History Paper 2 WASSCE (PC), 2016

Question 8

Identify any five political events which led to the independence of Nigeria.

 

 

Observation

This was a popular question and was widely attempted by the candidates. The points involved were             understood by the candidates but some of them were discussing nationalist activities which resulted in poor marks. Generally, candidates were expected to mention the following points in order to get       good marks:

  1. After the Second World War, there were series of protests, strike actions,      

demonstrations and other forms of civil disobedience against colonial policies in many parts of the country.

  1. The Richard Constitution was introduced in 1946 to try to address many political           

grievances.
(iii)       Nigeria was divided into three regions North, East and West.
(iv)       The Macpherson Constitution was introduced in 1951 as a response to the nationalist opposition to the Richard Constitution.
(v)        Federal Constitution was introduced in 1954 which changed Nigeria to a federal state with regional Houses of Assembly.
(vi)       Political parties were created in 1950s all over the country to contest electoral seats created by the constitution.
(vii)      Three major political parties emerged and each controlled their region. The Northern people’s Congress in the north, the Action Group in the west and the National Council for Nigerian Citizen in the east.
(viii)     The Eastern and the Western regions gained self-government in 1957 and the Northern region gained her own in 1959.
(ix)       The Independence Constitution was approved for Nigeria in 1960 by the British.

  1. A pre-independence general election was held in 1959, contested by all the political parties and won by the Northern People’s Congress.
  2. Nigeria became independent on the first of October 1960 with Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa as prime minister and Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe as the president.