Nigeria’s Lower Niger dredging campaigns, 1909–2014: the politics of a Lugardian inland water transport project versus the global playbook

Chilaka, E ORCID: 0000-0002-8342-556X (2023) Nigeria’s Lower Niger dredging campaigns, 1909–2014: the politics of a Lugardian inland water transport project versus the global playbook. Water History, 15 (2). pp. 263-292. ISSN 1877-7236

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Abstract

The paper examines the policy of Sir Frederick Lugard to dredge the Lower Niger for all-year-round navigability in the early 1900s. As well as its politics, dredging history and a comparison with the Pearl River and the Mississippi, the River Niger study focused on “Lugard’s colonial imperatives” about the river in contrast to the challenges of its peculiar characteristics vis-à-vis the dynamics of Nigeria’s inland water transport (IWT) market in the post-independence era and the corrupt procurement processes for the dredging campaigns which, concertedly, affected its real and perceived utility. Archival, primary and secondary data sources were used, with qualitative analytical methodology. The findings include the lack of off-take cargoes and commercial voyages even after the latest dredging campaigns, zero opportunity cost of the river system, environmental and host community challenges, and the effects of the so-called “downward march of the Sahara Desert” on the river’s future, as well as ‘nearly-impossible’ milestones in the capital and maintenance dredging objectives. The conclusion compares the operational and commercial problems, the budget constraints and the transparency issues against alternative global models and argues that the episodic dredging campaigns ought to be scrapped and Nigeria’s IWT policy reviewed to avoid further unjustifiable dredging spends in favour of better models of river systems management.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	4406 Human Geography; 44 Human Society; 3707 Hydrology; 4406 Human geography
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) H Social Sciences > HE Transportation and Communications
Divisions:	Humanities and Social Science
Publisher:	Springer
Date of acceptance:	17 January 2023
Date of first compliant Open Access:	18 December 2025
Date Deposited:	18 Dec 2025 12:49
Last Modified:	18 Dec 2025 12:49
DOI or ID number:	10.1007/s12685-023-00320-7
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/27738

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