Text of the inaugural Gold Lecture delivered by Ambassador Oladapo Fafowora at the Lagos Country Club, Ikeja, Lagos, on Thursday, May 25, 2017.
Introduction
I am honoured by the invitation to me to deliver this inaugural Gold Lecture in memory of Herbert Heelas Macaulay, who died in Lagos on May 7, 1946, at the age of 81. The lecture on the continuing relevance of Herbert Macaulay to the excellence of Lagos is intended to mark the 71st anniversary of the death of Herbert Macaulay as well as the 50th anniversary of the creation of Lagos State. I extend my warmest felicitations to Governor Ambode on this auspicious occasion.
As a professional historian, one of my unfulfilled literary ambitions was to write a full length biography of Herbert Macaulay. There is, regrettably, none at the moment. This is because I find his public life, career, and politics in Lagos very fascinating. Therefore, I welcome and relish this opportunity and privilege of delivering this inaugural lecture on the life and times of Herbert Macaulay, who is widely regarded and acknowledged as the ‘Father of Nigerian Nationalism’.
I was only five when Herbert Macaulay died and never met him. It was as a school boy in Lagos that my late father, who was a civil servant himself in the colonial civil service, and a great admirer of Herbert Macaulay, first told me about him and his relentless struggle against colonial rule in Nigeria. Later, when I was 12, he took me to see Herbert Macaulay’s house, named ‘Kirsten Hall’, at 8, Balbina Street, Lagos, near the water front (the Lagoon). I admired the house and, for years, visited it often as I lived near- by, at Ita- Faji. It was an impressive and elegant one storey detached building which has, regrettably, since been demolished, giving way to what now looks like a grotesque Post Office junk yard. The site is now at the back of the General Post Office House on the Marina. Long after Herbert Macaulay’s death, the house remained a tourist attraction and a sort of political Mecca for his admirers and political associates. Given his prominence as an outstanding historic and public figure in Lagos, I think the house should have been preserved for posterity, not demolished.
The irony is that it was not the colonial authorities, but an indigenous government, that demolished the house to make way for the General Post Office, a singular display of the lack of a sense of history. Most of Herbert Macaulay’s friends and political colleagues also resided in the vicinity of the house, or within walking distance of it. Their houses have all been demolished too. The distinguished Nigerian administrator, Dr. Henry Carr, the first African Inspector of Education and, later, the first African Resident of the Lagos colony, resided at 15, Tinubu Street, now the site of the derelict federal Ministry of Finance; John Otunba Payne, the first African Registrar of the High Court, resided at ‘Orange House’, Tinubu Square, now the site of the Union Bank, and Dr. J.K. Randle, at 31, The Marina, all of them within earshot of Herbert Macaulay’s residence. It was a close- knit social and political elite that for decades dominated the politics and social life of Lagos colony in those days. Even when they were political rivals there was still great friendship and amity among them. They may disagree about political strategies, but they were all united and committed in their determined struggle and opposition to colonial rule in Lagos and Nigeria. They held liberal and nationalist political views and values that they wanted to promote in Lagos and Nigeria. Herbert Macaulay played a central role in this.
For over half a century, Herbert Macaulay was preeminent in this first generation of outstanding Nigerian patriots and nationalists. He was a major political and social figure in the politics of colonial Lagos. Like a Colossus he dominated and bestrode the city completely, leaving an indelible mark on its future. He was a man of many parts. As an engineer, architect, surveyor, journalist, politician, socialite, musicologist, patriot, nationalist, and defender of native land and rights, he was the ground norm for the contemporary social and political life of Lagos. Lagos was about Macaulay and Macaulay was about Lagos. It was a symbiotic relationship. The two were inseparable. He was born and lived his entire life in Lagos, except for the three years he spent in England studying as an engineer, architect and surveyor. He loved the city intensely and fought doggedly for the political and economic rights of its people. His love for the city was fully requited socially and politically by the people of Lagos. Like a mother hen the city protected and stood by him when he later faced political ordeals from the British colonial administration.
Though a patriot he was proud to be a British colonial subject and loved the British way of life. He dressed like an upper class British gentry, in well cut dapper 3-piece suits, complete with striking and colourful bow ties. He admired the liberal British political traditions of democratic and responsible government. The British colonialists came here claiming they were on a civilizing mission. The small educated African elite in Lagos, some of whom were freed slaves from Sierra Leone, admired them for this. Instead, the colonial governors and officials were brutal and trampled on the basic rights of the natives. This was why HM fought the colonial authorities in Lagos for their political excesses, particularly whenever they trampled on the rights of the indigenous people under colonial rule. He would not compromise on that regardless of the price he had to pay for his dogged opposition to the unjust British colonial rule in Lagos and Nigeria. This is the political tradition Lagos inherited from HM. It is what it has exemplified for over a century now. It was from Lagos that the nationalist struggle against British colonial rule began. It became the first capital of colonial and independent Nigeria until the capital was moved in 1990 to Abuja. Lagos has also been the major centre of political resistance and opposition in post colonial Nigeria to all forms of political excesses under both military and civilian rule, a legacy it inherited from Herbert Macaulay.
