Abstract
The article considers those elements of federal statehood that in the early 1960s went to the newly independent Nigeria from the outgoing British colonialists. It follows from the analysis undertaken by the author that this legacy was twofold. On the one hand, thanks to the federal scheme developed and implemented by the ex-metropolis, it is still possible to maintain the integrity of the once conditional socio-political space, now called Nigeria; on the other hand, the federation created by London turned out to be nationalterritorial, that is, initially burdened with a lot of congenital defects and potential risks. By endowing each of the three dominant ethnic groups in Nigeria – Hausa-Fulani, Yoruba, and Igbo – with their own federating entity in the face of the Northern, Western and Eastern regions and thereby fusing together the ethnos and territory, the former metropolis built into the foundations of the federal building being built prerequisites for a powerful ethnic conflict. After independence, which took place in 1960, this conflict broke to the surface; it destabilized Nigeria throughout the existence of the First Republic of 1960- 1966, almost destroying the federation, provoking the secession of Biafra and the bloody civil war that followed. To the full extent, the consequences of the British federal experiment of Nigeria have not been overcome so far; that is why their study is important
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