The Relevance of Traditional Rulers in Contemporary Nigeria’s Governance
Chapter One
Objectives of the Study
The research is aimed at unveiling the roles of the traditional rulers, their impact in government and how they can contribute to a more viable united Nigeria.
In this effort, the researcher shall delve into the past and shall critically examine the present to enable him project into the future.
To be concise, these objectives are:
- To examine carefully the roles of traditional rulers in the present democratic governance.
- To evaluate their roles and effectiveness over the years to the present democratic government.
- To examine if they have become more or less relevant and determine why they are so as the case may be.
- To ascertain whether Political and military government’s interference in traditional affairs has been a threat to their relevance in contemporary governance.
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
INTRODUCTION
The debate over the relevance of traditional rulers in contemporary Nigeria’s governance is highly controversial. The reason for this confusion is due to the fact that before colonialism as well as a substantial part of the colonial era that predates Nigeria’s independence, traditional rulers played active roles in the governance and development of the country’s polity. It is therefore surprising that the essence of these vital institution and traditional elites are being questioned in the emerging political order.
There are divergent views and opinions in this controversy. Egwurube as cited by Tonwe and Ola (Tonwe, and Ola 2005:169) Identified three schools of thoughts. According to him (Egwurube) there exists the Retentionist school, the Abolitionist school and the Political enhancement school of thoughts.
The Abolitionist school of thought contended that the marriage between traditional rulers and the democratically elected elites in Nigerian politics is unholy and should be divorced. They argued further that the Traditional Rulers in the modernizing Nigerian democracy is an anachronism. The protagonists of this school of thought contended the constitutional provision of the 1979, 1989 and 1999 constitutions which guarantees local government elected officials and traditional rulers working side by side as anomalous (Aghayere, 1997:185).
They also opined that traditional institutions are ascriptive while the contemporary state is democratic. In other words, the era of hereditary leadership or natural rulers as envisaged in 1914 by Lord Lugard is archaic.
In the views of Uche Nwora (2007), partisanship in politics, defecation of traditional values, lack of integrity by some money – for chieftancy policies, in-fighting and “Igweship”, “Ezeship”, “Obaship”, “Ovieship” tussles have eroded their values and should be abolished.
There is no doubt that many traditional rulers are educated and as such can adapt modern thoughts and ideology but the exigency of politics and the easy manner in which some of the traditional rulers succumb to manipulations leaves much to be desired. The “political mannerism” of the Late General Sanni Abacha where some traditional rulers were shown to have towed the path of the military head of state remained fresh in the memories of Nigerians.
Another indication which corroborates with Uche Nworah’s perception is the proliferation of chieftancy titles or honorary chiefs without potfolios or roles in the society. Many thieves and public robbers including criminalized politicians are given chieftancy titles. Such recognition by traditional rulers has created a society with false values and negative role models (Uche Nworah, 2007).
The agitation for republicanism or the desire of people to decide their affairs rather than having a supreme human Lording it over them made this school of thought to condemn the traditional rulers and their institutions in its entirety and strongly advocated its abolition (Ibid).
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research design
The researcher used descriptive research survey design in building up this project work the choice of this research design was considered appropriate because of its advantages of identifying attributes of a large population from a group of individuals. The design was suitable for the study as the study sought to examine the relevance of traditional rulers in contemporary Nigeria.
Sources of data collection
Data were collected from two main sources namely:
- Primary source and
- Secondary source
Primary source:
These are materials of statistical investigation which were collected by the research for a particular purpose. They can be obtained through a survey, observation questionnaire or as experiment; the researcher has adopted the questionnaire method for this study.
Secondary source:
These are data from textbook Journal handset etc. they arise as byproducts of the same other purposes. Example administration, various other unpublished works and write ups were also used.
Population of the study
Population of a study is a group of persons or aggregate items, things the researcher is interested in gathering information relevant to the relevance of traditional rulers in contemporary Nigeria. 200 members of traditional rulers council in Ado ekiti, Ekiti state was selected randomly by the researcher as the population of the study.
CHAPTER FOUR
ANALYSIS AND PRESENTATION OF DATA
One hundred and sixty (160) questionnaires were distributed and one hundred and forty (133) were returned. This figure was the sample size. Out of the one hundred and thirty-three, only one hundred and twenty (120) were properly responded to. As a result, the researcher used one hundred and twenty for this study when more than 50% of the respondents agree to the questions, the answer is taken as valid for the purpose of this study. In analyzing the data, the approach that will be adopted is to find out the percentage and positive and negative answers to the question posed.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Introduction
It is important to ascertain that the objective of this study was to ascertain the relevance of traditional rulers in contemporary Nigeria. In the preceding chapter, the relevant data collected for this study were presented, critically analyzed and appropriate interpretation given. In this chapter, certain recommendations made which in the opinion of the researcher will be of benefits in addressing the challenges of relevance of traditional rulers in contemporary Nigeria
Summary
This study was on the relevance of traditional rulers in contemporary Nigeria. Four objectives were raised which included: To examine carefully the roles of traditional rulers in the present democratic governance, to evaluate their roles and effectiveness over the years to the present democratic government, to examine if they have become more or less relevant and determine why they are so as the case may be and to ascertain whether Political and military government’s interference in traditional affairs has been a threat to their relevance in contemporary governance. In line with these objectives, four research question were formulated answered. The total population for the study is 200 members of traditional council in Ado ekiti, Ekiti state. The researcher used questionnaires as the instrument for the data collection. Descriptive Survey research design was adopted for this study. A total of 133 respondents made chiefs, secretaries, announcers and elders were used for the study. The data collected were presented in tables and analyzed using simple percentages and frequencies
Conclusion
The study concluded that, before the advent of the colonial administration, traditional institutions played a significant role in the democratic set up, to regain the proper role of the traditional institutions in the national development, there is pressing need for the government or Nigerian state to reinforce the traditional institutions of governance by rapidly specifying their roles and their mode of operations in the Nigerian Constitution to support their activities, in this regard some lawful outline and backing should be put in place. With this, the traditional institutions of governance would have been wholly disconnected from the bibs of political mixing with the politicians so that the traditional organizations would recover their respects and values in a bid to exercising the kind of power they had before and during the colonial era in democratic movements. The paper accomplishes by investigating the possible advantage of reintegrating the traditional institutions into Nigeria system of governance such as the provision of the basic moral and political awareness for the citizen through massive political mobilization. The study noted and concludes that traditional institution if well unified can help in minimizing issues such as ethnic relegation and ethnic crises as well as religious disputes that arise as a result of political interest through societal laws and customs process that assured the spirit of the relationship after conflict. If all traditional institution is not the grief of the issue of relevance rather than the constitutional role and an effective re-integration will help to provide sustainable peace, development, and democracy
Recommendation
Without attempting to further diminish Nigeria’s already eroded federal system, there should be provisions in the constitution that would enable traditional rulers exert greater leverage over their communities and domains. The states of the federation should make laws that empower traditional rulers and institutions to play a more active role in the maintenance of law and order
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