His dynamism, ebullience and prominence set the tone for the progress made during this period of unrestrained growth.

Our protagonist gets to meet Queen Victoria's spouse, Prince Albert, with whom he discusses the truculent slave-trading Oba of Lagos, Kosoko, to which her majesty's consort replies, '"Lagos ought to be knocked down by all means". This leads to the events of the 1st of January 1852, in which Kosoko is deposed and a British installed puppet (Akintoye) takes over. By 1861, Lagos becomes a British protectorate.

Crowther, alongside another Saro of Igbo origin, John Taylor, produced the very first book written in the Igbo language, using Karl Richard Lepsius' Latin-script standard language. This work was called Isoama-Ibo, which will go on to play a huge role in advancing literacy in the wider Igbo country. John Taylor, upon setting up a church in Onitsha, didn't waste any time in starting a school for girls, using his book as a pedagogical tool. It is also pertinent to point out that Samuel Ajayi Crowther also published the very first book on Igbo vocabulary.

One of the titanic figures of the " Clapham Sect" was James Pinson Labulo Davies, who fought with the British army in deposing Oba Kosoko, set up various businesses, some exceedingly successful others not so successful, we read that he lent money to the wealthiest business people of the time-Efunroye Tinubu, whose phenomenally colourful life deserves a book of its own. Mr J.P.L. Davies was married to Sarah Bonetta Forbes- the young lady who was presented to Queen Victoria as a gift.

The stand out player, for me, however, was Jubo Jugboha, born around 1821, in a village called Umuduruoha-Amaigbo, which interestingly still exists today. As with a lot of young boys of that time in history, Jubo was traded away from his home, in this case, to the coastal kingdom of Bonny.

The authors were meticulous in pointing out that the path taken by young Jubo was one taken by several generations of Igbo emigrants, given Bonny's strategic location as a port for the exportation of slaves from and the import of commodities into the Igbo hinterland.

Originally apprenticed to Chief Allison and then to another called Madu, we see the young slave boy learning the ropes, grasping the complexities of the trading house system in Bonny, which had 18 houses serving under the revered traditional king, whose power relied on the loyalty of the various chiefs. This setup, for an adolescent serf coming up in the world, might have seemed harsh, but it did present opportunities for moving up the ladder and becoming a slaveholder too.

The demise of the revered King Opubu Pepple and Chief Madu led to a power vacuum and a bitter power struggle among their successors who were less experienced players; Something which Jubo, who was now well on his way to becoming Jaja of Opobo took full advantage of- the years of apprenticing under the house of Anne Pepple and the ex-pats in Hulks- had stood him in good stead to build his business.

A major point of note in this section, was the strategic importance of the oil rivers in the late 19th century, a multi-million-pound industry to the British and other European players on the Bonny coastline and the sheer preparedness of her majesty's navy, acting on their political overlord's imperatives, to use force to ensure that business of exploiting the resources carried on regardless; Something that we will come to recognize during the Biafran war when Britain and France took opposing sides and also during the Shell and Ogoni battles in the 1990s.

The intervention of the Brits in chopping and changing leaders did nothing to end the infighting among the ruling houses in Bonny. By the time Chief Alali (Madu's successor)died in 1867, there was considerable fatigue and reluctance from potential rivals, not least due to the massive debt overhang. It was at this point Jaja of Opobo stepped in by popular acclaim, inheriting Alali's vast debt and quickly trading way out of it- prompting the British Consul in the area to point out presciently that if he can avoid getting killed by his rivals, he would dominate the game and dominate, he did.

Jubo Jugboha (now Jaja of Opobo)'s preternatural business savvy and strategic genius comes into sharp focus here; Firstly in breaking away from the chaos at bonny, secondly in forging an alliance with the Aro, thus securing a pathway into the Ibo hinterland, helping undercut his rivals and establishing a stranglehold in the Palm oil business, while this was happening, Chiefs, in rival houses were spoiling for war, this was circumvented by feigning surrender while carefully working on Plan B, which was executed with devastating aplomb. The result of which was a near-monopoly of the palm oil business and unravelling of several British businesses located in Bonny. This led to the intervention of the British government in turfing out Jaja and taking over his affairs.

