RELIGION AND SOCIO-POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS IN ETCHE, RIVERS STATE, IN TIME PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

Any society without rules guiding the conduct of its members stands the risk of becoming a hobbessian society, with everyone acting and behaving as it pleases him or her. For rules to be obeyed in any given society there are often mercenaries put in place to check and balance the conduct and day to day activities of that society. Five administrative structures were identified and highlighted in this work, using the qualitative and descriptive methods of data collection and analysis. In arriving at our conclusion, the sociological approach was adopted and our finding reveals that religion played an important role in the selection and endorsement of those vested with socio-political authority in Etche and this has existed for a very long time and has remained highly revered among the people until this present time. This has helped in the maintenance of law and order in the society with the established structures playing the roles assigned each of them for the good of society. In all these, the role of religion cannot be wished away. In the final analysis, this work recommended that since these structures have brought about social integration and orderliness in Etche ethnic nationality, it should be borrowed by other ethnic groups in Rivers State especially in these days of restiveness in our society.