Theory question 109
Colonial Administration(a) Explain the term Native Authority.
(b) State four defects of the Indirect Rule system.
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(a) The Native Authority was the local administrative unit under indirect rule: a traditional ruler (e.g. emir) and his council recognised by the British to govern their people (collect taxes, keep order, run native courts and treasuries) under the supervision of British officers (Residents/District Officers).
(b) Any four: made chiefs autocratic and answerable to the British rather than their people; excluded the educated elite; imposed warrant chiefs where there were no chiefs (e.g. Igboland), causing resistance like the 1929 Aba women's riot; slowed the North's development (kept out missions and western education); encouraged ethnic division/separate development of North and South; chiefs lost respect as tools of the colonial government; encouraged corruption and extortion by chiefs.
Link each defect to how indirect rule actually worked.