Administrative Convenience or Deliberate Reform? The Impacts of the Colonial Judicial Legacy of the Pre-Colonial Justice System in South-Western Nigeria

In pre-colonial times, the ethnic groups that independently existed in the territory now called Nigeria had organized systems of government. However, the sweeping force of nineteenth-century colonialism erased most of these pre-colonial governments’ institutions and replaced them with the British system. Notably, in South-Western Nigeria (Yorubaland), historical evidence revealed the existence of a constitutional monarchy with organized branches of government. Especially, the pre-colonial judicial branch/justice system of the Yoruba monarchy was radically altered by colonialism.

Using the interdisciplinary methodology, this research answered questions related to the structures and procedures of the pre-colonial justice system in South-Western Nigeria and how it is indelibly impacted by colonialism. In its systematic, and expository narration, this research found an inseparable nexus between lawfare and force as instruments of colonial distortion of the pre-colonial justice system of South-Western Nigeria. Thus, this work augments an aspect of the almost neglected field of African/Nigerian legal history.