WHEN hen he said he was a child of the palace, he said it in English, I think he said it in Bini as well, oyi Edo tae, I was wondering that as he is campaigning now and then, I called my chief here, is it true that he is a child of the palace, that I don’t know about it. That is why I asked him to go quietly to ask him, that I don’t know about it, I didn’t want to say it out before but the Chief now came back and told me his answer, that the last time he said ehn, a child of the palace. I don’t remember.
We know him very well, he is a son, an industrious son of the soil. In Benin, we say owie sesese hi na, a true indigenous son of the soil but to say a child of the palace, I don’t know whether if any of them is contesting or if any of them is a politician, I don’t know, so I just want that clarification for the sake of the public and what do they call them, the Fourth Estate of the realm, is that not what they call them. That is why owiu Oba owie contesti.
So sorry o, I hope you don’t mind that my clarification? You are an industrious, indigenous son of the soil, we all know that. I know I have supported you since when you were President of the NBA. I had to call El-Rufai to support you, that they should look after you when some issues came up, during that conference of something, that El-Rufai was banned or something, you remember that I had to speak to him that you know, quote and unquote, that’s our son o, that sort of thing, look after him and everything which has nothing to do with the quarrel that was ongoing in Kaduna, I know I spoke for you. So just to be clear that not that we are particularly against you, you know aah to clarify that identification of the identity that you made just now, I hope you don’t mind.”
-Oba Ewuare II
“No not at all. I am grateful for the correction…it was a mistake on my part, I am a true son of the Benin Kingdom. Oba too Kphere!.”
-Mr. Olumide Anthony Akpata
Governorship Candidate
LP Edo State
Any keen observer of the political events leading to the conduct of the 2024 Edo Governorship election that is coming up on September 21st, will agree with me that the campaign has been more of dramatization and clout chasing than substance. And if there is any Candidate that has created more drama, that have become a news item for the wrong reasons, it is the Governorship Candidate of Nigeria’s foremost dramatic political party, Mr. Olumide Anthony Akpata of the LP.
Arising from the furore generated by the sainted Candidate’s visit to the palace of the paramount Monarch of Edo land, one cannot but laugh at the way our reverend King, HRM Oba Ewuare Ogidigan II rubbished the claim of Mr. Olumide of being a son of the palace. It was indeed a sucker punch that for a long time to come, skit makers will make a skit out of. Na who no be Oba pikin?
From the response given by the King, one can see that he doesn’t want the palace to be dragged to the needless tribal politics which the LP Candidate is trying to promote. For a King who is the custodian of history, who knows very well that all indigenous ethnic groups that make up Edo State originated from the palace of the Benin Kingdom, there couldn’t have been any better time than now for him to send a clear warning to those politicians who wish to sow a seed of discord among ‘sons of the palace’, the Binis, Esans, Etsakos, Akoko-Edos, Oras, Ijaws and Igarras etc.
Our King has truly shown that he is not just a King, but he is a father to all and sundry who are Edo. In the face of the attempt by Mr. Akpata to prove that the Esans are not qualified to govern Edo State and that only the Binis should have the exclusive right to the sonship of the palace, our King have demonstrated the point that all Edo children are one, sired from the bowels of the palace and as such no politician should make attempt to create a distinction among them. This is the real Edo Agenda which promotes inclusiveness, not the ethnic domination which Mr. Akpata’s warped Edo Agenda seeks to entrench.
Watching the video that is making round on news media, I saw the way Mr. Akpata was trembling, not confident of himself, not sure of what to say, claiming to be what he is not. I couldn’t believe what my eyes was seeing. Is this not the same arrogant megalomaniac whose words have become law in the LP, such that he has reduced the LP Constitution to a tissue paper by making pronouncement to confer legitimacy on Mr. Kelly Ogbaloi, ex-State Chairman of Edo LP whose tenure has since expired in 2022? Is this not the same tyrant or the bully of the LP who brooks no opposition, whose hirelings went about visiting violence on the lives and properties of those LP members who are not supporting his candidacy?
To be candid, ‘our guy’ really goofed in his utterances which goes to show that he is a highly clannish person. The utterances exposed the abundance of his heart, to see other members of the Edo race as inferiors or as no sons. I guess Dr. Barr. Asue Ighodalo and Senator Monday Okpebholo, are no sons of the palace. They are sons of nobody.
