By Tony Erha

“If it is the correct position that the museum in controversy belongs to private investors and that Edo State has no share in the investment, why will (immediate-past) government of the state demolish an existing state-owned hospital, gift the land and a huge money to the private investors for their private business?” It was a teaser by Matthew Edaghese, a lawyer and rights activist. However, it provides optical viewfinder or a lead to the stalemate that has thrown the spanner into the said progression work of the Museum of West African Art (MOWAA).

Based in Benin City, the capital of Edo, a mid-southern state of Nigeria, MOWAA, a mega-museum project, that was nutured on the the fetility of looted Benin artefacts, is again mired in protracted disputes in Benin City, its origin. The former administration of Mr. Godwin Obaseki, ex-governor of Edo State (and its backers), that only came into existence about a century after the looting of the artefacts, laid a claim to its ownership, above the palace of Oba Ewuare II, a present-day successor and great grandson of Oba Ovonranmwen, the very Benin king, from whom the artefacts were looted in 1897.

The BBC, New York Times, as well as Artnet, a European media, added-up to the local media, on the historical accounts on the invasion that led to the destruction and looting of Benin and its rich royal palace.

On January 2, 1897, James Phillips, a British official, set out to visit the Oba of Bini (Benin), but was killed as he forced his way in. The killing of Phillips and his retinue was revenged when Britain sent 1,200 soldiers to destroy the city and banished their king, Oba Ovonranmwen. Priceless artefacts were instantly looted by the British as the spoils of war, and they adorn public museums and private art collections in Britain, Europe, America and some other nations.

Of Edo and historical worldviews, there are mysterious and historical accounts of a reincarnation, of the sort, where similar events appear to be played out, by semblances of protagonist institutions and individuals. “Ahenmwen mase ese na zo”, is a Benin idiom, meaning “Obedience is better than sacrifice”. Therefrom, the attendance of the MOWAA event by its foreign visitors, despite the huge street protests by traditional chiefs, civil society organisations and the commoners, few days before, as well as the investigation committees set up by Edo State Government and the state’s House of Assembly, on MOWAA, should have forewarned them v?and organisers of MOWAA, that they will have overstepped their bounds.

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The state’s intervention was to forestall the breakdown of law and order, which they eventually came to encounter in the reckless invasion of the museum’s venue by angry protesters. Perhaps, had a headstrong James Phillips also obeyed the known protocool of the Benin Obas, like the MOWAA visitors, the accidental invasion and looting of artefacts would have been avoided.

Also to many people of Edo and other believers, it is a reincarnated Chief Agho Obaseki and his alleged betrayal of the Benin kingdom, are what resurfaced in Ex-Governor Obaseki (his great grandson) and his mismanagment of the MOWAA’s affairs, and what is also said that a great grandson of Chief Agho Obaseki had come to her come to finish the business of terminating the Benin throne and kingdom.

Artnet quoted NOWAA official source that the protest “appeared to stem from disputes between the previous and current state administrations”, whilst the US Guardian also said;

Phillip Ihenacho, the museum’s director and chairman, told Agence France Presse, adding that he believed they (wild protesters) were “representatives from the palace” of Oba Ewuare II, the nation’s non-sovereign monarch and custodian of Benin culture.

Artnet concluded that MOWAA, which kept mute to its inquiries, wrote on Instagram; “We advise against visiting the MOWAA campus until the situation has been resolved…”

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It is plausible that this accusation of Oba Ewuare II by Ihenacho, one of NOWAA’s masterminds, who bears the same “Phillips” from the colonial Britain that ignited the 1897 massacre and looting of Benin, could have been an untamed imagination, only similar to the killing of James Phillips that was unknown to Oba Ovonranmwen. Definitely, a kingdom nicknamed ‘Ilu n’ Ibinu’ suggestive of “a land of rightful anger”, where men and women are assertive and protective of their rights; hardly take orders from their superiors. And what angers them mostly is ‘manipulation and servant-master’s relationship’.

But Mr. Godwin Obaseki, is serially accused of complicit in the shoddy handling of the museum affairs, which has caused a debacle. As reported by Artnet news, the BBC, the New York Times and several local news outlets, the ex-governor, only came to be involved in the campaign for restitution and return of the looted artefacts only lately, when he became the state governor. Whereas it was initiated since 1938 by the Benin Dialogue Group and others, who sustained it.

About 2019, Obaseki had agreed to the Oba’s idea of establishing a Benin Royal Museum (BRM), to house the returned looted artefacts. The original idea was for the art pieces to be housed in a public display, and not locked away, where the public could feel their impacts. Then, the news was already rife that the looted artefacts were going to be returned in batches.

