FEUDALISM IS PRESENT IN NIGERIA.

ESEH-OKPU

FEUDALISM IS PRESENT IN NIGERIA.  DO YOU SEE ITS ROLE AS POSITIVE OR NEGATIVE ON THE DEVELOPMENT IN THE COUNTRY?  DRAW PARALLELS WITH EUROPEAN HISTORY

Feudalism refers to a hierarchical relationship between lords and vassals and also between vassals and peasants.  Feudalism is dated back to the medieval period in Europe.  Under the feudal arrangement, lords own lands and grant possession of lands to the nobles in return; the noble provides military service to the lords, and the peasants provide physical labour in return for protection.  This set of relationship between lords and nobles was used to maintain law and order.

The feudal structure was upheld in the old British Empire.  In the British feudal system, no lord could be sued in court which he held to try the cases of its tenants.  Similarly, the king of England as the apex of the feudal pyramid was not subject to the jurisdiction of the court in the realm.  This is the concept of “kings do no wrong”.  No action could be brought against the king without his consent.  However, the concept “the king do no wrong” means that the king has no legal power to do wrong.  The king’s legal position, his power


and prerogatives which distinguished him from an ordinary citizen is given to him by law and the law gives him no authority to commit wrong.

The immunity of the king arose from two reasons, one the fact that the court was his and so he cannot issue a writ against himself without him permitting the court to do so through his endorsement of petitions, two, the society does not expect him to do wrong so he do not have the legal capacity to commit it.   Following this, the government was responsible for fulfilling any obligation arising from his actions.  However, things changed in 1947 when the crown proceeding Act was promulgated.  Under this, the king became a subject of private law though not in his personal capacity, and a citizen can seek redress against the injustice committed against a state or its official by ordinary court procedure.

The feudal structure that was operational in England up to 1948 was transferred to Nigeria.  In Nigeria the rights of the
crown was vested in the head of Government by the provision of the Republican Constitution in 1963.  Following the adoption of presidential system of government in 1979 no civil or criminal proceedings can be instituted against the president, vice president, governor, or deputy governor during their period in office.  They can neither be arrested nor imprison during that period in pursuance of the process of any court or otherwise.  While they hold office, no process of any court compelling the appearance shall be applied or issued.  This is to say they are not liable for any civil or criminal act or omission done in their personal capacity while in office, it only means that action cannot be taken against them at time.  This provision is replicated in the 1999 constitution. 

The immunity of the crown does not envisage that a king can do wrong.  It never foresaw a situation where criminals will become king and kings becoming criminals.  The philosophy

that a king lives well above his servant is in his display of majesty and pride.  Hence, he will not condescend to the level of criminality. 

Thus, we have never heard until recently in Nigeria that a president of a nation or a governor of a state can reduce himself to the level of a thief.  Accumulating state wealth for personal aggrandizement.

In the relationship between king and wrong-doing, three situations can be discerned.  The first is that he lives above the level of wrong remains free of the consequences of the wrong doing.  In this regard, the immunity of the crown makes a lot of sense.  But what happens if the king does wrong?  That is where the remaining two options come into operation when he does wrong, it means that the immunity granted him has failed.  Under the presidential system of government, the constitution provide for impeachment clause which could be


invoked by the legislature after a procedure that ascertains his guilt is duly followed.

In Nigeria, the constitution relies on the impeachment clause to guard the executive against doing wrong and in removing him from office when he commits one.  Unfortunately in practice, it is used to settle scores between the executive and legislature or in the attempt of the later to extort money from the former.  The impeachment clause is used by the legislature to extort money from a wrong doing king.

Almost all the kings in Nigeria are wrong doers.  Whenever they learn about a wrong committed by a governor or a president; they raise the red card against him and behold he will give them money fro bribe.  Impeachment has failed to secure justice for Nigerians due the susceptibility of the legislature to corruption.

When the judicial system fails to check the excesses of the king, the citizens will resort to solution outside law.  When law fails, the state degenerate to anarchy.  People have found various ways of dealing with their problems.  Civil war is one often ending with the king as the loser as it happened in Charles 1 in 17^th century England, Revolution is another as it happened in France in 1789 against feudalism, Russian Tsar in March 1917 (Bolsheviks revolution).

Since the demise of the Nigeria’s first civilian republic in 1966, the constituent units of the federation have increasingly lost their autonomy.  In practice they are now administrative extensions of the federal government.  Historically, the constituent units have always been creations of the central government, and this has always given the later a measure of superiority.  The years of military rule further strengthened the authority of the federal government and led to the subordination of state governments as is consistent with military organizational norms of unity of command and

hierarchical authority.  For their part, state has not let go their autonomy without a fight and in several instances, this has led to conflicts between the forces of centralization and non-centralization.  However, the forces of centralization are winning.

In present-day Nigeria, election results are predetermined and the people votes do not count.  What really counts are the reciprocal agreement those in power and the electoral officials appointed by them (in return for their appointment these electoral officials are required to influence elections in favour of their masters).  The people’s participation is necessary only to validate the process.  Given that the people’s vote do not count, those “elected” are not likely filling any need to be accountable to the people.  Since the electorate votes do not count, election do not serve as a means to rotate power, but to promote corruption in government thereby increasing the gap between the rich and power on one hand, and the masses on the other hand.

Neo-feudalism is reminiscent in Nigeria today.  It boost a very wide gap between the “haves” and “have not”.  Feudalism can only give way, when there is a proper justice in delivery system, where the people votes really count and their leaders in turn accountable to them, then Nigeria will be on the pathway to ending feudalism.