For those of us who are members of the LP Edo State, who are opposed to Mr. Akpata’s candidacy, we are not surprised by the gaffe made by ‘our guy.’ Believing himself to be blue blooded or royal, our Candidate puts in much effort to bring to the fore, the differences that exist among all the ethnic groups that make up Edo State. Not satisfied with the fact that he violated the principles of justice, equity and fairness upon which the LP is rooted on and which dictates that the next Governor of Edo State should come from Edo Central, a zone that have never had the opportunity of governing the State, he allowed his mad supporters to produce a video whose language was couched in Bini, to justify why the Esans should not be allowed to govern Edo State. Not stopping at that, inspite of the opprobrium generated by the video, he went further to suddenly incorporate the name ‘Osaigbovo’ into his names which has become a subject of litigation.
I have watched his TV campaign adverts, whoever advised him to market himself as a Governorship Candidate of the Binis, never meant well for him. Dressed in the Bini traditional regalia, ‘our guy’ dances to songs rendered in the Bini language. Off course, it is good for us to identify with our cultural heritage but not to the extent of wanting to reduce the electoral contest to a cultural one or as a contest between different cultures. We are all Edos who desire good governance, as such nobody should exploit our cultural differences to make a political value. Hmm, most Nigerian politicians are hypocrites for they only remember the importance of identifying with their cultures when they want to contest for an elective post.
Few months ago when I wrote the article, THE CERTIFIED IDIOT, in response to Mr. Akpata’s attempt to make Edo people vote for him on account of his family name, heritage and tree, little did I realize that the message of the article, will still be relevant to the drama that took place at the Oba’s palace on Saturday, 15th of June, 2024. It explains why this current article is a sequel to the aforementioned article.
In all my years of studying the history of mankind, I have arrived at the conclusion that there is hardly any human being in whose family genealogy or family tree, you won’t find- the royals and commoners; the good and the bad; the beautiful and the ugly; the heroes and the villains; the poor and the rich; the notorious and the famous. You can take a look at the genealogy of our Lord Jesus Christ. Despite the fact that he was descended from the lineage of Kings, he was the son of a nobody, the son of a bloody carpenter by name Joseph which made it difficult for the leaders of the Jews to accept him as the awaited messiah. Off course the good Lord never went about shouting at the mountain top for all to hear “I am the son of a King, I am the son of God”, to get the approval of people. Infact, he hid his identity, a testament of his humility.
“You have observed how godless rulers throw their weight around, how quickly a little power goes to their heads. It should not be that way with you. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must become your slave. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
-Lord Jesus Christ
Matthew 20: 24-28
It is election season and politicians who are seeking for public office, are wont to lay claim to one heritage or the other to curry the favours of the gullible electorates, but I ask myself, how relevant is one’s sonship to the existential issues affecting the people of Edo State? How relevant is it to the quality of education, quality of health care and all that constitutes good governance?
Edo people are not concerned about whose son are you, all they are concerned about is a government that will work for the greater good of all.
It is normal for political leaders to lay claim of being sons of whoever they deemed fit to be sons of, afterall history has it that Alexander the Great, the greatest and undefeated general in history and founder of the Greek-Macedonian empire claimed to be the son of Amon Ra the Egyptian Supreme God (Zeus) and a descendant of Achilles the hero of the Greek-Trojan war and he indeed lived up to what he claimed to be. His legacy is still shaping the world we live in. He helped spread the Greek civilization which forms the basis of the Western civilization we see today.
There is nothing bad if Mr. Olumide Anthony Akpata claims to be the son of royalty, but he should conduct himself with all sense of royalty. He should endeavor and strive to be above aboard and it starts with the way he relates with members of his party whom he is engaged in a war of attrition with. He should abide by the provisions and tenets of his party’s Constitution, principles and ideology rather than supporting the illegality that has become the order of the day in the LP.
I thank the Almighty God for being the son of a nobody, the son of a common Teacher but I am consoled by the fact that if Dr. Goodluck Jonathan who had no shoes to wear to school can become the President of Nigeria, one day I too shall become the son of somebody.
Postscript:
1. It is indeed a comic relief to see our Oba correct an errant ‘child’ of his in the open. He was frank and brutal in dishing out the truth to correct an erroneous impression. That is how royalty should be, speaking truth the way it is. I wonder what was Mr. Peter Obi’s reaction given that he has betrayed the principles he is fond of preaching about by identifying with a Candidate who is only interested in using his image to shore up his electoral chances but not keen to emulate him or imbibe his princinciples.
