TRADITIONAL RULERS AND GOVERNANCE IN NIGERIA: THE COLONIAL AND POST-COLONIAL PERIODS CONSIDERED

Abstract

In the recent times, Nigerian traditional rulers have been championing a sustained call for constitutional role for themselves. Even some of them with any faintest idea about the constitutional powers, rights and privileges of traditional rulers during the colonial period and Nigeria's First Republic have often joined in making the call. For instance, in a communique issued at the end of its Sixth General Assembly held in Sokoto, Sokoto State, between 5th and 6th November, 2013, the National Council of Traditional Rulers of Nigeria (NCTRN) reiterated, among other things, that, “considering the historical disposition and status of traditional rulers (as the custodians and sustainers of the cultural and traditional values of the people), the need to enhance the recognition of the traditional institution in the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”