Uzor Maxim Uzoatu reviews the strong historical ties that bind Nigeria to the United Kingdom ahead of President Tinubu's state visit.
The age-long rapport between Nigeria and the United Kingdom has withstood the test of time and is poised to grow in strategic strength, many believe, with President Bola Tinubu state visit to Britain on the invitation of King Charles III.
One needs to truly dig into history to appreciate the durable ties welding Nigeria and the UK together.
Nigeria gained her independence from Britain on October 1, 1960, "on a platter of gold", in the words of the country's first president, Nnamdi Azikiwe. Before arrival at independence, Nigeria had been a part of the British Empire from the mid-19th century.
It was in 1861 that Britain annexed the Lagos territory and thenceforth established the Oil Rivers Protectorate in 1884. During the Berlin Conference of 1885, to wit, the scramble for and partition of Africa, the River Niger area had been allocated to Britain.
The Royal Niger Company (founded as the United African Company) subsequently took charge of running the affairs of the area as authorised by charter under the governorship of George Tubman Goldie.
The British Crown took over the ruling of the Southern Nigeria Protectorate and the Northern Nigeria Protectorate from the company's hands in 1900 and the British colonial government would thereafter on May 1, 1906, merge the Lagos Colony and the Southern Nigeria Protectorate into a new Colony of Southern Nigeria.
While the Southern Nigeria Protectorate remained a self-financing entity from the outset, the Northern Nigeria Protectorate was supported each year by the British treasury with grants estimated at £250,000 or more.
To correct this balance sheet anomaly, Governor Frederick Lugard amalgamated the Southern and Northern Protectorates as the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria in 1914. Crucially, Lugard's use of indirect rule to govern in the North through the superintendence of the Emirs did not work as smoothly in the South.
Britain undertook the making of multiform constitutions toward the establishment of the Nigerian nation, notably: the 1922 Clifford Constitution, the 1946 Richards Constitution, the 1951 MacPherson Constitution, and the 1954 Lyttelton Constitution. It was the 1960 Independence Constitution that established Nigeria as a free state with Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa as the Prime Minister and Nnamdi Azikiwe as the governor-general representing the British monarch as head of state. The 1963 Republican Constitution removed the British monarch as Nigeria's head of state.
Britain played a pivotal role in supporting the federal government of Nigeria during the civil war of 1967-70. Nigeria's then war leader General Yakubu Gowon visited Britain after the war in June 1973 and was hosted by Queen Elizabeth. Nigeria's Second Republic president, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, was honoured by Queen Elizabeth II in March 1981. Military president General Ibrahim Babangida undertook a tour of Britain in May 1989 when Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister, and he was equally honoured by Queen Elizabeth II.
He is the first Nigerian leader to visit the UK in nearly 37 years.
It is expected that the bilateral ties between Nigeria and the UK which were in November 2024 elevated to a "Strategic Partnership" will grow stronger. Cooperation in economic growth, diplomacy, migration and security will be strengthened. A biennial Nigeria-UK Bi-National Commission has been put into force.
The UK remains a major trading partner of Nigeria with bilateral trade in goods and services nudging up to £7.9bn in 2025. The Enhanced Trade and Investment Partnership (ETIP) signed in February 2024 is boosting investment and reducing market barriers.
Through the Developing Countries Trading Scheme (DCTS) the UK provides duty-free access to her markets for 92% of Nigerian goods. Nigeria counts on the UK as the leading foreign investor in Nigeria especially in the oil and gas sector and renewable energy.
In 2018, the UK-Nigeria Security and Defence Partnership was signed and it was renewed in 2024. It is centred on intelligence sharing, capacity building, and counterterrorism in crises-prone zones such as the Nigerian Northeast. Thousands of Nigerian military personnel have been trained in counterinsurgency by the British Military Advisory and Training Team and the early leaders in the nigerian armed forces were trained at Sandhurst.
Transnational education partnerships have ensured the steady enrollment of Nigerian students in UK universities. Through cultural exchange the British Council has played laudable roles in promoting the English language, arts, and education in Nigeria.
The universal upsurge of the Nigerian movie industry through Nollywood, and music through Afrobeats, enjoys a bulwark of support from the UK with many Nigerian afrobeats artists selling out venues like the O2 arena and more in the UK.
As the Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe, author of Things Fall Apart, wrote, "Wherever one thing stands, another thing stands beside it." Nigeria and the UK are linked together like needle and thread. The visit of President Tinubu to the UK is expected to help strengthen that bond.
This special report was produced with the support of the Central Bank of Nigeria. The editorial was produced independently of the CBN or the government.