Nigeria’s Fiscal Origins and the Politics of Taxation Today In his post-amalgamation report to the Colonial Office, Lord Lugard proclaimed triumphantly the “astonishing results” of the administrative merger of the Northern and Southern protectorates that became Nigeria in 1914. The anticipated first-year deficit of £200,000 had become a surplus of £80,500, despite the First World War. Lugard believed it might have reached £634,000 without the war.