ABSTRACT
Kingship is a focal-point of the Abuja government. Succession to kingship at Abuja was based on patrilineal descent, but the king was selected by certain high officials of the state. The territory of Abuja, and the area over which the Sarkin Abuja claimed suzerainty at the time of the British arrival in 1900. Certain parts of this area were administered as vassal states. Heads of vassal states were required to provide annual tribute, and to assist with contingents in war; but they had no office within the state of Abuja itself. On the other hand, they held authority within their own chiefdoms, succession to which was on a hereditary basis. The Abuja sarautu are discrete corporations, in that each sarauta appears to be an indivisible and perpetual member of the system, independent in some degrees of the relations in which its membership in the system involves it.
