THE GUARDIAN
A deluge of abominable and sacrilegious scandals has rocked the traditional institution in Nigeria in recent times. While the sight of otherwise “royal fathers” sharing the dock in courts with hardened criminals and petty thieves is disturbing, the entire nation is aghast regarding how a bunch of thoroughly reckless individuals seeking power, pleasure and prestige meander their way into the traditional institution. From committing wide-scale fraud to stoking the embers of communal crisis, stealing, ritual killings, to assault on their subjects among others, the once-revered institution is now a laughingstock.
ENO-ABASI SUNDAY reports that the waning moral quotient among supposed custodians of culture and tradition has further worsened leadership challenges at the grassroots. With posers swirling on whether the gods are getting it wrong, many believe that for traditional rulers to remain assets and contribute their quota to national development, imposition of candidates, skewed selection process and political interference must be dismantled.
Boardroom guru, technocrat and elder statesman, His Royal Majesty, Igwe Nnaemeka Alfred Ugochukwu Achebe, the Obi of Onitsha, is one of the most respected monarchs in the country and has done an incredible job of preserving Igbo tradition and culture.
Apart from being recognised by the Anambra State Government and the federal government as a representative of the Onitsha people, Achebe before taking up traditional duties had a sterling track record of service culminating in him becoming a director of oil giant, Shell Petroleum Development Company, and being named the Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, in 2015.
The Obi, who is also politically influential, has never shied away from making his position known on issues concerning the South-East and matters that border on Nigeria’s unity.
Besides also serving as the chairman of the Board of Directors of Unilever Nigeria, and the Chairman of International Breweries (ABInBev) Nigeria before emerging as the Obi in 2002, his long, distinguished career in the Royal Dutch Shell saw him serving as a director of other Shell companies in the United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone The Gambia, Liberia, and Angola.
Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar, the 20th Sultan of Sokoto, and spiritual leader of Muslims in Nigeria is another respectable traditional ruler, who has been both graceful and astute since climbing the two-century-old throne founded by his ancestor, Sheikh Usman Dan Fodio.
The President-General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, since being enthroned on November 2, 2006, has carried himself with decorum and strict compliance with his oath of office despite also wielding reasonable political powers.
As the Sarkin Musulmi, who also holds the position of Chief Moonsighting Officer, responsible for determining the official start and end of the Ramadan Fast across Nigeria, Abubakar’s military discipline and training have found vent in most of his actions and conduct.
Before joining his ancestors in April 2016, His Royal Majesty, Omo n’Oba n’Edo Uku Akpolokpolo Erediauwa, the 38th Oba of Benin, Edo State, was a quintessential gentleman and a rare breed.
Formerly known as Prince Solomon Aiseokhuoba Igbinoghodua Akenzua, Erediauwa succeeded his father, Oba Akenzua II, on March 23, 1979, and took up the title, and duties as traditional head of state, which he diligently discharged with panache, élan, aplomb and discipline.
Before mounting the throne, Erediauwa studied Law and Administration at King’s College, Cambridge, London, and thereafter joined the Eastern Nigeria Civil Service in 1957 as a District Officer. He later moved to the Federal Civil Service where he retired as Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health, in 1973.
In a country with a rich tapestry of culture and history, its repertoire of traditional rulers should necessarily consist of some of the finest gentlemen that the country boasts. Ranging from the best in academia; respected retired captains of industries, retired civil servants that had unblemished careers, to retired military brass hats that served the country meritoriously.
Indeed, time was when monarchs not only stood on moral high grounds but commanded so much respect from their subjects just as their influence, leadership style and goodwill were leveraged to define the country’s political, cultural, and religious milieux. They were almost always in the vanguard as the country grappled with contemporary issues of national importance.
The first-class kings among them played vital roles not only in preserving the cultural heritage of their forbears but also in maintaining social and political stability, with the very influential ones among them even mediating in political crises involving high-calibre political leaders, including state governors.
The significance of the traditional institution was captured in a paper by the founder of Afe Babalola University, Aare Afe Babalola, titled: The Role of Traditional Rulers –Sanusi The Genius: A Case Study (1), where the legal luminary emphasised that the concept of traditional rulership in Nigeria predates the nation’s colonial era, forming one of the very cores of governance and administration. Traditional institutions perhaps being the oldest institution in Nigeria, are deeply rooted in the culture, history and traditions of various ethnic and cultural backgrounds.
On the one hand, a traditional ruler is the custodian of the traditions, history and customs of an ethnic group of individuals, and is appointed by such individuals to rule, govern and administer justice in line with the laid down customs and traditions of the people. On the other hand, he is defined as a person who, by his ancestral position, occupies the throne or stool of an area, and who has been appointed to it in accordance with the customs and traditions of the area and whose throne has been in existence before the advent of the British in Nigeria.
Long before his demise, Erediauwa had described a traditional ruler as the traditional head of an ethnic community whose stool is conferred the highest traditional authority on the incumbent since the time before the beginning of British rule, as well as, a person who, because of inheritance or lineage has been appointed to a chieftaincy position by those entitled to do so under customary law and whose appointment has been approved by the approving authorities.
Flowing from this, Babalola contended: “In practical terms, the pre-independent traditional ruler stands as the repository of all the executive, legislative and judicial powers of his domain. In some areas, particularly amongst the Yorubas, a traditional ruler is regarded as a replica of God (mutatis mutandi), by virtue of which all their words become law, the infraction of which oftentimes attract corporeal and sometimes, capital punishments.”
He also added that: “More often than not, traditional rulership is guided by the principle of legitimacy, stemming from the customs and tradition of the people: from the appointment of the traditional ruler by the recognised and acceptable appointing authority to his charismatic influence which is derived from a wide acceptance of his personality and leadership qualities.”