Early years, education, and public career.
Herbert Heelas Badmus Olayinka Macaulay was born on November 14, 1864, at Broad Street, Lagos. It was the year in which his maternal grandfather, the Revd. Samuel Ajai Crowther, a freed slave, was also consecrated in London as the first African Bishop of the Church of England. He was born in the Victorian era three years after Lagos was formally acquired in 1861 as a British colony. Nigeria did not exist then as a nation until the 1914 ‘Amalgamation’ that formalized British rule in Nigeria. Where exactly HM was born in Broad Street is, regrettably, not known publicly. It is a matter for future research. He was not a Creole, or from Sierra Leone, as many people thought him to be. He was born a full blooded subject of the British colony of Lagos. Unlike some of the Creoles who tended to look down on the natives and identified themselves with the colonial administration in Lagos, HM had absolutely no qualms in identifying himself fully with the natives and defending their rights as subjects of the British Crown.
Herbert Macaulay’s paternal grandfather, OjoOriare, a native doctor, was from Oyo. He and his wife, Kilangbe, were enslaved, but freed by the British anti-slavery squadron and taken to Freetown, Sierra Leone, where they settled for a while, before returning to Owu (Abeokuta). It was while they were in Sierra Leone that Ojo and Kilangbe gave birth to Thomas Babington Macaulay, the father of Herbert Macaulay. As was the practice among freed slaves in those days Thomas Babington Macaulay simply dropped his father’s name and instead adopted a Christian name. In Freetown, Thomas Babington Macaulay was educated by the CMS at the CMS Grammar School and later at Fourah Bay College, a higher institution set up by the CMS for the training of priests. He was first sent to Abeokuta in 1854 and later ordained a priest of the Church of England in 1857. Shortly after, he returned to Owu (Abeokuta) as a CMS priest for missionary work there. But he was in Owu for only a year, returning to Lagos where on June 6, 1859, he founded and became the first Principal of the CMS Grammar School, Nigeria’s oldest secondary grammar school. It was a feat many thought impossible. He did not get any support from the colonial government which considered the project premature. It was not until 1909, fifty years after, that the colonial government founded the King’s College, Lagos, the first government owned secondary school in Nigeria.
Herbert Macaulay’s mother, Abigail Crowther, was the second daughter of Bishop Samuel Ajai Crowther. She and Thomas Babington Macaulay, Herbert’s father, were married in Abeokuta in 1854. They had four other children before HM and two after him. He was the fifth of the seven children in the rather large Macaulay family. This was not uncommon in those days among the clergy. Until he was five HM was given a kind of nursery education at home by his mother, Abigail. But in 1869, at five, he entered St. Paul’s School, Breadfruit, to start his primary school education there. He later went to the Christ Church School, Faji, to complete his primary school education. In 1877, at 13, he entered the CMS Grammar School, then at the end of Broad Street, where the UTC building now stands, and where his father, the Revd. T.B Macaulay was the Principal. He left the school in 1880 and his school records there show that he was brilliant in English, Logic, Mathematics, and Latin. He was reputed to be an independent- minded student and to have an alert and inquisitive mind, qualities which stood him in good stead later in his tumultuous political career. His father, the Revd. Thomas Babington Macaulay, died in 1878, two years before Herbert Macaulay, graduated from the school. Had his father been alive when he left school, he would almost certainly have liked HM to have been trained as a CMS priest in which calling he had an excellent pedigree. But destiny and providence beckoned him in a different direction in which he became famous.
In September, 1881, at only 17, he was appointed a clerical assistant and indexer of Crown Land grants in the colonial Public Works Department (PWD) in Lagos. This gave him a useful and first hand insight into land ownership in Lagos, and the reckless manner in which the colonial government was grabbing land illegally from the natives. Within three years of his appointment he was promoted a draughtsman and clerk of Crown Land grants. He was so diligent in his duties that he was awarded a colonial government scholarship in 1890 for further studies in England in civil engineering and surveying, the first to have been rewarded with a colonial government scholarship. His family antecedents, as the grandson of Bishop Ajai Crowther, were no doubt useful. By 1890 British rule had extended beyond the colony of Lagos, with British Protectorates in the South and the Niger Coast. The award of a government scholarship to HM later proved to have been a costly mistake on the part of the colonial government as it equipped him later to challenge British colonial rule in Lagos. It exposed him to the genteel British way of life and liberal democracy. He was in Plymouth, England, for the next three years studying, not only civil engineering, but architecture, surveying, including railway surveying. He qualified as a civil engineer (CE) in 1893, the first Nigerian to do so. He was also admitted as a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), as well as a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (FRGS). His lecturer at Plymouth, Mr. Bellamy, reported that he was a ‘capable and hardworking student’, and that his conduct was ‘perfectly satisfactory’. Bellamy recommended to the colonial government in Lagos that after a few years of practical experience in Lagos HM should be sent back to Britain for further training in civil engineering. But the colonial government denied him that opportunity.
