e - CIFAS

GOVERNMENT IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY ABUJA 6c)
of relationships may be quite as heavily loaded with personal fac·
to[8 and relations as one which candidly confesses itself to be based
on personal solidarities and cleavages.1 Thus neither rationality
nor impersonality can be accorded the diacritical significance for
the identification of bureaucracy which Weber attaches to them.
Our data show that administration at Abuja was organized
through officially defined spheres ofcompetence and responsibility;
that there was a predictable and fairly 'rational' ordering of relations
between superior and inferior positions within the system;
and that, in so far as this system of relations endured between
offices rather than individuals, its character was impersonal.
Moreover, state organization at Abuja included regular systems of
appointment and promotion, and provided for the empirical training
of senior staff through their experience of subordinate office,
distinctions being made between military and civil personnel and
between various secular skills on the one hand, and the knowledge
of Muhammadan religion and law on the other. Officials of this
govemment received various types of e