Hello havians.
Today as I was cleaning my house since rain won't allow us to go out in this part of the world. while cleaning the house I stumbled into my history note book that I use in my secondary school and I saw so many interesting things that I wrote down and I found it very interesting and informative that can help a lot of us you know may be by that time because of anxiety or some of us found it as punishment to wake up early and go to school. So some of the things they taught us in school that time might not be important to us then. But as we grow older we notice we need to know more of our country and we have younger ones that is looking up to us.. I know how embarrassing it may be when a nursery school pupils will come up to you with serious boldness and ask you uncle or aunty or miss tell me about our country and you know that this young ones are so curious.
And If you were not well equipped with accurate knowledge of your country, you fumble right in front of them and this is not good you know... Some of them may even be the one that will teach you so as a Nigerian and I deed history in my secondary school when I saw this particular one I decided to share it here in education hive community since it is part of Education for the benefit of those that want to know more about Nigeria.
The history of how my country Nigeria was governed before now.
The pre - colonial rule:-- Before the British, the Portuguese, the French with some other Europeans came to Nigeria, the people of Nigeria had been governing themselves. In yoruba land, the obas and the chiefs were the heads of the government of each town or village. In the Hausa land, the emirs were the ruling people. In igbo land the family heads and village heads ruled the people.
Under this same system, small villages were ruled by men who had titles, and other important people who were respected in the community. The community was therefore in small villages
In yoruba land, the Oyo kingdom was the most important of all the kingdoms. The Oyo kingdom included majority of the towns and villages in the present day yoruba land. It included the present Republic of Benin (Dahomey), Borgu and Nupe. All the towns and villages under Oyo kingdom paid regular tribute to Oyo. There were representatives of the Alafin in each of the towns and villages and these representatives were called the 'ILARIS'. Their work was to see that the towns paid royalty regularly to the Alafin.
[source] (https://pixabay.com/photos/benin-sky-clouds-sunset-dusk-1953480/)
Benin kingdom was said to have been founded by Oranyan who was the grandson of Oduduwa. The Binis and Yorubas held their obas as sacred. They believed their obas were next to God. The Benin kingdom was said to have been large it included some parts of Yoruba land , namely Akoko, Edo and Akure. The Oba of Benin was the head of the government. The Oba was chosen by a council called Uzoma there are seven in number.
In igbo land, villages were under the authority of the title holders except in big towns like Onitsha, Enugu and few others, the igbo people had no kings they also had no central government like the Oyo kingdom.
In the areas of Northern Nigeria are occupied by Hausas, Fulanis and Nupes. the Emirs ruled the people the Hausas were the ruling class before Fulanis became the ruling class because they defeated the Hausas during Uthman Dan Fodio's Jihad of 1804.
[source] (https://pixabay.com/photos/hammer-books-law-dish-lawyer-719061/)
How Law And Order Were Maintained
In the history of Nigeria, the people had a set of law which brings order to the community. In each of the kingdoms and emirates, the chiefs and heads of the family maintained law and order for example in Yoruba land, the Oyomesi and the Ogboni society discussed the laws in their meetings these laws were to be accepted by the Alafin of Oyo for final signature both the Alafin, the chiefs, the Oyomesi and members of the Ogboni cult worked together to enforce these laws for order to be maintained in the community. Anybody who went against these laws was either flogged, fined or killed depending on the nature of the offence.
In the Benin kingdom, the king and the council of chiefs called Uzoma made the laws and maintained law and order anybody who broke the laws was punished according to how serious the offence was. The chiefs and title holders of the igbo land made laws for the areas which they ruled. They also helped to enforce order in their community the age groups also helped to maintain law and order any body found guilty of breaking these law was usually punished. In the Cross River State, the Obong or the Amayanagbo and their chiefs made laws for their people. In the Northern states, the emir with the help of the moslem preachers made laws for their people. The laws were usually based on "Sharia" (Islamic law). With the co -operation of the emirs and their advisers law and order were maintained in each emirate.
The Civilian Rule:- Nigeria became independent on the first day of October, 1960. The government of the country then came into the hands of Nigerians. This Nigerians were not soldiers, they were ordinary people like you and I. But they were all belong to different political parties therefore they were politicians exactly as it is now. Have you ever heard of A. G., N. C. N. C., N. P. C.? Those were the three most important political parties we had in Nigeria at the time of the civilians. By 1960, Nigeria had three regions namely, the Western, Eastern and Northern regions. But in 1963, before the republic of October 1, the fourth region which was the Mid - West region was created Nigeria then had four regions ----- Western, Eastern, Northern and the Mid - west region..
Let me drop the curtain here for today I will be back with another topic about our country.
Source: my secondary school note thank you and do have a blast day...