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Vol. 1 No. 1 (2022)

Articles

The Nigerian customary law practices and repugnancy test: a reading in colonial legacy

Published 2023-04-20

  • Jonas Eze

Jonas Eze
Department of History and International Studies, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria

Abstract

This study is an attempt to explore the impact of Indirect Rule’s repugnancy test on Nigerian people’s customary law. In 1900, when the British Government took over the administration of the state of Nigeria from the Royal Niger Company, Sir Fredrick Lugard adopting Indirect Rule continued with the company’s policy of applying the laws and customs of the indigenous peoples of Nigeria in administration of justice. But all the native laws and customs of the people to be so applied must pass the repugnancy test. The test was therefore used to weed out elements of Nigeria’s customary law that were seen as incompatible with the British legal principles. The implication of the above is that under the system, so many Nigeria people’s native laws and customary law rules were modified, abolished, amended, or revoked. This work using qualitative and quantitative methodologies tends to explore the extent the system upturned, pruned, or modified the people’s customary law. The findings are that the test eroded many customary law practices of the people and imposed Western legal norms on the nation.

Keywords

indirect rule, customary law, repugnancy, transformation

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References

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