An ecstatic king, His Royal Majesty, Ewuare II, the Oba of Benin, one of the world’s oldest kingdoms, and a descendant of the deposed Oba Ovoranmwen, from whose palace the varied artwork were looted, was magnanimous pouring encomiums on Godwin Obaseki for ‘his fertile thought’. But after agreeing to the Oba on the BRM’s proposal, the Benin palace, the Guilds of Bronzecasters and public stakeholders, were shocked as Mr. Obaseki had, instead, gone ahead to float a parallel Edo Museum of West African Art (EMOWAA), to house the same returned looted artefacts, meant for BRM, without a recourse to the Oba and stakeholders, placing non-Benins on its board.

While Mr. Iheanacho chorused the Obaseki’s defence that EMOWAA was a different museum more generic and envisages a wider global essence than a restricted Benin Royal Museum, both men and their backers submitted that while all the returned looted pieces would be housed in the proposed BRM, other contemporary art of West Africa provenance, would be housed in EMOWAA, which altogether was still (then) relevant to the famed looted Benin artefacts and the kingdom.

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But the real motives of ex-Governor Obaseki became more suspicious when the ‘Edo’ (E) in ‘EMOWAA’ acronym was yanked off to reflect ‘MOWAA’.

Also in the Tribune of July 20, 2020, the Igun Bronze Casters Guild, the authentic maker of all the looted bronze work had staged street protests over the claim by a body from outside Nigeria that a non-existence Igun-Igbesanmwan-Owina Descendants Cultural Movement, were owners of the artefacts, not the Benin palace. The Guild resonated the age-long tradition that they were set up by the Oba palace and that all the art work was owned by the palace.

Now, it has dawned on all, as alleged, that Godwin Obaseki’s motives was to corner to himself and others the homoguous donations that came with the artefacts, with a revelation that at least US $25m of donor’s fund is said to have been committed to MOWAA.

The new museum is “offensive to me,” Oba Ewuare II told the New York Times. He (Obaseki) claimed that international funds for MOWAA were given with the expectation the museum would house the Benin Bronzes, and therefore should have gone to him and his planned institution”

But Nigeria’s minister for Arts, Culture, Tourism and Creative Economy, Hannatu Musawa, had condemned the said invasion of the MOWAA’s event, while vouched that MOWAA and its artefacts were different entities from the proposed BRM and looted artefacts that are for the Oba. Could it be that the honourable minister wasn’t properly briefed by the position of the Federal Government, as once declared by ex-President Mohammadu Buhari, that all the returned looted artefacts are gazetted and belongs to the Oba, hence a credence to the BRM? But on a sudden visit to Benin, the truths may have dawned on her, with reversal comments before Senator Okpebholo, the state governor.

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To numerous commentators and observers around the globe, Senator Okpebholo is had scired the bull’s eye on his government’s resolve to unveil the circumstances of NOWAA and serve deterence. He also assured that “MOWAA has turned a birthday gift to Oba Ewuare II. He further pledge the revocation of the six hectares land and facilities of the Benin Centre Hospital, ‘a-life-first’ century old edifices that were bulldozed to give way to an entertaining centre and ‘money illusion’. After all, isn’t the “Oba abd government that own the yam and the knife”? As the Edo people would say.

But, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, from his newest foreign abode, amongst other things, asserted that he conducted the MOWAA business to his best of knowledge and for the betterment of Edo people, buttressing the same that the museum stands to guarantee thousands of jobs for Edo people and bring the state properly to global spotlight. He also absolved himself of accusations of pecuniary gains from the museum project. But, his followers, allegedly recruited to defend EMOWAA at all cost, are antagonistic in their approach to the issue.

Godwin Obaseki’s denial that MOWAA has nothing to do with the looted artefacts was, however, flawed by the BBC. In its report, titled “Nigeria Stolen Benin Bronzes In London Museum”, Emma Greg, in September 17, 2022 wrote;

“Come 2026, these treasures will have a lasting home in Benin City’s new Edo Museum of West Africa Art (EMOWAA). This centre, designed by Ghaniain-British architect, Sir David Adjaye, will house the most comprehensive display of Benin Brozes ever assembled…”

“MOWAA is uneatable food and a poisoned chalice, laid before the Benin kingdom and all lovers of the art and recreation. “Ema nai ya ne uke re ore amu y’ ekpekpe”. In Benin language it denotes, “A meal put on a height is not meant for a cripple”. When ‘E’ was removed from ‘EMOWAA’, it became suspicious, because ‘EMOWAA’ in Edo originally means “a home-made food that everyone enjoys”

