Notes on the Tribes, Provinces, Emirates and States of the Northern Provinces of Nigeria - Compiled From Official Reports #248117

The compilation contained in the following pages has been made with the object of rendering available to those interested, in a small compass, at all events some of the immense stores of facts concerning the natives of the Northern Provinces of Nigeria assiduously collected by the political staff. This information is contained scattered through innumerable reports, assessment reports, annual and monthly reports, and official letters, etc., which are kept at the Secretariat and the Provincial Headquarters, and is not readily accessible, even to those who are stationed at Headquarters and are able to command the Secretariat files. To the political officer they are quite inaccessible as a whole. Though a political officer may have the completest knowledge of the Province in which he is working, I know by experience that it has been in the past extremely difficult for him to obtain knowledge of other Provinces. Thus a man may work for many years - an official life-time even - in Sokoto and yet know very little of Bassa, Yola, or Bornu, for instance. Indeed, his knowledge may very well be restricted for many years to the affairs connected with the district in which he is stationed, and may not extend to those of the Province even. To remedy this state of affairs a gazetteer is urgently required, and, though it would be presumptuous to use such a term in connection with the present work, it is the hope of the compiler that the following pages may be useful in the preparation of a complete work in the future, while at the same time affording a book of reference in which the more salient facts at all events may be found.