Historico-legal and Sociocultural Causes and the Implications of Peasants’ Revolt Against Taxation in Ibadan, Western Nigeria
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: The expectation that the Nigerian elites who were vested with political power at independence in 1960would improve the lives of the populace appeared to be misplaced, because the nascent Nigerian statebounced from one avoidable social conflict to the other. One of the avoidable problems was the ill-conceivedincrease in the tax rate of the peasants by the Government of Western Nigeria in a period of economicdepression. This article examines the reasons for the resistance to taxation, the legal and extra-legal waysby which the peasants were able to engage the military administration of Western Nigeria, albeit theNigerian state laws enforcement machinery to a standstill, using the case study method. The article foundthat there were certain demographic similarities among the leaders of the agitation by a review of theexisting literature. The rebellious peasants had their own legal order and communication system rooted inthe Yoruba indigenous system. The article concluded that the violent agitation of the peasants beganbecause of the refusal of the authority and the ruling elites to heed the pleas of the peasants through petitionsand peaceful representations. The article therefore recommended that there is a need for the stateauthorities to understand the plights of the citizenry before imposing higher tax burden on them. Similarly,the different levels of governments in the Nigerian federation should learn from this experience in theformulation of current and future tax policies. Further, the Nigerian state’s resort to violence in this casewas defeated in the face of popular revolt.
Author: Oyesola Animashaun
Language: English
Subfield: Anthropology
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7066322660
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