Independence, 1960

Independence followed the constitutional settlement negotiated during the 1950s. The federal government took responsibility for defence, external affairs and the currency, while the Northern, Western and Eastern Regions retained wide powers over education, agriculture, health, police arrangements and much internal administration.

Because the December 1959 federal election produced no majority, government depended on coalition from the beginning, and each region remained the base of a party rather than a neutral administrative unit.

Independence Day ceremonies were held in Lagos, then the federal capital, on 1 October 1960. The green-white-green flag, designed by Taiwo Akinkunmi, was raised, and the country joined the United Nations the same month. Azikiwe became Governor-General, the ceremonial representative of the Crown, and Balewa continued as Prime Minister at the head of a coalition of the Northern People's Congress and the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons, with the Action Group in opposition.

Early measures included the establishment of national institutions such as the central bank, the expansion of universities and the reorganisation of the armed forces and civil service, in which senior posts were transferred from British to Nigerian officers over several years.

In 1961 plebiscites were held in the British Cameroons: the Northern Cameroons voted to join Nigeria and the Southern Cameroons voted to join Cameroon. In 1963 a fourth region, the Mid-Western Region, was created out of the Western Region, and a new constitution replaced the monarchy with a republic, making Azikiwe the first President while executive power stayed with the Prime Minister.

Independence transferred authority but did not resolve the structural questions raised during the constitutional conferences. Three large regions with dominant populations, each with substantial powers and a governing party, made federal politics a contest between regional blocs, and minority communities within each region continued to press for their own states.

The date remains the country's national day, and the settlement of 1960 to 1963 is the baseline against which every later change to Nigeria's structure, including the creation of states and the move of the capital to the Federal Capital Territory, is usually measured.