Who are the Southern Nigerians: Rediscovering the identity of the South

By Eriacy Confidence
Coneri Magazine

Southern Nigeria was a British Protectorate in the coastal area of modern Nigeria formed in 1900 from the union of Niger Coast Protectorate with territories chartered by the Royal Niger Company  below Lokoja on the River Niger. With the addition of Lagos Colony in 1906, the territory  officially became the colony and protectorate of Southern Nigeria with Lagos taking over from Calabar as the administrative centre.

The region includes the present day South East, South South and South West geopolitical zones of Nigeria composed mainly of the Yoruba, Igbo, Ibibio,Ijaw, Edo, and other minority groups of the present Niger Delta.

As British influence increased in Africa, The colony and protectorate of Southern Nigeria was joined to the Northern Protectorate in 1914 to form Nigeria and Sir Fredrick Lugard who championed the unification became first Governor General.

In the course of meeting stakeholders for the Southern Nigeria People's Forum, I have encountered a lot of arguments and  misunderstandings about the people or region that constitutes or should be referred to as  Southern Nigerians. To some Yorubas, Southern Nigeria mainly refers to the Igbo and by extension some states in the Niger Delta. And to some Igbos, the people of the Niger Delta states of South South are the ones qualify to answer Southern Nigerians. And so on and so forth.

Thank God Miss Southern Nigeria Beauty pageant and southern Nigeria Unity Award has afforded the opportunity to really find out the composition of the region known as Southern Nigeria. If you can remember, I listed all the states in the present South East, South South and South West geopolitical zones of Nigeria and included part of Kogi and Benue States. The included Kogi and Benue because they have Yoruba and Igede speaking people who were stakeholders of Southern Nigeria. You should know that the regions known as Western Nigeria, Eastern Nigeria or mid western Nigeria are only political divisions for administrative ease. It was for the same administrative ease or to divide the bond that binds the region that the present South East,South South and South West geopolitical zones of Nigeria were carved out of Southern Nigeria. It became even worse when the initial Western, Eastern and Mid Western Nigeria were broken into 18 States of Abia, Imo, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Delta, Rivers, Edo, Ekiti, Ogun, Osun, Oyo, Lagos, Kwara Etc. A Yoruba man from Oyo started regarding his Ogun brother as an enemy. The Igbo man of Enugu started regarding his Anambra brother as an enemy.

To further aggravate the ruin in the region, a lot of people started seeing their brothers and sisters in other religions and political  parties are arch enemies. This new southern Nigeria is not the same as the once peaceful and united region we used to have. The situation has so deteriorated to the extent that the Yorubas and Igbos are now always at loggerhead for irrelevant issues. We now see the success of someone from another tribe as obstacles to our aspirations which was not so when Ralph Moor or Walter Egerton brought the different regions respectively to form this great sub country.
We have to look to where we are coming from if we will ever get to where we want to be as a people.

This is the vision of Southern Nigeria People's Forum: to unite and protect the people and interests of southern Nigeria. And we have outlined programmes such as the Southern Nigeria unity walk, the Miss Southern Nigeria Beauty pageant and southern Nigeria unity Award, the Peace and unity raffle draw Etc as ways of achieving this unity. Join the movement  .