₦airaland Forum

For years, the museum has stood firm in its refusal to hand back artwork looted from the ancient kingdom of Benin, in what is now southern Nigeria. In doing so, it has defied the trend set by regional institutions in Britain, such as the university of Aberdeen.

Earlier this year, the university confirmed that it would repatriate a bust of an Oba, or king of Benin, which it has had since the 1950s. As a result of refusing to take a similar stance, the British Museum has been heavily criticised – but there is a strong case to be made that its approach is the correct one.

Nobody knows for sure how many artefacts were taken by the 1,500 invading soldiers armed with the latest Maxim guns during their punitive raid in 1897. But six months on, the Bronzes were first put on display in London.

They caused a sensation. From the start, their artistic value was obvious; several thousand were quickly snapped up, mostly by European museums, but as many as 6,000 ended up in private hands. One of these, an Oba’s head, recently sold for £10 million in 2016, double the price of another one just nine years earlier.

Given the circumstances under which they were acquired, there has naturally been great interest in getting them back. Until recently, this has met with little success. In 1977, when the Nigerian government asked the British Museum for the loan of an ivory mask depicting Queen Idia, mother to the legendary Oba Esigie (1504-50), they were rebuffed on the grounds that it would be subject to different climatic conditions and much greater humidity.

This, it was claimed, might cause the ivory to shift and crack.

The Rhodes Must Fall movement, which started at the University of Cape Town in 2015 – and quickly travelled to the University of Oxford – has increased the clamour to return the Bronzes.

Germany, which has the second-largest collection in the world of Bronzes, recently promised to return 1,200 objects.

France's president Emmanuel Macron has been similarly receptive to the idea that France should return all ‘objects taken by force or presumed to be acquired through inequitable conditions’ as soon as possible.

Yet the British Museum, with the largest collection of all (about 900 objects, of which some 100 are on permanent display), is holding out, even if the museum suggests it is amenable to the prospect of returning the items. But there is a good case to be made for leaving the bronzes where they are. The most obvious reason relates to their safety. Thefts from Nigerian museums are legendary, leading one minister of culture and information to bemoan in 1996 that ‘we are losing our cultural heritage at such an alarming rate that unless the trend is arrested soon, we may have no cultural artefacts to bequeath to our progeny.’

Even if the British Museum did agree to return the Bronzes, there is another dilemma: who exactly owns them? The current Oba claims that they belong to the people of a kingdom which doesn’t exist.

This is at least partly why he is at loggerheads with Godwin Obaseki, the governor of Edo state, of which Benin City is the capital. The latter initially backed a new royal museum, but then appeared to change his mind in favour of another museum scheduled to open in 2025. The Oba has since appealed to the federal government to step in and take possession of the expected German consignment, a farcical notion given its track record in this regard, but a sign of the Oba’s desperation.

If there is a solution to be found in this messy and fractious debate, the argument made by Moyo Okediji, the Benin-based artist and academic, seems plausible. He said that the bronzes ‘caged, displayed on blocks and pedestals, or auctioned from hand to hand like the human cargoes which they followed across the Atlantic Ocean’ have been robbed of their spiritual essence, serving as they did a living deity. Okediji also thinks that returning them ‘is to pretend that such a reparation fully atones’ for an act of colonial outrage.

But if giving them back can't undo the damage, it seems reasonable to make the case that the Bronzes – whether put on display in London or closer to where they were made – should be viewed as a vanished African kingdom’s gift to the world.

Richy4:
In as much as I believed he said this on social media to shut her up forever...
Exposing that innocent kid is not the best idea..

In near future, he will understand what his statement/ utterances,the impact of it on that child amongst his peers in playground...

DaudaTheSexyGuy:
Some guys are just careless.

When banging a married woman you need to take extra care so you don't get her pregnant especially if she's still within the child bearing age

Phiheywhy1:
Slavia Prague don kill my ticket again, last time, I for win 13k which wud had been my big win ,na so dey go draw, today same story, Prague, wetin I do you

AfroKnight:




This world is a wicked world.

So you people allowed my baby girl JMK to be evicted? Fine girl like that.

Who will I support like this now? Not really following the show.

Who again carry load for that house? Don’t say Jackie please.
Still team JMK though.

The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has been directed by the House of Representatives Committee on Finance to reconcile its account with the Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC) over alleged unaccounted N5.1 billion.

The Chairman of the Committee, James Faleke, gave the directive at the ongoing interactive session on the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) on Wednesday.

During the Wednesday’s session, the FRC Director of Planning and Standard, Alex Alekwo, told the committee that the FRSC was yet to remit N5.1 billion to the Consolidated Revenue Account since 2016.

But in a swift response to the claim, the Corps Marshall of the FRSC, Boboye Oyeyemi , who attended the session, said the Corps had never defaulted with remittance to the government coffer.

He said the Corps had remitted the said amount.

