₦airaland Forum

Oshomhole in trouble!

Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, has alleged that the Adams Oshiomhole government frittered away the money he (Obaseki) helped it to raise from the World Bank.

As a result, he said, Oshiomhole who is his predecessor must be probed.

“We are cleaning the house so that when you come in, there will be no issues and we will not be deceived any more.

“I was part of that administration, because I believe Edo must be developed. So, I sacrifice my time for eight years to help organise the state. I went to the World Bank to raise money for the state to enhance its development.

“But with what I have seen in the books, I look like a foo; while I was arranging finances and other things, I didn’t’ know that the money I was raising for the state was being frittered away.

“I don’t like probing; I like to go forward, but it has become very difficult, because when I look at the cost of contracts I awarded in 2020 with the ones awarded 10 years earlier, people have questions to answer.

“We are not a government that like to prosecute people or victimise anybody, but the truth must be told; Edo people must know how we awarded $200m contract 10 years ago and we have paid every amount of that contract and it has not been completed.”

He said this while speaking at the victory party for Chief Dan Orbih, the PDP Vice-Chairman South-South, at the home of a former PDP BoT Chairman, Chief Anthony Anenih, in Benin, said his administration must probe Oshiomhole and recover all stolen funds.

He said his victory at the Appeal Court was as a result of prayers and support from Edo people.

He added, “Edo people must be told how a project that is supposed to remove flood from Benin City created more flood. I am not an engineer, but we will call them to tell us what happened. They must explain to Edo people how we have been able to award contracts about a 10th of the cost and achieve more than they did 10 years ago.”

“This type of behaviour must stop and you can’t do something wrong and be shouting that someone is wrong because you don’t want people to know what you did wrong

https://phenomenal.com.ng/2021/03/obaseki-speaks-on-money-he-raised-for-oshiomhole-from-world-bank/

Hypocrites! Can't say it as it is. This had always be Buhari. Nothing had changed. Buhari of 1984 is not different from Buhari of 2021. The only difference is in age. His mentality had always been the same. You all knows this. Yet you foisted him on us in 2015. May you all, Obj, Ameachi, Tinubu, etc, (majorly southerners), that brought this on us never live to see 2023.

Fake news. Check the link out.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1089181904454790&id=100000889720395&anchor_composer=false&refid=28&_ft_=qid.6929018582654151994%3Amf_story_key.1913462585517206479%3Asrc.22%3Aphoto_id.1089181854454795%3Astory_location.5%3Aattached_story_attachment_style.photo%3Aview_time.1613287790%3Afilter.h_nor&__tn__=%2AW-R

The truth is coming out

BabaOwen:
Atiku a northerner has tried his luck, the ruling party will zone their presidential ticket to the south, why can't the PDP also zone their own ticket to the south too? Is PDP a party created for Northerners

If only PDP allowed fairness, Umahi will still be in the PDP by now

Has Apc zoned their presidential ticket to the south? I think not. Why don't Umahi wait until such is done and pdp did not follow suit before jumping ship? Anyway 2023 will soon be here. He will become like the man he took over from in Ebonyi, Martins Elechi: politically dead.

How true is this salary structure? And what is the fate of other paramilitary groups like Custom, Civil defence, Immigration, Fire and Correctional services?

Don't know where you bought your own. See this big one I bought in Asaba for #100 this afternoon

This Kanu is a hypocrite. How can you say Nigeria should be changed because a foreigner gave it the name but you see nothing wrong in adopting the name Biafra also given by a foreigner? What does the name 'Biafra ' mean in Igbo language. Is the name Igbo? Why don't you adopt an Igbo name to reflect the Igbo identity than the Biafra that we all know is a European creation. It is named after a geographical location spanning from Gabon, through Cameroon to some part of Nigeria by Europeans, called the Bight of Biafra. Ojukwu adopted it to suit his expansionist agenda without including Gabon and Cameroon. Kanu is now doing the same. Until you change the name Biafra to Igbo nation, I will not take you serious. Biafra and Nigeria are the white man's creation.

