Evaluate the factors that promoted the choice of administrative systems in Nigeria.

The question requires that candidates make an appraisal by weighing up the strengths and limitations of the factors that promoted the choice of administrative systems in Nigeria. They may focus their responses on the system of indirect rule and argue that it appealed to the British because it involved minimal interference in traditional ways of life while defraying the financial costs and administrative burdens of colonialism and shielding them from popular protest. Candidates may note that Northern Nigeria, with its large, centralized units ruled by powerful Fulani emirs, seemed ideal for the implementation of this system. They may argue that indirect rule was modified in other parts of the country, including Yorubaland, where tension resulted from the selection of some traditional rulers over others, and in Igboland, where an acephalous society made it difficult to identify rulers, and where the legitimacy of warrant chiefs was challenged and their authority resented.