Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-01T03:21:01.632Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

British Rule and Indigenous Organization in Nigeria: A Case-Study in Normative-Institutional Change*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

Alvin Magid
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The article examines administrative policy in Idoma (Northern Nigeria) as a response to two dilemmas confronting the colonial power: (1) how to reconcile a persistent, even if varyingly intense, commitment to indirect rule with a desire for institutional change; (2) how to reconcile a synthesis of the two with the longrange objective of normative change, including ‘progress’ and ‘administrative efficiency’. While normative change remained a long-range colonial objective, institutional change assumed the highest short-range priority.

Institutional change involved a pendular course of development: on the one hand, cultivation of strong chieftaincy and centralization based on the Fulani model; on the other, ‘democratization’, rooted first in traditional Idoma constitutionalism, and finally in Western notions of majoritarian local government. These developments are traced through three historical phases. (1) 1908–1930: occupation, pacification, boundary adjustment, and the quest for an indigenous leadership; (2) 1931–1945: systematic implementation of, and subsequent retreat from, the policy of Indirect Rule; (3) Post-World War II: centralization and ‘democratization’ of the Idoma Native Authority or local government establishment. Paradoxically, ‘democratization’ promoted the centralization of authority in Idoma.

By 1960, when Nigeria became independent, it could fairly be said that the colonial power's culminating exercises in institutional change were successful. Politically and administratively, Idoma was centralized as never before. That it had yet to experience the efficiency which might have resulted from longrange normative change did not detract from that achievement.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 9 , Issue 2 , April 1968 , pp. 299 - 313
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1968

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Lugard, F. D., The Dual Mandate in British Tropical Africa (London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1923), 1 ff.;Google ScholarCameron, Donald, The Principles of Native Administration and their Application (Lagos, Nigeria: Government Printer, 1934), 1 ff.;Google ScholarPerham, Margery, Native Administration in Nigeria (London: Oxford University Press, 1962), ch. 20.Google Scholar

2 Cameron, , op. cit. 4, 5.Google Scholar

3 Smith, M. G., ‘On segmentary lineage systems’, J. R. Anthrop. Inst. Gt. Br. Irel. LXXXVI, Pt 2 (1956), 63.Google Scholar

4 Laird, Macgregor and Oldfield, R. A. K., Narrative of an Expedition into the Interior of Africa by the Niger River… 1832, 1833, 1834, I (London: Richard Bentley, 1837), 442 ff.;Google ScholarCrowther, Samuel, Journal of an Expedition up the Niger and Tshadda Rivers in 1854 (London: Church Missionary Society, 1855), 53ff.;Google ScholarBurdo, Adolphe, The Niger and the Benueh: Travels in Central Africa (London: Richard Bentley, 1880), 239ff.;Google ScholarMockler-Ferryman, A. F., Up the Niger: A Narrative of Major Claude Macdonald's Mission to the Niger and Benue Rivers, West Africa (London: George Philip and Son, 1892), 72ff., 132–4.Google Scholar

5 Mockler-Ferryman, , op. cit. 76.Google Scholar

6 Approximately 225,000 Idoma reside in sixteen of the twenty-two districts of Idoma Division (Benue Province). That division is bordered by the Benue River (north), Tiv Division, Benue Province (east), Igala Division, Kabba Province (west), Enugu, Abakaliki, and Ogoja Provinces, Eastern Region of Nigeria (south).

7 Miss Perham notes that European personnel tended to emphasize institutional change rather than Lugard's ‘primarily educative’ function or normative change. Perham, op. cit., ch. 10; Lugard, , op. cit. 228–9.Google Scholar

8 This section summarizes material presented in my ‘District Councillorship in an African Society: a study in role and conflict resolution’ (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Political Science, Michigan State University, 1965), ch. 4.Google Scholar

9 The clan headship rotated among senior members of the constituent lineages. The oche in clans of central and northern Idoma combined spiritual and secular authority; in the clans of southern Idoma his authority was exclusively secular.

10 Less systematic penetrations of the area were made as early as 1899. Northern Nigeria, Bassa Province, ‘Note on general and political developments in the area of Bassa Province’ (unpublished manuscript, Ca. 1910).

