George Taubman Goldie-the founder of Nigeria (1)

By

Tatabonko Orok Edem

The name ‘Nigeria,’ applying to no other portion of Africa, may, without offence to any neighbours, be accepted as co-extensive with the territories over which the Royal Niger Company has extended British influence, and may serve to differentiate them. Flora Shaw, the London Times, January 8, 1897.

History does not exist in a vacuum, and in most areas of the world whose history had been brutally shaped to serve the interests of foreign powers, the area known today as Nigeria, was created or formed as part of the outcome of the industrial revolution, and the American independence of 1783. These events forced the European industrial barons to look for other markets for their goods. Africa was seen as an important strategic stop gap between the British – India imperial axis, and its subsequent extension to Australia and the Far East. Following the discovery of quinine, the threat of malaria receded. This, coupled with the discovery of gold in South Africa, sealed the fate of Africa. Prior to this, there had been trade being carried on between the coastal African dwellers, acting mostly as middlemen, which were not controlled by the Europeans. This was frowned upon by the Europeans, but as they could not penetrate the hinterland because of the biological barrier posed by mosquitoes, there was not much they could do.

The three most notorious European players in this regard were the French, British and Germans. The intense rivalry between these European nations almost led to war, as Britain and France attempted to control Egypt, because of its strategic access to the Middle and Far East. Britain usurped the French in 1882, by unilaterally taking over Egypt. In 1870, Prussia defeated France in the Franco-Prussian War. The French then turned their eye to Africa, quietly egged on by the German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, as it raised hostility between the French and the British, who also had their eyes on Africa, even though, the subterranean efforts made by Bismarck to secure the basin of the lower Niger and Lake Chad were more dangerous to British interests. These growing tensions led to the negotiating table, where these powers decided to carve up Africa. The Berlin West Africa conference took place from 1884 to 1885. West Africa was partitioned into separate and vague European spheres of influence[1]. It was now left to a party to establish its authority before its rival could intervene.

Early life

As it most often happen during the course of British history, an individual arose within this period that changed the course of events, leading to the creation of what is now called Nigeria. That man was George Taubman Goldie. Very little is known of him as compared to Cecil Rhodes, or the mercenary Lugard. Primarily, because Goldie had ordered his personal memoirs destroyed after his death. George Dashwood Goldie Taubman, was born at the Nunnery in the Isle of Man, Scotland in 1846, the fourth and youngest son of an officer in the Scots Guards. He was educated at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, and held a commission in the Royal engineers for about two years.  He married Matilda Catherine, daughter of John William Elliot of Wakefield.

A small compact and lean man with a large head, on which rested a pronounced nose with the arrogant and haughty look of a visionary. Born to money (his family made its fortune from smuggling goods into Ireland and England, prior to the Isle of Man becoming a political part of the United Kingdom); and rank. (his father Lieutenant Colonel John Taubman, by his second wife Caroline, daughter of John E. Hovedon of Hemingford, Cambridgeshire., was Speaker of the House of Keys in the Manx Parliament, for all but two years of Goldie’s time on the Niger). He was a professed atheist; he ran off with his governess and later married her at the age of thirty, after a life of loose living, licentiousness and irresponsibility. He conceived the idea of adding to the British Empire, the then unknown regions of the lower Niger and Benue basin. He devoted over twenty years of his life to this concept and his method was through the revival of an old British tradition that was jettisoned for free trade, and had been used earlier by the East India Company - government by chartered companies throughout the Empire.  Goldie also introduced indirect rule earlier used by the Romans to administer conquered territories. He believed that civilization was a product of increasing prosperity and he set out to achieve his goals amidst contending interests of the then European powers and African rulers.

Goldie’s methods

He is reputed to have landed on the west coast of Africa in 1877. He realized the nature of the competition posed by the traditional Efik and Brass traders of the Oil Rivers, and other European traders, and to circumvent this, he utilized monopoly, which in this case could only come about through amalgamation. He bought out several French traders including Holland Jacques and Company, and formed a new company to create the United Africa Company (UAC). This company then bought the assets of the member firms which received shares according to the proportion of the assets it sold, with a caveat that such companies would not operate within a thousand miles of Akassa on the Nun River branch, with the exception of Miller Brothers and James Pinnock, that were allowed to pursue their other activities in the Oil Rivers at Opobo and Benin, by allowing them to trade independently outside a limit of twenty five miles of any of the mouths of the Niger., and in effect took control of the lower Niger River. Goldie lent his private fortune to the company to break the will of other recalcitrant traders, by trading at a loss. The largest French company, Compagnie Francaise de l’ Afrique Equatoriale, held out until a week before the Berlin conference, where it agreed to amalgate after lengthy negotiations, with the National African Company (NAC) in like manner to that of the original firms that formed the UAC in 1879.

