Mikecold:
The oba is perfectly right on this one

Obaseki is probably creating his own private museum to earn him revenue when he leaves office

And should indeed he leaves what then becomes of the artifacts left in the hands of private individuals who the next government may not be in terms with

We know how private firms in deals with government later turn out to be the governor private property after leaving office

It is right they go back to the only unmovable place that all binis can relate to

The oba has put in place the palace trust obaseki should use that

To think that's where they where even stolen from in the first place is not rocket science

If obaseki is trying to cash in on this artefacts as u say, what is d oba trying to do by insisting that a museum be built inside his palace when there's already a museum at ring road very close to his palace? From all indications, both d oba and obaseki are selfish individuals who are looking to profit from this venture. It's typical of us here where we can't put aside our parochial and selfish interests for d good of all and sundry

Oba of Benin can not be dethroned like other region do

Kingrefreshed:


If I am a Governor' in Nigeria. I will be more like Governor Wike. In this situation if I am obaseki I will dethrone him as fast as the speed of light so it will serve as a deterrent to others that might want to emulate him.

This Oba doesn't know that Edo is not Lagos.

DeFuturePresido:
The crux of the disagreement is this: Who should rightfully take custody of these artefacts? To answer the question, let us take two approaches:

1. Who was the original owner of these artefacts, and who, today, physically embodies that person?

2. Who has the greatest capacity to preserve these artefacts for the greater good of the largest number of people and for posterity? Is it
A. The Benin Royal Palace,
B. A privately managed Museum Trust,
C. The Edo State Government or
D. The Federal Government of Nigeria?

ANSWERS
1. The rightful original "owner" or custodian was Oba Ovonramwen Nogbaisi, who was deposed during the British "punitive expedition" of 9 - 17 Feb 1897, which was led by Rear-Admiral Harry Rawson.

The person that, today, physically embodies Oba Ovonramwen is (unequivocally) the current ruler of Benin Kingdom, Oba Eheneden Erediauwa Ewuare II.

2. The answer to who can best manage the artifacts, unfortunately, is not straight forward. Technically, it should be the Federal or State government. However, you only need to pay a visit to Federal and State museums across the country to understand that good management and maintenance is not a strong point of government in these parts.

That leaves us with The Royal Palace or The Private Trust.

My inclination is to suggest a merger of the two options:

A. The museum/cultural district should be built in the location chosen by the Oba of Benin.
B. The museum and cultural district should be managed by the Private Trust.
C. Oba Ewuare II should be made the Chairman of the Trust.
D. The CEO of the Trust should be a thoroughly seasoned professional and should be chosen via a merit-based selection process.
E. Members of the Trust Board should be drawn equally from nominees provided by the Benin Palace, the State Government, the Trust's Directors and the Federal Government.
F. All decisions should be made via simple majority votes.

I believe that this option will resolve the issue and provide the best solution.

There's already a museum in Benin city, very close to d oba palace. What exactly are d oba and obaseki fighting over?

They've started, greedy leaders.

EcoBrick:


https://punchng.com/dont-allow-obaseki-take-custody-of-1130-stolen-artefacts-oba-of-benin-urges-fg/

AtikuNetwork:
Obaseki should put the Oba in his place and even dethrone him of need be. How dare he challenge the decision of a popular elected state governor? No monarch can be bigger than an elected government. He needs to be shown who is in charge.

Dont say this in Benin. People there dey vex. Dethrone a whole Oba of Benin? No just even whisper am.

AGNESikpuNNU:
Sanusi treatment loading in edo

Edo is not Kano

Lol. That can never happen. The Oba of Benin throne is not an appointed position. Obaseki can never try it.

AGNESikpuNNU:
Sanusi treatment loading in edo

Well said.

Mikecold:
You missed the part where the oba has set up the palace trust to run it

The government should appeal to have a team in it to supervise

There is no way a governor going in the next three years should use a private musuem to run Edo collective heritage

We all know how private stuffs work when the governor initiating it leaves, it is later you get to know it belongs to the governor and their are bureaucracy in the private firm signed by the government that can't be overruled later

Why not give it to the custodian of bini culture whose palace would remain irrespective of government

Then you can work out a team to be in the palace trust

AtikuNetwork:
Obaseki should put the Oba in his place and even dethrone him of need be. How dare he challenge the decision of a popular elected state governor? No monarch can be bigger than an elected government. He needs to be shown who is in charge.

you guys have no idea how Benin works

lexy2014:


