By Jeff Unaegbu (February 8, 2022)
Being a Note in the Online blog: jeffunaegbu.blogspot.com.
The Warrant Chief system in Southern
Nigeria was amorphous in structure from 1891 to 1900, then it became formalized
from May 1900 with the Native Courts Proclamation. A. E Afigbo (1981:147) saw
the warrant issued to the chiefs as an attempt to “legalize the power they
exercised over their fellow countrymen, each of them … was given a certificate
to that effect. This certificate was known as warrant and partly for this
reason the chiefs came to be known as warrant chiefs”. In 1916, Sir Frederick
Lugard passed the Native Authority Ordinance with the aim of reinforcing the
power of local rulers throughout Nigeria. Many warrant chiefs were proclaimed
Paramount Chiefs (Njoku, 2008:40). The warrant chief system was shaken to its
core in 1929 as a result of the Aba Women riots against direct taxation
(Afigbo, 1964). In his report of 1915, Herbert Richmand Palmer wrote that the Warrant
Chiefs were “more adaptable natives of the successful
trader type” (Afigbo, 1967:691) (emphasis mine). While this was true for many
Igbo communities more attuned to
democracy, individuals who became warrant chiefs close to and in the West
of the Niger (Nri, Asaba, Agbor, Issele-Ukwu, Oguta, Onitsha etc.) were mostly
hereditary chiefs and kings, more
attuned to monarchism (Ejiofor, 1982:5). According to Ejiofor (1982:5), in
pre-colonial times, the democratic model did not have chiefs, but ‘they were at
best symbolic heads of village groups”. Every family had a natural head by
right of age or primogeniture who represented the family in larger kinship
gatherings. The setting was a true democratic republic.
In the midst of the angst generated
against warrant chiefs who were not true chiefs, the second governor of Nigeria
(1919-1925), Sir Hugh Clifford, tried to displace the “upstarts” who became
warrant chiefs and replace them with true chiefs wherever possible. In a bid to
create native treasuries like in Northern Nigeria where direct taxation kept
the Indirect Rule System vibrant, the British administration introduced direct
taxation in Eastern Nigeria. Even women became assessed for taxation. Women
rose in protest, demanding why they “were being assessed for taxation” (Korieh,
2010:126). This was the beginning of the Aba Women Riots of 1929. The Warrant
Chief System was abolished. In 1933, the then Governor Cameron issued two
ordinances (the Native Authority Ordinance and the Native Court Ordinance). The
Native Authority witnessed some changes; “Native Treasuries and new type of
courts were set up. No new chiefs were created but existing or surviving ones
were to remain and be integrated into the new system” (Nkwuaku, 2014:4)
(Ikenga, 1999:57). Thus, Native Authority Councils became more fashionable.
People had more power to nominate their traditional rulers. This caused
unpopular warrant chiefs to lose their warrants. More reliable Warrant Chiefs
were remodeled as Paramount Chiefs (Adegbulu 2011:7).
With the formation of the Eastern House
of Chiefs in 1958, some offspring of the Warrant Chiefs were nominated to
represent their towns in the House. Thus, many of them struggled to carry on
the royalty of their predecessors, but they were faced with increasing pressure
from new, educated and wealthy men who were also eligible for the traditional
stools as allowed by the government. The Eastern House of Chiefs was dissolved
in the wake of the military coup of January 15, 1966 (Harneit-Sievers,
1998:63). In 1976, the local government reforms by military governors were
carried out. One of the structures put in place to reform the local government
was the official recognition and political backing of traditional kingship. The
government realized that it needed kings to influence the minds of the people
and get to feel their pulse as well as have them as culture reference points or
culture bearers. To further emphasize the roles of traditional rulers, a fourth
level of governance was introduced, which were autonomous communities. In this
arrangement, a traditional ruler would become recognized as leading a single
autonomous community, and his governance would become very important. The
autonomous communities became constituencies for the would-be chiefs. The
Obasanjo regime passed the September 2, 1976 Chieftaincy Edict creating the Eze
or Igwe chieftaincy institution in each autonomous community after the
recommendations from a committee chaired by Professor Adiele E. Afigbo
(Harneit-Sievers, 1998:64). This promulgation resulted in a scramble for the
thrones. For example, in Anambra, after the first Military governor of the
State, Colonel John Atom Kpera, promulgated the Chieftaincy Edict, it resulted
in a rush for recognized positions as Traditional Rulers under the control of
the governor. The first 124 Traditional Rulers were recognized by early
December, 1976 (Harneit-Sievers, 1998:65). Thus, since the reforms of 1976, the
Igweship institution had come to stay till date.
REFERENCES:
A.E.
Afigbo. (1981). “Eastern Provinces Under Colonial Rule”, in Obaro Ikime, (ed.) Ground Work of Nigerian History, Ibadan:
Heinemann, pp.147-148.
Afigbo, Adiele E. (1964). “The Warrant Chief System In Eastern Nigeria 1900-1929”, being a PhD
Thesis submitted to the University of Ibadan.
Afigbo, Adiele E. (1967). “The Warrant Chief System In Eastern Nigeria: Direct Or Indirect Rule?”
Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria, Vol. 3, No.
4, June
Afigbo,
Adiele E. (1972). The Warrant Chiefs: Indirect Rule in Southeastern
Nigeria, 1891–1929. Humanity Press.
Chima
J. Korieh. "The land has changed: history, society and gender in colonial
Eastern Nigeria". Series: Africa, missing voices series 6, University of
Calgary Press, Calgary, Alberta, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/1880/48254
Chimaroke Nnamani, ‘Chieftaincy and Security in
Nigeria,’: An Overview of non-centralised East-West Niger Igbo. Paper delivered
at the National Conference on Chieftaincy and Security in Nigeria, Murtala
Muhammed Library Complex, Ahmadu Bello Way, Kano City, October 13, 2003. 19.
Femi Adegbulu (2011). “From Warrant Chiefs To
Ezeship: A Distortion Of Traditional Institutions In Igboland?”, Afro Asian
Journal of Social Sciences Volume 2, No. 2.
Harneit-Sievers,
A. (1998). “Igbo ‘Traditional Rulers’: Chieftaincy and the State in
Southeastern Nigeria”. Africa Spectrum, Vol.
33, No. 1.
Lambert Ejiofor, Igbo Kingdoms, Onitsha, African
Publishers, 1982, p. 5.
Njoku,
R.C. (2008). “"Ọgaranya"
(Wealthy Men) in Late Nineteenth Century Igboland: Chief Igwebe Ọdum of
Arondizuogu, c.1860-1940”, African Economic History, Vol.
36.
Nkwuaku,
O. A. (2014). “Igwe Succession Dispute
In Enugwu-Ukwu, 2007-2011”, being a Research Project submitted for the
Degree of Master of Arts (M.A.) in Department of History and International
Studies, University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
