1944–1950s: (Nigerian Nationalism and Its Ethnic Fractures — The NCNC Founded in 1944 with Azikiwe Seeking a Nationwide Movement but Thwarted by Igbo Associa…

1944–1950s: (Nigerian Nationalism and Its Ethnic Fractures — The NCNC Founded in 1944 with Azikiwe Seeking a Nationwide Movement but Thwarted by Igbo Association, Fear of Igbo Domination Leading to the Northern People’s Congress and the Yoruba Action Group, North-South Divisions Dating to Autonomous Governance Until 1946, and the Deep Cleavage Between Muslim North and Christian South): In Nigeria, problems of ethnic division were even more entrenched than in the Gold Coast, in a larger territory with a larger and more deeply divided population. North and south had actually been governed autonomously until 1946 — the north was predominantly Muslim with historic links to North Africa, while the south was heavily Christian with a long history of European interaction. In the south, intense rivalry between the Yoruba in the southwest and the Igbo in the southeast complicated everything, while within the north tensions centered on the dominant role of aristocratic elements in the social order. From 1944, nationalist aspirations were expressed through the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons, co-founded by newspaper editor Nnamdi Azikiwe, who sought to make it a truly nationwide organization. He was thwarted by the movement’s identification with Igbo interests, and the NCNC failed to unite Nigerians under its banner. By the early 1950s, fear of Igbo domination in British-organized elections led to the formation of rival movements — the Northern People’s Congress, mostly Hausa and Fulani, and the Yoruba Action Group. The colony that Lugard had bolted together from disparate regions was proving impossible to unbolt into a coherent nation.