Jaja of Opobo, for all of his phenomenal brilliance and extraordinary agency during the Clapham Sect Era, just like the consecrated Bishop Ajayi Crowther (29th of June 1864), saw their gains fall apart, when the commercially and Imperial minded Brits began to have the upper hand and more importantly, friends and supporters in the major political parties, thus setting the stage for the next section, titled the Imperial sect.

The Imperial Sect Era

In the section devoted to the efforts of the commercially and Imperially minded Brits, It is somewhat imperative not to view the actions of these swashbuckling and in some cases, profoundly stupid, cast of characters here in isolation, but as intersecting, or I daresay, in competition with the key players of the "Clapham Sect Era". Just as Henry Venn and T.F. Buxton were busy lobbying the crown to end slavery in Lagos by bombarding Oba Kosoko, the likes of Mungo Park, Dixon Denham, Hugh Clapperton, Richard and David Lander and most importantly, Joseph Chamberlain were busy laying the groundwork for the likes of Mcgregor Laird, John Moray, John Holt and the ultimate beneficiary- George Taubman Goldie- to relentlessly exploit.

The river Niger, known to the surrounding tribes as Joliba, Kworra, Orimili, Oya and Torubeni was something of a closed-door to outsiders, an impenetrable world, a graveyard, which brought about the untimely demise of those who tried crossing it, for centuries.

This was the case, until an intrepid, or you could say foolhardy Scottish surgeon called Mungo Park managed to explore the area, owing his survival to kindly natives, who looked upon him with pity when it seemed almost certain that he would die.

His survival and subsequent publishing of his account sets in motion, a series of events over the course of the nineteenth century, which culminates in the acquisition of a space called Nigeria, at the barrel of a gun, not for the benefit of the locals, who were vulnerable to the next slave raids but for the commercial gain of the British government, still smarting from the loss of its prized colony -the United States of America, a few decades prior.

But back to the subject matter of Mungo Park and resulting fame from his book meant that attracting funding from the government for the next trip wouldn't be hard. The mad Scotchman wouldn't be so lucky this time as he and his contingent would all perish. It was left to Hugh Clapperton, (whom the authors had introduced us to at the start of the book) and Dixon Denham to undertake the perilous journey. Their fate, unfortunately, wasn't any different from Mungos. And it fell upon their servants, Richard and David Lander to successfully complete the journey and document their discoveries via memory, thus making them the very first to travel the entire length of the Niger.

The following three expeditions that took place, arising from the groundwork of the Lander brothers, featured the Heinrich Barth, whom we first encounter in the earlier chapters, is given a bit of airtime. Herr Barth is something of a polyglot(spoke Arabic and elements of Hausa, Kanuri and Fulfude)and a polymath. His scientific account of the ongoings in and around the country, alongside those of Bishop Crowther and William Balfour Balkie, help paint a comprehensive picture of the state affairs.

These detailed reports, alongside the work done by the leading lights of the Clapham Sect Era, (Henry Venn convincing Thomas Clegg in setting up the West African Company) set the stage for a new generation of entrepreneurs driven by the immense commercial possibilities in Africa. It's at this point that we meet George Taubman Goldie, a somewhat feckless and indulgent young man, who was given to womanizing and savoring what the world has to offer, whether in Egypt or in France. Once that was out of his system, he promptly went about setting up the Central African Trading Company. On getting to the scene of the action itself, seeing firsthand the chaotic ebb and flow of business with its attendant violent disputes, civil disturbance and intense competition, Goldie hit a masterstroke in working out that what was needed were a series of mergers of acquisitions, the results of which was the United African Company (UAC) with a market capitalization of 30 million Pounds in today's money. Trying to get the French company, CFAO, under the umbrella would prove to be a much trickier proposition. But by making the most of his contacts among privileged members of the British political class, this obstacle would be surmounted.