You call this vote buying? Did you see the pdp demanding for voter card before giving them wrapper and money?
Though this was staged by APC to counter the video trending over their vote buying activities using the NDE , it was not well acted.
In the APC video, it was clearly shown them demanding voter card from the women before giving them wrapper.

Out of 18 commissioners, 3 resigned, you are making mountain out of it? Those SAs are ward representatives. Out of 194 SAs less than 13 resigned.
These were Oshomhole loyalists. In fact one of the resigned commissioners told me she became a commissioner through oshomhole assistance. Therefore, staying with Obaseki will be seen as a betrayal. But that he would vote Obaseki. That's why when the APC campaign train was in her ward, she did not join them.
So there resignation have no political consequences on Obaseki reelection.
4+4 = Ogbane!

jerseyboy:
OBA OF BENIN MUST THREAD CAUTIOUSLY ON EDO ELECTION
By
Osaro Omoruyi (Canada)

The recent so- called Peace Meeting called by the revered Oba of Benin between PDP and APC will go down in the annals of the Edos as a classical case of how a monarch who is a father to all enmeshed himself in a political imbroglio between two edo gladiators and took sides with one of the parties in a very illogical and comical manner. It was glaring to all that the Oba danced naked in the market place and non of his subjects could summon courage to draw his attention to it.

By the Oba's performance it was clear that the objective of the meeting was to humiliate, intimidate and cow Obaseki and his supporters. I must at this juncture commend Obaseki and Shaibu for their composure and display of maturity, humility and respect for the Benin throne in the face of obvious provocation, hostility and bare faced arm twisting tactics inflicted on them in the Palace. The Oba ignored the fact that standing before him was the Governor of Edo State given the power of life and death in accordance to the rule of law irrespective of whose axe is gored. By virtue of the Nigerian Constitution, let it be made clear that the Oba or any other traditional ruler any where in Nigeria is subordinate to the authority of a State Governor. In fact the Oba of Benin is in no where mentioned in the Constitution. It is said that history repeats itself because some people fail to learn from history. Contemporary Nigeria history is replete with cases of traditional rulers who have been deposed. The most recent one is the Ganduje/Sanusi case in Kano arising mainly from the emir who is expected to be apolitical taking sides against the Governor in an election. Even Kwankwaso couldn't save Sanusi when the push came to a shove. It brings to mind Achebe's little bird Nza who after a heavy meal forgot himself and challenged his "chi" (personal god) to a wrestling duel. The Oba left no one in doubt as to how Oshiomhole courted him in 2016 for his imprimatur to make Obaseki a Governor. He now gave a condition that unless Dangote stands as "guarantor" whatever that means for him. In other to have maximum impact on the people, the Oba ensured the whole episode was recorded in full real time and circulated to the whole world via the internet. As a former diplomat the Oba is aware that such peace meetings are held behind closed doors if the intentions are genuine for salutary effects.For the avoidance of doubt let me state here that no single individual or a group has the authority under any guise to hijack the democratic right of Edo State citizens to freely elect their governor.It is the peoples' mandate to give to anyone of their choice..."We the people..."Vox populi, vox dei" the voice of the people is the voice of God.

It was uncharitable for the Oba to have made a dubious reference to the memory of Great Agho Ogbeide Obaseki, the Governor's grand father. From whatever angle the Oba chose to look at that era, he can not deny the noble roles Agho played in Benin history. After the British invasion, Oba Ovonramwen from his hideout sent Agho on reconnaissance to the city and he was captured. After the surrender of Ovonramwen, the British tried to use Agho as a witness to convict him but Agho refused and saved him from execution and then made Ologbosere (military commander) the fall guy who paid the supreme sacrifice. While in exile in Calabar, Ovonramwen did not forget Agho's kind gesture and he gave Agho one of his daughters in marriage. Similarly, Oba Eweka 2 also gave his daughter in marriage to Agho. During the interegnum Agho was paramount Administrator of Benin for 16 years. He was also Iyase of Benin. Agho died 100 years ago and he is definitely not the issue today.

The Oba without deference to the status of Shaibu as the Deputy Governor of Edo State referred to him publicly as a thug whereas it is in the public domain that all the attacks (Agbede, Okpella,Apana etc) were targeted at PDP. Even after the Governor informed him that as Chief Security Officer of the State, he has documented Security Reports on these attacks. The Oba responded that he does not want to apportion blame yet he singled out Shaibu by name for lashing. He made no mention of Capt. Osa, Kabaka and the lions and tigers. This kind of settlement is unmonarch-like. It is a far cry from a Daniel comes to judgement.

It is easy to discern the hand of Esau and voice of Jacob in the so- called peace meeting but whatever it is, when one is sent a message as a slave he should deliver it as a free born.

The bottom line is Edo people should be allowed to freely elect who they want as Governor in a peaceful atmosphere come 19th September 2020. Mind you Edo State is the heart beat of Nigeria.

#@Sept2020edo

This piece is from the stable of Ize-Iyamu and Oshomhole media council. It was authored by Maiyaki. Edo and the Benins in particular are not deceived. We know where this is coming from. We shall pay back on the 19th of September. Mark my word. On Obaseki reelection we stand.

Oracleforce:
Idiot nymiri boy ranting like a rabid dog...
How does the Edo election concern Yoruba people....typing irrationally n

See them fighting Tinubu war! I am a complete Edo man. A registered voter in Irrua. You are calling Nymiri. Afonja people and betrayal na 5 and 6. I am very sure in 2023 you will betray your god, Tinubu for a Hausa/Fulani. You guys will never stop wiping their asses and flushing their toilets. Like I said earlier, Edo no be Lagos. Una eye go clear on the19th

Lies from the pit of hell! A trashed effort. Edo can never go back to Egypt! Oshomhole, Ize-Iyamu and Kabaka are going to be buried politically by Edo people on September 19th.
Edo no be lagos ooh.

Paramount01:
Who are with obeseki?
The ipob
Are they having voters card?

Who are with Ize-Iyamu and Oshomhole?
The Afonjas!
Are they from Edo? NO
Do they reside in Edo? NO
Do they have voters card? NO
Just to remind them that Edo is not Lagos.
Godfatherism must be uprooted and Oshomhole buried politically on the 19th of September, 2020.
If you know, you know.

I am a full blooded Irrua son. If indeed our Onojie said this, he is on his own. I am 100% sure Obaseki will floor Ize-Iyamu in Irrua. Irrua is for Obaseki.

OSHIOMHOLE DOES NOT WANT TO IMPEACH OBASEKI: HERE IS WHY!
What happened in Edo State yesterday has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH THE IMPEACHMENT OF OBASEKI. I am amused that people, including supposed experts,are getting the intendment and analysis of that impunity so wrong.
Put another way: NO ONE WANTS TO IMPEACH OBASEKI. What happened is more sinister. I will also tell you why the governor must do everything to make sure that they don’t succeed. What the Adams Oshiomhole zealots tried to do today is an inkling
into what the Ize Iyamu, Adams and most of the APC establishment( there are those who really want this election to be free and fair) want to unleash on the hapless Edo people come September 19.The play for the leadership of the Edo House of Assembly is actually directly linked to
The September 19 elections. Adams knows too well that a free and fair election will signal the death of his political life as the people are fully mobilized to teach him a lesson. But a clause in the Constitution of the Federal Republic presents Adams an opportunity to
survive this assured political demise. The Constitution demands that gubernatorial elections be held “not earlier than one hundred and fifty days and not later than thirty days before the expiration of the term of office of the last holder of that office.” Understanding this
Clause is the key to unraveling what happened yesterday in Edo state and the battle for the leadership of the State Assembly. Adams and his inner coterie know too well that by fixing the election on September 19, INEC is walking a very tight rope. If the election does not end on
first ballot and if no clear winner emerges, there is no way INEC can effectively re-mobilize to conduct a run-off elections within two weeks until October 12th when the “not later 30 days” time frame in the Constitution elapses. If this happens, then the Governor will have to
Hand over on November 12th to the Speaker of the House of Assembly who will then be the one in charge when the elections are conducted. This therefore means that whoever is the Acting Governor at that time will determine how incumbency is deployed to suit whichever candidate s/he
supports. By making a move to take over the leadership of the House, Adams has shown his hand and the strategy of the APC in Edo: ensure that the election does not end on September 19 or on first ballot by any means necessary. If this is the case, I predict here that the election
Will be the bloodiest in living memory and the history of elections except something is done to stop it.For to achieve an inconclusive election,the APC only needs to ensure that there are lots of violence induced votes cancellations leading to the margin of lead being lesser than cancelled votes to prevent INEC from making a valid return. Let me also predict that these cancellations will be in areas perceived to be controlled by the APC( Edo North) so that any re-runs will largely favor it. I will also make another prediction that a compromised security
force will be used to prevent large voter turnout in areas controlled by the PDP while also trying to manipulate results that create an impression of a sustained competition in those areas.Given the role the police played in Imo,I will not be surprised if they contrive their own
“results sheets” which gives the APC the edge. However, I am aware that INEC is countering this move by setting up a process of direct uploading of polling unit results sheets in real time on a website that is accessible to the entire world. I am also aware that the results
Sheets now have sophisticated security checks that make them very difficult to counterfeit like the police allegedly did in Imo to foist Hope Uzodinma as Governor.
Given this reality, the Obaseki team must now do whatever it takes to ensure that the leadership of the House
does not change while working extra hard to make sure that the election ends on first ballot. This they can do by mobilizing the Edo people to turnout en masse and to not only show vigilance but be prepared to defend their votes to the very end.
As for the security agencies, especially the police, they must be told in very clear terms that the people will resist any attempt to give them a fait accompli. Happily, the show of solidarity with the governor in yesterday’s events must have sent a signal to the police on the
Edo people’s readiness to take no prisoners in defending their mandate. I am also happy that the President seems to want to ensure that only the will of the people as expressed through the ballot will be the acceptable minimum. My sources tell me that the president has read
a riot act to the security operatives to call it straight through the middle with a stern warning that anything to the contrary would be decisively dealt with. However, will President Buhari follow through with this tough talk? He proved in Anambra’s election in 2017
That he can walk the talk when he wants to, but will he this time? Or will he allow the hawks in his government to sustain the assault on our democratic pillars? We shall know in the coming days.
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1291653487114280960.html

What goes around comes around

FLASHBACK: How Oshiomhole Removed Edo Assembly Roof As Governor

FLASHBACK: How Oshiomhole Removed Edo Assembly Roof As Governor
By Tayo Olu on August 6, 2020
A recurrence of an event that took place in 2014 during Adams Oshiomhole’s tenure as Edo State governor played out on Thursday after the police invaded the state’s assembly complex.

The roof of the Chief Anthony Enahoro Complex was removed on Thursday in an apparent bid to prevent what was described as “forceful takeover” of the state assembly by some yet-to-be sworn in members of the house.

Obaseki had accused Oshiomhole, who is his predecessor, and Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodinma, of being behind the police invasion of the assembly complex but did not back up his claim with evidence.

The governor, who spoke to BBC Pidgin through his media aide, Crusoe Osagie, alleged that the plan was to give access to the members who were yet to be sworn in to inaugurate a “parallel House of Assembly” in the state.

– Removal Of Edo Assembly Complex Roof In 2014-

Oshiomhole, who until recently was the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), had admitted to ordering the removal of the Edo Assembly roof to prevent his impeachment in 2014.

