Northern Nigeria (716,880 km²), occupies 77.6% of Nigeria’s land mass which is nearly four times the size of Southern Nigeria (206,888 km²).
In 1912, Frederick Lugard was appointed Governor-General of both Southern and Northern Nigeria with the mandate to unite the two. His main mission was to complete the amalgamation into one colony. Although controversial in Lagos, where it was opposed by a large section of the political class and the media, the amalgamation did not arouse passion in the rest of the country. From 1914 to 1919, Lugard was made Governor-General of the now combined Colony of Nigeria.
The unification was done for economic reasons rather than political — Northern Nigeria Protectorate had a budget deficit; and the colonial administration sought to use the budget surpluses in Southern Nigeria to offset this deficit.
The disparities between the protectorates
was to be corrected by creating a central administration in Lagos, with custom revenues from the south paying for the projects in the north.
Lugard ran the country with half of each year spent in England, distant from realities in Africa where subordinates had to delay decisions on many matters until he returned, and based his rule on a military system.
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