Just as important as the mergers and acquisitions were and the much needed royal seal of approval (royal charter)was to this project, It was the setting up of the constabulary that really gave the impression that these new players were prepared to kill and readily chose money over everything else. It was just as well that a technological innovation, which was the granddaddy of game-changers was about to burst on to the scene- the maxim gun-which was invented by Hiram Stephens Maxim (An American born British Inventor) would have the profound ramification for the natives of the space known today as the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

To fully grasp this unforgivably bloody chapter in Pre-colonial Nigeria, we must first contextualize the policy of Joseph Chamberlain (Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's father)in enacting legislation eliminating the possibility of Native Africans ever getting the hands on the maxim guns for defensive purposes in the open market.

This new contraption in the hands of the RNC constabulary, under the ill-fated Ralph Moor, an ex Irish police officer who paid his own way to West Africa, would be used to press home their advantage in the Aro country.

We get to know about the Aro in much greater detail than we did in the section devoted to Jaja of Opobo, understand their reason for being and their place in maintaining economic order in the eastern Igbo region. As with every other area, the enslavement business was a major source of income, with Igbo slaves providing the greatest number to the Americas. Some light is shed on the Western Igbo region equivalent of the Aro, known as the Ekumeku.

The Igbo country was deeply defined by the political, cultural and economic dichotomy between slaves and freemen just as the antebellum south in America and the system of using superstition, fear and violence helped perpetuate the Aro in power.

Ralph Moor, who saw the Aro as impedimental to penetrating and controlling the Igbo country simply went ahead to destroy the Arochukwu, placing it in formation- a fighting strategy that is a recurring theme throughout the book.

The prize for the supremely gloriously incompetent Brit would go the young James Robert Phillips, whose earth-shattering stupidity and hubris would lead to the destruction of the great Benin civilization. A thirty-three-year-old Oxbridge graduate who had no real accomplishments to speak of, not only thought it bright to invade Benin but also to have a marching and(successfully dissuaded from this), ostensibly to provide the soundtrack to this great adventure. Despite the best efforts of one of the local chiefs, who tried to get him to hold back, owing to traditional rites being performed by Oba Ovonramwen, Young Mr Phillips pressed ahead and paid dearly with his life. On word getting back to London regarding the massacre, reinforcements came from all over the empire to converge on Benin, with the sole purpose of razing the Oba's palace and the city to the ground, while this was happening, due care was taken in carting away the thousands of superbly crafted works of art, which sit in the British Museum, in Holborn, Central London, till this day.

Reading accounts of a number of British historians, for the better part never do any justice to the actual events on the ground; Perhaps due to the need to talk up their supposed "racial superiority" and depict the natives as a savage barbarous people who need saving, we never get to see these battles the way they really took place- this is exactly what happened with the battle of Bida.

The intrigue and the perpetual power struggle among the protagonists in Nupe kingdom, starting in the aftermath of the demise of the Etsu (king) in 1818 gets a bit of airtime here. We are treated to the compelling spectacle of one rival squaring against the other, with Mallam Dendo, an immigrant Muslim from Kebbi (located in Northwest Nigeria) who quickly became famous in Bida on account of his wisdom and divination, playing a decisive role in the eventual victor's (Majiya)ascension to the throne. It didn't take too long for Mallam Dendo to become the very object of suspicion and plots, but this was after he was gifted two slave girls, one of whom gave birth to Gogo Habiba, who went on to become a prolific slave trader herself.

These power struggles for complete supremacy in Nupe land only intensified as time wore on, Messrs. Fagbule and Fawehinmi, not for the last time, creatively termed this section, "Game of Thrones" - after the hit series - and it became a multi-generational game of thrones when Dendo's youngest son (Masaba)joined forces with three other rivals to knock his older brother off the perch and become the undisputed Etsu of Nupe land.

The reasons why Nupe is captured in such detail are as follows:

A dazzling array of people and cultures, in what is already the most diverse countries on earth, something Herr Barth had described as a labyrinth of Kingdoms.

Its strategic location as the confluence of the rivers Niger and Kaduna made the slave market central to its economic livelihood.

