Chapter XI: The Foundations of Native Society—the Administrative Machinery

The policy of governing Northern Nigeria on native lines—in other words, of training the natives to govern themselves instead of trying to govern them ourselves—has the approval of the entire native community except the criminal classes, who would be the only ones to benefit by a weakening in the position of the native authorities and in the decay of the etiquette attaching to their position. It is being pursued in every branch of the Administration concurrently, with a steadily marked improvement in the efficiency and purity of the public service.

The native administrative machinery varies slightly in the different Emirates, and is better organized in some than in others, but a description of the system as it obtains in the Kano Emirate, which is a little larger than Belgium and Luxemburg, will serve as a general indication applicable in its essentials to the others. The executive consists of the Emir—advised and assisted by the Resident—and his judicial and executive Council, composed of the Waziri (Vizier, or Chief of Staff), the Maji (Treasurer), the Alkali (Chief Justice), and five Mallamai (“teachers,” men versed in the law and in the customs of the country) of repute. This is the Supreme Court of Appeal. The Emirate is divided into districts under a district Chief or Headman (Hakima) responsible to the Executive. Each district is divided into sub-districts under a sub-district Chief or Headman (Maijimilla) responsible to the District Headman. Each sub-district is composed of townships or villages with village-heads (Masugari) responsible to the sub-district Headman.

Kano city itself is under the supervision of the _Maajen-Wuteri_, who corresponds roughly with our English mayor with twenty town police (dogarai), picturesque individuals in red and green, and twenty night watchmen (masugefia) under him. Ninety more police are spread over the various districts and attached to the District Courts. There are no British native police whatever. That experiment was tried for a time, being attended with such conspicuous ill-success and being accompanied by such an increase in crime that it was wisely abandoned. Nothing could surely convey a more striking proof of the order reigning throughout the Emirate and of the law-abiding character of the people, than the fact of its being policed with ninety men armed with nothing more formidable than a sword. Think of ninety constables sufficing for Belgium and Luxemburg or any other area of 13,000 square miles in Western Europe; or take the population of the Emirate—one and a half millions—and point to a single comparable proportion of police to population in Europe. Crimes of violence are extraordinarily scarce, and the Native Administration, backed by the British “raj,” has now such a hold upon the country that for a case to be unreported would be hardly possible. The roads are safe for the solitary traveller—I frequently passed women alone, or accompanied by a child, sometimes husband, wife and child, many miles from the capital. I have walked alone save for one white companion through the deserted streets of Kano city at night. Kano city is not, however, free from thieves, and seeing that so many strangers are constantly coming and going it is hardly to be wondered at. Some two years back night burglaries became unpleasantly frequent. Native ingenuity hit upon a plan to cope with them. The services of the professional rat-catchers were enlisted. They were enrolled as night-watchmen, paid £1 a man, and told they would be fined 2_s._ 6_d._ every time a robbery was committed. Very few fines were inflicted, and Kano was cleared of its nocturnal undesirables “one time.”

The general standard of probity among the inhabitants of Kano themselves is, however, shown by the free and easy manner in which merchandise is left unguarded in the great market, and it appears that lost property is constantly being handed over to the Alkali, who has the articles called out by a public crier in the market-place.

The absence of a fixed scale of emoluments for public servants is always the weak point of native government. Northern Nigeria was no exception to the rule. The proportion of the taxes actually collected which eventually found its way into the so-called Public Treasury, was used by the Emir with small regard to the public interest and with a great deal for his own. The Alkalis and their assessors, though by no means universally corrupt, were dependent for their living upon such sources as the fees (usheri) upon judgment debts and upon the estates of deceased persons (ujera). To Mr. Charles Temple, now Acting Governor, whose knowledge of Northern Nigeria and its peoples is unequalled, belongs the credit of having instituted in the Kano Emirate the Beit-el-Mal or Public Treasury in the proper sense of the word, which has since been extended, or is being extended, into all of them. The system follows traditional lines but vastly improves them. In practice it works out as follows. Half the total revenue collected goes direct to the Northern Nigeria Government. Of the remaining half, fifty per cent. is paid into the Beit-el-Mal to provide salaries for the native officials and to pay for necessary public works. The balance is divided into fifths on the basis of two-fifths of each district’s yield to the District Headman; two-fifths of the sub-district’s yield to the Sub-district Headman; one-fifth of his own village’s yield to the Village Headman. It will doubtless be possible, as the system becomes perfected, for each district to have its own Beit-el-Mal with limited powers, receiving its instructions from the central Beit-el-Mal, just as the local British Treasuries receive instructions from the Treasury at Zungeru. This would enable the District Heads, Sub-district Heads and Village Heads to have fixed salaries like the Native Executive, a very desirable ideal to aim at.