If obaseki is trying to cash in on this artefacts as u say, what is d oba trying to do by insisting that a museum be built inside his palace when there's already a museum at ring road very close to his palace? From all indications, both d oba and obaseki are selfish individuals who are looking to profit from this venture. It's typical of us here where we can't put aside our parochial and selfish interests for d good of all and sundry

The musuem in Ring road is for government hope you know that

Oba is the custodian of bini culture hope you also know that

Sammy07:


The Oba doesn't have the right to tell the government where the artefacts should be put to

Who is Government who is the Oba governor will come and go but Oba remain till he give up. And beside they were looted from the palace so it should be return to the palace palace own it now government okay o su o

It be like say dem go decommission sorry depose this Oranmiyan pikin

AtikuNetwork:
Obaseki should put the Oba in his place and even dethrone him of need be. How dare he challenge the decision of a popular elected state governor? No monarch can be bigger than an elected government. He needs to be shown who is in charge.

I pity you. Exactly how people become unfortunate in life without even knowing the reason.

AtikuNetwork:
Obaseki should put the Oba in his place and even dethrone him of need be. How dare he challenge the decision of a popular elected state governor? No monarch can be bigger than an elected government. He needs to be shown who is in charge.

Mumu if person dey craze e dey know the boundary of his madness.

Oba of Benin is not some emirs in the north that a governor can just sleep and wake up to dethrone.

If Obaseki madness want to make him climb the tree to its leaf then he should try it to his own doom then he will know why Benin is Benin.

EcoBrick:


https://punchng.com/dont-allow-obaseki-take-custody-of-1130-stolen-artefacts-oba-of-benin-urges-fg/

I'm a bini man, but on this issue I dont support the Oba, first Benin kingdom was invaded in 1897 by the British, no where in history suggests that it is only the palace that was robbed other households in Benin kingdom was also affected by the raid, that means is that is not the Oba property or the Oba claiming ownership of the artifacts. Secondly can the Oba provide the needed security for such Artifacts? Knowing full well that one small piece can amount to millions of naira, can such property be safe in his compound? Queen Elizabeth does not have a museum in her compound. With utmost respect the Oba should allow the government do their job. Tnks.

temitope27:
shut up how can he do that, is the state property, British museum is own by government my British monarch

You should try and ask the ordinary bini man on the street first.
The Oba is the custodian of customs and tradition.
The stool was here when the artefact were stolen but government house was not there
The Oba is the true custodian.

DeFuturePresido:
The crux of the disagreement is this: Who should rightfully take custody of these artefacts? To answer the question, let us take two approaches:

1. Who was the original owner of these artefacts, and who, today, physically embodies that person?

2. Who has the greatest capacity to preserve these artefacts for the greater good of the largest number of people and for posterity? Is it
A. The Benin Royal Palace,
B. A privately managed Museum Trust,
C. The Edo State Government or
D. The Federal Government of Nigeria?

ANSWERS
1. The rightful original "owner" or custodian was Oba Ovonramwen Nogbaisi, who was deposed during the British "punitive expedition" of 9 - 17 Feb 1897, which was led by Rear-Admiral Harry Rawson.

The person that, today, physically embodies Oba Ovonramwen is (unequivocally) the current ruler of Benin Kingdom, Oba Eheneden Erediauwa Ewuare II.

2. The answer to who can best manage the artifacts, unfortunately, is not straight forward. Technically, it should be the Federal or State government. However, you only need to pay a visit to Federal and State museums across the country to understand that good management and maintenance is not a strong point of government in these parts.

That leaves us with The Royal Palace or The Private Trust.

My inclination is to suggest a merger of the two options:

A. The museum/cultural district should be built in the location chosen by the Oba of Benin.
B. The museum and cultural district should be managed by the Private Trust.
C. Oba Ewuare II should be made the Chairman of the Trust.
D. The CEO of the Trust should be a thoroughly seasoned professional and should be chosen via a merit-based selection process.
E. Members of the Trust Board should be drawn equally from nominees provided by the Benin Palace, the State Government, the Trust's Directors and the Federal Government.
F. All decisions should be made via simple majority votes.

I believe that this option will resolve the issue and provide the best solution.

Going by the statements here, one would understand why the attempt to meddle with the place of History in our secondary school curriculum was such a BIG problem.

Your comment captured the crust of the matter. The begging question is; who does the artifacts really belong to? Your comment answered that.
They were carried off during the Benin expedition (Feb 1897). The Acting British Consul, Philip, invaded Benin in 1896; without London's permission. He had plans to introduce the British Native Administration System in the Benin Empire. In his letter to the Colonial Office London, he protected that the cost of the war would be covered by the "ivory present in the Oba's palace". He went ahead to launch the mission, without an affirmative response from London.

That first mission ended as a disaster for the British; the Benin forces ambushed the British forces and killed literally all the men (250 soldiers, and few British senior officers). Only 2 British officers survived; this is known as the Benin Massacre.

In response, London launched a full scale operation against the Benin Empire; this informed why the 1897 expedition was largely punitive, and involved a level of operational highhandedness not he generally consistent with British colonial expeditionary strategy; Benin city was set ablaze; thousands of ivories carried off from the palace, shrines, etc; Chiefs were hung; most icnonically, the palace was burnt to the ground. The Oba was exiled to Calabar, and a British administrator was appointed.

Most of the artifacts are still scattered across European cities; they were auctioned to cover the expedition's cost.

Conclusively, unlike the British expedition in the Forbidden City (Palace) of China, where the monarchy is nonexistent today; the institution of the Benin Obaship subsists.
If the genuine intention of today's Britain is real reparations, then, those artifacts are to be returned to the Palace from whence they were carried off 124 years ago.

The question that begs answers is; do we (FG, Edo SG, Benin Kingdom) have the needed environment to keep these artifacts?

Would these artifacts be covered in dust, 10 years from now; when all the pomp and pageantry are gone.

I don't know the ancestral relevance of these artifacts, nor what they mean to the Benin people; all I know is that if the ancestors were allowed to vote, the ancestors would rather remain in shiny glass cases; under cool conditioned air; with 24-hour lights beaming down on them; than to be abandoned in some dusty hall with leaky roofs somewhere south of the Sahara.

You beg to differ? When was the last time you visited a Nigerian museum (except for research purposes - for historians)?

ThatFairGuy1:
The emperor himself would never listen.

He's worse off who he castigated

Close that hole on your face, Obaseki is wrong, but your tiny god is worst.

Sammy07:


The Oba doesn't have the right to tell the government where the artefacts should be put to

The artefects belongs to Benin Kingdom.

AtikuNetwork:
Obaseki should put the Oba in his place and even dethrone him of need be. How dare he challenge the decision of a popular elected state governor? No monarch can be bigger than an elected government. He needs to be shown who is in charge.

sitting in ur parlour and talking nonsense.. tell him to do it ode na, you think this is Yoruba land.. obaseki knows better..

Why can't you make your comment without being insulting?

Edo State is not Benin. Therefore those artefacts aren't the property of Edo State. It is the property of the people of Bini. When those artefacts were taken from Benin, was there an Edo State, was there a Nigeria? The answer is no.
Was there a Benin monarchy? The answer is yes. The Benin monarchy is the custodian of Benin culture.

You can't compare the Benin monarchy with the British monarchy, they're not the same.

temitope27:
shut up how can he do that, is the state property, British museum is own by government my British monarch

AGNESikpuNNU:
Sanusi treatment loading in edo

In ur wildest dream...go n check history

Museum in a palace where no one visits. Na wa o

The is all about money. The state government want to keep them in it’s museum to generate money for the state while the OBA whom forefathers are the original owner want to keep it to their self and generate money from it to run its palace. Which ever way is welcome

God bless Edo state

If Obaseki is a governor that is concerned with governing, he wouldn't have time to dragging where the cultural artefacts of the Bini people would be housed.
He would leave it in the hands of the rightful custodians.

EcoBrick:


https://punchng.com/dont-allow-obaseki-take-custody-of-1130-stolen-artefacts-oba-of-benin-urges-fg/

Your monthly stipends and all the paraphernalia attached to the throne will be suspended, go and ask Dasuki & Sanusi what befell them.

Traditional rulers that lack constitutional roles/functions are flexing muscles with constituted authority, I pity you all....

This one is growing wings.....well Obaseki should sanusi him sharp sharp....Govt of Edo is for every indigen of Edo...

Royalty is just one family milking others...


OBASEKI should do the needful....Abeg.

AtikuNetwork:
Obaseki should put the Oba in his place and even dethrone him of need be. How dare he challenge the decision of a popular elected state governor? No monarch can be bigger than an elected government. He needs to be shown who is in charge.

Ok - Governor elected and the Oba of Benin Kingdom - first rated Oba.

BosseJ:
The state government needs to handle the issue with care. The Benin monarchy is an institution that predates any Edo state government. Obaseki (or any governor for that matter) will come and go, but the monarchy will outlive any governor.

like Emir of Kano didn't predates any government in Kano when Sanusi a** was kicked. The Oba should just tread with caution.