Answer to Question #298295 in Political Science for Favvy

Question

1) Meaning of indirect rule and the problems

2) Pre-colonial societies: centralised and decentralized societies in nigeria

Answer 1

1) Indirect rule was a system of governance used by the British and others to control parts of their colonial empires, particularly in Africa and Asia, which was done through pre-existing indigenous power structures. It is cheap to administer, and that was the core reason for indirect rule in Nigeria was because of the cheap nature of the system. Since indirect rule used the local authorities, the colonial masters didn't spend too much money on the administration.

The problems of the indirect rule are that;

(i) Indirect rule excluded educated elites from the colonial administration.

(ii) It increased the powers of traditional rulers without regard to building traditional checks and balances.

(iii) It imposed warrant chiefs, taxation where there was none.

2) Given that many areas in present-day Northeast and Northwest Nigeria, including the current states of Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Kebbi, and Kaduna, to name a few, were part of centralized ethnic states 7 in the precolonial era and have some of the poorest development outcomes in the country today.

There were several decentralized states in pre-colonial Nigeria, among them were: Igbo, Tiv, Idoma, Ebira, Igbo, Urhobo, Ijo (Ijaw), Oro(Oron), Ibibio, Anang. Decentralized states lack central political institutions; power is never invested in an individual group or a group of individuals.