1.1     Background of the Study

In the 19th century colonialism was actually a way of life for the developed countries in Europe to superintend over African states, cities and kingdoms. After the partition of Africa in 1884 what is today called Nigeria became a British territory and for almost a century Nigeria was colonized by Britain. The key objectives of British colonialism included the opening up of the territory to British trade and commerce through diplomacy and where resistance was met military force became inevitable, the enforcement of the abolition of slave trade and other forms of illegal business activities and the maintenance of law and order in the society. Lagos was annexed in 1861; other areas like the southern and northern parts of Nigeria were systematically ‘conquered’ and administrative structures set over them. Nigeria had three partitions: the Lagos colony, the Southern and Northern protectorates with administrative centers at Lagos, Calabar and Kano. By 1914 the colony of Lagos, and the protectorates of Southern and Northern Nigeria were amalgamated into what is today called the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Lord Lugard was the first Governor- General. To administer the new country, the British colonialists adopted the system of indirect rule which was earlier used successfully in the Northern protectorate. According to Duke (2010:66) indirect rule involved the use of influential and resourceful members of the various communities who were made warrant chiefs and native political agents with mandates or warrants which empowered them to obtain the cooperation of the natives for the furtherance of the objectives of colonialism. The warrant chiefs were to collect taxes, project the system of colonialism, enforce law and order and, where necessary, arrest and detain those that were not ready to cooperate with them. Those who were arrested were tried in the colonial master’s kangaroo courts. The warrant chiefs were also given mandates to confiscate Nigerian goods that were regarded as contrabands and, where necessary, arrest and prosecute Nigerian business men and women who traded in Nigerian, goods that were banned by their British masters. Duke (2010) appraised the colonial rule this way: Lord Lugard built a system which blended the British-style machinery of government with a grassroots administrative instrument in the form of a hybrid strategy that combined British official at the top of the executive, legislative and judiciary wings of government on the one hand and the native chiefs and prominent members of the local society at the lower rung of the ladder on the other hand. At this point, the administrative style of the British was being insinuated into the governance of the Nigerian state, and it became the main influence on the local way of organizing things politically, socially and economically. It is in this way that political domination of the society, through colonization permeated government, trade, religion and the social life of the peoples of Nigeria, with structural and attitudinal implications for the existing public and private organizations. The stiff conditions of colonialism also had implications for the application, cultivation and development of contemporary management practice, as the existing institutions, particularly those by the state, had to operate within the ambit of the rigid style preferred by the British colonialists. Colonialism essentially became the tool that was deployed in relegating and decimating the local institution and management practices while these were supplanted with western-style administrative structures that were invariably regarded as superior to the indigenous ones Duke(2010)