VILLAGE HEAD-MEN.
I cannot leave the question of railway construction in the Nigerias without expressing regret that in authorizing the construction of the new line, the Colonial Office should have been led to break the gauge, and to decide upon a 2 feet 6 inch line instead of the 3 feet 6 inch standard. Apart from other objections, which can be urged more fittingly by experts, it is obvious that this departure necessitates a complete equipment of new rolling stock, and the erection of special engineering shops to deal with it. Every freshly constructed line is bound to have a surplus of rolling stock. The Baro-Kano railway is no exception to the rule, and its surplus stock could have been utilized on the new branch line. It is a penny wise and pound foolish policy, and, in all probability, the ultimate result will be that this 2 feet 6 inch line will cost very little, if at all, less than a 3 feet 6 inch would have done.
CHAPTER XIX
AN UNAUTHORIZED SCHEME OF AMALGAMATION
An effort was made in the previous chapter to depict some of the disadvantages and drawbacks arising, and likely to become accentuated with time, from the dual administrative control now obtaining in Nigeria. For the following suggestions as to the character amalgamation could assume, the writer claims no more than that they may, perhaps, constitute an attempt, put forward with much diffidence, to indicate a few constructive ideas which might form the basis for expert discussion.
The objects an amalgamation might be expected to secure, apart from the inconveniences needing removal, would, in the main, be four in number. (a) Financial management directed not only to meeting present needs but to making provision for the future. (b) The right sort of man to fill the important and onerous post of Governor-General. (c) The division of the territory into Provinces corresponding as far as possible with natural geographical boundaries and existing political conditions, involving as few changes as possible. (d) A comprehensive scheme of public works.
These various points can, in the limits of a chapter, be best examined collectively.
In the accompanying map Nigeria is divided into four great Provinces. I. The Northern or Sudan Province, comprising the regions where a Mohammedan civilization has existed for many centuries, and where the majority of the people, except in Kontagora, are Muslims. The ruling families in Kontagora are, however, so closely related with those of Sokoto that it would probably be found expedient to incorporate the former into the same Province, which would, therefore, consist of Sokoto, Kano, Bornu, the Zaria Emirate and Kontagora. Its headquarters would be Kano. II. The Central Province, comprising the pagan section of the present Zaria province, i.e. Zaria outside the limits of the Emirate proper, and the Nassarawa, Bauchi, Niger, Yola, and Muri (north of the Benue) provinces. It is not quite easy to forecast where the centre of gravity of the Central Province will ultimately fall, but if, as is possible, the Bauchi highlands become in time a second Simla for the Central Executive, the headquarters of the Central Province would presumably be fixed at Zungeru, the present capital of the Northern Protectorate. III. The Western Province, comprising all that is now incorporated in the existing western province of Southern Nigeria, plus—to the north—Kabba, Ilorin and Borgu, while the right bank of the Forcados and Niger would form the eastern boundary, the boundaries of the Province following natural lines. Its headquarters would be Oshogbo, or its immediate neighbourhood. IV. The Eastern Province, comprising what is now the eastern province of South Nigeria, but with its western frontier coterminous with the left bank of the Niger and Forcados and its northern frontiers pushed up to the south bank of the Benue, embracing Bassa and part of Muri, Yola, however, being left, for political reasons, in the Central Province, as noted above. Its headquarters would be Old Calabar, the starting-point of the future eastern railway (see map).
Each of these great provinces would be ruled by a Lieutenant-Governor, with Residents and Assistant Residents under him, and, wherever possible, the present political boundaries of what are now provinces, but would become known as districts and sub-districts, would be retained. Thus in the Northern or Sudan Province nothing would be changed in this respect, save the separation of Mohammedan Zaria from pagan Zaria; nothing would be changed in the Central Province, so far as the units remaining within it were concerned, except the division of Muri, which would offer no political embarrassments. The enlargement of the Eastern Province as proposed, would in some respects facilitate the work of administration and would not cut across any ethnic divisions. In the Western Province the principal alteration would be the re-grouping of the different Yoruba sections in their old state form (vide Part II.) under a Resident who would reside at Oyo; Ilorin, Kabba, and Borgu would remain under Residents as at present. Warri (the capital of the existing central province of Southern Nigeria) would become the seat of a Residency for the Bini, Sobo, Ijaw and Jekri speaking peoples.