Indigenous Political and Judiciary Systems and National Development

Abstract

Every society in the world has its way of doing things. No nation or society is left out: For instance, before the advent of colonialism, Yoruba society had political, religions, cultural and even social systems which ley followed Politically, religions, operate the system of "Oba to ni le’ meaning “the King owns the land”. Under this system, the King was the head of everything be it polecat, judicial, religious and the tikes. They dad their own constitution (though unwritten}, which guided the behaviour of every individual in the society. Equally too9 they had punishments attached to deviation from the rules and regulations. This implies that offenders did not go scot free but rather, they were justifiably punished. The result of course was a peaceful, harmonious mid progressive co¬existence. U is unfortunate however, that with the advent of colonialism, the situation changed, and things fell apart and the center could no longer hold. This paper compares the .situation in pre-colonial days with what it is at- present. The paper concludes that colonialism has done lots of dam¬ages on the political and the judiciary system of the Yoruba and unless something urgent is done, the situation may grow from bad to worse.