By Festus Adedayo

Today’s Gen Z world may not know of “Eddie Kwansa”. It is a famous folk song Owerri, Imo State, donated to the rest of Nigeria. Released shortly after the piercing agony of the Nigerian civil war in 1972 by Dan Orji and his Peacock Band, the song should remind people of my generation of the equally famous NTA soap opera, Village Headmaster. The Orji song became the signature tune of that opera and it runs thus, “Eddie Kwansa oo, bia o, bia o (3ce) Izu ka nma na nneji oo, bia o, bia o…” Translated, the melodious song says, “Come, Eddie Kwansa; It’s good when blood brothers reason together.” Another version translates the lyrics into “Come, Eddie Kwansa, come; quarrels among brothers are best resolved at home.”

The legend behind it makes it an evergreen folk song among Owerri people. The legend, the claim of which has been disputed by those close to the musician who sang it, has it that a handsome young man named John Obik-we entertained Owerri people with his guitar before the civil war. Shortly after the war, he and his three brothers discovered that their late father left land for them in Port Harcourt. They then agreed to sell it and share the proceeds equally. Upon the sale of the land, however, Obik-we’s siblings short-changed him, giving him not even a dime. Downcast and frustrated, Obikwe relocated to Ghana where fate smiled on him. He then totally disconnected from his siblings. His successful life story, especially entreaties from his now repented brothers to him to come back home, became the legend strewn into a song by Orji.

I digress. Yoruba’s world of incantations is built round literary devices of alliteration, similes, metaphors, onomatopoeia, etc. When you are assailed from within and without by enemies, necessitating your running helter-skelter for remedy, my people deploy the imagery of the leaf called “àáragbá” to describe your situation. As an incantation, using the homophone in “gbã” which collocates with and is an alliteration to the name of the “aàárà-gbá” leaf, they sew together the poetic incantation of “ilé ò gbá, ònà ò gbàá níí se ewé àáragbá”. Translated, that incantation curses that, as the leaf of “àáragbá” moves hither thither in discomfort, so shall it be for the recipient of the incantation.

Buffeted at home by pellets from terrorists, and abroad by the razor-sharp tongue and gruff of Donald Trump, the American global policeman of democracy — apologies to General Sani Abacha — I suspect that political enemies must have cast the spell of a troublous presidency on my Yoruba kinsman in Aso Rock. In this piece, however, I volunteer to be there for my kinsman. It is at times like this that consanguines, whose blood is reputed to be thicker than water, ought to be there for one another.

Now that our kinsman in Aso Rock is being pummeled by artillery fire from everywhere, we hope his travails will enable him listen to our Eddy Kwansa call on him to let us reason like children of same Oduduwa parent. Didn’t the lines of Eddy Kwansa song say it is good when brothers reason together?

The truth is, when you think you have fooled the rest of the world, unbeknown to you, you are the greatest victim of your contrivance. When you luxuriate in such a fool’s paradise, my people have two very powerful sayings for you. In the first, they say you are Amuda’s concubine. She was a jester who gave birth to a child and named him Yésúfù — “Oníyèyé alè Àmùdá t’ó bímo tó soó ní Yésúfù”. Amuda is a colloquial rendering of “Ahmad” which in Arabic translates to a “thankful person,” while Yesufu is a collocation of the name “Ahmad”. The etymology of the phrase and the plot which gave birth to it are unknown. However, the phrase has widespread appreciation and affiliation with self-delusion and hypocrisy.

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There is another saying of my people which explains and disdains self-conceitedness. It rests on the pedestal of the earlier saying’s format and, like it, euphemistically expresses bother about self-deception. It is woven round a woman, whose son is named Jimoh and who walks into a mosque on a Friday and, satisfied by its ambience, claims she had arrived the home of her son. Yoruba express this saying as, “Èèyàn ò tan ara rè bíi Ìyá Jímòh t’ó wo Mósálásí t’ó ní òhun dé ilé omo òhun.” Now, this is the link: “Jimoh” is a nativized rendering of the Arabic word “Jum’ah” or “Mosalasi” (mosque) among Yoruba Muslims. When Iya Jimoh gets so hypocritical and self-delusional as to conflate “Jimoh” the mosque with “Jimoh” her son, then her self-deception is perceived to have landed her in cloud-cuckoo-land.

Nigeria’s national pains knew no bounds as terrorists struck the country two weeks ago. It was one of the country’s most nightmarish weeks ever.