It was Nupe's slavery system known as Tungazi, which massively expanded under Etsu Masaba from 55 to nearly 700, but simply became unsustainable and provided the perfect pretext that the British government needed to go to war with Masaba's successors thus bringing an end to the Nupe dynasty and placing it under its control, using the square formation, along the way.

With the Imperial Sect Era in full swing and George Taubman Goldie making his presence felt in the hinterlands, disenchantment by the local traders became quite concerted. One of such places was Akassa, located in modern-day Bayelsa state, whose ruler, Amanyanabo Frederick William Koko had written and complained about RNC's monopolistic practices to the British authorities but nothing was done. It all came to a head when the Brass people took matters to hand and attacked the RNC office, killing 24 staff members, carting away important documents.

As expected, the reprisal attack was swift and brutal, with members of the RNC constabulary, the West African Naval Squadron making up the numbers headed to Nembe. In getting the message across, nothing was left to spare, several hundreds of Nembe citizens were killed (no doubt the Maxim was used) and the city was burned to the ground.

The Nembe massacre had two major consequences:

1.The revocation of RNC's royal charter, thus bringing an end to Goldie's monopoly, once an investigation established that he had acted underhandedly.

2.Carefully coordinated subjugation of various other areas in the Nigerian space resistant to British Colonization; This included the Yorubas(with the notable exception of the independent Egbas)who were busy resurrecting their perennial beef with each other, between 1877–1893.

By the end of the 19th century, the political and economic realities had changed irrevocably and given the resounding defeats of Emirs Alimi and Zubayru at the hands of the Brits, you would think that lessons had been learnt by the Fulani elite in Sokoto, but no, it wasn't. A key player, who will help hit this point home will be examined in brief detail.

His name?

Frederick Dealtry Lugard, who over the course of his time as the administrative overlord of the British colonial project in Nigeria, played his part in a number of ways that we are still grappling with today. The portrait of a psychopathic, fatalistic, war-loving orphan, who was unlucky in love provides a huge amount of perspective in making sense of his actions, not only in Nigeria but also in Sudan and Uganda.

Born in Madras (known today as Chennai) in India, we learn about Lugard's traumatic childhood; his mother's untimely demise after giving birth to his younger brother, his father's subsequent nervous breakdown, stemming from the crippling poverty and his inability to raise 10 children from 3 wives, his uneven education and taking up the advice of his Uncle to join the army.

We learn about his missing action in India due to illness and the skills that he picked up along the way. His first taste of Africa in Sudan as part of the regiment charged with retaliating Charles Gordon is captured. The trekking which he undertook along with the meticulous diary which he kept on his time in Uganda help provides the backdrop to his subsequent fame and life experiences in Nigeria.

Lugard makes the most of his changing fortunes brought on literary superstardom, by playing an active role in advising the British government to annex and colonize Uganda. By this time too, he meets Flora Shaw, who provides a glowing review of his book and helps to burnish his reputation. At that time, he had no idea of the influence that Ms Shaw would have on his career. At this point he gets to meet George Taubman Goldie, who gives him his first taste of Nigeria, as part of the RNC contingent, this experience plus a near-fatal injury, nearly puts him off. It was during this period that he undertakes a trip to Akassa to await debriefing from Goldie, when this wasn't forthcoming, he proceeded to go up to Lokoja. Had he remained in Akassa, chances are that he may have been one of the 24 RNC staff killed or the 60 kidnapped.

As an aside, we are treated to the affair between the very married Goldie and Flora Shaw, which carried on and off for eight years and the mental breakdown Ms Shaw suffered when her marriage proposal dramatically turned down by Goldie.

George Taubman Goldie is bought out by the British government for a princely sum and Lugard, who was head of the West African frontier force, became upon nationalization of the RNC, an administrator overnight, when Joseph "Africanus" Chamberlain offered him the job.

The next act in Lugard's story was the takedown of the Islamic caliphate and placing it under the control of the British government. His first step was to publicly pronounce the end of slavery- this was a highly strategic move- by identifying with the lowly, oppressed and disenfranchised across the dominions, Lugard was essentially playing from the same manual used by Dan Fodio, a hundred years prior, only this time, it was being spearheaded by a European whose instincts were purely capitalist and paternalist.

