Nigerian traditional rulers often derive their titles from the rulers of independent states or communities that existed before the formation of modern Nigeria. Although they do not have formal political power, in many cases they continue to command respect from their people and have considerable influence in their community.
Though their bearers usually maintain the monarchical styles and titles of their sovereign ancestors, both their independent activities and their relations with the central and regional governments of Nigeria are closer in substance to those of the high nobility of old Europe than to those of actual reigning monarchs.
Cited here is a list of traditional rulers in Nigeria.
Pre-colonial period
Modern Nigeria encompasses lands traditionally occupied by highly diverse ethnic groups with very different languages and traditions. In broad terms, the southeast was occupied mainly by Igbo, the Niger Delta by Edo and Igbo related people, the southwest by Yoruba and related people and the north by Hausa and Fulani people, with a complex intermingling of different ethnic groups in the Middle Belt between north and south. In total there were (and are) more than 200 distinct ethnic groups.
Before the arrival of the British in the late 19th century, the history of the area was turbulent, with periods when empires such as those of Oyo, Benin, Kanem-Bornu and Sokoto gained control over large areas, and other periods when the states were more fragmented. Although political structures differed widely between different ethnic groups, it was common for each town or collection of towns to have a recognized ruler, who might in turn be subordinate to the ruler of a larger polity. Thus the Sokoto caliphate was divided into emirates, with the emirs loosely subordinate to the Sultan of Sokoto, although at times acting as independent rulers.
Colonial era
Europeans had long traded with the coastal states, primarily exchanging cotton and other manufactured goods for slaves and palm oil products at centers such as Calabar, Bonny and Lagos. The Niger Coast Protectorate was established in 1891 holding a small area along the coast. During the period 1879–1900 the Royal Niger Company made a concerted effort to take control of the interior, using disciplined troops armed with the Maxim gun, and making treaties of "protection" with the local rulers. The company's territory was sold to the British government in 1900, with the southern region merged with the Niger Coast Protectorate to become the Southern Nigeria Protectorate and the Northern Nigeria Protectorate remaining separate. In 1914 the two were merged into the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria, with roughly the same boundaries as the modern state of Nigeria.
The first British High Commissioner for Northern Nigeria, Lord Frederick Lugard, tried to rule through the traditional rulers, and this approach was later extended to the south. Lugard's successor Hugh Clifford left this system in place in the north, where the emirate system had long traditions, but introduced a legislative council with some elected members in the south, relegating the traditional rulers to mainly symbolic roles. Over time, the relationship between the colonial administration and the traditional rulers evolved. For example, the Tiv people, at the time the fourth largest ethnic group in the country, had always been extremely decentralized and therefore had no paramount ruler. The British created the office of Tor Tiv in 1947, appointing Makere Dzakpe as the first holder of this title, in order to have a "traditional ruler" to speak for the Tiv people.
Independent Nigeria
With independence in 1960, followed by alternating democratic and military governments, the status of the traditional rulers evolved even further. In the north, the emirs finally lost power to the government administration, though said administration was often staffed by traditional notables. Where rulers had previously acquired office strictly through inheritance or through appointment by a council of elders, the government now increasingly became involved in the succession.