Apparently there was a ‘treaty’ in 1893 concluded between Mr Denton, Acting Governor of the Lagos Colony, and the Baale of Ibadan. This treaty has been disseminated recently on the social media in the attempt to discredit the 1888 Britain-Yorubaland Treaty that was being litigated in the British courts by the Yoruba Party in the UK (YPUK), or to show that the Ibadan treaty was equally as valid. This attempt reveals ignorance of British domestic law and international law as they stood in 1893.
One, the term treaty was generally understood in 1893 to mean a written agreement between independent sovereign states. Ibadan was not an independent sovereign state in 1893 and was therefore not entitled in law to sign a treaty with Great Britain, an independent sovereign state. Both the ICJ decision in the Bakassi Peninsula case, and Article 1.3 of the Berlin Act 1895 confirm this state of the law. Britain in the 1888 Britain-Yorubaland Treaty recognised Yorubaland as an independent sovereign state; the primary intention of that treaty indeed was to unify the Yoruba-speaking peoples into one nation.
Two, a treaty had no legal effect under international law that was operating in 1893 until and unless it was ratified. Ratification confirmed the intention of the signatories to be legally bound. The Ibadan treaty was not ratified, and was therefore not a treaty under the law. The 1888 Britain-Yorubaland Treaty was ratified on 16 June 1890, following two years of contemplation by the British, and was therefore a treaty under the law.
Three, a treaty concluded with a European power in Africa in 1893 had no legal effect until and unless it was notified to the rest of the world, for example, in an official government publication. This was a requirement of the Berlin Act 1885, confirmed by the ICJ in the Bakassi Peninsula case. Britain did not notify the world of the Ibadan treaty. The 1888 Britain-Yorubaland Treaty by contrast was published in the British and Foreign State Papers 1373 to 1974, a collection of treaties and other international legal materials.
Thus, the Ibadan treaty was never a treaty in the legal sense. If Acting Governor Denton had convinced the Baale to sign the 1893 document on the basis that it was a treaty, then he committed a deception. Denton knew that Ibadan was not an independent sovereign state, and that Ibadan was included in the Yorubaland in the 1888 Britain-Yorubaland Treaty negotiated by Moloney, his predecessor governor. Under those circumstances, the people of Ibadan are entitled to seek redress in a British court for any harm or injury caused to them as a result of the illegal Ibadan treaty