The capital of the Niger Protectorate State (non-coastal Nigeria, 1883-1900) was Old Calabar (Akwa Akpa) now known as Calabar. In 1900, the old Oil Rivers Protectorate was merged to form the Northern Nigerian Protectorate (1900-1914) with its capital at Zungeru.

The state was merged with the Southern Nigerian protectorate (centered in Lagos) in 1914.

Lagos, which had been its own colony from 1862 to 1906, became the unified colonial capital in 1914, and was the first capital of independent Nigeria in 1960.