He also asked the committee to give the Corps time to provide evidence of remission from the Office of the Accountant General.

“If you give us time, we can submit the proof of remittances to this committee,” Mr Oyeyemi said.

“We are a law abiding organisation. As of August….we are very relieved when it comes to remittance.

The committee can inquire directly from the Accountant General of the Federation of the monthly receipts. The records are there. I think there is an issue with the FRC.”

The Chairman of the Committee, James Faleke (APC, Lagos), therefore, directed the Corps to “reconcile with the FRC and give us feedback tomorrow. Go to their office and reconcile with them.”

The committee recently commenced an interactive session with Ministries, Departments and Agencies of the federal government on MTEF.

Following the rising spate of insecurity in Jos and its environs, the Management of the University of Jos has suspended all academic activities in the institution till
further notice.

Mr Monday Danjem, the Registrar of the university, unveiled this development in a statement on Friday in Jos.

According to Danjem, the decision to suspend academic activities and shut hostels was arrived at the end of the meeting between management and the Committee of Deans, Directors and Provost of the institution on Friday, August 20.

“The insecurity in Jos, which led to the imposition of dusk-to-dawn curfew has affected the academic activities and forced the university to suspend its second semester examinations for the 2019/2020 academic session.

“Students of the university continued to experience attacks from hoodlums, a situation that has led to the death of some of our students.

“Consequently, the management of the university, after an emergency meeting with the Committee of Deans, Directors and Provost on Friday, ordered the suspension all academic activities in the university until further notice.

“Management has also directed the closure of all students hostels until further notice

“The decision, which is in best interest and for the safety of our students, is subject to ratification by the Senate of the University,” Danjem said.

The registrar advised students to vacates all hostels and go back home and other safer abodes until the security situation in Jos improves.

He appealed to security agencies to beef up security at the various students location to enable them vacate to their destinations safely.

“Students are also advised to use safe means of transportation to their respective safer destinations.

“We wish to passionately appeal that a joint patrol team of armed soldiers and other law enforcement agencies should beef up security and ensure that students are adequately protected as they vacate their various hostels to safer destinations,” he appealed.

He said that management would give adequate notice of resumption when normalcy is fully restored in Jos and environs.

Danjem thanked the government of the state and security agencies for ensuring the safety of majority of students of the university even as attacks on innocent people persist in Jos.

He called on the students to be law abiding and desist from activities that would put them in trouble.

Recall that some students of the university have been killed and others injured in the current insecurity that has bedeviled Jos in last one week.

Romanoff:
Rather than advise him to stay away from Nigerian girls, all suggest he takes his time to study ladies before jumping into a relationship with them.

I am not an advocate for premarital sex, people should stop fornicating. It makes you have clear eyes to see the red flags that you should see.

If a woman doesn't have a source of income but lives lavishly or lives like who dey work and it's not her parents financing her, na red flag.

How does this go for advice?

The Taliban said Tuesday that women’s rights will be protected in Afghanistan within the limits of Islamic law.

“The women are going to be very active in the society, but within the framework of Islam,” Zabihullah Mujahid, the group’s spokesperson said.

The Taliban held its first official news conference in Kabul, on Tuesday, since taking power on Sunday.

The group also said it wants peaceful relations with other countries.

“We don’t want any internal or external enemies,” Al Jazeera quotes Mr Mujahid as saying while encouraging Afghans who had fled to the airport with their families to return.

He also said private media would be permitted to “remain independent” if journalists “did not work against national values.”

The group had earlier declared an “amnesty” across Afghanistan and urged women to join its government Al Jazeera reports that the Taliban is trying to calm nerves across a tense capital city that only the day before saw chaos at its airport as thousands made desperate attempts to flee.

On Tuesday, evacuation flights from Afghanistan resumed as a Western security official told the Reuters news agency that the Kabul airport’s tarmac and runway – which troops from the United States control – were now clear of crowds.

The official said military flights evacuating diplomats and civilians from Afghanistan have started taking off.

Not less than seven people died in Monday’s chaos, including people who clung to the sides of a jet as it took off.

The Taliban has declared the war in Afghanistan over and a senior leader said the group would wait until foreign forces had left before creating a new governance structure, Al Jazeera reports.

Uzomarrr123:
Maria is immuned till the next eviction…luckily for her,no eviction this week…so she’s enjoying two…lol

E choke

Broobembem:
Queen is scared

Gbegirsoup:
Congratulations beautiful Queen Maria.
Such a competitive Queen.

Ambassador of Good luck!
Egovin

Omalicha.

Chai!...

abduleez1:

2special:
Nah to eat and appreciate her by giving her early morning doggy

Coldie:
Liquorose content in the house is following maria around and be trying to force Emmanuel into a relationship

safarigirl:
Lol, no dey use career judge anybody O, make you for no shock

safarigirl:
If you never drink beer before, you no go reason say you dey miss out on anything

Gbegirsoup:
That's so wicked of him.