Dethronement of Nigerian traditional rulers in historical perspective

The imposition of colonial rule on the various peoples comprising Nigeria was achieved by the British ‘gunboat or machine gun diplomacy’. Gunboat was applied on the recalcitrant coastal monarchs and the machine gun on their counterparts in the hinterlands. The affected traditional rulers either accepted the terms dictated by Britain and lost their powers to same or had to bow (together with their armies) to the superior British firepower.

The powers enjoyed by the traditional rulers in Nigeria under the indigenous monarchical institution were already lost even before the formal imposition of the British colonial rule. These indigenous potentates, on their parts, had put up their fights to secure their thrones against foreign invaders but were overpowered and conquered by superior military might and technology.

The British, on their part, had viewed their colonial enterprise in Nigeria as a business venture. Any kings or rulers that stood in their ways were kept in their places. The gunboat or machine gun diplomacy referred to above came in very handy at this early period. Traditional rulers that could accept and adjust fast to the new situation were spared and their stools adapted to serve colonial ends. A few of them that showed courage and withstood the colonial forces were quickly defeated, removed and replaced by their more pliant kinsmen that could play along under the colonial situation.

Nigerian Traditional Monarchs Deposed during the British Colonial Raids

For space, only three examples might be called up here to show how Britain subdued Nigerian traditional rulers and divested them of their powers. Nana Olomu of Itshekiri was considered, by the British traders, as interfering with smooth trade on the Oil River (as the Niger Delta was then called) by the last decade of the 19th Century. Levelling both real and trumped up charges against him, Olomu’s base at Ebrohimi was ceaselessly bombarded into submission in 1894. He, himself, was captured and deported to the Gold Coast (modern Ghana) in the same year.

In the same vein, Oba Overamwen of Benin suffered similar fate only three years later. The Benin monarch was considered even a greater impediment to British trade than Nana Olomu of Itshekiri. Consul James Phillips (the British colonial officer in charge of the area) had wanted to visit Benin in the late 1896 to discuss trade.

Overamwen forbad him and sent an emissary to intercept him and persuade him to postpone the journey because he was celebrating Igue Festival during which it was a taboo for strangers to enter Benin. The message from the emissaries would not sway Phillips. In the fray that ensued between him and Overamwen’s messengers, Phillips was murdered and that became an excuse for Britain to attack Benin. In the early 1897, a British Expeditionary Force marched on Benin and pounded the city into submission. Oba Overamwen was captured, tried and deported to the Old Calabar. For details on Nana Olomu and Overamwen, see Obaro Ikime (ed), Groundwork of Nigerian History.

Even more dramatic was the encounter between Sultan Muhammed Attahiru of Sokoto and the forces of the Royal Niger Company. He clearly understood the new situation of colonial invasion on the traditional institutions. He bluntly refused to bow to the imperial army. He personally led his cavalry forces of three companies against the army of the Royal Niger Company who had mounted machine guns in strategic places. At the battle which took place early in the morning on March 15, 1903, many of Attahiru’s horses and their riders had come under heavy machine gun shelling and the casualties were overwhelming and it wasn’t long before he was soundly defeated together with his army. This marked the end of Sokoto Caliphate independent of colonial rule. For more on the capture of Sokoto, see H.A.S. Johnston, The Fulani Empire of Sokoto.

Deposition of Traditional Rulers under Colonial Rule

By the time the colonial rule proper has taken shape, it was no longer in doubt as to the fact that the fates of the traditional stools and their occupants were in the hands of the colonial authorities. The traditional rulers were appointed to head the native Authorities (the equivalent of today’s Local Government Areas). They were responsible to and supervised by the British District Officers. By this arrangement, the traditional rulers became part of the colonial administration and their appointment and removal became vested in the colonial officers.

Without going into many details here, some works by Nigerian historians did show that certain kings that ran foul of their masters’ instructions were summarily removed and replaced administratively. For instance, Tunde Oduwobi’s study did show that a sitting Awujale of Ijebu-Ode and an Akarigbo of Ijebu-Remo were, at different times, removed and replaced by the British colonial officers.

For details on this, see Tunde Oduwobi, “Deposed Rulers under the Colonial Regime in Nigeria: the Careers of Akarigbo Oyebajo and Awujale Adenuga” in Cahiers d’etudes Africaine.

As far as the colonial officers were concerned, any matter that involved or called for the removal and replacement of a traditional ruler was not considered a big deal. It was considered simply as dealing appropriately with issues of administrative infractions on the part of the affected traditional ruler. With the introduction of internal self-government before independence, the Alaafin of Oyo, Adeyemi Adeniran II, was dethroned from office by the Awolowo-led Action Group (A.G) government for charges pertaining to the Alaafin’s alleged show of sympathy for the National Council of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC) in an A.G-controlled Region.

The fact that only very senior traditional rulers were cited as examples here did not limit the victims of deposition to that category alone. It applied to rulers of all ranks that were considered to have infracted the rules sufficiently to warrant removal.

Deposition of Traditional Rulers in the Post-independence Nigeria

In more recent post-independence period in Nigeria, there had been cases of removal of traditional rulers from office by the governors who had assumed the powers of hire and fire over these rulers. Some of the cases of deposed kings and emirs in Nigeria since independence were cited below.

On August 12, 1986, Governor Yohana Madaki of Gongola State removed Umaru Tukur as Emir of Muri and Chairman of Muri Emirate Council. In the same vein, General Sani Abacha dethroned Ibrahim Dasuki as the Sultan of Sokoto on April 20, 1996. In 2009, Oluwadare Adesina was removed as Deji of Akure by Governor Olusegun Mimiko for domestic violence against his wife (Adesina’s wife). For more on the last three examples, see Chinedu Asadu, “Seven Monarchs Dethroned like Sanusi.

Conclusion

This article had traced the history of the dethronement of traditional rulers in Nigeria since the pre-colonial times. The goal was to demonstrate that the powers the traditional rulers were often perceived to possess under the present dispensation were actually false. Their original powers derived from their respective cultures and values and the traditional priests were instrumental in investing these powers on the rulers. However, the subjugation of the Nigerian people under the colonial rule brought on the total loss of these powers.

What only remained of the monarchical institutions in Nigeria was the form while the essence or the substance was totally gone. It should be remarked, however, that most Nigerian governors do respect the traditional rulers a lot for both cultural and political reasons. The reason was cultural because these governors emerged from these cultural areas where traditional rulers were revered by all and sundry. It was also political because most aspiring governors did count on the supports of the traditional rulers to help mobilise their subjects to vote.

The fate just suffered by the immediate past Emir of Kano, Alhaji Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, was perfectly in line with the foregoing explanations of the fact that the traditional rulers were at the mercies of the governors and not the other way round. It can, therefore, be concluded that the deposition of traditional rulers in Nigeria only happen as the last resort after all conciliatory and diplomatic avenues had been explored to no avail.

R.F. Obinta, PhD
Department of History,
Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria.