By Mahmud Jega

High tension, a governor laying siege to an INEC office, an abandoned update of voters’ register, a lorry ramming into the governor’s convoy, the killing of the governor’s principal private secretary, an endorsement of one candidate by the Oba of Benin and gunshots fired at the governor’s convoy have been the highlights of the campaign in Edo State ahead of the governorship elections scheduled for July 14. Another dimension was added to the drama at the weekend with a strange event that occurred at the palace of Omo N'Oba N'Edo Uku Akpolokpolo, Oba Erediauwa.



There was this stunning picture in Sunday Trust yesterday of President Goodluck Jonathan sitting in an ornamented red chair in the Benin palace, with the Oba’s empty chair nearby. Some meters away from the president sat Vice President Mohamed Namadi Sambo. Both men’s heads were bare; Jonathan had removed his trademark hat while Sambo had shed his embroidered cap. Both powerful men also wore Bini-style neck beads. Yet they sat and waited, an occurrence unknown to State Protocol. After a long wait, the president was invited into the Oba’s inner chamber. We do not as yet know what happened there, whether President Jonathan used his new-found stern voice and told the Oba a piece of his mind. The rest of his delegation, including the vice president, the PDP national chairman, Chief Tony Anenih and the governorship candidate Major General Airhiavbere, were instead received by the Iyase of Benin who said, “Our son the president came on a courtesy visit and he should have a safe journey back home.”

http://www.dailytrust.com.ng/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=170535:dribbling-feet-of-the-oba-&catid=6:daily-columns&Itemid=6

The dribbling of the PDP delegation at the Oba’s palace was attributed by observers to Oba Erediauwa’s earlier endorsement of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole for the top Edo job, a very unwise thing to do if you ask me. What if Airhiavbere wins? The Oba could have endorsed ALL the candidates and thus neutralised his endorsement of Oshiomhole, as traditional rulers tend to do all over the country.

Actually, all over the country, you hear rumours of traditional rulers getting involved in the intrigues of politics, even though they are supposed to be “fathers to all”. Most of them are apparently unhappy with this limited role and want to increase their influence in the choice of political rulers so as to reap personal dividends. The Benin palace in particular is notorious for partisan political involvement. In 1991, with only days to the governorship election between NRC’s Lucky Igbinedion and SDP’s John Odigie-Oyegun, the Isekhure of Benin Chief Nosakhure Isekhure placed the curse of the Oba on whoever voted for Igbinedion. The affair shocked this country and Igbinedion, who looked set to win the election that year, went on to lose.

The reason for Oba Erediauwa’s curse of potential Igbinedion voters became clear to me some months later when I met a top jurist in Kaduna, who told me a titillating story. He said Lucky’s father, Esama of Benin Chief Gabriel Igbinedion once told him he needed every help to get Lucky into the governor’s office. Esama said, “God has given me everything except one thing! If he gives me that one thing, I am ready to die that day. The only thing remaining is for me to be in front of the Oba of Benin. Me, there is no way I can be in front of the Oba of Benin, but if my son Lucky becomes the governor, the day I see Oba of Benin visit Government House and bend down to greet Lucky, I am ready to die that day!”

I can imagine the heart-ache that the monarch went through when Lucky became the governor of Edo State in 1999 and went on to rule for eight years. All references to the Esama as an enemy of the Oba were of course muted during those eight years, but they were revived immediately Lucky vacated the Government House. Esama was suspended from all palace activities and was only recently pardoned.

Other notorious cases of deep involvement of traditional rulers in politics include the Awujale of Ijebuland Alhaji Sikiru Adetona, who had a serious running battle with the UPN government of Ogun State that left Nigerians agape. The Alaafin of Oyo Oba Lamidi Adeyemi also had running battles with UPN, and more recently he had more brushes with Oyo State Governor Adebayo Alao Akala. In the North too, the notorious examples include Emir of Kano Ado Bayero’s brushes with Governor Abubakar Rimi in Kano, and Governor Mohamed Goni’s deep obsession with the Mai Bade in Borno.

My favourite example of how a traditional ruler should handle a visit to his palace by politicians occurred in 1992 at the palace of the Emir of Gwandu, the late Haruna Al-Rashid. He was quite old at the time, and SDP presidential aspirant General Shehu Yar’adua’s delegation to his palace was accompanied by the emir’s son and eventual successor to the throne, Major Mustafa Jokolo. The delegation’s leader, the late Alhaji A.A. Gwandu, stood up and requested the emir to pray for their candidate’s success in the elections. Emir Haruna then sat up and said, “Let us all pray for peace to reign in Nigeria.”



A MEETING WITH YITZHAK SHAMIR


When I read the news yesterday of the death of former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir at the age of 96, I remembered a brief meeting I had with him in his Tel Aviv office in 1996. I was one of 8 African journalists who toured Israel at the invitation of the Israeli Foreign Ministry. The tour included visits to the Foreign Ministry, Knesset, Yedioth Ahranoth, Holocaust museum, a state of the art hospital and research centre, the Dead Sea, a kibbutz, the Wailing Wall, Church of the Nativity, Sea of Galilee, the training centre at Haifa, Ashkelon, the city of Metulah on the Lebanese border, the Jordan river and the Golan Heights. For me however, the high point was the meeting with Shamir, who was prime minister of Israel during the first Gulf War.

I had only one question in mind that I wanted to ask Shamir. In 1991, soon after American and other troops managed to throw Saddam Hussein’s forces out of Kuwait, US President George Bush Senior convened an international conference in Madrid to seek a comprehensive peace in the Middle East. As Western newspapers reported at the time, Bush had promised to convene the conference after the war as a sop to the Arab nations, notably Egypt and Saudi Arabia that participated in the anti-Saddam “coalition of the willing.” Shamir’s right-wing Likud government was an unwilling partner in the talks, which soon bogged down in acrimony and were subsequently aborted. But not before the Syrian delegates at the talks held high a 1948 British Army in Palestine poster that declared Shamir wanted for a terrorist offence!

Anyway, when he left office some months later, Yitzhak Shamir told newsmen that he had no intention of ever coming to an agreement at the Madrid talks and that he intended to drag the talks interminably. It was a scandalous statement, from our African point of view, and I was fully expecting Shamir to deny that he ever made the statement. Once it got to my turn to ask Shamir a question [we had been warned in advance by the organisers to speak up because the then 80 year old Shamir was hard of hearing] I asked him about the statement he allegedly made.

Shamir sharply inclined his ear towards me so he could hear what I was saying. When I finished quoting the statement, he said, “Yes! Yes! That’s what I said.” I was then lost for words! I couldn’t continue with the question because I really had no follow up. I was expecting him to deny it or to say that he was misquoted, Nigerian politician style. When he confirmed that he said it, I was lost for words. It was a major lesson in my reporting career, that politicians in other climes are not like our own.



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after the amalgamation of nigeria, lugard in his team had a council that consisted the emir, sultan, alaafin, obi and two other unelected officers. there role in governance was relegated to nothing because of their inability of the language english.

you cant rule out traditional core values in governance. the oba saw and knew what was on the ground regarding performance of the gov. the peoples' voice was the kings decision and he made his position known cause of lucky the gov and what he experienced.

please was that meeting scheduled or GEJ just crashed in to visit

So Oba of bini should endorse pdp that has made edo state backward for over 10 years abi ?