The Emir draws a fixed sum monthly from the Beit-el-Mal for his private expenses, which are numerous, and the public expenditure is accounted for and overlooked by the Resident. The _Waziri_ draws £1000 a year, the _Maji_ £360, the _Alkali_ £600, the _Limam_ (High Priest) £72. There are thirteen districts in charge of thirteen local _Alkalis_ drawing £60 a year each. The public works completed out of the Beit-el-Mal funds during the last year or two include the rebuilding of the Kano market at a cost of £600, a new jail at a cost of £1000, a new Court House, £250, besides keeping the thirteen gates of the city in repair, additions to the mosque, etc. In regard to the latter, it is interesting to note that the work of adding to the mosque and repairing the minaret, was entirely carried out by contract labour. The contract was given out by the Emir and the contractor paid the workmen to the number of over a thousand, a previously unheard-of event in native annals and an example of one of the many improvements which the Native Administration is carrying out under British influence. The Emir has also directed that £1000 shall be contributed to the National School at Nassarawa, which I shall have occasion to speak about in a subsequent letter. Legislation for the purpose of legally constituting the native Beit-el-Mals would seem to be called for.

The administration of justice has been vastly purified by the inauguration of fixed emoluments. The District Courts and the Supreme Court administer Koranic law, or customary law, _i.e._ traditional law based on custom, or Government proclamations. Speaking generally, the Alkalis are a fine body of men, and they appear to be realizing more and more the dignity and responsibilities of their position. The chief Alkali in particular is a man of very high character. The legal code in criminal and civil matters is, of course, mainly inspired by the sacred books, and the Alkali is generally a Doctor of Mohammedan common law. His influence and power appear to be more extensive than that of the Egyptian _kadi_, since he has jurisdiction in criminal cases and in land suits, which the latter has not. Of the cases tried in the courts of the Kano Emirate, about 30 per cent. are matrimonial, such as divorce, restitution of conjugal rights, alimony, etc. The courts are very hard worked, dealing with about 7000 to 8000 cases _per annum_, and the Alkalis fully earn their salaries. I attended the chief Alkali’s court in Kano city, and was greatly impressed by the general decorum, the respect shown to the Alkali, the activity of the assessors, the marshalling of the witnesses, the order, rapidity, and business-like manner in which the whole proceedings were conducted. It was an example of _native_ self-government in Western Africa which would have astonished a good many people in Europe. No British court, no alien magistrate, could possibly deal with these “affairs of the people,” which require a complete mastery of Koranic law and customary law, such a mastery as only a trained native can ever acquire, and it is to be hoped that any attempts which may arise to curtail the jurisdiction of the native courts—accepted by all classes of natives—will be promptly discouraged, together with similar attempts to interfere with the present Beit-el-Mal system. From a practical point of view the maintenance of the Native Administration, guided and supervised by the Resident, _i.e._ indirect rule, is inseparable from the financial question. If the Native Administration were not financially provided for it would cease to exist. If the Emirs and their executives were converted into mere civil pensioners of the Government, they would become figure-heads deprived of all power and prestige. Under the system I have described the Emirs have power, and only hyper-sensitiveness and short-sightedness can see in their power our weakness. It is, on the contrary, our strength and defence against the reactionary elements which exist, and which are bound to exist in a country but newly occupied, and which are certainly not less hostile to the native authorities, who pursue their labours under the ægis of the British “raj,” than they are to the British “raj” itself. Anything that impairs the influence of the native authorities, not only impairs the efficiency of the Administration of the country, but is an invitation to lawlessness and disorder.

It is only fair to state in this connection that the initiative of perpetuating, under British rule and with the modifications required, the system of land taxation indigenous to the community, was due to the suggestion of Sir William Wallace, for many years Acting High Commissioner of Northern Nigeria.