Page - 43 - in Austrian Law Journal, Volume 1/2017

ALJ 1/2017 Non-State Law in Nigeria 43 Guide11 has it that the application of customary law is as a result of the principle of legal centrism, according to which all law is believed to emanate from the state. In that respect, rites developed and practised by non-state actors, vis-à-vis customary and/or religious law were given the status of law as far as they derive their authority from the state. Although the practice of this form of legal pluralism dates back to about 1772 in British India,12 it was later imported into parts of Africa by the Europeans through the process of colonisation.13 And because there existed multiplicity of ethnic or linguistic groups, as earlier mentioned, the administration of such areas was highly cumbersome. Therefore, it became imperative to con- strict the natives into groups, irrespective of the lack of homogeneity and without giving due consideration to historical, ethnic or linguistic backgrounds of each. This approach echoed in the utterances of the political leadership of both the Northern and Southern Regions, as well as the British representative’s. For example, Adisa Adeleye writes that in 1952 the then Prime Minister, Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, who happened to be from the North, was alleged to have made some inciting statements against the amalgamation of northern and southern protectorates in order to create the country, Nigeria. One of such statements was that the Nigerians, who were migrating from the Southern Region to the North for jobs and business opportunities were “in- truders”, and that they were not welcomed in the Northern Region.14 In the South, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the then Premier of Western Region, was also quoted as saying that the ”Amalgamation of the Northern and Southern Protectorate was a mistake of 1914.”15 And at a Convocation Lecture at Adekunle Ajasin University in November 2014 Iyorchia Ayu quoted Sir Hugh Clifford, the then Governor-General, as having described Nigeria as ”A collection of independent native states, separated from one another by great distances, by differences of history, and traditions, and by ethnological, racial, tribal, political, social and religious barriers.”16 These somewhat arbitrarily formed groups were administered using laws and institutions in operation in the newly created British territo- ries. Obviously, they did not completely abolish the native customs of the dominant groups with- in each territory. They were however greatly reduced as application of each was allowed in so far as the state enacted laws permitted. This brought about the idea of specifying which customary law and in what manner could be applied. Even though customary law is applied in many countries around the world, particularly in Africa, the scope of this paper is restricted mainly to the Nigerian legal system. And in that connection, it is useful to state that customary law is predominantly practised in the South, whereas Sharia, being the legal jurisprudence based on Islamic religion, is mainly applied in the North where the majority are Muslims. According to Brendan Koerner,17 the religion arrived in the Northern Re- 11 Legal Research Guide: Customary Law in Africa, LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, http://www.loc.gov/law/help/africa-customary- law.php (last visited Mar. 27, 2017). 12 M.B. Hooker, Legal Pluralism: An Introduction to Colonial and Neo-colonial Laws 61 (1975), LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, http://www.loc.gov/law/help/africa-customary-law.php (last visited Mar. 27, 2017). 13 See Legal Research Guide, supra note 12. 14 See generally Adisa Adeleye, AMALGAMATION OF 1914: Was It A Mistake? VANGUARD NEWSPAPER (May 18, 2012, 12:00 AM), http://www.vanguardngr.com/2012/05/amalgamation-of-1914-was-it-a-mistake/ (last visited Mar. 27, 2017). 15 Crawford Young, Impossible Necessity of Nigeria: the Struggle for Nationhood, 75 FOREIGN AFFAIRS 139 (1996). 16 Iyorchia Ayu, The Break-up of Nigeria: Myths, Realities and Implications, DAILY TRUST NEWSPAPER (Nov. 9, 2014, 4:00 AM), http://www.dailytrust.com.ng/sunday/index.php/investigation/18693-the-break-up-of-nigeria-myths-realities-and- implications (last visited Mar. 27, 2017). 17 Brendan Koerner, How Did Sharia Get to Nigeria, SLATE.COM (Aug. 22, 2003, 4:48 PM), http://www.slate.com/arti- cles/news_and_politics/explainer/2003/08/how_did_sharia_get_to_nigeria.html (last visited Mar. 27, 2017).