It was another fatal mistake by the colonial government. This was, perhaps, the beginning of his grievances against the colonial government. Further training as an engineer would eventually have earned him promotion to a senior engineering post in the colonial civil service. But this was not in the plans of the colonial government which was reluctant to allow Africans in the civil service to rise above the junior ranks. HM was not the only African to which opportunity for further training abroad or advancement in the colonial civil service was denied. This was why the Yaba Higher College, later established by the colonial administration, could only offer training to Africans as half doctors and half engineers. The same treatment was meted out to the legendary Sir Samuel Manuwa in his early medical career. He had to acquire additional medical qualifications to merit being made a full medical doctor. Later, having survived all professional prejudice and odds, he rose to become the Chief Medical Adviser to the colonial government. He was the first African to have been allowed, grudgingly, to head a major department in the colonial civil service.
The practical effect of this short sighted administrative colonial policy by the colonial government was that Africans, even when fully qualified, were denied advancement to senior posts in the colonial civil service. It was this obnoxious practice in the colonial civil service that drove Africans who wished to advance their careers to go into such professions as law and medicine and to go into private practice. As western education began in the Port cities of Lagos and Calabar, and Abeokuta later, these cities later became the major centres of political agitation against the British colonial government in Nigeria. And Lagos, being the capital of colonial Nigeria, was the place where such unrelenting agitation against colonial rule began. HM was later to play a leading role in this anti-colonial agitation.
Entry and resignation from the colonial civil service
In September, 1893, on returning home from England, he was given appointment as a Surveyor of Crown Lands in Lagos. But his conditions and terms of service did not meet his expectations. In October, 1893, soon after Herbert Macaulay’s appointment as a Surveyor, on a salary scale of 90-150 pounds per annum, his poor salary scale was taken up in the Legislative Council by the Revd. James Johnson, a nominated member of the colonial Legislative Council, who pointed out that a white Foreman in the PWD junior to HM, earned 250 pounds p.a., while a clerk in the Surveyor’s department earned 100 pounds a year. Governor Denton said that Macaulay’s salary was not determined by his professional qualifications, but by the value of his work as determined by his superior expatriate officers. Eventually, Herbert Macaulay’s salary was increased to 120 pounds p.a. for a year, and thereafter in accordance with his performance. The salary scale for Africans in the colonial service remained unsatisfactory even after the debate in the colonial Legislative Council. There were also several cases of discrimination against Africans in promotions to positions of higher responsibility. Besides, at a time of severe racial discrimination in the colonial civil service HM, like several other Africans, often ran into unjustified charges of insubordination. His own grandfather, Bishop Samuel Ajai Crowther, the first African bishop in the Church of England, was equally subjected to the same discriminatory treatment when, as the CMS bishop on the Niger, his junior white colleagues falsely accused him of fraud, for which he was relieved of his appointment and forced to return to Lagos in disgrace. It was only recently that the Archbishop of Canterbury exonerated him and apologized publicly for the shabby treatment meted out to Bishop Crowther. These were the circumstances that led HM to resign his appointment as a government Surveyor in September, 1898, after only five years in the PWD of the colonial civil service. He never worked for the government again. He was only 34 and his future uncertain. The British colonial administration was happy to get rid of him finally. He too had had enough of his lack of progress and frustrations in the colonial civil service and was happy to leave. Many other Africans also left the colonial civil service in disgust. In October, 1898, he obtained a government license to practice privately as a civil engineer, architect, and surveyor. He had seen how the colonial authorities looked down on Africans, even when they were fully qualified. He decided he would devote the rest of his life to fighting against this gross injustice and for the emancipation of the Africans from colonial rule. That was the origin of his long and difficult nationalist and patriotic struggle against foreign rule and domination in Nigeria.
Life in private practice as an Engineer and Surveyor.
His private practice as a licensed Engineer and Surveyor did not bring HM much success either in the early years. The colonial authorities made sure he did not get any government jobs, the most lucrative. There were only a handful of Africans rich enough to engage and pay him for his professional services. He designed very few important private buildings in Lagos. These plans and valuation included Alex Taylor’s house on Victoria Street, Henry Carr’s house at Tinubu Street, Akinola Maja’s house, and the Doherty Villa in Campos Square. In December, 1898, the year he left the civil service, HM married Caroline Pratt, the daughter of an African Superintendent of Police. The marriage came to a sudden end with Caroline’s death in August, 1899. There was no child of the marriage and HM vowed he would not remarry. But he had mistresses from whom he had 16 children.This was not unusual in those days among the educated African elite, most of whom sired children outside wedlock. Among his children and direct descendants were Frank Montague Macaulay, son, who predeceased him tragically, and Oliver Ogedengbe Macaulay, son, who followed his illustrious father into the NCNC.Theformer distinguished vice-chancellor of the University of Lagos, Prof. BabatundeKweku Adadevoh, now deceased, was a grandson. Dr. Ameyo Adadevoh, who died during the Ebola epidemic, was a great granddaughter.
