Lord Lugard Colonial Ruins Niger




Lord-Lugard-Colonial-Ruins-Niger

Formerly located at Zungeru before it was moved to Kaduna, the Lord Lugard’s Colonial Secretariat is a site to behold. This was where the first colonial master of Nigeria ruled Nigeria and used as his own capital, and from where he established the Northern and Southern amalgamations of Nigeria.

There is a cemetery containing about 100 graves and in which early white settlers which served as colonial aides to Lord Lugard were buried in Zungeru; and here was Dr. A. A. Smith buried on January 4, 1903, he founded the Scouts Club and the West African Frontier Forces.

Zungeru, Niger State, was the town where the amalgamation of Northern and Southern protectorates was signed on January 1, 1914, by Lord Frederick Lugard, the first Governor-General of Nigeria.

The town was the capital of the vast Northern Region at the time, and had been since 1902. Lugard would eventually move the capital to Kaduna in 1916, effectively relegating it to a side note in the country’s history–where it remains today.