I pitied my kinsman. In my piece of last week, I reckoned that Karma was again shooting its shot. Not to worry. The Builder of Lagos had a response. When it comes to ‘effizy’ (showmanship), no one can surpass Lagos people. It is in their gene. The man who would not stop his flight in September, in spite of huge national clamour, but proceeded to Paris, the nestling home of his buddy and business partner, Gilbert Chagoury, for a “10-day working vacation,” stopped his plane from flying to South-Africa this time around. Pronto, the Minister of Defence, Bello Matawalle, was ordered to relocate to Kebbi State.

Many wondered what the minister, severally accused of being godfather of bandits, would do in Kebbi. Governor Idris of Kebbi was the first to burst our bubble. No single naira was paid in ransom, he said. The president too said he was relieved. Glad that the abductees are back home, Nigerians still wanted to know how the Tinubu wonder came about. On his X handle and on a national television interview, Onanuga claimed it was the work of non-kinetics. Whatever that meant! Couldn’t he spare us of bombast? He said the Eruku 38 were released after security agents made direct contact with the kidnappers, maintaining that government always chooses to avoid direct armed assaults due to risk to civilians.

The Nigerian senate continued its grovelling pedigree. Senate spokesman, Yemi Adaramodu, said not only didn’t government pay a dime to the abductors, the “bandits fled when they saw superior power.” It reminds me of that evergreen James Hadley Chase counsel that liars must have a good memory. From Onanuga’s statement above, which clearly contradicts Adaramodu’s, you would imagine that the military team on a rescue mission and the bandits were in a ‘paddy-paddy’ detente while negotiating the abductees’ release. How did an expedition that was said to be ‘negotiation’ morph to become Adaramodu’s “superior power”?

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The lead story headline of the Daily Trust newspaper of November 27 — “Released, Rescued or Ransomed?” — speaks directly to the anxiety and apprehension of Nigerians about the Tinubu wonder rescue. Knowing Nigerian governments’ predilection for the untruth and this particular government’s obsession for barefaced lies, interests in the mode of the rescue of the abductees went upswing.

Not long after news of the release of the Kebbi girls, their abductors released a bothersome video where they affirmed that there was indeed negotiation between them and the government. In the video, the gloating abductors said that, in spite of Nigerian fighter jets hovering over the captors, government security agents were helpless until they negotiated with the bandits. Like Amuda’s concubine and the woman who walks into a mosque on a Friday and claims she had arrived the home of her son, this government and its officials are on a roulette of lies. While they think they have made a fool out of us, little did they know that we watch them live in a fool’s paradise.

All over the world, state negotiation with terrorists is not only seen as an anathema, it is a weak alternative. It is also enveloped in dark motives. Most governments that choose to negotiate with terrorists do so in order to find a mediated way out of a conflict. In doing this, they merely postpone an imminent defeat, or a detour out of what is called a mutually hurting stalemate.

Negotiation is frowned at as a means of combating terrorists because, in the long run, it violates states’ domestic and international legitimacy. When a state credited with a monopoly of force goes to terrorists to negotiate, it, by that very fact, loses its regards.

From the other side, negotiations are ego-boosters for terrorists. They often seek it so as to drastically improve their popular standing and legitimacy. In the recent ransomed negotiation with the terrorists in Nigeria, they could be seen doing a video of their victory with the Kebbi girls and flexing their muscles. Negotiations thus legitimize their philosophy, if there is any, and strengthen them.

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Moreover, in insurgency and counterinsurgency, the weaker party is perceived to be the one that engages in negotiation. When money is involved in negotiation with terrorists or bandits, it is even worse. The tactlessness of doing this is that it gives more legroom to the bandits. This we could see in the Papiri girls abductors who gloatingly and literally dragged Nigeria’s sovereignty and claim to being a powerful country in the mud in the viral video. Giving bandits money for a detente also affords them access to more resources for purchase of higher-grade weapons with which to launch the next attacks.

Those who argue from the angle of collateral damage fail to reckon with the fact that warfare has gone beyond this. With drones, targets can be taken out without any collateral damage.

While the apparently ransomed rescue of Eruku and Papiri abductees was going on, my kinsman ordered a sweeping nationwide emergency on security. He also ordered massive recruitment in the army and police, as well as a withdrawal of policemen from VIPs, which are very commendable steps. The presidential order that has had Nigerians clapping ever since is the go-ahead he gave the National Assembly to review extant laws disallowing states from establishing their own police forces.

However, shortly after the release of the abductees and after the president ordered a state of emergency on security, bandits again struck a rice farm in Palaita, Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger State. They abducted 24 persons, which included pregnant women. In Kano and Kwara States between Monday and Tuesday last week, 20 people were also said to have been abducted by bandits.

