The foundations of modern Nigerian politics were laid in the 1950s. That decade began with the Ibadan constitutional conference of 1950, at which leaders of northern and southern Nigeria met for the first time in a common political forum since the amalgamation of these two separate British colonies in 1914. It ended with the attainment of independence in 1960. In the course of that fateful decade, Nigerians, previously estranged from one another by the circumstances of colonial rule, not only got to know themselves but worked together to produce a blueprint for the country’s political future. In essence, they rejected British as well as nationalist proclivities toward centralization. Instead, they forged a consensus that federalism was the appropriate vehicle for resolving political problems created by the nation’s deep-seated diversity.