Why did the educated elites oppose the introduction of Indirect Rule in Southern Nigeria?

Answer Details

Why the educated elites opposed the introduction of Indirect Rule in Southern Nigeria

1. It excluded them from government. Indirect Rule governed through traditional chiefs, leaving the Western-educated elites with no meaningful role in the administration.
2. It elevated illiterate chiefs above them. The educated felt insulted that unlettered chiefs were placed in authority over them.
3. Creation of artificial warrant chiefs. In the East and parts of the West, where centralised kingship did not exist, the British appointed unpopular warrant chiefs who lacked legitimacy.
4. It slowed constitutional progress. By strengthening traditional rulers, the system delayed the introduction of the representative institutions the elites wanted.
5. It ignored democratic traditions. The system did not fit the more egalitarian, republican political cultures of many southern communities.
6. Autocracy and abuse by chiefs. Chiefs backed by colonial power became oppressive, imposing taxes and forced labour, which the elites resented.
7. It contradicted their education. Having imbibed Western ideas of representative government, the elites saw Indirect Rule as backward and undemocratic.
8. It aimed to check nationalism. The elites believed the system was designed to divide and rule and to weaken their nationalist agitation.