Rush to Failure: The Governorship of Sir Percy Girouard, K.C.M.G., D.S.O., R.E.: 1909--1912

In the British Colonial Service, to be a successful administrator, certain expectations must be met. These involved clarity of dispatches, keeping the CO fully informed of development in the dependency and cultivating a healthy working relationship between the governor and his subordinate staff and between the governor and the CO. The absence of the latter was a failing on a -would be successful administrator. At the time of Sir Percy's outstanding performance in the Sudan, Transvaal and Northern Nigeria, he was acclaimed as Canada's outstanding proconsul in the British colonial administration. His performance in the latter places informed the CO's decision to appoint him governor of the EAP, but the latter tour of duty belied his competence, having been confronted with challenges that were by more far difficult to resolve. Sir Percy, like his predecessors, failed to prop up the protectorate's administrative and economic disabilities occasioned by what the CO described as a succession of weak administrators and staff members and the entry of European settlers.;These were contributing factors to the inherent difficult administration and development of the protectorate, especially the introduction of an effective policy of administration and economic development. Such difficulty, created by the demography of the colony, could define the success or failure of any administrator. The CO felt that the lethargic administration of Sadler could not solve the challenges confronting the protectorate and sought Sir Percy to govern the affairs of the protectorate so that he could fix the protectorates administrative and economic predicaments. Having successfully built a railroad in the Sudan, Transvaal and Northern Nigeria, it was possible to suggest that a successful engineer might not necessarily be a successful administrator, having failed to fix the challenges confronting the protectorate, despite his lengthy proposed reform and a relatively free hand given to him by the CO.;Sir Percy's proposed reforms failed in a similar manner like his predecessor, his performance in these areas, especially, land question, produced difficulty rather than mitigating the difficult position of prospective immigrants farmers either from the South Africa or England or elsewhere. In view of its many attendant disabilities, Sir Percy, like his predecessor, also failed to solve the problems of the protectorate and that the administration of the protectorate remained weak as it had been without any change. This was as a result of the internal dynamics of the protectorate, which suggested that even the most presumed best performing administrator

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