The care of these children cost him a lot of money which he could not afford as his private practice as an engineer and surveyor had been a failure. Even though he was largely insolvent HM was generous to a fault handing out money readily to his friends and relations in need. For example, Sarah Coker, the daughter of JP Lalubo Davies and Sarah Forbes Bonetta, the legendary freed African slave girl brought up in royal circles in England, lived with Herbert Macaulayfrom 1909 until her death in 1916.This made his financial situation even worse. He was in financial difficulties all the time. He was often harassed by the colonial authorities and taken to court for his alleged failure to pay his taxes and electricity bills.
In 1913, he suffered the first of his numerous major financial setbacks for which he was sent to jail. One Mary Franklin, a freed slave, had been placed in the care of Abigail, Herbert Macaulay’s mother. When she died in 1912, Mary had named HM her executor. In July, 1913, barely a year later, the colonial government claimed that HM had improperly taken a sum of 350 pounds from Mary’s estate for his personal needs. But there was no complaint from the Franklin family about any fraud on the part of HM. His plea that the money in question was used to pay off debts owed by Mary’s estate was dismissed. He was tried, found guilty and sentenced wrongly to two years imprisonment. In referring to this injustice in his study, ‘Modern and Traditional Élites in the politics of Lagos, Cambridge, 1975, Dr. Dele Cole, the historian, provides some evidence that the trial of HM in 1913 was unjust and unfair. He notes that the prosecuting counsel, one Mr. Robert Irving, had been Macaulay’s tenant who was out to pursue a private vendetta. HM had obtained a court order in December, 1912, to evict Irving. The acting Chief Justice imposed a fine on HM despite the five assessors in the court returning a not guilty verdict. According to Dele Cole, ‘the will of the testatrix was read in public at the request of Macaulay and the loan he obtained in order to clear the debts of the testatrix was explained to the beneficiaries of the will’. Besides, the principal beneficiary of the will, Macaulay’s niece, testified in court that she did not engage Irving to prosecute the case. Yet he was convicted of intent to defraud. His petition to the Governor General, Sir Frederick Lugard, was ignored. This financial scandal affected his private practice and finances very badly. Herbert Macaulay’s parents had left him and his six sibling’s two properties at 32, Kakawa Street, and 23, Odunlami Street. But the income from these two properties was barely enough for the expenses he incurred on the large Macaulay clan. By 1931, all his older brothers and sisters had died, leaving him to care for his two younger siblings and the children of his older siblings, now dead. This was a heavy financial burden that HM was ill equipped to cope with. Often, he was in debt and had to borrow money to pay off his debts. His friends, Dr. C.C. Adeniyi Jones, and Barrister Eric O. Moore, often stood as sureties for him when he needed loans from the banks.
Herbert Macaulay was a great socialite and found solace from his political travails in music in which he had developed a taste when he was a student in England. He learned the violin obtaining a certificate in it from the Trinity College of Music in London, and became quite good at it. When he returned to Lagos from England his love of music continued and he turned his residence at Balbina Street into a concert hall. A former German Consul in Lagos, Arthur Kirsten, an accomplished pianist, was Herbert Macaulay’s personal friend, and he and HM played music together, with crowds watching them. With this he was able to drown some of his financial worries.
His liberal religious views and tolerance.
In matters of religion, though a Christian, the son of an Anglican priest and the grandson of an Anglican bishop, the Rt. Revd. Samuel AjaiCrowther, HM held liberal views. He was a member of the Confraternity of the sons of the Clergy in Lagos, but there is credible evidence that he accepted aspects of traditional African religion. The new Christian religion had not yet taken deep roots in Lagos. There were fissures and open disagreement by the Africans with the white clergy and Christianity over some aspects of African culture and way of life, such as polygamy and cultism, which the Church decried and condemned uncompromisingly. This conflicting view on religion was to lead some African Christians to break away from the Anglican Churches to start their own African Churches. The African Church (Bethel) at Broad Street, which broke away from St. Paul’s, Breadfruit, was one of such break away churches. It was in this situation that Herbert Macaulay’s liberal views on the Christian religion and its relevance to the natives was formed. His private papers showed that he practiced various forms of black magic and divination. Most of his contemporaries, including the African clergy, did too and probably still do even today, despite the apparent determination of the Churches to stamp out these practices. HM was also interested in sacrifices which explains his generosity to all beggars. Although a member of the Anglican Church, he did not mind associating publicly with members of other Churches such as the C&S, and other religious groups. He embraced the AdamuOrisa in Lagos and showed a keen interest in African traditional medicine. After all, his grandfather, Oriare, was a medicine man. Besides, anxiety, superstition and deep distrust were rife among the educated natives, even as they are today. Like his contemporaries, HM tried to ‘protect’ himself and his large family through the practice of African divination, a way of life that the natives believed in and were used to. All told, Herbert Macaulay’s private religious life was a mixture of belief in the old and the new. He was a Christian who, nonetheless, recognized the African traditional religion. He was a courageous man who practiced what he believed in, but respected other religions, including Islam, as well. To a large extent, the situation of religious tolerance that exists in Lagos today is owed to leaders such as HM who were not religious bigots and who accepted other religions as legitimate. This accounts for the peaceful co-existence in Lagos among all religions and faiths.