The former APC chairman stated this at the party’s National Presidential Convention in 2018, while commending President Muhammadu Buhari for “being too mild” on the opposition compared to past administrations.

Oshiomhole had said: “As a sitting governor then, I was denied the use of a public airport.

”Mr President, sometimes I feel you are too mild. I was under threat of impeachment, I had to remove the roof of my State House of Assembly in order to survive.

“One of your predecessors used seven people to remove a sitting Governor. I am, however, not in anyway suggesting that you do the same,” he said.

https://thewhistler.ng/flashback-how-oshiomhole-removed-edo-assembly-roof-as-governor/amp/

LukasPodolski:
Saraki messed up our State despite his exposure, he went to Kings college, A top British University.

He knew the right thing, but greediness won't let him.

All of una shouting "let's allow the youths to take over" should sit down.


CORRUPTION IS PART OF OUR CULTURE IN NIGERIA.

Is Kings College in london? Thought is in Lagos. Well, what do I know, a local man.

This statement is going to 24 hours now. Not a word from the presidency. Buhari's ass lickers, toilet flushers and attack dogs led by Lai Mohammed, Femi Adesina, the loquacious Festus Keyamo and the palm wine drinker, Lauretta Onochie, are silent. If it were a southern/middle belt group that made such inflammatory statement they would have started masturbating all over the social media overdoing themselves in attempt to please their Fulani pay master. The thunder that will strike all of dead is doing push up.
Meanwhile if the Fulani thinks because they are in power today, they can use the federal might to achieve what their blood thirsty leader, Usman Dan Fodio could not achieve years ago, they have the south south and south east to contend with. We are waiting. When we start, the activities of Boko haram, their militants will be child's play.

Will they listen?

Matthew Kukah, Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, has said politicians from the north who looted public treasury, have failed to develop their immediate constituencies, unlike those from other parts of the country.

The clergyman stated that Nigeria is full of political thieves, and those from the south have built clinics and schools, compared to those from the north, despite being in power more than any other region of the country.

Kukah made the statement in an interview with AriseTV, on the state of the nation.

In response to a question on his criticism of government during one of his sermons, particularly at the funeral mass of late seminarian, Michael Nnadi, he said:

“I must tell you that religion and politics is my area of academic interest; religion, politics and society.

“So, when I say the things that I say, they are based, first of all on my conviction as a Christian because I am pretty clear about how society ought to be and Jesus said to me very clearly that I have come so that you can have life and have it to the full.

“So, anything that impinges on the state’s inability to make life better for the citizens under its care, not only does it irritate me but it summons me to question the state.

“No part of this country has produced military or civilian presidents or Heads of State as Northern Nigeria has done. The North still insists that it wants to hold on to power at all cost, yet it has lacked the capacity to translate this power into a meaningful and useful impact on the lives of even its immediate constituency.

“Even the thieves who steal from other parts of the country behave in a much better way than the thieves from Northern Nigeria and they steal as much as everybody else.

“But everybody who steals, you can see evidence that most of the thieves in Nigeria have either built clinics, they have tarred roads, have given children scholarships, built schools and have done all kinds of things.

“But you cannot find in Northern Nigeria in 99 percent of the constituencies of the Northern elites any evidence of a thief who served in Abuja or elsewhere passed here.”

https://www.newsbreak.ng/nigerias-political-thieves-have-built-schools-clinics-unlike-those-from-north-kukah/

True events as narrated by Chief Tony Anenih, then national chairman of Abiola's party, SDP, in his book. Unfortunately, the opp did not include the source.

manuelreports:
Op add snake at the bottom so that this great work can make Fp

Where is the snake?

This is the story of a lost medieval city you’ve probably never heard about. Benin City, originally known as Edo, was once the capital of a pre-colonial African empire located in what is now southern Nigeria. The Benin empire was one of the oldest and most highly developed states in west Africa, dating back to the 11th century.