This monopolistic strategy gave Goldie a greater bargaining power with the primary producers, especially of palm oil, and with the influx of capital, the balance of power tilted from the natives. This was later challenged with the infiltration of the French as competitors. Prices paid to the natives went up by 25%, and competition became cut throat. Goldie responded by unearthing an old British system of Royal Charter. Under this system, a company could engage in a headlong rush for territories while the politicians bickered, as it served both parties. In 1881, he sought a charter from Gladstone’s government but was rebuffed, based on several objections mainly tied to capital and law[2]. Goldie thus formed another company the NAC which purchased the assets of the old company. He introduced ‘creative accounting’ (Goldie is thus the first to introduce this into Nigeria) to overcome the government’s misgivings, by raising the capital of the company from 125,000.00 pounds to 1,000,000.00 dollars, appointed reputable people with influence in high places to the board of the company, and pursued and aggressive drive to build stations along the Niger River. He thus brought the Niger and Benue River area under the British sphere of influence or empire with its attendant then estimated 20 million people. This enhanced Goldie’s reputation and the status of the NAC, as the quasi official representative of the British on the Niger.

Even with these achievements, the British government resisted the granting of the charter to a company, carte blanche, to raise duties and taxes for revenue and profits. Goldie had to resort to blackmail by proposing to the NAC board for consideration and leaking the information in official circles, that if there was no government action soon, the NAC would begin negotiations with any foreign power with the intention of placing itself under the flag of that country and transferring to it, its treaties and the territories the company was effectively occupying. The government capitulated with a compromise solution of retaining a certain control, but the actual document was worded in such ambiguous language that actually legitimized the NAC’s position. The NAC was renamed the Royal Niger Company (RNC) in 1886, when it received the charter, which placed it under direct British protection, with Henry Austin Bruce (later Lord Abedare) as governor, and Goldie as vice governor. On Lord Abedare’s death in 1895, Goldie became governor of the company, which he had created. He thus solved the headache for the British government by making sure that France and Germany were denied a foothold or access to this area.

This arrangement was mutually beneficial to the British government that did not want any extra expenditure on its treasury, preferring to establish protectorate and exert control through the consul and vice consuls. Goldie exploited this dilemma and attracted to the NAC an official status as agent of the British government. Lord Abedare who had been made governor of the company board, was a friend and ex-colleague of the prime minister and foreign secretary, was put in charge by the same British government of finding out the views of the traders in paying taxes to meet the cost of recurrent expenditure. Abedare ignored others and only sought the views of Goldie and Hutton, both directors of the NAC. Goldie had realized that with the finances derived from taxation by the government, there would be no incentive for the British authorities to hand over the administration of the Niger area to NAC. This forced the government to appoint David McIntosh, who was the NAC chief agent, as a consul to assist in the struggle against the French.

The NAC issued its first regulation on the day it received its seal of charter in 1886, when it became known as the Royal Niger Company (RNC) on tariff and licensing regulations. Throughout the lifetime of the RNC, the only regulations made that affected foreigners[3] were the ones dealing with commerce. This rule effectively shut out competitors. Ships could only trade at listed ports of entry where import duties were charged. The greatest grouse of other European firms was the 100% duty charge on spirits which were an intimate part of the palm oil trade. Vessels proceeding up river beyond Lokoja, had to pay double duty. The RNC also claimed property rights on all lands adjacent to the river and would not sell any for the construction of wharves and warehouses. (A forerunner of today’s coastal land use decree.) The Lagos government which administered Lagos and Colony whose sphere extended into the Yoruba heartland was ordered by the British government to cease corresponding or trading with the Nupe of the hinterland, the area of the middle Niger being regarded as the company’s sphere.

            The charter provided Goldie with far-reaching rights to administer these territories in the lower Niger. He signed several treaties with the Niger River chiefs, which enabled him administer these territories. The same system was employed along the Benue River, and these two thrust penetrations and control of the hinterland, whose stated purpose was to guarantee free trade and navigation on the Congo and on the lower reaches of the Niger, served as the submissions of Goldie as proof of British sphere of influence at the Berlin Conference of 1884/1885. This was his defining moment where he was present as an expert on matters relating to the Niger and Benue Rivers. He stated that on the lower Niger only the British flag flew and thus invoked the Principle of Effectivity.[4]   He procured several gunboats to enforce trade and laws thus gave meaning to the word ‘gunboat diplomacy’, where with the help of Joseph Thompson, David McIntosh, D. W. Sargeant, J. Flint, William Wallace, E. Dangerfield and other numerous agents, over 400 treaties drawn up by Goldie were made with the chiefs of the lower Niger and Benue Rivers, and enforced by the presence of gunboats. With Goldie at the helm, this company expanded very rapidly at the cost of much bloodshed.

This entity was declared the de facto government and natives were compelled to pay custom duties and obtain trade licenses from him. His influence was most felt between the beginnings of the 20^th century to the First World War, as there was an increase in the fortunes of the British companies with world prices moving to the stage before the downturn of the 1880s.  He thus succeeded in bringing these areas under the British ‘spheres of influence’ The first reference to such an expression in an international act and the obligations attached, as contained in the Berlin Act. In June 1885, a British Protectorate[5] was notified over the coast lands known as the Oil Rivers.

To be continued

August 2005