The next four chapters seek to characterize the efforts at introducing Western civilization in Northern Nigeria undertaken during the first half of the colonial era. The cultural initiatives of colonial administrators will be the subject of the next two chapters; those of Christian missionaries are the focus of chapters 5 and 6. The government's efforts will be looked at first because from the start the government had both the authority and the determination to fit the ambitions of the Christian missions into its own cultural agenda. Thus, what the government sought to do in the region dictated the options available to missionaries. The years 1900–1935 will be dealt with as an era because a de facto program of cultural initiatives held sway in the region during those years, a program initiated by the Northern government and maintained with the support of the Colonial Office. The program is the topic of this chapter. Starting during the tenure of Sir Graeme Thomson as governor (1926–30), and gathering force during the tenure of Sir Donald Cameron in that office (1931–35), the program faced critiques that prompted significant attempts at reform. The attempts to reform the Northern program of cultural initiatives will be the subject of the chapter 4.

The initiatives were fundamentally interdependent and were all concerned with the creation of an African elite that thought and acted like an English elite. The initiatives were not thought out before implementation. They were trial-and-error efforts, with the understanding that if deemed successful in one locale, those efforts would be replicated elsewhere. Indirect rule is the term used by scholars to characterize the strategy followed by the British in governing their colonies. There is broad consensus that the term had to do with government by the British via indigenous political institutions. There is no consensus, however, as to what the words “indigenous political institutions” mean. The term indirect rule was originally coined and used in reference to Northern Nigeria, and as originally employed by colonial administrators there it meant two things. First, it had to do with government via political offices possessing executive prerogative, that is, any office whose occupant might be understood as having the power to dictate what others do.