The Role of Propaganda in the Development of Indirect Rule in Nigeria, 1890-1929

Abstract

The British policy of indirect rule has for some time occupied attention of a number of scholars.' Influenced strongly by reports of colonial administrators,2 these scholars have stressed following socioeconomic factors in explaining reasons for development of indirect rule in Nigeria: shortage of staff, the quest for cheap administration, official determination to achieve continuity of administration in view of unfavorable climate of region, need to avoid difficult task of abolishing traditional systems altogether in teeth of spirited opposition by people, and finally argument that use of chiefs was developed from British conception of protectorate at that time.3 These factors may well have shaped British policy in earlier period of colonial rule, but here it is argued that they can neither satisfactorily account for long continuance of indirect rule ideas and policies, nor explain why what was intended to be a temporary