By Bola A. Akinterinwa
Nigeria was a problem unto herself before, at, and after, independence. Before independence, the prevention of Southerners from settling down in the old cities of the North, was the epicentre of the problem. The ultimate objective of the prevention, by then, was to avoid the corruption or contamination of traditional culture, values and patterns of behaviour by foreign or strange elements. As explained by Nigeria’s former plenipotentiary High Commissioner to Botswana and Lesotho and Professor of Political Science, Dr. Alaba Ogunsanwo, ‘after the amalgamation of Nigeria, certain policies, adopted by the colonial administration at the behest of some of the traditional rulers, inadvertently created migration centres designed to ensure the non-contamination of traditional culture, values and patterns of behaviour by foreign or strange elements. The phenomenon first emerged in the northern part of the country, where the traditional rulers succeeded in persuading the colonial officials to ensure that Southerners were not allowed to establish their settlements or places of abode near the old cities. These settlements where ”strangers” elements lived were quite some distance at the time from old traditional cities.’