AGILA POLITICO-RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS AS A MODEL OF PARLIAMENTARISM: A CALL FOR INCLUSION IN GOVERNMENT

Abstract

The nature and character of the socio-economic challenges confronting Nigeria is indeed a leviathan task for scholars to look outside the box of the current structure of governance and thereby theorize better options. Thus, the problematic of this paper is on the Agila political and religious institutions as a model of parliamentarism with a carrion call for the inclusion of traditional institutions in governance. The paper aptly revealed that the Agila in Ado Local Government in Benue state has well developed political and religious institutions that its existence predated colonialism in Nigeria. This institution in antiquity regulates the political, religious, cultural, legal and economic life of the Agila. The attainment of independence in 1960 did not only excluded the traditional institution in the arrangement of governmental powers, but the virtues of transparency and accountability that were inherent in the traditional political systems in antiquity have gradually disappeared in the attitudenate structures of Nigerians. It is upon this missing link, that Agila traditional model is been used as a case study for onward generalization. Thus, it is recommended that traditional institutions should be included in the governance of local government with the House of Chiefs created as an organ of government in every local government. This will aid the preservation of some of the eroding indigenous norms and values.