WI Nigeria annexed Equatorial Guinea?

[pa_dutch]

An interesting point to note is that there was, and perhaps still is a body of opinion in Nigeria that believes that Equatorial Guinea should have been annexed in 1973, when Nigerian contract labour working on the cocoa plantation there under a Labour Agreement between the two countries were expelled summarily and without any justification. At the time, there were about 25,000 Nigerian farmers and petty traders in the country who had dominated commerce in Equatorial Guinea.

"The Nigerian military and the state" By Jimi Peters

One plausible explanation has been the fear of domination, if not complete annexation by Nigeria, which was felt by Equatorial Guinea. The sources of this phobia were quite obvious. Even though Nigerian labourers were treated as second-class citizens in Malabo, relations between Nigeria and Equatorial-Guinea had been skewed ab initio. It would seem in retrospect that the authorities in Malabo had lived in continuous fear of their much bigger and stronger neighbour. But then events which had followed in the wake of every row could only have served to deepen the already existing fear. We refer here to the constant clamour for the annexation of the country by a vocal section of the Nigerian public. In this regard, it was argued that since Nigerian labour had built up the economy of Equatorial Guinea, it was only logical that it, i.e. Equatorial Guinea, should make working conditions for Nigerian labourers more humane, failing which the Nigerian authorities should “annex that island” (Daily Times, January 26th 1976, p. 1). Notably, this irredentism enjoyed particular ventilation in the press, where both private and government-owned publications forged an unusual consensus.

"Constructing Pax Nigeriana? The Media and Conflict in Nigeria-Equatorial Guinea Relations" By Ebenezer Obadare

Public concern over the treatment of the short-term migrants - most contracts are for two years - resulted in considerable pressure from political and press groups on the Federal government to take a tougher line with Spain and some even argued for Nigerian annexation of the island.

"Nigeria and Fernando Poo, 1956-1966 The Politics of Irridentism" by Bolaji Akinyemi

At the time, the young Equatorial Guinea was ruled by its first (*cough* worst) president (*cough* dictator) Francisco Macías Nguema, who had the 60,000 Nigerian laborers (compared to approx. 330,000 citizens) brought in and subsequently evicted during his regime.

How would the world react?

Would Nigeria treat it as a colony, or would it attempt to outright incorporate it?

Could such a move be beneficial to either country?

Supposing it somehow lasted, what would Nigeria and its equatorial territories look like today?

 

[Leo Caesius]

Would Nigeria annex the mainland, or merely Fernando Poo (where the capital is located, and all of the Nigerian laborers seem to have been)?

This would take place during the worst part of the rule of Macías Nguema. It seems likely that the mainland would even welcome the opportunity to bid Malabo (and Macías Nguema) goodbye. As he had already destroyed all of the boats in Equatorial Guinea, it would be fairly easy for the island to be separated from the mainland.

 

[Onyx]

It would kinda be impossible since, well Cameroon is in the middle and would probably flip out in a way.
Nigeria annexes the islands, Cameroon or Gabon would annex the mainland

 

[pa_dutch]

Would Nigeria annex the mainland, or merely Fernando Poo (where the capital is located, and all of the Nigerian laborers seem to have been)?

This would take place during the worst part of the rule of Macías Nguema. It seems likely that the mainland would even welcome the opportunity to bid Malabo (and Macías Nguema) goodbye. As he had already destroyed all of the boats in Equatorial Guinea, it would be fairly easy for the island to be separated from the mainland.

It gets a little tricky at an ethnic level... Even though Malabo is the capital, the dominant ethnic group both in terms of population and power is the Fang from mainland Rio Muni (of which Nguema belonged). The most active about separation between Bioko/Fernando Poo and Rio Muni are the Bubi, who are indigenous to the island but just barely form a majority there. Their separatist/nationalist movements have continually been silenced by the government and it seems are most vocal from abroad in exile (particularly in Spain).

The Nigerians could pair with the Bubi to take Fernando Poo, but perhaps they would want to take the mainland as well as the center of power.

 

[Chris S]

You know if you check out that population statistics site for equatorial guinea as pa_dutch linked to earlier you get figures like these for Fernando Po:

1910 - 23,800
1931 - 25,000
1945 - 26,400
1950 - 41,000
1955 - 51,000
1960 - 61,200
1965 - 44,800
1968 - 78,000
1969 - 80,000
1983 - 57,200 -57,700
1987 - 67,900
1994 - 87,700

So there was a large drop in the population of the island between 1969 and 1983 which one would suspect corresponds to the expulsion of the Nigerian labourers as well as the general flight of Equatorial Guineans from Nguema's rule. With 25,000-60,000 Nigerian workers, then if those Nigerian workers are included in the population statistics for Fernando Po and if most or even all of the Nigerian workers were on Fernando Po then the Nigerian workers may well have constituted anywhere between 31-75% of the population on the island. No wonder the Equatorial Guineans were worried.


If anything had happened it seems from the sources given that Nigeria would have annexed Fernando Po instead of the entirety of Equatorial Guinea. This might make it easier for Nigeria since it may not upset the neighbours as much although the OAU and a lot of African states in general had stuck to the notion that the colonial era borders should be inviolable so as to not open a can of worms.

If Nigeria attempted annexation between 1968 and 1973 then perhaps Nguema (if not killed during the attempt or overthrown as a result) would retreat to the mainland and wreck the economy even more by focusing on building up sufficient military forces to reclaim the island.

What would be really interesting is if Nigeria attempted annexation between 1956 and 1966. At that time Equatorial Guinea was still ruled by Spain (and after 1959 was basically a province of Spain) and Spain was ruled by Franco.....might we see a Spanish-Nigerian war?

 

[pa_dutch]

During Nguema's reign there was the large scale exodus of nearly a third of Equatorial Guinea's population, as well as an attempted genocide of the Bubi natives of Fernando Po in an effort to recolonize the island with Fang. The drop in population you see in the statistics is likely a reflection of those two factors, as the Nigerians probably weren't counted as citizens, but nonetheless the Nigerians still would have been a pretty large portion of the island's population.