Still in the euphoria of the royal wedding between Prince Williams and Kate Middleton yestarday; Me and a couple of guys plunged into a fierce debate which ranged from how powerful and influential the Queen of England or the the British Monarchy is in the present day England and the world at large to which is the the richest, the most popular and powerful Monarchies in the world.
Obviously, we could not come to any agreement on many aspects of our "royal debate"(lol); while I maintained that the Queen of England has ceremonial powers that if she dares to exercise them will see her out of the monarch, my opponents thought otherwise and argued that the queen is still very powerful and influential.
They cited the fact that she gets to approve the prime minister and gets to open parliamentary speeches or reading and some other priviliges which to me were inconsequential to mounting any serious political power on say foreign policies of the UK and the likes.
Unlike Monarchies in the middle east that have political power and influence in their countries and beyond; take for instance, the Sultan of Brunei(who is unarguably richer than the whole of the British monarchy) he is the head of state with full executive powers.
In terms of wealth, I doubt if the British Monarchy is in the first ten, I can count more than five monarchies in the middle east that are several billions wealthy and I strongly doubt if the British Monarchy's wealth is in the tune of billions to start with. It is even safe to argue that the prince of monarco might be wealthier than the British monarch but what do I know. . LoL
It will be beneficial if Nigerians abroad living in the UK and other countries with monarchies and friends of Nigeria educate us more through intelligent comments about these "royal issues" as it will be enlightening and entertaining.

EzeUche__:

Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej is the wealthiest monarch in the world. He is worth $30 billion.

seanet02:

Saudi king can Lend Nija times ten of ten easily!!

Mai Suya:

surprised to see that, according to Forbes, the Queen of England is not even among the first 10!

EzeUche__:

Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej is the wealthiest monarch in the world. He is worth $30 billion.

Wow!!!

That's a lot of money right there. . .

rhymz:

I think sometimes a lot of people over estimate the british monarchy probably because of their colonial reach in the past but un this present day, I strongly doubt if the Queen as a monarch can actually boast of thesame level of wealths of most of the monarchs in the middle east have and are still acruing as we speak. The Sultan of Brunei alone not even talking of his family empire is worth over $22billion and sits on a family empire that is worth well over $120billion, the king of Saudi Arabia for instance owns 1/10th of the world's oil reserve not to talk of the entire family's wealth, the king of Thailand is another extremely wealthy monarch.
No doubt the British monarchy is of course very wealthy too but I strongly doubt it is in the Arab leagues.
In terms of political powers, you and I know Queen Elizabeth II has powers that she dares not to use or she will see the abrupt end of british monarchy like it happened in fiji. Most of the honour and respect that is accorded her is just based on respect and symbolic gesture to preserve the british monarchy tradition. But what she says or do politically can never have thesame effect as say the Saudi king, the sultan of Brunei, the king of the UAE with respect to the internal politics of their countries and the world at large. The queen of England commands the kind of respect the Pope(whom also is a monarch by the way) commands, people are not bound by any law or constitution to follow what they say but of course they can get the world's ears.

Nwa_Nimo:

My Igwe is a poor man -
Its embarrasing. . . .