11 Armstrong, Robert G., ‘The Idoma-speaking peoples’, in Peoples of the Niger–Benue Confluence, ed. Forde, Daryll (London: International African Institute, 98, n. 15.Google Scholar

12 Northern Nigeria, Munshi Province, ‘Report no. 1 on Okwoga District for half-year ending June 30, 1919’, Annual Reports, 1919–1925 (unpublished).Google Scholar

13 Och'mbeke refers generally to any administration-appointed ‘chief’ or headman. Since World War II it has been applied to District Heads and combined Clan–District Heads. The word mbeke is a corruption of the name ‘Becker’ Dr Becker was an early European traveller in the area.

14 Northern Nigeria, Annual Reports, 1900–1911, 26Google Scholar (cited in Perham, , op. cit 37–8);Google ScholarLugard, F. D., Report on the Amalgamation of Northern and Southern Nigeria, and Administration, 1912–1919 (London: H.M. Stationery Office, 1920), 22.Google Scholar

15 Northern Nigeria, Munshi Province, ‘Report on Okwoga District for half-year ending December 31, 1919’, Annual Reports, 1919–1925 (unpublished).Google Scholar

16 Northern Nigeria, Munshi Province, ‘Report on Okwoga District for half-year ending December 31, 1919’, op. cit.; Northern Nigeria, Munshi Province, ‘Report on Okwoga Division’, Annual Report, 1920 (unpublished).Google Scholar

17 This policy was abandoned for two reasons: (1) Idoma hostility toward ‘stranger chiefs’, and (2) the generally hostile attitude of the Northern Provinces Administration toward the ‘Warrant Chief’ policy adopted in the Southern Provinces.

18 Northern Nigeria, Munshi Province, ‘Report on Okwoga Division for half-year ending December 31, 1922’, Annual Reports, 1919–1925 (unpublished).Google Scholar

19 Northern Nigeria, Munshi Province, ‘Report on Okwoga Division for quarter ending June 30, 1923’, Annual Reports, 1919–1925 (unpublished).Google Scholar

20 Northern Nigeria, Munshi Province, ‘Report on Okwoga Division’, Annual Report, 1923 (unpublished).Google Scholar

21 Heath, D. F., ‘Notes on Idoma Division’ (unpublished MS., 1935).Google Scholar

22 Money, G. D. C., ‘Notes on procedure in Idoma Division’ (unpublished MS., 1935; Heath, op. cit.Google Scholar

23 Northern Nigeria, Benue Province, Annual Report for Idoma Division, 1930 (unpublished).Google Scholar

24 Money, op. cit.; Heath, op. cit. For a vivid description of the Central Council, see Crocker, W. R., Nigeria: A Critique of British Colonial Administration (London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd., 1936), 66–7.Google Scholar

25 Northern Nigeria, Benue Province, Annual Report for Idoma Division, 1927 (unpublished).Google Scholar

26 See, for example, Crocker, , op. cit., 5–277;Google ScholarCameron, , op. cit., passim.Google Scholar

27 Perham, , op. cit., passim;Google ScholarPerham, Margery, ‘The system of native administration in Tanganyika’, Africa, IV (1931 ), 310–11;Google ScholarPerham, Margery, ‘A restatement of indirect rule, Africa, VII (1934), 321–34;CrossRefGoogle ScholarPerham, Margery, Lugard, 2 vols. (London: Collins, 1956, 1960), passim.Google Scholar

28 Perham, Margery, ‘Problems of indirect rule’, East Africa (12 04 1934), 622 (cited in Northern Nigeria, Benue Province, ‘Memorandum from Secretary, Northern Provinces, to Benue Province Resident and Idoma Senior District Officer (unpublished, 11 May, 1934).Google Scholar

29 Northern Nigeria, Benue Province, Idoma Native Authority, ‘Memorandum from Idoma Senior District Officer to Benue Province Resident on Idoma Tribal and Social Organization’ (unpublished, 31 08 1931).Google Scholar

30 See, for example, Leslie, S. A. S., ‘Reorganization report for Yangedde District’ (unpublished MS., 1936);Google ScholarMoney, G. D. C., ‘Reorganization Report for Oturkpo District’ (unpublished MS.,1935).Google Scholar

31 Northern Nigeria, Benue Province, Idoma Native Authority, ‘Memorandum from Idoma Senior District Officer to Benue Province Resident’ (unpublished, 11 11. 1933).Google Scholar

32 Leslie, op. cit.; Money, , ‘Reorganization Report…’, op. cit.Google Scholar

33 In fact, European officers continued to control the appointment and dismissal of scribes, police, and so forth.

34 Leslie, op. cit.; Money, , ‘Reorganization Report…’, op. cit.Google Scholar

35 Northern Nigeria, Benue Province, ‘Memorandum from Secretary, Northern Provinces, to Benue Province Resident and Idoma Senior District Officer’ (unpublished, 11 05 1934).Google Scholar