As a strong critic of British rule in Nigeria.
HM was an active and leading member of the small educated and politicized African elite in Lagos. He had as friends and associates lawyers, doctors, and business men, most of whom shared his opposition to colonial rule in Lagos and Nigeria. Many of them too had been victims of the excesses of colonial rule in Lagos. A few of these men who had been less vocal in their opposition to colonial rule were nominated as members of the effete Legislative Council, which had no powers really, and merely rubber stamped whatever the colonial governor wanted. But HM did not enjoy such favours in view of his well known and implacable opposition to the colonial governors. As he was left out in the cold by the colonial authorities he got himself involved in local and national politics on which he expressed his views freely and boldly to the annoyance of the colonial authorities. He was affectionately called by his admirers ‘the Wizard of Kirsten Hall’ because of his uncanny ability to obtain classified information, including secret official minutes, which he used to embarrass and attack the colonial government. His favourite press medium was the Nigerian Chronicle, a journal, which he used to oppose the policies of the government on such public issues as the trade in liquor, the water rate scheme, the building of a separate Church (now Our Saviors’) for the whites, and the efforts of Governor Egerton in 1909 to suppress free speech in the colony. He felt he needed a newspaper of his own to fight the injustice of the colonial government in Lagos.
The Eleko Affair.
In 1927, HM and his friend, Dr. John AkinladeCaulcrick, a medical practitioner and politician, bought the Lagos Daily News, the first daily news paper in British West Africa. Macaulay was responsible for the reports and editorial views of the paper. In June, 1928, he had become the proprietor and manager of the paper. HM used the paper to fight his political battles with the government and his political opponents in Lagos. But he soon got into trouble with the government when his paper carried a story that the car which was to bring the deposed ElekoEsugbayiof Lagos back from exile in Oyo would be blown up by his opponents. It was a rumour and the paper reported it as only a rumour. TheEleko affair divided Lagos very badly. The colonial government felt that the publication was an incitement and that it was bound to fuel the existing tensions in Lagos and lead to possible violent clashes. The colonial government was furious with HM about this and decided to take him and Caulcrick, his associate, to court for publishing the rumours. They were both found guilty. Dr. Caulcrick was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment with an option of 50 pounds fine. HM was jailed for six months without any option of fine. For the second time HM found himself in jail. The paper survived Macaulay’s conviction fitfully until 1938 when it ran into financial difficulties due to the Great Depression of the 1930s.
The Apapa Land Case.
A celebrated case in which HM was also involved was the Apapa Land Case of 1915-1921. The colonial government claimed that Lagos was a colony and that the Crown had the legal right to acquire land compulsorily for public purpose in the colony without paying any compensation. In 1915, it compulsorily acquired 225 acres of land in Apapa that was owned by the family of Chief Oluwa, a white cap chief from the ruling family. HM had always
disagreed vehemently with the colonial government over land ownership in Lagos. He argued rightly that the natives should not be deprived of their rights to their land in the Colony, citing the 1898 ruling of Sir Thomas Rayner, a former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Lagos, that there was no land in West Africa without an owner, and that the British annexation of Lagos as a Colony in 1861 did not confer on the colonial government the right to expropriate land from the natives, even for public purpose, without prompt and adequate financial compensation for the land so acquired. This ruling was put to the legal test from 1915-1921 in the celebrated Apapa Land case. Instead of full, adequate, and prompt compensation, the family of Chief Oluwa, one of the white cap chiefs in Lagos, was offered compensation on the basis of rents the Oluwa family earned on the land. Chief Oluwa rejected the offer arguing that since it was an outright acquisition by the colonial government his family deserved more than the colonial government had offered it. Macaulay supported Chief Oluwa in the court case which dragged on in the Supreme Court from 1915 to1918 when the Lagos Supreme Court gave the colonial government favourable ruling in the case. Dissatisfied, Chief Oluwa, on the advice of HM, sought and obtained the permission of the Supreme Court to appeal to the Privy Council in London on the matter. Chief Oluwa, with the support of the ElekoEsugbayi of Lagos and HM, appealed to the PC on the case. Herbert Macaulay accompanied Chief Oluwa to London as his interpreter for hearings on the case. They were received by HM King George V at the Royal Botanical Gardens in London on July 24, 1920, with HM proudly holding the silver headed staff of the ElekoEsugbayi as a symbol of Royal authority. On June 14, 1921, after Oluwa and HM had been in London for fifteen months, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council ruled in favour of Chief Oluwa that adequate and prompt compensation on the acquired Oluwa family land in Apapa be paid. This defeat at the PC worsened relations between HM and the colonial government. In compliance with this ruling the colonial government paid Chief Oluwa and his family 22,500 pounds as compensation for the land acquired. HM was paid 2,083 pounds for his services. He was also offered land at Apapa which he refused.
