Benin Leaders of Thought: Discrepancies of a Benin narrative

One should overlook the intensity of the obscenities and innuendoes that have come to besiege public and media discourses, nowadays. Who is to blame than the jailor COVID-19 pandemic, that has so much incapacitated humanity that men have become Canary, the caged bird who sings dirges? And because people are forcibly locked down by the Coronavirus, verbal exchanges have become incessant twaddle and a normal thing.

The latest press release by the  Benin Leaders of Thought (BLT) and its kernel, coming from a blue blood and knowledgeable persona, in a sweet world, supposedly driven by affections, shouldn’t be ignored.

BLT is a sociocultural pressure group, which claims to protect the interest of “the Benin ethnic group” and shepherded by a learned royalty, HRH Prince Edun Akenzua, the Enogie (Duke) of Obazuwa, a community of the great Benin kingdom.

The import of the BLT narrative, signed by HRH Akenzua, himself, may seem irrelevant, as it only dwells on one of the 36 states of a Nigerian federation that is often demeaned in the global polity  and mass media reportage. Verily, it is not the same  outlook, wherever Benin or Edo is mentioned or concerned.

Therefore, making deadly insinuations that impinge on the unity of the homogenous Edo sub-ethnic groups and dragging the good name of the urbane and unforgettable Oba Erediauwa, in the murky water of partisan politics and its power succession, before the world, is a sacrilege that is sanctionable.

In the statement, BLT alarmed a startled world that prior to the 2016 governorship election, a loving and unbiased father to all, Oba Erediauwa and his palace, were privy to clandestine moves by BLT and others to smuggle in a succeeding governor of Benin stock, through  overtures that were made to Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, who BLT condemned as tricky and a betrayer of their trust, for turning down their request.

Is this not a strange confession where Akenzua, an important royalty, is much aware that the law forbids the involvement in partisan politics, of traditional rulers and institutions,  in view of the salient and indiscriminate  duties they perform to all, as custodians of the people’s culture?

The Akenzua’s BLT, substantially dealt on the ‘no love lost” between Oshiomhole and Mr. Godwin Obaseki, the state governor, blaming Oshiomhole for imposing him instead of the one they had preferred.  BLT portrayed Oshiomhole as an ingrate and betrayer with whom they helped to fight a certain godfather, after which his government made empty infrastructure promises in Benin City, that were not after all fulfilled. It also berated Obaseki as though a governor by Oshiomhole”s imposition, had some tangible work to show, but declined to give credit to Oshiomhole for the good work BLT had always credited to him, and those done by the one said to have been imposed by him.

BLT also retreated to take  side in the current imbroglio between the two warring factions of the Edo chapter of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), manned by Governor Obaseki and the supporters of Oshiomhole, under the Edo Patriotic  Movement (EPM). They shifted the blames on Oshiomhole, as the aggravator of the crisis.

This goes to confirm BLT as having been instigating Obaseki and pursuing  partisan and pecuniary interests in the problem and because they have an axe to grind with Oshiomhole. But, most of the other Edo pressure groups had always held Obaseki as blameworthy over the crises they said he needlessly caused.

While BLT derogatorily alluded to having fought a certain godfather from the Edo Central Senatorial district, it has now come to light that the relegation of the Central zone and their usual cry of marginalisation in Edo polity, wouldn’t be made possible without the prodding of BLT and their divisive activities.

Whereas Benin or Edo is duly regarded as a generic name that encapsulates all the tribes of the state, it is great wonders why BLT members only ascribe to themselves and the seven local government areas of Edo South Senatorial zone, as the authentic Benins or Edos, why the rest are regarded as slaves. And they seem unperturbed that the three Edo zones each stand on equal tripod of fair representation and rotation of power. But BLT boasts of a disputable Edo South’s numerical strength against the other two zones, despite the misconception of who Benins or Edos truly are.

Starting from cataloguing what BLT clearly called the failures of Oshiomhole, HRH Akenzua and company gave the last paragraph of the press statement that; “All TRUE Benins should realise that the present battle is not between Oshiomhole and Obaseki but between Oshiomhole and corporate Benin.”

Cunningly, BLT was again sold to partisan politicking that and political party membership should be by tribal belonging and not by political ideology and inclination. To them every Benin person must serve a misplaced Benin interest. They labelled Henry Idahagbon, a former Commissioner for Justice and Attorney General of the state and a young leader, who was once named the best performing  local government chairman of the state, as a blackleg who betray the Benin cause to outsiders.

Yet, BLT contradicted itself by  conceding that the ideals of Edo’s  homogeneity was once portrayed in Oshiomhole’s usual insistence of Edo being one, with his moved to prioritize the development of Benin City, which they said he did likened to a common parlour of a house in which all the Edo tribes meet, while the rooms are the bedrooms of the tribes.

*Aighi ye ivie run emwin oya”, is an Edo adage that the beads of royalty do not engage in foolhardiness. And it also means that Edo traditions and chieftaincies are still about the most appreciated and revered around the world. And BLT and its leadership had been involved in political smearing games and dragging in the mud of the good names of Edo traditional rulers and the heralded customs, to the effect that they once endorsed Chief John Odigie-Oyegun as the pioneer governor of the state.  Ever since, their insistence has been that they must produce every governor of the state, no regardlesd that Odigie-Oyegun, their first choice, was the very one who set the state on the wrong footing.

They are usually misled to thinking that they are the only Benins or Edos, while the rest fell from the sky.

* Tony Erha is a journalist and pro-democracy activist and wrote from Benin City, Edo State