By the late 1940s, the Richards Constitution of 1946 had become a symbol of colonial decision making without sufficient Nigerian input. It created regional councils for the North, West, and East, and it widened regional administration, but it left decisive authority at the centre strongly in the hands of the Governor and colonial officials. Nigerian politicians and newspapers attacked the arrangement for offering too little influence at the national level, and for failing to reflect the growing demand for a constitution built with Nigerians, not merely presented to them.
When Sir John Macpherson became Governor in 1948, the colonial government could not ignore the complaints. The question was no longer whether reform was needed, but how far Britain would go, and how Nigeria’s diverse regions could share power without breaking the country apart.
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The Macpherson Consultations and the Ibadan General Conference
The most distinctive feature of the Macpherson Constitution was the consultative process that produced it. Between 1949 and 1950, discussions were organised from local levels upward. Communities debated proposals in villages and towns, then at district and provincial meetings, and later through regional deliberations. These layers of consultation fed into a General Conference held in Ibadan in 1950, where Nigerian representatives from across the country debated constitutional options and pressed their demands.
This was not a perfect process, colonial control remained, and final authority still rested with Britain, but it marked a major shift in method. Nigerian political leaders could now say, with evidence, that their voices had entered the drafting process in a way earlier constitutions did not allow.
What the Macpherson Constitution Created in 1951
When the constitution came into effect in 1951, it replaced the Richards Constitution and introduced a more complex political structure at the centre and in the regions.
A stronger central legislature
A central House of Representatives was established with 136 members drawn largely from the regions through electoral and indirect electoral processes. The design was meant to widen representation while keeping the regions as the main channels through which political power reached the centre.
A Council of Ministers, with limits
A Council of Ministers was introduced at the centre. Nigerian ministers took responsibility for key domestic portfolios such as education, health, and agriculture. However, the Governor presided, and colonial authority remained decisive over defence, external affairs, and internal security. In practice, ministerial participation expanded Nigerian influence, but it did not create full cabinet government independent of colonial oversight.
Regional legislatures, and traditional chambers
Regional Houses of Assembly operated in the Northern, Western, and Eastern Regions. In addition, Houses of Chiefs existed in the North and West, reflecting the continued role of traditional authority in regional governance.
These arrangements mattered because they trained Nigerian politicians in governing, budgeting, and managing ministries, while also encouraging them to organise politically within their regions in order to control the path to the centre.
Regional Power and the Rise of Region Based Parties
The Macpherson system tied central representation closely to the regions. That design strengthened regional identity and made political competition increasingly regional in character. By the early 1950s, three major political forces dominated the landscape.
In the North, the Northern People’s Congress, NPC, emerged as the leading party, rooted in Northern political structures and interests. In the East, the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons, NCNC, remained strongest. In the West, a new party, the Action Group, built a disciplined platform that quickly became the region’s central political engine.
Regionalism did not begin in 1951, but the constitutional structure gave it sharper political consequences. Winning regional control now meant gaining a direct route into national decision making.
The Action Group’s Origins, From Cultural Mobilisation to Political Machine
The Action Group, AG, was formally established in Ibadan on 21 March 1951. It grew out of Egbe Omo Oduduwa, a Yoruba cultural organisation founded in 1948 to promote Yoruba unity and cultural advancement. The shift from cultural association to political party reflected a simple reality of the new era, cultural influence was not enough to win elections or shape ministries, a party structure was required.
Obafemi Awolowo led the Action Group, with key figures including Samuel Ladoke Akintola and Chief Bode Thomas. The party drew most of its support from Yoruba constituencies in the Western Region, but it also projected an ideological programme that went beyond ethnic identity.
The AG promoted federalism, arguing that Nigeria’s diversity required strong regions within a united country. It pressed for rapid constitutional advance, and it became famous for its social policy ambitions, especially the expansion of education and developmental planning.
The 1951 Elections in the West and the Formation of a Regional Government
Under the Macpherson framework, elections took place in 1951. In the Western Region, the Action Group emerged as the leading force, winning a plurality and then consolidating control through political alignment inside the regional House of Assembly. This consolidation enabled the party to form the regional government and drive its programme.
Awolowo became Leader of Government Business in the Western Region, a powerful position in the constitutional arrangement of the time. Later, after further constitutional changes, he became Premier of the Western Region under the federal reforms introduced in 1954.
The Western experience demonstrated what the Macpherson Constitution had made possible, a region could now build a coherent government with a clear agenda, even while Nigeria remained under colonial rule.
The 1953 Self Government Motion and the Crisis of Trust
The Macpherson Constitution assumed that regional leaders would cooperate at the centre. In practice, rivalry grew, especially around revenue allocation, political representation, and the timing of self government.
In 1953, Anthony Enahoro of the Action Group moved a motion in the House of Representatives calling for self government in 1956. Northern representatives resisted the timetable, arguing the North was not ready for such speed and that the proposal threatened regional balance. The debate heightened tensions across the country. Northern politicians withdrew temporarily from Lagos, and serious disturbances later occurred in Kano, sharpening interregional suspicion.
The crisis exposed the limits of the Macpherson framework. It had expanded participation, but it had not created enough constitutional clarity to manage intense regional competition.
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From Macpherson to Lyttleton, Why 1954 Changed the Federal Structure
Following the political strains, Britain introduced another major constitutional change. In 1954, the Lyttleton Constitution replaced the Macpherson arrangements with a clearer federal structure and stronger regional autonomy. This shift reflected a lesson learned the hard way, Nigeria’s regions were powerful political realities, and the constitution had to recognise them more explicitly if the system was to hold.
By the mid 1950s, Nigeria had moved into a phase where constitutional conferences, elections, and regional administration became the engine of political transition. Independence in 1960 was still years away, but the institutional route to it was now visible.
Author’s Note
The Macpherson Constitution of 1951 mattered because it brought Nigerian political participation into wider view and made elections, ministries, and regional governments central to the struggle for power. It also mattered because it strengthened the regions, and that strength pushed parties like the Action Group to organise with discipline, ideology, and clear programmes. The Action Group’s rise in the West showed how quickly constitutional space could be turned into real governance, while the crises of 1953 showed how easily regional rivalry could threaten national unity. Nigeria’s independence was not a single moment, it was built through these stages, and 1951 stands out as one of the years when the structure of self government became more real than ever before.
References
Coleman, J. S., Nigeria, Background to Nationalism, University of California Press, 1958.
Falola, T., Heaton, M. M., A History of Nigeria, Cambridge University Press, 2008.
Crowder, M., The Story of Nigeria, Faber and Faber, 1978.
