Lord Fredrick Lugard, though amalgamated the north and the south, chose to keep the north separate from the South. Southerners were forced to live in Sabongari-strangers quarters. People from Southern Nigeria, in spite of the amalgamation of 1914 were still regarded, (not as fellow Nigerians), but as strangers in Northern Nigeria. Southerners were not allowed to own land in the north. There were no mixing of the inhabitants from the South to the North being contaminated by evil influences from the South.

As early as 1914, tribalism has crept into Nigeria as a result of Lugard's system of administration in Nigeria. Awolowo was only 5 years by then and could not have introduced tribalism in Nigeria.