The Willink's Commission of 1957 and the Minority Question in Eastern Nigeria: The Ibibio Perspective

In 1957, the minority question in the Eastern Region of Nigeria and other parts of the country came to the front burner and culminated in the appointment of the Willink’s Minority Commission by the British colonial government to enquire into the fears of the ethnic minorities and the means of allaying them. Although the commission did not recommend the creation of states as strongly advocated by the minority ethnic groups, especially the Ibibio, it however, accepted the fact that genuine fear of domination existed among the minorities. The paper links the marginalization of the ethnic minorities, particularly the 1953 impeachment of Prof. Eyo Ita, a minority from Calabar Province, who was the first Leader of Government Business and Minister of Natural Resources in the Eastern Region, to the upsurge of the minority question in the region. It critically examines the position of the Ibibio during the sitting of Commission to ventilate the justification for the creation of Calabar-Ogoja-Rivers (COR) State, in a bid to bring succor to the marginalized minorities. The paper notes that even though Nigeria eventually adopted the state creation agenda to stabilise the polity, particularly during the Nigerian Civil War, the minority question which now manifests in the quest for the restructuring of the Nigerian polity, seems not to have ended, 60 years after the inauguration of the Willink’s Commission. Adopting a historical analytical method, the paper suggests the entrenchment of “true federal” principles to manage ethnic diversity in the country.