Women's Riot (Aba Riots / Women's War) Ends the Era of the Warrant Chiefs

Direct taxation introduced in 1928 not only failed to improve the Warrant Chief System but 'brought it to ruin in the Women's Riot of 1929'. The Riot — also known as the Women's War or the Aba Riots — marks the end of the era of the Warrant Chiefs. The Warrant Chief System failed, Afigbo argues, primarily because it was based on assumptions with no root in indigenous soil, and secondly because it brought the people burdens that were either unnecessary or whose purpose they did not understand. The failure reflected British inability over four decades to understand the administrative problems presented by Ibo, Ibibio, Ijo, and Ogoja society.