I write in my capacity as the leader of the Yoruba Party in the UK (YPUK) to seek support for the implementation of the 1888 Britain-Yorubaland Treaty.
On 23 July 1888, Queen Victoria, the Queen of Great Britain, and Alaafin Adeyemi, the Head of Yorubaland, entered their nations into a treaty of friendship and trade (the 1888 Britain-Yorubaland Treaty). The British government published a notice of the treaty in London. On 16 June 1890, Queen Victoria ratified the treaty in accordance with the British domestic law. On 16 June 1890, Alaafin Adeyemi ratified the treaty by accepting a first payment of £35.5s from the British government.
The 1888 Britain-Yorubaland Treaty covered the ‘four corners’ of the Yorubaland ‘embracing within its area that inhabited by all Yoruba-speaking peoples’. The treaty was intended to maintain ‘for ever, friendly relations with the subjects of Her majesty, the Queen’. The treaty was intended to develop ‘the resources of Yoruba by means of legitimate trade with the subjects of Her Majesty…’.
The 1888 Treaty provides:
i. Peace and friendship between the subjects of Her Majesty…and of the Alaafin’ (Article 1).
ii. The subjects of the Queen may always trade freely with the people of Oyo and the Yoruba-speaking countries in every article’ (Article 2).
iii. British subjects would be charged ‘tolls, duties, fees, imposts or charges’ that were customary and reasonable or as agreed between the parties (Article 3).
iv. All differences or disputes shall be adjusted by [the Alaafin]’ or referred by him to arbitration (Article 4).
v. No session of territory and no other Treaty or Agreement shall be made by’ [the Alaafin] other than this one (Article 7).
vi. In consideration of the faithful observance of the foregoing Articles of Agreement’, the Alaafin would be paid a yearly stipend unless he committed a breach or neglect of all or one of the terms (Article 8).
The parties intended in the 1888 Britain-Yorubaland Treaty to be bound by international law. The parties established the boundary and frontiers of the Yorubaland and imbued it with international personality. According to the legal Doctrine of Recognition, when an established State concluded an agreement with a territory that it had not previously recognised, it was recognising that territory as a State from that date onward. Reference to ‘countries’ at Article 2 makes it unambiguous the 1888 Britain-Yorubaland Treaty was between two independent states – Great Britain and Yorubaland – and bound by international law as codified in 1969 by the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT):
i. The Yorubaland possessed the capacity under international law to conclude treaties (VCLT Article 1).
ii. The Alaafin had full power to enter into the 1888 Britain-Yorubaland Treaty (VCLT Article 7).
iii. Britain consented to be bound by the terms of the 1888 Britain-Yorubaland Treaty by the means of
a. the signature of its representative, the Governor of the Lagos Colony, (VCLT Article 12) and
b. ratification of the treaty by the Queen on 16 June 1890 (VCLT Article 14).
iv. The Yoruba believed that the two signatories to the 1888 Britain-Yorubaland Treaty were obligated,
a. to refrain from acts which would defeat the object and purpose of the treaty that they had signed and ratified (VCLT Article 18);
b. to be bound by the treaty terms and to perform them in good faith (pacta sunt servanda) (VCLT Article 26); and,
c. to be bound in respect of the entire Yoruba territory unless a different interpretation was established or discernible from the treaty (VCLT Article 29).
The parties intended the 1888 Britain-Yorubaland Treaty to be domestic law. Reference to ‘consideration’ at Article 8 made its contractual nature wholly unambiguous.
i. On 23 May 1888, the Queen in a letter (Ref No 115/77) made an Offer of a treaty to the Alaafin on the grounds that Yorubaland was exclusively owned by the Yoruba.
ii. On 23 July 1888, the Alaafin accepted this offer in writing, and appended his signature to the text.
iii. The quid quo pro was a yearly stipend to the Alaafin. On 16 June 1890, Britain made a payment of £35.5s to the Alaafin which made the contract life.
Domestication of the 1888 Britain-Yorubaland Treaty was further confirmed by the fact that the British monarch acted under the authority of the Foreign Jurisdiction Act 1890, and the British government paid a treaty-related stipend to the Alaafin from the public purse. The Treaty became ‘existing law’ of Nigeria at independence on 1 October 1960 when Nigeria assumed all the legal obligations of Britain. By expressly excluding ‘the Yoruba country’ from its recommendations on amalgamation, the 1889 Shelborne Committee Report made clear that Yorubaland was outside of the British jurisdiction. William MacGregor, Governor of Lagos, confirmed that the ‘Yoruba treaties’ were imbued with a legal force that denied direct jurisdiction to Britain, and which the British were bound to honour.
The parties intended the 1888 Britain-Yorubaland Treaty to be permanent, not provisional or temporary. The passage of time thus is irrelevant. On 11 March 2002, the permanent nature of this type of treaty was used by the ICJ to decide the case of the Bakassi Peninsula (Cameroon v Nigeria). The ICJ determined that the boundary between Nigeria and Cameroon was delimited by the Anglo-German Agreement of 11 March 1913.
The YPUK intends to seek audience with the British government to discuss how to implement the 1888 Britain-Yorubaland Treaty. The YPUK will suggest that the government in the first instance set up a Select Committee of the House of Lords to recommend the best way forward. The YPUK intends to take the matter to the courts if the British government refuses their overture.