Editing History of Nigeria (section)

==== The Protectorate of Northern Nigeria, the ‘Indirect Rule’ ====
After the British trauma of the [[siege of Khartoum]], the colonial office favoured a more subtle approach in Islamic northern Nigeria. Lugard developed the concept of ‘[[Indirect rule|Indirect Rule]]’, in which the colonial rulers left the traditional social structures intact. The fact that the Sokoto Caliphate of 1804 was a rule of the [[Fula people|Fulani]] over the more numerous [[Hausa people|Hausa]] worked in his favour. By replacing the Fulani with the British, the new British rule in northern Nigeria could be implemented with minimal social upheaval.

The Sokoto Caliphate was formally allowed to continue and a new caliph, Attahiru II, was appointed in 1903. However, the sultan of the caliphate was now the governor of northern Nigeria, namely Lugard. Like his Fulani predecessors, he had the right to enact laws and appoint officials. Murray Last therefore refers to the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria as the ‘Colonial Caliphate’.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Last |first=Murray |title=The " Colonial Caliphate " of Northern Nigeria |chapter=3. The « Colonial Caliphate » of Northern Nigeria |chapter-url=https://www.cairn.info/le-temps-des-marabouts--9782811107352-page-67.htm?contenu=resume |journal=Le temps des marabouts (= Hommes et sociétés). Karthala, Paris |publication-date=1997 |pages=67–82 |doi=10.3917/kart.robin.1997.01.0067 |isbn=978-2-8111-0735-2 |access-date=2024-05-09 |archive-date=2024-05-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240509192528/https://www.cairn.info/le-temps-des-marabouts--9782811107352-page-67.htm?contenu=resume |url-status=live }}</ref>

The local regents remained the emirs (several hundred in a three-tier hierarchy). The emirs were appointed by so-called ‘kingmakers’, whereby the sultan / British governor had the right of nomination.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Tibenderana |first=Peter Kazenga |title=The Role of the Brithish Administration in the Appointment of the Emirs of Northern Nigeria, 1901–1931: The Case of Sokoto Province |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-african-history/article/abs/role-of-the-brithish-administration-in-the-appointment-of-the-emirs-of-northern-nigeria-19011931-the-case-of-sokoto-province/1B9B66190182BDD14F91D5D3A1C9E933 |journal=The Journal of African History |publication-date=1987-07-01 |volume=28 |issue=2 |pages=231–257 |doi=10.1017/S0021853700029765 |issn=1469-5138 |access-date=2024-05-09 |archive-date=2024-05-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240506154943/https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-african-history/article/abs/role-of-the-brithish-administration-in-the-appointment-of-the-emirs-of-northern-nigeria-19011931-the-case-of-sokoto-province/1B9B66190182BDD14F91D5D3A1C9E933 |url-status=live }}</ref> The British governor could depose emirs and Lugard did this ten times in 1906 alone. (Even in the Fourth Republic of Nigeria, emirs are occasionally deposed by state governors).

The emirs carried out British instructions (such as drafting recruits during the world wars) and presided over a court that spoke Islamic [[Maliki school|Maliki]] law but, following the opinion of the orientalist [[Joseph Schacht]], took British law into ‘supplementary’ consideration.<ref name=":32">{{Cite web |last=Salman |first=Daud |title=Joseph Schacht's Role In Changing The Status of Islamic Law In Nigeria |url=https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/2399504 |website=Dergipark.org.tr |publisher=Sakarya University, Faculty of Theology Islamic Studies Department, Sakarya, Turkey |language=en |access-date=2024-05-09 |archive-date=2024-05-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240506103012/https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/2399504 |url-status=live }}</ref> Within an emirate, the emir was therefore the employer of the judges (Alkali / Qadi) he appointed. Each emir was officially advised by a (British) ‘resident’, but was actually controlled. The British prevented torture as a method of interrogation, the cutting off of body parts for theft and stoning to death for adultery, for example. As the Maliki school of Islamic law makes no distinction between, for example, murder and involuntary manslaughter or the (criminal) offence of vandalism and (civil) damage to property, the British introduced the principle of [[Malice aforethought|malice intent]]. Death sentences had to be authorised by the Resident<ref name=":32" /> and children of slaves were now considered freeborn.

The emirs also collected taxes. Taxes such as the land tax kharaj and the poll tax jizyah no longer went to the emirs. Instead, each emir could retain 25 per cent of the taxes he collected for his ‘administration.’<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Sule |first=Babayo |title=Colonialism and Emasculation of Political and Religious Institutions in Northern Nigeria |journal=Review of Politics and Public Policy in Emerging Economies |publisher=Department of Political Science, Federal University Kashere Gombe, Gombe State, Nigeria |publication-date=2021-07-01 |volume=3 |issue=1}}</ref> The emirs thus had a financial and disciplinary motivation to be loyal to the British. Over the next few decades, Islamic law in northern Nigeria was continually restricted and by the 1940s only applied to family and inheritance law.<ref name=":32" />