In 1913, the High Commissioner of the Northern Protectorate of Nigeria, Lord Federick Lugard, wrote to his bosses in the Colonial Office in London that the capital of the newly created country of Nigeria (merging the North , Lagos and South) should be in Kaduna and not Lagos.

In 1913, the High Commissioner of the Northern Protectorate of Nigeria, Lord Federick Lugard, wrote to his bosses in the Colonial Office in London that the capital of the newly created country of Nigeria (merging the North , Lagos and South) should be in Kaduna and not Lagos.

Lugard wrote in one of his papers, “would make an excellent hotel if the transfer to Kaduna was achieved.”

However, the Colonial Office denied Lugard’s request and the transfer was never achieved.

Lugard then announced Lagos as the new capital of Amalgamated Nigeria in his speech on January 1, 1914.

Why did the Colonial Office deny Lugard’s request and choose Lagos, instead of Kaduna, as Nigeria’s first capital?