The Guinness Book of Records (1974 edition) described the walls of Benin City and its surrounding kingdom as the world’s largest earthworks carried out prior to the mechanical era. According to estimates by the New Scientist’s Fred Pearce, Benin City’s walls were at one point “four times longer than the Great Wall of China, and consumed a hundred times more material than the Great Pyramid of Cheops”.

Situated on a plain, Benin City was enclosed by massive walls in the south and deep ditches in the north. Beyond the city walls, numerous further walls were erected that separated the surroundings of the capital into around 500 distinct villages.

Pearce writes that these walls “extended for some 16,000 km in all, in a mosaic of more than 500 interconnected settlement boundaries. They covered 6,500 sq km and were all dug by the Edo people … They took an estimated 150 million hours of digging to construct, and are perhaps the largest single archaeological phenomenon on the planet”.

Barely any trace of these walls exist today.

View along a street in the royal quarter of Benin City, from 1897.
View along a street in the royal quarter of Benin City, 1897. Photograph: The British Museum/Trustees of the British Museum
Benin City was also one of the first cities to have a semblance of street lighting. Huge metal lamps, many feet high, were built and placed around the city, especially near the king’s palace. Fuelled by palm oil, their burning wicks were lit at night to provide illumination for traffic to and from the palace.

When the Portuguese first “discovered” the city in 1485, they were stunned to find this vast kingdom made of hundreds of interlocked cities and villages in the middle of the African jungle. They called it the “Great City of Benin”, at a time when there were hardly any other places in Africa the Europeans acknowledged as a city. Indeed, they classified Benin City as one of the most beautiful and best planned cities in the world.

In 1691, the Portuguese ship captain Lourenco Pinto observed: “Great Benin, where the king resides, is larger than Lisbon; all the streets run straight and as far as the eye can see. The houses are large, especially that of the king, which is richly decorated and has fine columns. The city is wealthy and industrious. It is so well governed that theft is unknown and the people live in such security that they have no doors to their houses.”

In contrast, London at the same time is described by Bruce Holsinger, professor of English at the University of Virginia, as being a city of “thievery, prostitution, murder, bribery and a thriving black market made the medieval city ripe for exploitation by those with a skill for the quick blade or picking a pocket”.

African fractals
Benin City’s planning and design was done according to careful rules of symmetry, proportionality and repetition now known as fractal design. The mathematician Ron Eglash, author of African Fractals – which examines the patterns underpinning architecture, art and design in many parts of Africa – notes that the city and its surrounding villages were purposely laid out to form perfect fractals, with similar shapes repeated in the rooms of each house, and the house itself, and the clusters of houses in the village in mathematically predictable patterns.

As he puts it: “When Europeans first came to Africa, they considered the architecture very disorganised and thus primitive. It never occurred to them that the Africans might have been using a form of mathematics that they hadn’t even discovered yet.”

A plaque showing an entrance to the palace of the Oba of Benin.
A plaque showing an entrance to the palace of the Oba of Benin. Photograph: Alamy
At the centre of the city stood the king’s court, from which extended 30 very straight, broad streets, each about 120-ft wide. These main streets, which ran at right angles to each other, had underground drainage made of a sunken impluvium with an outlet to carry away storm water. Many narrower side and intersecting streets extended off them. In the middle of the streets were turf on which animals fed.

“Houses are built alongside the streets in good order, the one close to the other,” writes the 17th-century Dutch visitor Olfert Dapper. “Adorned with gables and steps … they are usually broad with long galleries inside, especially so in the case of the houses of the nobility, and divided into many rooms which are separated by walls made of red clay, very well erected.”

Dapper adds that wealthy residents kept these walls “as shiny and smooth by washing and rubbing as any wall in Holland can be made with chalk, and they are like mirrors. The upper storeys are made of the same sort of clay. Moreover, every house is provided with a well for the supply of fresh water”.

