PROVISIONING THE ARMED FORCES IN COLONIAL NIGERIA, 1914-1960

Abstract

Provisioning is an important aspect of military mobilisation that deals with stores and supply. Available studies on the Armed Forces in Nigeria during the colonial period have paid more attention to personnel, training, mobilisation and battles than to provisioning. This study was, therefore, designed to examine the politics of provisioning the Armed Forces in colonial Nigeria, with a view to analysing military food supplies during the First World War (1914-1918), the InterWar years (1919-1939), the Second World War (1939-1945) and the Post-War period (1946- 1960). The historical approach was adopted, while the interpretive design was used. Primary and secondary sources were utilised. Primary sources were archival materials such as Annual Reports, Government gazettes, files on export trade and local foodstuffs, and tender for supply of locally produced foodstuffs obtained from the national archives in Ibadan, Enugu and Kaduna. In-depth interviews were conducted with 30 purposively selected respondents who had adequate knowledge of the military food supplies: 15 military personnel, five government administrators and 10 historians, aged between 34 and 81. Secondary sources were books, journals, monographs, unpublished theses and research projects accessed from the university libraries at Ibadan, Zaria, Nsukka and Lagos. Data were subjected to historical analysis. Food provisioning was strategic to the prosecution of The First World War and II, leading to the neglect of the civilian population. During the First World War (1914-1918), Nigeria, being the headquarters of the West African Frontier Force, bore the burden of provisioning the Allied Forces. The provisioning during this period was effected by the Department of Public Works. There was periodic shortage of food supplies in the Inter-War years from 1919 to 1939, though it did not attract the same magnitude of attention and organisation as the First World War. Food supply was not satisfactory and prices were very high. During the First World War (1939-1945), provisioning the armed forces in West Africa was centrally controlled by the Resident Minister in Achimota, Ghana. Annual estimates were made by the Supply Centre on military food requirements in consultation with the West African War Council. The end of the First World War in 1945 gave rise to demobilisation and reduction in manpower, thereby easing the pressure on military food requirements. The world food crisis between 1946 and 1948 adversely affected military supplies, reducing the availability of food supply. It was not until the 1950s that the food production and supply to the military became stabilised up to the period of Nigeria’s independence in 1960. Provisioning the armed forces in colonial Nigeria was an expensive national project due to the two world wars that occurred during the period as well as the Great Depression and World Food Crisis that occurred during the Inter-War years and Post-War period, respectively.