A BRIEF VIEW OF WARRANT CHIEF SYSTEM AND THE IGWE INSTITUTION IN EASTERN NIGERIA

 

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.

 Picture: Ojiako Ezenne (center), with his mother (on his right), brother (Nnoli Ezenne), and his wives. Circa 1913. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ojiako_Ezenne.jpg.

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.