I am amazed at the number of messages I have got relating to this current spat between the Ooni of Ife and the Oba of Lagos. Clearly, such feudal monarchies mean a lot to quite a lot of people
[2] Personally, I fail to see what all the brouhaha is about. A dispute between two feuding monarchs does not impact on the life of the common man on the street and to be honest would not make my list of 100 top priorities
[3] For me, however, the issue raises the matter of affordability of all these monarchs. About three years ago the Obi of Onitsha, Igwe Nnaemeka Achebe, criticised the proliferation of the traditional institutions in most parts of southeastern Nigeria during a book presentation at Hilton Woodcliff Lake in New Jersey, pointing out that Abia state with a population of 4.5m people now has over 1,000 traditional rulers, noting that the southeast has over half of all the traditional rulers in Nigeria: http://goo.gl/5AkS8V
[4] Now, if you go to the southwest of Nigeria, virtually every town has a traditional ruler too. Greater Abeokuta has five monarchs alone.These traditional rulers cost a fortune to maintain with their retinue of servants, wives, need for cars, palaces, etc. Most of them are government contractors and their padi-padi nepotsitic arrangements with ministers and governors just fuels corruption
[5] We talk a lot about reducing the cost of governance, getting legislators to reduce their salaries and allowances and cutting the cost of administration. However, if we want to be honest about this and not engage in double standards, this wind of change must spread to these traditional institutions too
[6] As per northern Nigeria, the whole world knows that the emirs of the northeast turned a blind eye to Boko Haram when they camped and trained in their domains. As the law of Karma will have it, these same Emirs later had to flee for their lives as the Frankenstein they created turned on them
[7] To move Nigeria forward, it is not time to scrap these parasitic and feudal monarchies that are nothing but relics of the colonial era? It is a fallacy to claim that they are part of our culture as 95% of the monarchies in Nigeria were created by the British to help foster Indirect Rule. It was these monarchs who collected tax on behalf of the British
[8] In 2017, Nigeria is supposed to be a 21st century democracy. We have local governments to provide services like refuse collection, vaccination, etc and state governments to provide education, housing, wider healthcare, transport, etc. There is no justification for these feudal relics in modern day Nigeria
[9] Those of you who know the history of Nigeria, know that in pre-colonial times, we did not have more than six paramount monarchs:
Alaafin of Oyo
Sultan of Sokoto
Obong of Calabar
Oba of Benin
Shehu or Borno
Everyone else was an appointee. This proliferation only came about because the British needed traditional rulers to colect tax for them
[10] Across Europe, a lot of monarchies did not survive World War One. We all know about the French who revolted in 1789 and how the First World War saw to the end of the German and Russian monarchies. In England, the monarchy was only restored after the death of Oliver Cromwell in 1658. Had he lived longer, who knows, Britain may have been a republic today. Is it not time we start thinking along these lines?