36 Leslie, op. cit.; Money, , ‘Reorganization Report…’, op. cit.Google Scholar

37 Northern Nigeria, Benue Province, Idoma Native Authority, ‘Memorandum from Idoma District Officer to Idoma Senior District Officer’ (unpublished, 22 08 1938).Google Scholar

38 Northern Nigeria, Benue Province, Annual Report for Idoma Division, 1939 (unpublished), 54.Google Scholar

39 Heath, , ‘Notes on Idoma Division’, op. cit.Google Scholar

40 Northern Nigeria, Benue Province, Annual Report for Idoma Division, 1948 (unpublished).Google Scholar

41 Northern Nigeria, Benue Province, Annual Report for Idoma Division, 1950 (unpublished).Google Scholar

42 See, for example, Coleman, James S., Nigeria: Background to Nationalism (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1958), part 4;Google ScholarApter, David E., The Gold Coast in Transition (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1955), 141 ff. I have drawn from Coleman (pp. 271−95) for the discussion of developments in Nigeria.Google Scholar

43 Perham, , Native Administration in Nigeria, op. cit., 362.Google Scholar

44 Proposals for the Revision of the Constitution of Nigeria, Cmd. 6599 (London: H.M. Stationery Office, 1945),Google Scholar cited in Coleman, , op.cit. 271.Google Scholar

45 Many youths, including literates in the Idoma Hope Rising Union, supported centralization under a divisional chieftaincy in order to break the political stranglehold of traditionalist District and Clan Heads. By 1949, however, many IHRU members opposed the formal inauguration of an allegedly conservative and corrupt Och'Idoma.

46 Northern Nigeria, Benue Province, Annual Report for Idoma Division, 1950 (unpublished).Google Scholar

47 Ibid.

48 Northern Nigeria, Benue Province, Annual Report for Idoma Division, 1952 (unpublished).Google Scholar

49 Cowan, L. Gray, Local Government in West Africa (New York: Columbia University Press, 1959), 79. I have drawn from Cowan (pp. 79–83) for the discussion of developments in the Northern Region of Nigeria.Google Scholar

50 Maddocks, K. P. and Pott, D. A., Local Government in the Northern Provinces of Nigeria (Kaduna: Government Printer, 1951), 1–35.Google Scholar

51 Northern Nigeria, Native Authority Law of 1954 (Kaduna: Government Printer, 1961), 1–75.Google Scholar

52 Northern Nigeria, Ministry for Local Government, The Idoma Native Authority District Councils Instruments, 1958 (Kaduna: Government Printer, 3 03 1958).Google Scholar

53 Northern Nigeria, Benue Province, Idoma Native Authority, Minutes of Executive Meetings (unpublished, 20 Aug. 1958). Administrative Councillors were elected for a three-year term. Each Administrative Councillor headed a department in the N.A.The four main departments are Finance, Local Government, Police-Judiciary, and Works.

54 Technically, the Portfolio Councillor is merely a consultant, in contrast to the Administrative Councillor who is an executive. In Idoma the distinction is a meaningless one. Northern Nigeria, Ministry for Local Government, Duties of Councillors (unpublished circular no. MLG. 42/82, 12 09 1962).Google Scholar

55 Northern Nigeria, Benue Province, Idoma Native Authority, Minutes of Executive Meetings (unpublished, 6 06 1957).Google Scholar

56 Northern Nigeria, Benue Province, Idoma Native Authority, Minutes of Executive Meetings (unpublished, 22 01 1958).Google Scholar

57 In order to prepare for the newly adopted penal code, the six Court Presidents and several Court Members were dispatched to the Legal Branch, Institute for Administration (Zaria). There they received intensive training in substantive law and court procedure.

58 Disorderliness and chaos, often described euphemistically as ‘inefficiency’, is a theme running through administrative and intelligence reports of the period. For some frank observations by an officer posted to Idoma, see Crocker, , op. cit. 65–95.Google Scholar

59 The Administration conceded the lag between institutional and normative change on the eve of independence. It was particularly sensitive to administrative inefficiency in Idoma. Northern Nigeria, Benue Province, Idoma Native Authority, ‘Memorandum from Idoma Senior District Officer to Benue Province Resident’ (unpublished, 5 09 1958).Google Scholar