This much appears to be observed in the breach judging from the avalanche of litigations arising from troubled selection processes in almost every part of the country. The rot that is enveloping the national space right from the grassroots has also led to the emergence of ignoble persons, including land grabbers, ritual killers, fraudsters, former jailbirds, lecherous men, and sundry shady characters as monarchs.
Some of these marauding buccaneers behave like children of perdition, inflicting pain on their subjects, and shame on the traditional institution and the states they hail from. In parts of the South-West, some traditional rulers are heavily involved in illegal mining and land-grabbing, and their support for criminal herders, and bandits are well documented.
Rash of royal scandals
OF late, it is becoming common to hear a monarch being called out by a victim; being arraigned before a court or even being sentenced to jail within and outside Nigeria for one act of malfeasance or the other.
Only last month, the public assault on Abraham Areola, 73, by the traditional ruler of Orile-Ifo, Ogun State, Abdulsemiu Ogunjobi, laid bare, the oppression and subjugation that subjects endure at the hands of some unscrupulous monarchs.
A viral video clip showed Ogunjobi, with some of his aides, ordering Areola, a chief, to kneel at the roadside as he was being accused of conspiracy and betrayal. The impunity with which the side dehumanised the chief as his principal rained vituperations and curses drew the ire of many.
Not long ago, the Ogun State Government lamented the proliferation of illegal traditional rulers in the state. That development further confirmed that like other sectors, the traditional institution is not immune to atrocities and fakery.
Governor Dapo Abiodun told the third Quarterly Statutory Meeting of the Ogun State Council of Obas that some people were securing fake appointment letters and parading themselves as monarchs without following the stipulated processes and laid down procedures.
As the oversight functions of local councils on traditional rulers continue to fail, these local councils have failed to investigate and prosecute traditional rulers that are involved in criminality, including illegal mining, land-grabbing and support criminal herders, who take pleasure and delight in maiming and killing their subjects.
In most of these South-West states, some royal fathers have been indicted for arbitrary selling of plots of lands where natural resources are deposited. This has, in most cases, led to crises between illegal miners and farmers in states like Oyo, Osun, Ekiti, and Ondo, while some of their counterparts in Lagos and Ogun states are notorious for the illegal mining of sands.
In a move that suggested that the nefarious activities of these monarchs were not going unnoticed, the Oyo State government suspended the Onido of Ido, Oba Gbolagade Muritala Babalola, over alleged links to the activities of illegal miners in the Ido Local Council of the state.
A traditional ruler who spoke with The Guardian on the issue, the Eekerin Olubadan, Oba Hamidu Ajibade, described the development as unfortunate, stressing that Governor Seyi Makinde needs to beam the searchlight on the activities of monarchs, who may be involved in acts inimical to the security and wellbeing of the state.
A 2023 report conducted by the Institute for Oil, Gas, Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development (OGEES), Afe Babalola University, Ekiti State, described the concomitant effect of illegal mining in the zone, especially in Osun State. The report detailed how anthropogenic activities such as illegal mining thrive in Osun State but also the way that it is altering the ecology of affected communities.
It is not only in the South-West that traditional rulers ooze odium, but the situation in the South-East is also as bad. Only recently, the Abia State Government suspended Eze Edward Ebere Eule, the traditional ruler of Azumini Ndoki in Ukwa East Local Council over suspected inappropriate conduct.
He was instructed to immediately account for N8 million purportedly set aside for community power payments. This was part of recommendations made by a Board of Inquiry, which the state government established to investigate claims of malfeasance by certain traditional rulers in the state.
In January 2024, the state government removed Eze Kanu Nwa Kanu, the traditional ruler of Ibom Isii in Arochukwu Local Council following the recommendations of the Board of Inquiry, which the State government established to probe the petitions filed against some monarchs in the state.
Still in the South-East, an Enugu State High Court, on Wednesday, delivered judgment in a long-standing dispute over the Igweship of Mburubu, a community in Nkanu East Local Government Area of Enugu State.
In ruling in favour of the Mburubu Town Union, Justice C.O. Ajah held that Chief Jerry Onuokaibe was not elected Igwe of Mburubu legitimately, but rather through the Mburubu General Assembly, which organised a selection and election process for the Igwe of Mburubu, even while it had no legal right to do so.
In many jurisdictions and climes, traditional rulers wield significant social, religious and political influence over their regions and beyond. The first-class kings among them play vital roles not only in preserving the cultural heritage of their forbears but also in maintaining social and political stability, with the very influential ones among them even mediating in political crises involving high-calibre political leaders, including state governors.
But some contemporary ones among them have a well-documented history of stoking the embers of discord even during peacetime. One of such is the new Amanyanabo of Torusarama Piri, in Degema Local Council of Rivers State, Mujahid Asari Dokubo.
In August 2022, Dokubo a former militant leader in a bizarre show of strength, carried out a show of strength in his neighbourhood in the state, with his militia-looking disciples wielding military-grade weapons, including RPGs, sub-machine guns and rocket launchers.
Only a few months before he was pronounced a monarch, he had challenged the Nigerian military to a duel after threatening to shoot down any military or police helicopter that encircles his residence.
Not long ago, the Emir of Sabon Birnin Yandoto Emirate Council of Tsafe Local Council of Zamfara State, Aliyu Garba Marafa, conferred a chieftaincy title on a wanted bandits’ leader who has killed scores of innocent Nigerians.
That ugly development led to a groundswell of condemnation from reasonable members of society
Skewed selection processes, politics…
PERHAPS not many are as blunt as former president Chief Olusegun Obasanjo in painting a picture of what is happening in the traditional institution as horrendous as it should be.
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