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.
Obasanjo, while unveiling one of his newly released books, Nigeria: Past and Future, lamented the abandonment of the traditional training and apprenticeship system that ensured the emergence of true blue blood and also upheld the dignity of royal stools.
“Today, there are criminals, drug addicts, vagabonds, bandits and kidnappers as so-called traditional rulers,” he said.
In citing a dirty example of one of the monarchs who was involved in indecent behaviour, Obasanjo wrote: “This is a great pity, and it has greatly contributed to the problems of Nigeria by traditional rulers. How do we account for a traditional ruler snatching a ballot box at an election polling station and running away with it?” he queried.
“The class of traditional rulers with their distinction, honour and dignity, as we knew them in the colonial days and early post-independence days, has been diluted and polluted,” he lamented adding: “That dignity, aura and respect should be brought back and traditional rulers should be an asset to Nigeria’s development and greatness and not a liability.
“There is a need for moral re-armament among the traditional rulers — the ancient and historic ones. And they can and should make meaningful contributions to the Nigeria of our dreams that will serve the purpose and interest of all.”
For Akin Malaolu, President of the Yoruba Ronu Leadership Forum, the imposition of candidates is common knowledge.
“We have certainly noticed and read allegations bothering on frauds levelled against many monarchs. The case of the Oba of Ipetumodu recently arrested by the FBI in the United States of America has become a traumatic experience for the entire community of Ipetumodu and the state. The selection process may have been tampered with in the case of the Oba of Ipetumodu. Time will reveal the truth about his enthronement someday.”
Giving a historical perspective on how things took a plunge, Malaolu said: “In Yorubaland, the kings and his people are of the same stock and culture with structural homogeneity throughout their communities and at all levels. This type of structural homogeneity doesn’t exist in a conquest type like the Fulani conquest of the Hausa states in the 19th Century.
“Within the Yoruba traditional authority is the King and his chiefs (Oyo-Mesi). In this condition, the king rules with more assurance, particularly when all share the conviction that the existing order is divinely inspired. Where this is accepted, to question the ruler’s right to rule is not only unseemly but impious. Oath-taking, rituals and magic are all involved in the traditional authority and the king must carry out some sacrifices to give assurances to his kingdom and in the protection of his people. Kings in Yoruba land collect taxes from markets and equally have landholdings,” he stated.
A Distinguished Professor of International Law and Global Politics, at the University of Kansas Law School, United States, Prof. Jehu Onyekwere Nnaji, is also in agreement that political interference has played a significant role in the crisis facing the traditional institution. The rejection of selection processes by kingmakers and the alleged imposition of candidates have become commonplace. Politicians, seeking to expand their influence and control, have infiltrated the traditional institution, using their power and resources to install puppet monarchs who will do their bidding. This has led to a loss of legitimacy and credibility for the traditional institution.”
Royal crises exacerbated by political interferences
PROF. Nnaji maintains that the Nigerian traditional institution, once revered and respected, is facing a crisis of confidence as the mess created by some traditional rulers in various communities has become a source of embarrassment, eroding the trust and admiration that Nigerians once had for these custodians of culture and tradition.
But how did we get here? He responded: “The roots of this crisis can be traced back to the Local Government Reforms of 1976, which stripped traditional rulers of their interventionist powers in leadership and governance. This reform, while intended to modernise governance, inadvertently created a power vacuum that has been exploited by politicians and other interests. The traditional institution, once a unifying force, has become fragmented and vulnerable to manipulation.”
Nnaji also agreed that the craze for titles and self-glorification has also contributed to the decimation of the traditional institution and its values. Power and recognition mongers have infiltrated the institution, seeking to acquire titles and influence for personal gain. This has led to a proliferation of fake monarchs and traditional titles, further eroding the legitimacy and credibility of the institution.
“The crisis facing the Nigerian traditional institution is complex and multifaceted. To restore the dignity and respect of this institution, it is essential to address the root causes of the crisis, including political interference, corruption, and the craze for titles and self-glorification. This requires a concerted effort from all stakeholders, including the government, traditional rulers, and civil society organisations. Only through collective action can we restore the traditional institution to its former glory and ensure that it continues to play a vital role in Nigerian society,” he submitted.