Family houses were divided into three sections: the central part was the husband’s quarters, looking towards the road; to the left the wives’ quarters (oderie), and to the right the young men’s quarters (yekogbe).

Daily street life in Benin City might have consisted of large crowds going though even larger streets, with people colourfully dressed – some in white, others in yellow, blue or green – and the city captains acting as judges to resolve lawsuits, moderating debates in the numerous galleries, and arbitrating petty conflicts in the markets.

The early foreign explorers’ descriptions of Benin City portrayed it as a place free of crime and hunger, with large streets and houses kept clean; a city filled with courteous, honest people, and run by a centralised and highly sophisticated bureaucracy.

What impressed the first visiting Europeans most was the wealth, artistic beauty and magnificence of the city
The city was split into 11 divisions, each a smaller replication of the king’s court, comprising a sprawling series of compounds containing accommodation, workshops and public buildings – interconnected by innumerable doors and passageways, all richly decorated with the art that made Benin famous. The city was literally covered in it.

The exterior walls of the courts and compounds were decorated with horizontal ridge designs (agben) and clay carvings portraying animals, warriors and other symbols of power – the carvings would create contrasting patterns in the strong sunlight. Natural objects (pebbles or pieces of mica) were also pressed into the wet clay, while in the palaces, pillars were covered with bronze plaques illustrating the victories and deeds of former kings and nobles.

At the height of its greatness in the 12th century – well before the start of the European Renaissance – the kings and nobles of Benin City patronised craftsmen and lavished them with gifts and wealth, in return for their depiction of the kings’ and dignitaries’ great exploits in intricate bronze sculptures.

“These works from Benin are equal to the very finest examples of European casting technique,” wrote Professor Felix von Luschan, formerly of the Berlin Ethnological Museum. “Benvenuto Celini could not have cast them better, nor could anyone else before or after him. Technically, these bronzes represent the very highest possible achievement.”

A drawing of Benin City made by a British officer in 1897.
A drawing of Benin City made by a British officer in 1897. Illustration: akg-images
What impressed the first visiting Europeans most was the wealth, artistic beauty and magnificence of the city. Immediately European nations saw the opportunity to develop trade with the wealthy kingdom, importing ivory, palm oil and pepper – and exporting guns. At the beginning of the 16th century, word quickly spread around Europe about the beautiful African city, and new visitors flocked in from all parts of Europe, with ever glowing testimonies, recorded in numerous voyage notes and illustrations.

Lost world
Now, however, the great Benin City is lost to history. Its decline began in the 15th century, sparked by internal conflicts linked to the increasing European intrusion and slavery trade at the borders of the Benin empire.

Then in 1897, the city was destroyed by British soldiers – looted, blown up and burnt to the ground. My great grandparents were among the many who fled following the sacking of the city; they were members of the elite corps of the king’s doctors.

Nowadays, while a modern Benin City has risen on the same plain, the ruins of its former, grander namesake are not mentioned in any tourist guidebook to the area. They have not been preserved, nor has a miniature city or touristic replica been made to keep alive the memory of this great ancient city.

A house composed of a courtyard in Obasagbon, known as Chief Enogie Aikoriogie’s house – probably built in the second half of the 19th century – is considered the only vestige that survives from Benin City. The house possesses features that match the horizontally fluted walls, pillars, central impluvium and carved decorations observed in the architecture of ancient Benin.


Story of cities #4: Beijing and the earliest planning document in history
Read more
Curious tourists visiting Edo state in Nigeria are often shown places that might once have been part of the ancient city – but its walls and moats are nowhere to be seen. Perhaps a section of the great city wall, one of the world’s largest man-made monuments, now lies bruised and battered, neglected and forgotten in the Nigerian bush.
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/mar/18/story-of-cities-5-benin-city-edo-nigeria-mighty-medieval-capital-lost-without-trace

Oba Khato kpeieiiii, ise!! Check out the respect. Wike knows his master!

Nobody jokes with the Oba! Check out the respect!