For the most parts, traditional rulers in precolonial Nigeria, as in other parts of Africa, had exclusively power and authority over the political, religious, and economic lives of the people within their respective territories. It was therefore quite convenient for the British colonial authority to take advantage of this, in implementing its policy of indirect rule. The main challenge was however how to deal with the many other smaller groups that were concentrated mainly within the south-east and north central regions, which never had any clearly defined centralized authority. To address this challenge, some of the groups were placed under the ones with clearly defined centralized authority, while others had surrogate chiefs with diverse appellations created for them. As the clamor for independence began to heat up in the 1950s, people began to question the legitimacy of some of the traditional institutions that were created by the colonial authority. However, once independence was attained, the new government found it expedient to retain the existing rulers, since they had mostly perfected their roles as major links between the government and the grassroots. The fact that their role was not captured in the independence constitution, has however placed them at the mercy of each sitting government. The Igede of central Nigeria, is one example of smaller groups without well-defined precolonial centralized authority, who were brought under a surrogate traditional ruler (known as Och’Idoma) during the colonial era and beyond. For well over five decades, the Igede were considered as an appendage of the Idoma, even though the two groups do not share a common history, language, or even culture. This paper examines the traditional-political evolution of the Igede through the precolonial, colonial, and postcolonial phases, leading to the setting up of their own traditional stool (known as Adirahu Igede) in 2017.