Though a strong critic of British colonial rule in Lagos, HM did not really habour any hatred for the British with which he had solid connections. In fact, there are credible but unconfirmed reports that when he was a student in England Queen Victoria took some interest in the welfare of HM as the grandsonAjai Crowther, a bishop of the Church of England. Like most of the educated African elite in Lagos who had had the opportunity of studying and living in Britain, he greatly admired British liberal political traditions and its genteel way of life. For most of his life he remained a loyal subject of the British Crown. On the outbreak of World War 11 he urged local support for British war efforts against Hitler and urged the people of Lagos to donate generously to the British government. In his struggle against colonial rule, he always drew a distinction between the British sense of fair play, justice, and freedom shown by the Metropolitan government in London and the colonial government in Lagos and Nigeria, which tended to disregard these virtues, and to be high handed in its dealings with the colonial subjects. All he demanded was that the colonial government in Lagos should apply the same democratic principles in governing the colonial territory. It was the failure of the colonial government to apply these principles to its subjects that led HM to clash so decisively with the colonial authorities in Lagos and Nigeria.
As a staunch defender of the ruling House of Dosumu.
A major political issue in which HM was also directly and deeply involved was that of the crisis in the ruling house of Dosumu which was split into two hostile camps between the deposed Oba. Kosoko, and his successor Oba Akintoye. The British said they deposed Kosoko because he refused to give up the slave trade. But the new ruler, Akintoye, did not enjoy the prestige of Kosoko as he had to depend on inadequate financial grants from the British colonial government. After the ending of the slave trade the abundant financial resources of the ElekoAkintoye had been vastly reduced. His prestige fell as he could no longer meet his financial obligations to his people. Esugbayi, theEleko in Macaulay’s time, also received remuneration that was wholly inadequate. From time to time Macaulay had pleaded to no avail with the British colonial government to increase Esugbayi’s grant, and when he went to London for the Apapa land case he had also intervened with the Imperial government in London directly for an upward increase of the grant. The colonial government in Lagos was furious about this and refused to increase Esugbayi’s annual grant of only 300 pounds. The Colonial Governor, Sir Hugh Clifford, declared arrogantly that the Eleko held ‘no official position and was of no political significance’.
Unfortunately there was a split on this matter among the African educated elite in Lagos. Some, like Egerton Shyngle, the lawyer, AdeyemoAlakija, Bright Wilson, Joshua Benjamin, Dr. M. da Rocha, Dr. M.R.L. Macaulay and Dr. Akinwande Savage supported HM on the issue, while he was opposed by Dr. Henry Carr, KitoyeAjasa, and others who were derisively known as the ‘government Party’. When Esugbayi refused the request of the colonial government to dissociate himself from Herbert Macaulay on the matter, he was expelled from Lagos and exiled to Oyo, a decision which Dr. Henry Carr, the powerful Resident of Lagos colony, defended. The issue was taken up directly by HM who argued that Henry Carr was ignorant of African institutions and that he should be retired as the Resident. Macaulay engaged the services of his lawyer friend, Egerton Shyngle, to fight the case in the PC in London when the colonial government refused to bring Esugbayi from Oyo to court in Lagos. The PC ruled in London that the case be determined in the context of native law and custom. The case dragged on for years until in 1931 when the colonial governor, Donald Cameron, cancelled the deportation orders on Esugbayi who then returned to Lagos as the Eleko. It was a major legal and political victory for Macaulay and his supporters and a shocking defeat for the colonial government and his opponents, including Henry Carr. It was a remarkable feat for which the London journal West Africa praised HM in an editorial in 1931 as ‘a staunch defender of native rights’.
His Politics in the NNDP and the NCNC
To further his political activities and ambitions HM helped to form the Nigerian National Democratic Party (NNDP) in 1923. It was the first well organized political Party in British West Africa. Between 1923 and 1938 the NNDP won all the elections into the Legislative Council. This was due largely to Macaulay’s remarkable leadership and organizational abilities which even his opponents and critics acknowledged. But as he had been convicted twice in a court of law in Lagos he could not himself seek election into the Legislative Council. He did not even hold any office in the Party. With his control of the Party HM was able to some extent to exert some influence on some issues that came before the Legislative Council, such as the poll tax, the building of a new cemetery for Africans at Atan, and the Lagos railway construction. When the colonial government decided to control market prices during World War 11 HM supported the opposition of the market women to the idea arguing that the government could not seek to control what it did not supply.
