The Benin Bronzes - thousands of brass, bronze and ivory sculptures and carvings - have become highly charged symbols of injustice. They are originally from what is now Edo State, in southern Nigeria.
Stolen by British soldiers and sailors in 1897, most are in Western museums and private collections.
The British Museum, which has some 950 Benin Bronzes, has come under particular criticism for its refusal to give them back, but is only one of many museums struggling to justify the legitimacy of its collection.
The Edo kings - the obas- campaigned for decades in vain for the Benin Bronzes to be returned.

Since 2017, the Benin Dialogue Group, which brings together the current oba, the Edo state governor, the Nigerian government and museums in Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK (including the British Museum) - has been working on a compromise plan for some Benin Bronzes to return to Nigeria.
They have agreed that Benin City, the capital of Edo state, will host a new Benin Royal Museum.
European museums will take turns to lend (although some may donate) a few hundred Benin Bronzes.
The effect, says the Oba's Palace, will be a "permanent collection in rotation" in Benin City.
At long last, the Edo people will be reunited with a significant part of their cultural patrimony.

Governor Godwin Obaseki has been instrumental in the negotiations.
He hired the Anglo-Ghanaian architect, Sir David Adjaye, designer of the acclaimed National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington DC.

All of which begs the question; what happens if Mr Obaseki, who is seeking another four-year term in state elections on 19 September, loses to his main challenger Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu?
"If Godwin is not re-elected, it would be very difficult indeed to continue with a project like this," Phillip Iheanacho told me. And with Mr Obaseki and Mr Iheanacho gone, it's hard to imagine Sir David hanging around.

Of course, none of the European museums would presume to know who would make the best governor of Edo state, let alone tell people there whom to vote for.
But, privately, they are worried about the prospect of restarting negotiations with a different governor.
The director of one museum in the Benin Dialogue Group told me: "It's been an Obaseki project - he's been a great partner. If it's somebody else, it's concerning, we could lose momentum."

The Benin Bronzes were stolen. It is offensive, they say, to make their return conditional on the construction of a museum, or the machinations of Nigerian politics, just as it is offensive to talk about loans, not permanent returns.
But there is another way of looking at it.
The European museums, I believe, are desperate to fend off the withering criticism of recent years.
They need the Royal Museum to succeed.
A Nigerian negotiator told me how some Europeans within the Benin Dialogue Group feel their Benin Bronzes "have become an embarrassment".
"Quite frankly, if Obaseki set up a shed at the back of his house, they'd hand them over to him. Just to be rid of them."
In other words, the power dynamic has shifted.

Tantalisingly, it is within touching distance. But it is the actions of Nigerian politicians which will determine whether it happens.
And that, in itself, reflects how the world has changed.

Ok

Okay...

WonderManly:
Okay...

Both parties are the same, bunch of thieves..

Although APC is worse.

"Quite frankly, if Obaseki set up a shed at the back of his house, they'd hand them over to him. Just to be rid of them."

This conclusion by the European speaks volumes how how. Much trust they believe in Governor Godwin Obaseki.

Trust is the Koko see as them believe Obaseki die and them come say even if he build bamboo shade as museum them no mind pack all the stolen bronze from Benin and other African countries give Obaseki as them trust am gidigba.
4+4 na 8

Jafar1:


Both parties are the same, bunch of thieves..

Although APC is worse.

Yes. You're right!.. Too much of hardship under APC.

otobo

Propaganda no Dey tire una?