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OPINION: Iyaloja-General At Oba Of Benin’s Palace

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Festus Adedayo

The earliest example of personal rule gone awry in the world was given in the biblical account of Eli, the prophet. Personal rule has become prevalent in Africa and other Third World countries. In the account, Eli was High Priest and Judge of Israel in the city of Shiloh. Kind-hearted to the troubled and oppressed, the prophet’s renown for kindness became weightier in the narrative of his comforting words to Hannah, one of the hitherto barren wives of Elkanah. When Hannah eventually gave birth to a son named Samuel, Eli extended his affable disposition to Samuel’s upbringing at the tabernacle. Powerful man of God that he was, Eli was however irredeemably lax in the upbringing of his two children, Hophni and Phinehas, who served as priests at the Tabernacle. The children were corrupt, wicked, greedy and morally bankrupt. They abused their father’s priestly office and authority at the sanctuary.

Hophni and Phinehas deployed their positions for personal gains and in the process, were embroiled in acts of adultery with women who served in the sanctuary. Again, whenever sacrificial offerings of meat were being offered to God, even before the fat was burned, Eli’s sons stormed the venue, forcefully appropriating the best portions of the meats for themselves. In Israel of the time, this was a profound contempt for God’s law and a grave sin. Eli’s rebuke of his sons was tepid and weak. In His wrath against this selfish use of personal rule, God’s judgment on Eli was fierce. Hophni and Phinehas were both killed in battle. When he heard the news, Eli fell headlong from his chair and died. Worse still, his lineage was forever de-linked from priestly reign.

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Léopold Sédar Senghor, Senegal’s first president from 1960 to 1980, co-founder of the Negritude movement, poet and cultural theorist, gave an apt definition of personal rule. According to him, it “is not… the art of governing the State for the public welfare in the general framework of laws and regulations. It is (a) question of politician politics: the struggle… to place well oneself, one’s relatives, and one’s clients in the cursus honorum, that is, the race for (benefits)”.

Personal rule, otherwise known as presidential monarchy, is a plague in Africa. It is another variant of despotism. It operates where institutions are replaced with persons and systems with individuals. Arising from another plague called the Big Man syndrome, the state is ruled by a strong man who informally distributes offices to friends, relatives and associates, according to the dictates of his whims. The state is then informally captured by patronage and a distribution networks of spoils of office. Individuals who are not formally recognized take over the formal functions of the state. What we then have is widespread corruption, impunity and abuse. This leads to the atrophy of public institutions, thus severely limiting the ability of public officials to make policies in the general interest of the people.

MORE FROM THE AUTHOR:OPINION: The Madman Sermon On Mapo Hill

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In Nigeria’s 65 years of self-rule, either under military or civilian, personal rule has been very prevalent. In it, government is run like a monarchy or, in the lingo of lawyers, as chattels personal. Personal rule has little or no demarcation of private and public domains, or even purses. Apart from giving official responsibilities to cronies and family members, being relative of the Big Man opens doors, vaults and commands attention.

The first publicly known instance of the familial brand of personal rule in Nigeria was under General Sani Abacha. Before him, little was known in the interface of the families of military despot leaders and the public. For instance, little was known about the excesses of families of Yakubu Gowon, Murtala Muhammed, Olusegun Obasanjo, Shehu Shagari or even Ibrahim Babangida. Under Abacha, however, familial impunity reigned. It came in the form of usage of Nigeria’s presidential aircraft by children of the military leader. On January 17, 1996, for instance, Ibrahim, son of the late despot, was on a jolly ride in the Nigerian Air Force presidential Falcon jet. He was headed to a party and private family engagement in Kano. Lagos being his departure, he was flying with 14 other friends, including his Yoruba girlfriend, Funmi; Bello, younger brother of Aliko Dangote and a wealthy young man called Dan Princewill. The jet was almost landing in Kano when it mysteriously exploded mid-air, swallowing all and their dreams.

Obasanjo was particularly loath to this deployment of public assets for personal use. So also were there no public examples of such deployment during Umaru Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan’s time in office. Perhaps taking a cue from their parents’ personal rule disposition, children of successive Nigerian presidents have made this a pastime. Deploying public asset and office for private advantage resurfaced in 2020. Late President Muhammadu Buhari’s daughter, Hanan, flew the presidential jet on a private photography trip to Bauchi State. By convention, only the president of Nigeria, the First Lady, Vice-President, Senate President, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Chief Justice of Nigeria, ex-presidents and a presidential delegation are authorized to use the presidential jet. The convention does not grant the president any powers to transfer his right of usage of the presidential jet to any of his children.

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Hanan had then recently graduated with a first-class in photography from Ravensbourne University, London. She was in Bauchi on the invitation of the Emir, Rilwanu Adamu, as special guest of honour. Photographs, which Nigerians considered presidential obscenities, showed Hanan disembarking from the presidential aircraft and being welcomed by Bauchi State government officials. The Buhari government justified Hanan’s action. Presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, said the shameful act received the blessing of Buhari. Shehu turned logic and protocol on their head to accommodate this perverse usage of a common wealth.

MORE FROM THE AUTHOR:OPINION: Jonathan’s Betrayal And Askaris In Nigerian Politics

Following in these footsteps, in October 2023, First Son, Seyi Tinubu, flew the presidential aircraft to attend polo games in Kano State. Before him, children, spouses of Nigerian leaders and top government officials who should have no business with the aircraft, had become forerunners of this aberration. This provoked the question: is this an endemic problem that should bother us as a people, or it is a mere frivolity that we have allowed to detain us overtime? Why do Nigerian public officials always fail to see the divide between the public and the private?