In 1938, the newly formed Nigerian Youth Movement (NYM) successfully challenged the political supremacy of the NNDP in Lagos politics. It defeated the NNDP in the elections into the Legislative Council. A succession of internal crisis had weakened the NNDP very badly. It had tried to form an alliance with the NYM but this did not work. In 1943 HM resigned as Secretary of the Joint Committee of the NNDP/NYD, and the NYM. In 1944, a new Party, the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC), emerged. It was a coalition of many interest groups-political parties, trade unions, professional associations, social clubs, and tribal unions. There was some opposition from his colleagues to the idea of NNDP joining the new NCNC. But he forced the issue through and the NNDP merged with the new NCNC in 1944. HM was, at 80, the grand old man of Nigerian politics. He was elected the president of the new Party, the NCNC, and Dr. NnamdiAzikiwe, owner of the West African Pilot, became its first Secretary General. Dr. Azikiwe had studied in the US where he obtained an MA from Pennsylvania University. He went into journalism and politics when the colonial government rejected
his application for a teaching job at the King’s College, Lagos. As the eminent professor of colonial studies at Oxford University, Margery Perham, observed at the time, it was another fatal mistake by the colonial government in Lagos. He should have been given a job. His rejection by the colonial government drove him straight into the waiting arms and warm embrace of the nationalists in Lagos. Ironically, it was a strike during World War 11 by the boys of King’s College, led by Anthony Enahoro that presaged the formation of the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC) the following year, with Dr. Azikiwe playing a prominent role in it.
In 1946, the colonial government proposed a new Constitution for Nigeria. Details of this new Constitution were released by the colonial Governor, Sir Arthur Richards (later Lord Millerton), in 1945 after World War 11. But led by HM, the NCNC and other nationalists the proposed Constitution was rejected. They argued that it did not go far enough in granting responsible government to Nigeria, and that Nigerians were not fully consulted on the constitutional proposals. At a meeting in Glover Hall in Lagos on April 11, 1945, it was decided that an NCNC delegation be sent to London to convey the Party’s reservations on the proposed Constitution. Even at 81, HM was chosen and accepted to lead the delegation to London. A tour of the provinces was planned from April 8, to June 5, to raise funds for the proposed trip to London. It was while he was on tour in the Northern provinces leading the NCNC delegation that he fell ill and had to return to Lagos where he was treated by Dr. IbikunleOlorunnmbe, his personal physician and political associate in the NCNC. But he died on May 7, 1946, at the age of 81. A funeral service at which the Lord Bishop of Lagos, the RtRevd Leslie Gordon Vining officiated was held for him on May 11, 1946, at the Cathedral Church of Christ, Marina, after which he was buried at the Ikoyi cemetery. The people of Lagos were in deep mourning over his death. It was estimated that crowds of nearly 200,000 people, virtually the whole of Lagos, turned up at his funeral to pay this great man and outstanding patriot their last respects. HM was a man of the people. He committed and dedicated his entire life to the struggle for the defence of the political and economic rights of the masses in Lagos. He fought courageously and relentlessly against the injustice and repression of the people by British colonial rule in Lagos and Nigeria. At 80, the year before he died, in accepting his election as the leader and President of the NCNC HM expressed his feelings for Nigeria in the following words which reminds one of Nigeria’s first National Anthem.
O beautiful Nigeria
Our own, our native land
Of thee we boast
Great Empire of Western Africa
The dearest and the best
Made up of all the rest
We love you most
For more than 50 years, HM was a leading light in the political and social life of Lagos where he lived virtually all his life. He trained abroad as an Engineer and a Surveyor. It was not until 1911, eighteen years later, that another Lagosian, Mr. G.D. Agbebi graduated in England as a civil engineer. With his elitist background and professional education, he could easily have opted for a softer life like some of his contemporaries who decided to seek accommodation with the colonial government. But he vehemently refused to collaborate with the perpetrators of social injustice and brutal colonial rule. He never held any elective or public office. Instead he chose the rough path of personal sacrifice on behalf of his people in Lagos. He displayed uncommon courage throughout his life, often dogged by adversity and setbacks caused by his defence of freedom.. But he remained undaunted and unbowed, drawing solace from the adulation of the people of Lagos whom providence had called him to serve so steadfastly, without counting the cost.
His values and ideals.
What values and ideals did Herbert Macaulay impart, and how are these of continuing relevance to Lagos? What were his dreams for Lagos? What would have been his expectations of Lagos?
The first was his total commitment to democracy and to the progress of the people whom he served faithfully against all odds. He did not dislike the British or British rule in Nigeria. But he was determined to protect native rights against any assaults by a brutal and repressive colonial government that failed to demonstrate in the colonies British traditions of fair play and justice he had seen in England as a student. These liberal political traditions and values are even more relevant today in our country. He wanted Lagos to be the leading centre of excellence, of liberal traditions and progress in Nigeria. To a large excellent, Lagos has remained consistently faithful to these values and ideals. It has always been in the forefront of the struggle against political and economic injustice in our country. Who, in Lagos, can ever forget the epic struggle of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, when he was the Governor of Lagos, against the predations of the federal government and its injustice to the people of Lagos? Every major political agitation in our country for the realization of these liberal values has emanated from Lagos. It is the nemesis of all repressive governments in Nigeria, a role which providence and its cultural and tribal mix has entrusted to it. But it is not only Lagos that should embrace these political ideals and values. All governments at all levels in our country must embrace and fully commit themselves to these values for which HM stood and gave his life. Our country should be one that is open to all the talents, not one open only to a privileged few, based on tribe, or religion. The interest of all the people must always come first. It is my considered view that, on the whole, and despite all odds, this has been the case with recent governments in Lagos State, where the interests of the people have always been placed first at all times.
