Fighting with the Pen: Nigerian Press’ Collaboration in the Promotion and Success of British Win-the-War Efforts in Nigeria during the Second World War

Abstract

This paper examines Nigerian press’ co-operation and collaboration with imperial Britain for Allied victory over Nazi Germany during the Second World War. Against the background of the conventional wisdom that Nigerians were too far removed from the war theater to feel the impact of the world conflagration, the study proposes the counter argument that Nigerians made substantial sacrifices which contributed to Allied victory over Nazism. The point is illustrated with the Nigeria Win the War Fund , a scheme for the purchase of war equipment, initiated and sustained by the press, with active government support, contrary to the prevailing notion of frosty government-press relations during the period. The materials for the paper were mainly archival sources, and information provided by national dailies, available at the National Archives, Ibadan, which was supplemented by secondary sources to produce the work, guided by the descriptive-analytic, historical approach, embodied in this essay.

Keywords: Second World War, Nigerian Press, British Imperialism, Government-Press   Relations, Win the War Efforts, German Nazism