Now is the time to urge our own Eddie Kwansa to come home for a truthful discussion. Didn’t a line of that immediate post-civil war song say it is good when brothers reason together? First, let our Eddie Kwansa draw his pillow close to him and have a heart-to-heart talk with it. When all else fails, the pillow is man’s closest associate. A line of Juju music legend Ebenezer Obey’s evergreen song of the 1970s, K’á so’wópò, says even if nobody else knows, one’s undies know the whole gamut of one’s closely guarded secrets. Eddie Kwansa’s pillow would tell him things are not looking up at all under him, at least security-wise.

He and his “Oníyèyé Àlè Amùdá” security chiefs have told themselves lies that terrorists shook hands with them and released the hostages without ransom payment. Two persons cannot suffer a mutual colossal loss from a lie; either the person telling the lie or the person to whom it is being told is richer in the truth of it.

Let Eddie Kwansa ask for the tape of his predecessor, Olusegun Obasanjo’s speech at the Plateau State Unity Christmas Carol and Praise Festival held in Jos, Plateau State on Friday. Thereafter, let him ask for a meeting with him. Even if there was a quarrel, quarrels among brothers are best resolved at home, so says the lines of Eddy Kwansa. A breakdown of Obasanjo’s homily is this: Nigeria is burning under the feeble grips of our Lagos brother. Nigerians have the right to ask for assistance from other world leaders if theirs have shown incompetence. He left a capable government that could deal with the Mephistopheles. I agree with Obasanjo absolutely.

We do not hate our brother. We will share the glory if he destroys those who want to destroy Nigeria. God bless Eddie Kwansa.

The maiden Benin Unity Cup delivered a whirlwind of drama across Match Day Two, with Friday’s stoppage-time heroics and Saturday’s goal-laden clashes keeping fans at the Crescent Sports Club, Irhirhi, on the edge of their seats.

Ikpoba-Okha Steal Late Draw; Ovia North East Win by Walkover

Ikpoba-Okha produced one of the tournament’s standout moments on Friday as Emeka Nwaneda struck deep into stoppage time to deny Egor what had seemed a certain victory.

The opening fixture began cautiously, with both sides locked in a tense, goalless first half. Egor broke the deadlock barely three minutes after the restart, as Towo Eventus finished clinically to ignite celebrations in the stands and tilt momentum their way.

But just when Egor appeared set to close out the match, Ikpoba-Okha delivered a dramatic twist. In the 90th minute, Nwaneda showcased composure and flair to fire home the equaliser, stunning the Egor bench and sending the crowd into a frenzy.

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The day’s second match ended without a ball being kicked. Ovia North East were awarded a walkover after Uhunmwonde failed to honour their fixture, with match officials confirming the decision following the standard 30-minute waiting period.

Attention quickly shifted to Saturday’s double-header, which proved even more explosive.

Orhionmwon Overpower Ovia South West 4–2 in Six-Goal Thriller

Saturday’s early kick-off saw Orhionmwon storm to a commanding 4–2 victory over Ovia South West in a match brimming with attacking verve.

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Iworie Chinedu set the tone almost immediately, weaving through the defence to score the tournament’s fastest goal. Ovia South West replied in the 13th minute through Oghene Ovo, who finished a slick team move to restore parity.

But Orhionmwon seized control before the break. Osifo Osakpolor struck in the 35th minute, and four minutes later Kish Danjuma extended the lead to 3–1. The second half had barely resumed when Osakpolor completed his brace in the 46th minute, effectively putting the contest beyond reach.

Ovia South West pulled one back late on through Osadolor Lucky, but the goal served only as consolation as Orhionmwon claimed a deserved win.

Oredo Derby Ends in Six-Goal Spectacle

The much-anticipated Oredo derby lived up to its billing, as Oredo I and Oredo II battled to an exhilarating 3–3 draw in one of the most dramatic fixtures of the competition so far.

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Oredo II struck first when Waheed Ahmed found the net in the 27th minute, but Oredo I responded with an explosive start to the second half. Goals from Samuel Brownson (47’), Sunday Henry (49’), and a second from Brownson in the 58th minute turned the match on its head.

Refusing to wilt, Oredo II mounted a spirited comeback. Friday Omoregie reduced the deficit in the 52nd minute, and just two minutes later Anthony Ogudu fired home the leveller to seal a pulsating encounter.

With only two matchdays played, the Benin Unity Cup is rapidly gathering momentum—showcasing raw grassroots talent, rekindling local rivalries, and reinforcing the unifying power of football.

The tournament, sponsored by Senator Neda Imasuen, aims to empower young players and provide pathways for emerging talents to secure opportunities abroad.