Discuss the contributions of the Nigerian Youth Movement to Nationalism in Nigeria.

Answer Details

The Nigerian Youth Movement (NYM), formed in 1934 (originally as the Lagos Youth Movement), was the first genuinely nationalist organisation to reach beyond Lagos and attempt to unite Nigerians across ethnic and regional lines. Its contributions to the growth of nationalism in Nigeria include the following:

1. Broadening the base of nationalism: Unlike the earlier Lagos-centred parties, the NYM recruited members from different parts of the country and set up branches in the provinces, giving nationalism a more national, rather than purely Lagosian, character.
2. Formulation of a national programme: In 1938 it published The Nigerian Youth Charter, which demanded complete autonomy within the British Empire, equal economic and political rights for Nigerians, and an end to discrimination. This was one of the earliest coherent statements of nationalist aims.
3. Contesting elections: The NYM entered electoral politics and in 1938 defeated Herbert Macaulay's Nigerian National Democratic Party (NNDP) in the Lagos Town Council and Legislative Council elections, demonstrating that organised nationalist opposition could win power.
4. Political education and mobilisation: Through its newspaper (the Daily Service), public lectures and rallies, it awakened political consciousness and taught Nigerians to demand their rights.
5. Championing economic grievances: It protested against discriminatory colonial economic policies, the marginalisation of Nigerian traders and produce buyers, and inequalities in the civil service.
6. Fighting discrimination in employment and education: It campaigned against the exclusion of qualified Nigerians from senior posts and pressed for improved and expanded educational opportunities, including agitation over the status of Yaba Higher College.
7. Training a generation of nationalist leaders: Prominent figures such as Nnamdi Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo, H. O. Davies and Ernest Ikoli passed through the movement, and the experience prepared them for later leadership of parties such as the NCNC and Action Group.

Although the NYM later collapsed through internal crisis in 1941, it laid the organisational and ideological foundations upon which the mass nationalist movement of the 1940s and 1950s was built.