By Femi Fani-Kayode

“There can be little doubt that one of the most uncouth and rabid racists that has ever had the privilege of gracing our shores with his malevolent, unwholesome and unwelcome presence was the redoubtable British Army Officer and strong-willed employee of the Royal Niger Company, Lord Frederick Lugard.

This was the man who later became the first Governor – General of Colonial Nigeria. It is one of the greatest ironies of modern history that this same recalitrant, ignorant and unrepentant brute of a man, after his recommendation to the British Colonial Office in 1914 that what, up until that time, had been the Northern and Southern Protectorates of Nigeria and the Lagos colony, should all be merged into one large country, essentially became the father and architect of what is now known as the modern nation-state of Nigeria,….. a country which happens to be the largest and most populous black nation on the planet today.
As a matter of fact it was Lugard’s fiancee, a journalist by the name of Flora Shaw, that even recommended the name “Nigeria” for our country. What a sad and remarkable foundation. Lord Lugard simply despised the natives and the various tribes of the new Nigeria and he expressed his utter contempt for them at every opportunity available to him with insulting, condescending, harsh and uncharitable words and commentries”
______________ Femi Fani-Kayode, on Lord Frederick Lugard, February 2009.