The Caliphate knew the war was coming but made the catastrophic error of underestimating their opponents, failing to grasp and appreciate the advantages that the imperialists had. First, It was Ibrahim Nagwamatse, the Emir of Kontagora, the self-styled king of Sudan, an unrepentant slave raider, who fell to the imperialists.

The manner in which the case for war was made against the Kano and Sokoto arm of the caliphate in 1902 was reminiscent of the "dodgy case for war in Iraq" a hundred years later. Britain, at this point, suffering from war fatigue, given its recent exertions in South Africa, would not have supported the case. But Lugard, who was keen to forge ahead, found his scheme leaked to the press, prompting a furious reaction from the colonial office. Undaunted, our man ordered his line report (Colonel Moreland) to take 722 infantry soldiers. 24 British officers and 12 NCOs to march from Zaria to Kano. As expected, maxim guns were taken for the ride. Further forward, we also learn that despite an ambush to a small team of a British led force(45 in number) en route to Kano, they comprehensively defeated an Aliyu Babba's force of 1,000 horsemen and 2,000 soldiers on foot, without losing a single man- doubtless due to the technology of the maxim gun.

The take over of Sokoto is given a few column inches, not least because of rich irony on hand; The British force had in its ranks Yoruba soldiers, who ordinarily would have deserted the ranks for fear of enslavement, this time, had no such misgivings, given their vastly superior weapons. The square formation is deployed to devastating effect and the great Sokoto caliphate, which had reigned for 100 years came crashing down like a house of cards. The ending of the Sokoto Caliphate, the world's last mass slave society should be seen as the apotheosis in Lugard's career, radically transforming Northern Nigeria in ways that still stand today.

The deadly internal strife among the Yorubas, in the late nineteenth century, this time between Ibadan and Ekiti Parapo (people of Ilesha and Ekiti coming together), comes into view, despite the best efforts of the likes of Reverend J.B. Woods to mediate, nothing happens, which provides the Brits, led by Thomas Gilbert-Carter to a perfect opportunity to strike and place Yoruba land under its control. A city lost to history forever- Ijaiye- is also featured. Ijaiye is a trading hub attracting customers from afar as the middle east. Kurumi, the leader of Ijaiye whose heavy-handed approach, including murdering his predecessors, charging punitive thoroughfare tolls and aggressive trade tactics and all-round tyranny, led to an Ibadan general (Ogunmola)ruthlessly annihilate Ijaiye, in the way they checked the Fulani charge into Ibadan.

The success of the Brits in controlling the trade and out maneuvering the French for complete control as well as the use of the maxim guns in subduing the local population does not disguise the issues of human capital in running this vast complex entity. This meant that they were reliant on existent practices for the daily running of these newly conquered space, the unintended consequence of which, was the strengthening of the former ruling classes in Northern Nigeria. Indeed this was the case in various other parts of the country. Even though there were pockets of resistance to the heavy-handed approach of the Brits- something that found expression during the great war, the new overlords were quick to respond and made sure that the Germans who instigated this, in some cases, had their businesses expropriated- assets valued at 400 million pounds in today's money.

The opposition to British rule among the " trousered natives" to use Lugard's younger brother's racist phrase, brought a new problem that the maxim gun couldn't solve. The Satiru massacre in which two thousand people were killed only led to Lugard's suspension in 1906, by the time these killings repeated itself in Egba and Owerri in the 1910s, the gig was up for Lugard; The educated natives had won and there was an appreciation that nation-building would require a subtle and a much more considered approach.

Suffice it to say that reading and more to the point reviewing Formation, has been a life-changing experience; A point of divergence from the authors would be to cast a critical eye on the leading lights of the " Clapham Sect Era" Henry Venn may not have been bigoted as Henry Townsend, but his actions unwittingly set up the space we call Nigeria ready for the exploitation of the imperially minded Brits.

This is a book that many people(in their thousands and millions)need to read to understand the current mess that we call Nigeria. If this happens, then I strongly believe that the urgent debates that need to be had, will take place and maybe, the era of national renewal will happen in our times.

Thanks very much for reading.