How Britain’s Colonial Census Skewed Nigeria’s Ethnic Populations
I spent years looking for a major wrongdoing by the British in Nigeria. They merged Northern and Southern protectorates mainly for administrative convenience. Nationalism, however, was homegrown through figures like Herbert Macaulay and Nnamdi Azikiwe. The real misstep lies in how they counted us. Colonial census figures misaligned provinces and inflated some ethnic numbers while undercounting others. That manipulation still fuels today’s debates. Current university, city and NIN registration data suggest very different population balances than the colonial records.
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