Second, Herbert Macaulay insisted that the welfare of the people was paramount and that the people were right in resistance injustice by the government. It is a lesson that the Lagos State governments have learnt. From Jakande to Bola Tinubu to Fashola and now Ambode, Lagos State has been blessed with governors guided by the best interests and welfare of the people. Lagos runs by far the best government in the federation. Roads, houses, water supply, electricity, and bridges are being built at a frenetic pace to make life better for the people of Lagos. That was what HM stood and fought for. Jobs are being created fast too. But the government alone cannot do it. It must collaborate with the private sector through tax incentives, a better investment climate, and a vastly improved infrastructure that will make Lagos a major target for foreign direct investment. I believe the government is fully aware of this.
Third, Herbert Macaulay stood unflinchingly for religious freedom in Lagos. He hated any form of religious bigotry and fought it. Lagos is a city of many religions and religious practices, where all are free to practice their religion. It is a tradition Lagos must continue to maintain at all costs.
Fourth, Lagos is a welcoming state and it continues to welcome all those who live here. It is a legacy HM left it with. Herbert Macaulay was ready and willing to work with all compatriots even when some of them did not share his political views. It is a tradition that should be maintained.
Conclusion.
When Herbert Macaulay died in 1946, the population of Lagos was probably not more than 300,000. Today, the population of Lagos State could be as high as 20 million. It is now a mega city, a huge cultural melting port embracing practically all the diverse ethnic groups in our country. The expectations of the people from their governments are a lot higher today than ever before. And these expectations for good government will continue to increase. It is important, in a place so large and so complex politically, economically, and culturally as Lagos, that its government should continue to be guided by the welfare of all its peoples. Their interests should always be paramount. Of course, security is important to Lagos as a major economic and cultural mix. It is the commercial hub of Nigeria. But its security can only be achieved if there is social justice and a sense of fair play in the State. This is what Herbert Macaulay advocated consistently in his long and difficult political struggles. Lagos must remain tolerant and continue to welcome all immigrants. They have contributed immensely to the spectacular growth and development of the city. But it is also incumbent on all those who come to Lagos to seek a better life for themselves to respect the customs and traditions of the indigenous people of Lagos. I remain optimistic that Lagos will continue to show the progressive way for others to follow in Nigeria and beyond. Comparatively, it has been blessed with good governors
What have we done to honour his memory? I am aware that HM has a major street named after him in Lagos and Abuja. He also has two public statutes erected in his memory in Lagos. But for posterity and in recognition of his immense contribution to the political development of Lagos and Nigeria there is a need for Lagos to do more to honour him. What more can we do to honour and immortalize the memory of this outstanding nationalist and patriot?
First, the Lagos state government should urgently set up a Herbert Macaulay Foundation, with the active and generous support of the private sector, to keep his memory and political ideals alive. There is as yet no full length and comprehensive biography or scholarly work or study on HM. In preparing this lecture I had to rely on late Professor Tamuno’s excellent but brief study, ‘Herbert Macaulay: Nigerian Patriot, first published in 1976, as my main source of material for this lecture. It should be the first duty of the proposed Herbert Macaulay Foundation to commission the writing of a full and comprehensive biography of Herbert Macaulay.
Second, this lecture should be made an annual event to mark the anniversary of the death of Herbert Macaulay.
Third, a major public educational institution in Lagos, preferably a higher institution, should be named after him. As an alternative, a Herbert Macaulay School of Politics and Government should be established in one of our leading Universities in his honour. The Lagos State University should be considered for this honour.
Fourth, in the context of the compulsory teaching of Nigerian history in our secondary schools, particularly in Lagos State, a course on Herbert Macaulay should be introduced and made compulsory in our secondary schools, and
Fifth, the Glover Memorial Hall on Customs Street, Lagos, adjacent to the Union Bank headquarters, is a sad reminder of our colonial past. It was named after Sir John Hawley Glover, the British naval officer who led the naval bombardment of Lagos in 1851, and who was subsequently rewarded by being made the first colonial governor of Lagos in 1861, after its forceful annexation. It should, with the permission of its Trustees, be renamed Herbert Macaulay Memorial Hall. Sir John Glover already has Glover Road in Ikoyi named after him. Other Colonial Governors such as Lord Lugard, Lord Milverton, Sir Hugh Clifford, and Sir John Macpherson, already have streets named after them in Lagos. Victoria Island was named after HM Queen Victoria. Port Harcourt was named after Lord Harcourt, the Colonial Secretary who appointed Lord Lugard the first Governor General of colonial Nigeria. If we can so generously honour these colonial governors, then I think that Herbert Macaulay and our other national heroes deserve much more.
I thank you for your attention.
Amb.OladapoFafowora, FNAL
•To be continued
