The presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the 2023 general election, Prince Adewole Adebayo, has cautioned politicians against dragging the traditional institution into politics.
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Adebayo was reacting to what happened between the Oba of Benin and former Governor Adams Oshiomhole, who claimed that the Oba advised him against the choice of the current governor, Godwin Obaseki in 2016. The Oba had responded immediately telling Oshiomhole that he never advised him against the choice of Obaseki at any point.
Adebayo in a statement said: “Our Kings cannot be pawns on the chessboard of politics and they should not be put in a position where they cannot defend themselves or where they have to defend themselves.
“The Royal Fathers don’t belong to the politicians and they are not seasonal hirelings of the political class to be hired and fired according to how the political fevers break.”
He further emphasized that when politics has failed, it is the traditional institution that would provide the needed succour. He said: “We must separate the palaces from politics and separate politicians from the royal thrones because politicians don’t mind going to hell in high water as long as they can capture power, whereas the traditional institutions are part of what we have left when politics has failed.
“Pageantry, pomp, protocols, rites and rituals that accompany the colours and sounds of the palaces are signposts of the remnants of our past glories salvaged to remind us that we came from a grand past and are entitled to claim a great future, especially when the borrowed western paradigms breakdown or fail us. At least we have something which is originally and authentically ours.”
Adebayo, however, condemned the action of some traditional rulers, whom he said have made themselves available tools in the hands of the political class because of the crumbs that fall from their table.
“I am not oblivious to some sad spectacles of late where some occupants of sacred stools have reduced themselves to carousing about and palling around corridors of power and verandas of influence and clubhouses of lucre as ubiquitous assistant celebrants and cheerleaders of all things mundane.
“But, such an unfortunate minority is no excuse for uppity commoners raptured in the exhilaration of captured power and ephemeral importance to trample over the dignity of true nobility and natural kings, and our collective symbols of respectable heritage. Let all concerned please respect themselves. Long live the kings.”
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