One day [British colonial officer] Smith was given a secret file containing a minute that ordered him to get involved in regional elections taking place in the late 1950s in the run up to independence [in Nigeria]. He was to make vehicles, staff and other resources available to the NCNC colleagues of Okotie-Eboh who was standing in the elections. Smith was shocked at the request. He explained that the election had to be fixed because the plan was that the Northern region would hold power on independence...

Asked if such manipulation of an election result could have happened Professor Anderson, Director of the African Studies Centre at Oxford University, replied: “In almost every single colony the British attempted to manipulate the result to their advantage.... I would be surprised if they had not done so.”