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Harold Smith and the Great British Conspiracy
By Uche Nworah...Read the full article.

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I have no doubt that Harold Smith has hit the nail on the head. They are the main cause of dissension, distrust and suspicion among all tribes and geo-political zones in Nigeria, yet we fail to rediscover ourselves and channel a way out of the mess we find ourselves in.

The earlier we stop looking at the surface, but the root the better it would be for us all.

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The talk about British colonial arrangement to give the North upper hand during their hand over has been with us for a long time, but just as mere talk. Giving it a face and a name by way of a first hand witness in the person of former Nigerian colonial administrator, Mr Harold Smith kind of authenticates the story. What remains is what we make out of it. As Dele Ogun rightly put it, 'Truth heals, and this is an occasion for truth and reconciliation' but the question remains, Are the Northerners willing to see it in that light? After enjoying a stolen birth right for this long, are they willing to say, hey guys, let bygone be bygone, let us have a National conference and reconcile. You see, when I think of all these my heart weep for the rest of Nigerians especially the Eastern part, and most especially the South-east, for they have shed the most blood due to this fraud. Well, lets keep hoping for a miracle someday.

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Not a novel news. Just confirming what we all knew already. :evil::evil:

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Yes we can accuse the British government for some of the problems we have in Nigeria.The truth is are we not yet old enuogh as a Nation to know what is right and wrong the only way i can blame them in modern times is making it easy for our HOPELESS & STUPID LEADERS keeping our looted money in their Country.
I see no reason why they allow someone known to be a civil servant in Nigeria buy houses,pay childrens school fee as international student and have fat bank account without asking questions.They have a money laundering law which ought to work but ways but seems to work one way(Restriction of money going out of uk only).
Sell arms to individuals in large quantities as long as they are used in conflicts overseas yet they would be the first raise funds for the victims of such conflicts.

Brothers and Sisters our THIEFING LEADERS ARE IMBICILES.

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Phew! What an interview. One needs time to digest all that was said in that interview.

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Raynosa,

Your comment is an excellent exposition and 100% accurate assessment of the money laundering legislation in practice in the United Kingdom. It will be otiose for me to attempt to add much to what you have said about the complicity of the UK authorities in providing an enabling environment for our leaders to launder/keep the proceeds of crime in the UK financial system. Suffice it to say however that whilst we must continue to castigate a thief, it behoves us to also castigate the receiver of stolen loot, without which the former would probably be less willing to continue the perfidious expedition into other people’s properties. Thank you for an incisive comment.

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If Smith is 80 years old, how accurate is his version—and it is only a version--of British rule in Nigeria. I can already hear people claiming that the Mr Smith personal account is a proof of the pudding based-in a manner of speaking. “The white man said so, it must be true”.

Here is an extract from an interview conducted by the Vanguard interview with Alhaji Shehu Shagari:

Vanguard: So it was really a British decision to hold back education in the North?
Alhaji Shehu Shagari:That’s right! That’s true! I said it in my book (Beckoned to Serve). You can see that Barewa College, where I studied, was the only full-fledged secondary school, and no more than a secondary school. And it was the only one in the whole North! All the others were junior secondary schools that fed Barewa College. One or two students from each province would be sent to the college. Now, my number on the register when I was in that College was 394. The college started in Katsina in 1921! And I came to Barewa College, Kaduna, in 1941; that was 20 years after it was founded. And after 20 years, my number was 394! It had not even reached 500! For 20 years! From that, you would know the discrimination against the North. But many people don’t know it!

Vanguard: But people generally believe that the British favoured the North!
Alhaji Shehu Shagari:This is because we didn’t know what we were doing until it was late! That was our problem. Now, I mean the amount of progress that has been made in the North is enormous. Many people are not even aware of that. You know at the time when I was at the college, the only senior civil servant in the entire Northern Region was A.B Dikko! And that was in the forties. Only one person with a degree!

Is this the British idea of preparing the North to ensure that they continue to lay claim to political power in Nigeria. One would expect the Briitish to handpick a band of northerners and send them to Eton, Harrow and then to Cambridge and Oxford to prepare them for leadership, instead they gave them Barewa College!

The British main interest in Nigeria was commercial; and it explains the reason they didn't bother with building our quality academic and political institutions. For instance, they simply looked at the map of Nigeria and decided to divide it into three regions separated by the River Niger and Benue--that is maturity for you. Any wonder that the British left most of their colonies in shabbles e.g., Nigeria, India, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Malaysia, Palestine etc.

In the UK, their political structure can be very confusing: there is the United Kingdom, Great Britain, Great Britain and Northern Ireland, England and Wales, England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland. For instance, at the UN, they are one country, but in FIFA World Cup, they are four seperate countries.

Source of interview: http://www.vanguardngr.com/articles/2002/politics/april06/03042006/p103042006.html

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Palamedes,

Going by the portion of Shehu Shagari's interview which you posted, I do not see anything

in Harold Smith's comments that counter the notion of corruption on the part of the then

British colonial administrators. Is it not logical that the more ignorant a person is about a

task given to him, so will be the amount of help that person would seek to accomplish that

task. In this case the more obvious it became for the British to still hold on indirectly to the

administration of Nigeria. Could the British not have prefered the north to be less informed

to ascertain that trend? Did those they turned the power over to even agree that the time

was due for that? Was not the east and the west more prepared for the self rule?

Didn't the same North still depend on them (British) after the independence for directives?

Let's be real, afterall the evidence of what Harold Smith said is seen written all over our

history and clear in the events that took place after the colonial corrupt activities.

What is complicated about that? There is nothing like "because the white man said so"... as

you implied. Think again.

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For reactions to Harold Smith's Tales, You can check
http://www.ceddert.com/publications/ceddert007.pdf
The Rigging of Nigerian History


For some other CEDDERT Publications http://www.ceddert.com/publications/ that may be of interest

http://www.ceddert.com/publications/ceddert004.pdf
THE MISREPRESENTATION OF NIGERIA BY NIGERIANS
AND OTHERS


http://www.ceddert.com/publications/ceddert009.pdf
THE
MISREPRESENTATION
OF NIGERIA
THE FACTS AND THE FIGURES