Nigeria Becomes Independent

Nigeria became independent from the United Kingdom on 1 October 1960. According to the Library of Congress country study, the constitution of independent Nigeria was prepared at conferences at Lancaster House in London in 1957 and 1958, and elections for an enlarged House of Representatives were held in December 1959, with 174 of its 312 seats allocated to the Northern Region on the basis of its larger population. Wikipedia records that independence was granted by an act of the British Parliament and that Nigeria was admitted to the United Nations.

Nigeria became independent as a federation of three regions under a parliamentary government, with Abubakar Tafawa Balewa as prime minister. It remained a Commonwealth realm, with Queen Elizabeth II as head of state, until it became a republic in 1963.

Independence was the result of a nationalist movement that grew from the 1920s and of a series of constitutional reforms after the Second World War. According to the Library of Congress country study, the 1922 constitution allowed a few elected members on the Legislative Council; Herbert Macaulay's Nigerian National Democratic Party dominated Lagos politics, and from 1944 the NCNC, led by Nnamdi Azikiwe, became the first party with nationwide appeal, followed by the Action Group of Obafemi Awolowo and the Northern People's Congress of Ahmadu Bello. Three constitutions between 1946 and 1954 moved the country towards self-government: the 1954 constitution established the federal principle, and in 1957 the Western and Eastern regions became self-governing.

Wikipedia records that Nigeria became independent with a federal constitution, three large regions and a relatively weak centre. The Northern People's Congress and the NCNC formed the government, with the Action Group in opposition, and Azikiwe became governor-general. In 1961 the Northern Cameroons voted to join Nigeria, while the Southern Cameroons chose Cameroon (Wikipedia).

Independence opened the First Republic, the country's first period of civilian self-government.