Killing Tradition
By
There must be many reasons why those who do things decided to do them. Perhaps, if there had been more consultation, many extremely costly mistakes would have been avoided. What my governor, by which I mean Edo State Governor, Lucky Igbinedion, Ava of Auchi, did recently with tradition will be a tale for story tellers for a long long time to come. They will spend time trying to read the mind of a governor who would have no reason whatsoever to want to break the law or take any decision that would undermine the place of culture in the domain in which he is the first citizen.
For the decision to restructure the Edo Traditional Rulers Council by appointing the Oba of Benin as paramount ruler of Edo State was not only a slap in the face of the law, but also a notice served on the culture of the Edos that the time is up for it to be sorted out so that its continued relevance can be ascertained. What did my governor do? I have not read the full statement, but what the papers said was to the effect that the Traditional Rulers Council in Edo State was dissolved to be reconstituted.
At present, there is a chairman in the person of Omo N’Oba N’Edo, Uku Akpolokpolo, Oba of Benin. The first thing that comes to mind is that there is a law recognising the institution of obaship in Edoland. In fact, whether that institution is recognised or not is not the issue. The truth is that the institution exists. And it just happens that the law recognises it. The law must have provided for who qualifies to be a member of that council. Once upon a time, there was a debate on who heads the council. I have never doubted that the person to head that council should be the Omo N’Oba because of the fact, which many deny, that he is the cultural head of the Edo people. Their reasons have been explained in treatises but I am not persuaded.
In the council under reference, there has been only one representative from the whole of Edo South, that is from Benin Kingdom which is the domain of the Oba. All the other members come from Esanland and Afenmailand which trace their homesteads to Benin. The dispersal from the ancestral home, especially by the people of Afenmai which is the northern part of Edo State, is located in the 15th century. People just had to leave because of the ruthless misrule of the Obas. Many were members of the royal family. Auchi people and the Urhobo people were said by historian Egharevba to have left Udo for their present abodes.
My friend Andy Akporugo would not accept the story when I told it to him some 20 years ago. He told me that the Urhobo people found themselves where they are. There is no more expressive way to establish a new identity than that type of claim! So, we were told, Oba Ozolua was a wicked man and he it was who destroyed Udo which was then the headquarters of Edoland. Those who left remained independent of the Oba, but established relationships with the pace over time. The rulership reflected the culture of the Edos. Odionwere was the rule of elders and whoever was the eldest had the title of leader in the communities.
In the19th century, the slave raids were intensified and the northern part of Edoland came under the influence of the Nupes who themselves had had their political arrangement profoundly affected by the presence of the Fulanis. In the case of Auchi, the Odionwere system gave way to the Otaruship of today. It is the direct establishment or institution by the Nupes and has nothing whatsoever to do with Edo culture. The system is better understood as the emirate system of emirs and District heads and Daudus. This institution has sustained, grounded on Islamic tenets.
Like Auchi, many other traditional rulers in Afenmailand have their stories of how what is on today started. But one thing with Edo North is that all clans have clan heads who are the final authority on the culture of the clan. There is no head culturally transcending the office of the clan head in Edo North, in Afenmailand. They are, in one short statement, not the emissaries or representatives in any capacity of the Oba of Benin. We understand that this is not so in Esanland. The Traditional Rulers seem to have one spokesman in the palace of Oba of Benin and that is the Onogie of Irrua. Where there is a cultural outing in many parts of Esanland, no kola is broken unless there is no one from the Benin homestead to do so. This has never happened in Afenmailand. So, the ascendancy of the Oba is a concession of historical ties, not a consequence of the result of war.
What Governor Igbinedion has done is a masterstroke that would seem to solve the unfulfilled dream of 600 years. And from the information I have, it only helps to kill the dream. The institution of Obaship in Edo State is not subject to the law of the House of Assembly. But no one can deny that the law regulating it is so subject. And what is the existing law? Does it provide that the governor can reconstitute the council outside the provision of the law? Or that like any other law, any contemplated amendment would meet the requirements of due process? This oversight must be deliberate because I cannot associate my own governor, the highly enlightened chief executive of my own state, with any level of ignorance.
There must be a second angle to it. Was the governor persuaded into doing what he did? If so, who could that be but the Omo N’Oba himself? I would personally not see anything wrong with what the Omo N’Oba did, especially in having other "chiefs" from Benin Kingdom in the Traditional Rulers Council if the proper thing had been done. All the 14 or so new "members" should be upgraded to the status of traditional rulers in Benin Kingdom. They must be traditional rulers with their own territory and staff of office. All the entitlement of other traditional rulers, like whatever it is that the local councils pay to the clan head, must be paid to them. Is this not what some of them have been saying? And is this not the time to get this arrangement settled for once so that the day to do it will not be postponed?
In the absence of a meaningful restructure, there is no way the traditional rulers from outside Benin Kingdom will take a seat in a council as presently constituted. Many may not know how sensitive this matter is, and I am not surprised that cultural associations across the state are extremely angry at what seems to be an uncalled-for imposition that can only create problems for peace in the house of tradition.
The argument that Benin has more people than Esan and Afenmai together, and more land, makes sense when we concede that because of the same statistics, the North should have double what the South can claim! Is the North not more populated than the South, and not twice the area? The governor’s decision should be withdrawn. It is going to do more harm than we can politically manage. A stitch in time will save the culture of Edoland.