Let me start by giving u the background to many of my writings here and on other platforms; I write to provoke critical thinking, to offer a different perspective and to try to spur us to action.
With this in mind, I hope a lot of you can pause and give a thought to the opinion I am about to give here.
Over the years I have found it hard to see the tangible value of our various monarchs to the development of the society.
The monarchy is a relic of the past. The colonizers effectively strip it off its use. The role they performed then, be it executive, judiciary, defence, security etc have been taken over by political officers.
Some will argue that they are close to the local populace. That isn't how it looks now. Besides, that role should be performed by the LCDA chairman, councillor and LGA chairman. This provision is enshrined in our constitution.
What I have noticed the monarchs of today do, is selling the limited lands, extorting people and institutions and serving as puppets to the powers that be. Worst of all, they drain our scarce resources through what they get from the government.
Do I think they still have a role they can play? yes. They can help safeguard our history and traditions. (present day monarchy have actually bastardised our history. You will today find it hard to see who is traditionally and historically more relevant between the alaafin of Oyo and the Olubadan. Olubadan should have remained a baale. The hundreds of obas and emirs we have now is just confusing put in historic and traditional context. Everyone of them should meritoriously retain the highest position they attained before the British effectively took over governance). I am of the opinion that the palaces should become museums and the kings serving as custodians of its history and traditions. They should be showcasing our rich history by reenacting palace functions and the big ones should pretend they are still an empire. For example the Sultan of Sokoto should still pretend he appoints the different emirs. Ancient wars, rituals and ceremonies should be reenacted on a large scale. This will help boost our tourism sector as people will be coming in to get a glimpse of these things.
The practice of a district ruler now clamouring to be a First Class king is distracting, pointless and lacks merit.

I hail you OP. I feel like you reside in my brain because you put it exactly as I've been opining. Nigerias type of politics has evolved, rendering most of our monarchs useless to the development efforts of government. Their roles should be strictly to preserve and showcase our culture as you've stated.


Sadly, local government councilors are more instrumental to development than they are.