INTRODUCTION
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Oba Ewuare II (N’ Ogidigan), Uku Apkolokpolo, the 40th Oba of Benin, is the scion of Oba Ewuare the Great (1440-1473), who reigned after Oba Uwafiokun (1443-1473) and was succeeded by Oba Ezoti (1473-1475). Ewuare the Great, it was, who developed the Edaiken title for the eldest son of the Oba, to stamp succession authority in the royal lineage.
A warrior par excellence, who built city walls, moats and boulevards within Benin City and led his army to conquer many cities and towns, up to Owo and the Niger Delta area, Ewuare the Great no doubt reincarnated in the present Oba of Benin, Ewuare II. The handsome quintessential Diplomat illuminated the dark crevices of locked diplomatic channels during and after the military years, as Nigerian envoy to Angola, Italy (with concurrent accreditation to Albania), the kingdom of Sweden (with concurrent accreditation to the Scandinavian countries of the Republic of Finland and the kingdom of Denmark and Norway). Since his ascension to the throne of his forefathers two years ago, Oba Ewuare II has achieved so much within a very short time on the throne. He is development conscious for his people.
SOME IMPRINTS
He has since strongly called for the repatriation of all Benin artefacts carted away during the mindless and punitive British expedition and invasion of Benin kingdom in 1897. He has implored the federal government to have more federal presence in Edo State. He has called upon Edo State government to introduce Benin language and history in the curriculum of schools. Using what he coined as “cultural diplomacy”, Oba Ewuare called for cultural renaissance as a great tool to promote harmonious relationships, respect traditional institutions, unify the people and resolve communal and individual disputes through the principles of social justice and equity.
DISBANDMENT OF CDAs
One of his earliest actions on being crowned on 20th October, 2016, was to order the immediate disbandment of the notorious and parasitic Community Development Associations (CDAs). This was a platform used by unemployed youths in virtually all the communities within Benin kingdom, to perpetrate heinous crimes. Potential investors were serially chased out with machetes, clubs and guns, whenever they refused to pay huge sums of extortionist money to them. Private homes and property developers were not spared this anguish and nightmare. The Oba immediately set up a Committee of intellectuals, professionals, security gurus and traditional chiefs to map out a roadmap towards elimination of this anti-development menace. Yours sincerely was privileged to be part of this historic platform. The result was the Oba’s forging of a close alliance with the Edo State executive and legislative arms of government to promulgate a law criminalizing and out lawing CDAs and their ill-wind deleterious effects.
Today, Edo state, especially the Benin Kingdom axis, is seen by investors that troop in, as a safe haven for investment. Inspite of this, His Royal Majesty, during his thank you visit to present Muhammadu Buhari in Aso villa, emphasized the strengthening of security in Edo State and the dire need of infrastructural development in Edo state.
ADVOCACY FOR GELEGELE SEA PORT DEVELOPMENT
One project quite dear to the heart of the Oba who has since modernized the royal palace and vicinity, is the Gelegele seaport. He implored president Buhari to help develop it, to open up the state to commerce and industry.
SATELLITE TOWN
Perhaps, the most ambitious project so far embarked upon by the Oba, and indeed any royal father anywhere in the world, is the proposed satellite town to be established at Ugoneki, in the Uhunmwonde L.G.A. of Edo State, along the Benin – Agbor road. The proposed town to be known as “Oba Ewuare II satellite town”, is to be self-sufficient, with sundry basic amenities of life and 24 hours of security and power supply.
OBA EWUARE II FOUNDATION
His focus on development led him to set up the Oba Ewuare II Foundation, which, in collaboration with the National Directorate of Employment (NDE), has since organized skills acquisition programmes, training over 50 youths, including returnees from Lybia. The Foundation is geared towards eradicating poverty amongst youths and the most vulnerable of the society. It is to halt social vices, illegal migration and human trafficking of Edo indigenes to foreign countries, in the vain hop of greener pastures; and to provide empowerment through scholarships, skills acquisition and total liberation and re-orientation of the “get-rich-quick” mentality of the new generation.
The Foundation seeks to develop Edo language and provide free feeding for the needy, with over 1000 already fed. The revered Oba has even placed many Lybia returnees on salary. He retired into the sacred realm of his ancestral abode, came out and placed a curse on human traffickers who prey on young, vulnerable and innocent ladies, with the words, “our gods will destroy you”. He even cursed native doctors who administer oath of secrecy on unsuspecting victims.
NOW THIS
ALL HAIL A ROYAL TOUCH
Thus, within the short span of two years, Oba Ewuare II, like his forebear, Oba Ewuare the Great, has changed the face of traditional institution in Nigeria, striving for development and modernism, even as he jealously guards our prime culture, customs and traditions.
Oba gha to kpere, isee.
AND THIS
AN INTERIM BLUEPRINT OF GOVERNANCE FOR PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI UPON BEING SWORN IN AFTER AN ELECTION THAT IS STILL BEING HOTLY CHALLENGED
AND CONTESTED AT THE TRIBUNAL
INTRODUCTION
President Muhammadu Buhari is still battling with his election mandate. I will therefore not comment on it, being one of the lead counsel in the Atiku Abubakar legal team. However, before the much awaited Election Petition Tribunal judgment, Buhari must quickly take Nigeria out of the social, economic and political doldrums he and his APC government have plunged it. He should be more nationalistic in his outlook and approach to governance; less sectional, functional, partial, nepotic, cronystic and prependalistic. He should drop his stiff garb of suffocating military Louis XIV imperiousness and jackbootism and know that he is supposed to be a Democrat, subject to due process of law, with the attendant democratic safeguards. Buhari should allow Rule of Law to flourish uninhibited, learn to obey court orders and respect citizens’ cherished and inalienable fundamental human rights. Buhari must, as president of a whole nation, drop his 97%-5% bellyaching mantra of those who did not vote for him and endeavour to be less divisive and vindictive. He should treat all Nigerians equally and as one, whether they presumably voted for him or not. He must stop promoting the superiority, suzerainty and sovereignty complex of his ethnic group, over and above the other more than 350 ethnic groups in Nigeria. He must give democracy dividends to the Nigerian people, through the provision of adequate security (section 14 of the 1999 Constitution), robust economy and infrastructural development. He should think outside the box of how to fight corruption, as his performance in this regard has been woeful, selective, exclusionary and favouritism-based. Nigeria is more corrupt today than ever before (according to latest Transparency International Corruption Perception Index).Where corruption could be said to have been “democratized” by previous governments before him, corruption under Buhari has been greatly “privatized” by a few high-heeled cabalistic elements. Thus, corruption money, unlike before now, no longest circulates, or sips down to the common people. It has been hijacked privatized and held down by the jugular by these few elements at the precincts and corridors of temporary power. More importantly, Buhari should dust up the over 600 ground- breaking recommendations of the 2014 National Conference scripted by 492 delegates drawn from across Nigeria (wherein I was a Federal Government delegate, and voted “Cicero of the 2014 National Conference”) and implement them. Some of the most important amongst them is the vexed, but overdue issue of devolution of powers and restructuring of the unworking Nigerian contraption, to become a truly fiscal and federal system of government.
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK
“Leadership is about vision and responsibility, not power.” (Seth Berkley).
LAST LINE
I thank Nigerians for always keeping faith with the Sunday Sermon on the Mount of the Nigerian Project, by Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN, OFR, FCIArb., Ph.D, LL.D. I enjoin you to look forward to next week’s treatise.
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