By Feyi Fawehinmi
Before he died in 2015, the late Professor Stephen Ellis
wrote his last book titled This Present Darkness: A History of Nigerian
Organised Crime. Going through this book left me with several thoughts, most
of them unpleasant.
It is a fascinating read covering, not just organised
crime, but the evolution of the Nigerian state (or maybe they are the same
thing?). At any rate, I want to share 8 random things I found interesting in
the book and I will leave you to draw your own conclusions.
1. In 1947, late Chief Obafemi Awolowo wrote that “Corruption is the
greatest defect of the Native
Court system.” He complained that not only did
judges take bribes, people used their connections to enrich themselves and
avoid punishment for their crimes. He also wrote that in the north, a new Emir
always removed all the people appointed by the previous Emir and replaced them
with his own people. He wrote all these as a complaint against the Indirect
Rule system favoured by the British.
2. In 1922, the Colonial Secretary in London,
one Winston Churchill, wrote to Nigeria’s
Governor General at the time, Sir Hugh Clifford, asking him to ban certain
types of letters called ‘Charlatanic correspondences’. This was because J.K
Macgregor who was Headmaster of Hope Waddell Institute for 36 years, had
discovered hundreds of letters written and received by his students ordering
all sorts of books, charms and even potions from England,
America and India in
particular. Most of the charms were nonsense and the students were invariably
asked to send more money if they wanted more powerful ones. A total of 2,855
such letters were intercepted by the Posts & Telegraph Department between
1935 and 1938.
3. In 1939, a Nigerian
businessman based in Ghana
named Prince Eikeneh, wrote to the colonial government in Nigeria complaining about the number of Nigerian
girls who were coming to Ghana
to work as sex workers. He said the girls were usually taken there by a
Warri-based Madam named ‘Alice’
who told the girls they were going to learn a trade or get married. He
concluded that the trade was very well-organised and profitable for the ring
leaders.