Like Prof. Nnaji, the Executive Director of the Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO), Ibuchukwu Ezike believes that the rise in anti-social behaviours has played a big role in the malaise that is eating up the traditional institution.
“The advent of fraudsters, 419 and Internet scammers in Igboland brought us to this mess. We had a situation where fraudulent and wicked characters who made too much money through the Internet and other fraudulent means stormed Igbo land from different parts of the world with their illicit wealth and started romancing influential, but corrupt community leaders, traditional kingmakers and indigent traditional rulers who fell for their ill-gotten wealth.
“Some poor traditional rulers had their traditional stools bought with money and they descended from the thrones and these criminals took over as traditional rulers appointed their own traditional Prime Ministers (Onowus) and set up people in their ilk as ‘Igwe’s Cabinet.’ Traditional rulers with impeccable character who refused to fall to the whims and caprices of these hoodlums were either kidnapped, forcefully dethroned and sent out of their kingdoms.”
On what has really changed to make the representatives or priests of the gods become so vulnerably exposed to prevalent crimes in the society, he said: “One reason is the corruption of the entire society caused by these criminals. The entire society has become corrupted. The second reason is that when these evil characters assume office as traditional rulers, they change everybody in the administration of the stool, including the priests of the gods and install their colleagues not minding the wrath of the gods that usually befall them.”
“Thirdly, priests of the gods are human too who fear for their lives. Out of fear of being abducted, tortured and killed, they succumb to the dictates of the hoodlums and allow them to perpetrate these evils in our society.”
Making case for inclusion of traditional rulers in constitution
FOR decades, generations of Nigerians have canvassed constitutional roles for traditional rulers, but all that seemed to be in the realms of wishful thinking until now, even though the controversy has not fully abated.
The Senate last Thursday approved for second reading the bill to establish the National Council for Traditional Rulers, which is aimed at formally giving monarchs and community heads vital roles in the country.
Sponsored by the Senator representing Plateau South Senatorial District, Simon Lalong, when the bill was first introduced, it sparked extensive debate among lawmakers, with concerns raised about potential conflicts between the responsibilities of traditional rulers and elected officials at the local councils.
Lalong, a former Plateau State governor argued that contemporary monarchs are well-educated and can contribute massively to solving niggling challenges in society.
Said he: “When there are crises and killings, the first thing people say is ‘let’s hold the traditional ruler responsible.’ It is true in their communities, they know everybody, including the criminals. But we expect them to be the ones running up and down.
“We need to charge them with responsibilities where they will be committed. But for now, you can’t hold them responsible. As the director-general of the campaign for Asiwaju and Kashim, we went around having some meetings with these traditional rulers.
“Every time we want them to participate, they ask to be given a role. So, it was also part of our (electioneering) campaign. So, I don’t see how we can jettison that when we are struggling for a constitutional amendment with respect to security. If we don’t have security, every other thing we are doing is rubbish.”
But for the Executive Director of Daniel Ukwu Leadership Foundation, Dan Ukwu: “The greatest challenge plaguing the traditional institution is the inability to select the right persons for the position of traditional rulers. There are processes in the selection of traditional rulers but our inability to follow due process is the greatest obstacle. Due to wrong selection, the result is constant courtroom appearances defending themselves. With this ugly development, society suffers and most vulnerable people are denied justice.
The traditional institution is a revered organisation meant for decent character. But due to the craze for title and self-glorification by power and recognition mongers, the title is now commercialised and to the wrong persons.”
“From a leadership perspective, the institution has lost its credibility like the politics in Nigeria today. The traditional institution is in a total mess like most institutions in Nigeria, but to have credible people occupying the greatest positions remains a daydream. Doing the right selection process is the right solution. Lastly, the state governments often put their interest above the state. This is also a challenge to the traditional institution.” (Guardian)