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Of particular interest has been the two children of the current Nigerian president, Seyi and Folasade Tinubu-Ojo. In a May 4, 2025 piece I entitled Tinubu’s Ajantala son, I articulated how, if indeed all those democratic flowery words ascribed to the Nigerian president are not cosmetic, Seyi Tinubu must be a pain in the neck of his father, as he is to responsible parenting. I wrote, “In Nigeria’s history, I am not aware of any president’s child who has threatened public peace, public decency and the public space as Seyi. His name has come out in every socially distasteful national issue.” I also wrote further: “You will recollect that this same young man was one who, but for his father’s peremptory scold, would probably have been attending Executive Council meetings with ministers. Seyi has no precis in illicit behaviour, so much that he outperforms himself in irresponsible public acts. He is reputed to have nominated ministers and behaves in socially anomalous manner that baffles… He causes so much stir with his long convoys of glittering automobiles and is chaperoned to occasions by Nigerian security apparatuses.”

Around the time when he paid “official visits” to northern states early this year to donate billions of Naira to victims of Nigeria’s social malady, an allegation by the NANS President that Seyi ordered him tortured, beaten and his nude pictures taken for his voyeuristic pleasure took over the stratosphere. There are allegations that he will be put forth as the next governor of Lagos

The president’s daughter, Tinubu-Ojo, who christened herself ‘Iyaloja-General of Nigeria’ – whatever that means – is another sore thumb pointing at the evil of deploying personal rule for familial advantage. The eldest daughter of Nigeria’s president, from inception of her father’s presidency in 2023, Tinubu-Ojo has positioned herself as ‘godmother’ of Nigerian open-air markets. Immediately her father came into office, in a baffling manifestation of an inflated hubris, she was said to have updated her Twitter bio with the title, “First Daughter of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (FRN)”. She thereafter sent tongues wagging when a viral video of hers, with Nigerian flags flying behind her, positioned her as addressing what looked like a national broadcast. It was seen as pointing at a desire to appropriate all the perks from her father’s presidency.

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Capitalizing on the low capacity to stick to rules that is Nigeria, Folasade catapulted herself from Lagos market headship where she made herself Iyaloja. That position was appropriated by her after the passage of Mama Abibatu Mogaji who occupied same position. After this, she then made herself the market godmother of the whole of Nigeria. She was apparently yielding to an earlier call for an Hobbesian flee after power by her father in that famous counsel, to “fight for it, grab it, snatch it and run with it.” Folasade has made a pastime of positioning her representatives in various markets across Nigeria. The ultimate aim, it is said, is to protect her personal financial interests. In a Nigeria where genuflection before public office is widespread and public officials are like god, the president’s daughter, with the panoply of power and wealth at her disposal, is dreaded and worshiped.

Edo State, it will seem, will prove a fatal limitation of this hubris. In 2024, Folasade was said to have begun an attempt to impose an “Iyaloja of Edo State markets” on the ancient city of Benin. Last Tuesday when she visited the palace of the Oba of Benin, Ewuare II, the president’s daughter however met her match in the impregnable culture of the Edo people. She must have assumed that, like other states, Edo palace bows before ineptitude dressed in the garment of political power. Either out of stiff-necked resistance or inability to mentally penetrate, appreciate and understand the ancient culture of the Benin, the president’s daughter had continued in her imposition gambit which seems to have become a familial trait. At the palace, she told Oba Ewuare 11 that a Pastor Josephine Ivbazebule would be her surrogate for all markets in Edo State.

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After she was done talking, the palace taught her a lesson with words that were harmless on the surface but lacerating in deed. Not only was she taught that she couldn’t recreate her power drunkenness in Edo, she was told in plain terms that the cultural and historical foundations of market leadership in Edo State were far different from what obtains elsewhere in the country. Speaking through an interpreter as he does whenever he considers it demeaning to exchange verbal reply with a guest, Oba Ewuare told Folasade that in Benin culture, market leadership is not a political creation nor is it an external imposition. It is the product of tradition and which is under the suzerainty of the Oba of Benin.

If Nigeria’s No 1 citizen is not embarrassed by the activities of his children, parents all over the world are. The Yoruba, deploring this grotty descent in character of the First Family, say when an elephant trumpets, its child should not, too. They also counsel that, if one’s barn posts a bountiful yam harvest, a wise man would cover it from prying eyes. Apart from the raw power to browbeat and be kowtowed to, as well as illicit funds and majesty associated with being the president’s children, Nigerians will be glad to harvest what these ones’ parents planted inside their skulls for national benefit. Certainly not the cunning that produces quick wealth and unearned advantage. Folasade Tinubu-Ojo could have attracted more umbrage from the people of Edo State for her audacity if not for the decency of the palace. Let the little darts from the Bini palace remind the president’s daughter that it is the over-ripe orange that invites throwing of stones at the mother tree.

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Oba of Benin Renews Bond With Ancestral Relations, Nigerians During Emorhọ Feast

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The palace of the Oba of Benin was agog with activities during the 2025 Emorhọ fest, declared by Omo N’Oba N’Edo Uku, Uku Akpolokpolo, Ewuare II, Oba of Benin as part of activities to mark the ancient Emorhọ, otherwise known as the ‘New Yam Festival’.

Oba of Benin, who reenacted the age-long festival, renewed the bond that exist between him and his ancestral relations from Issele-Uku in Aniocha North Local Government Area of Delta State at the event, which attracted dignitaries, including Benin people, indigenes and non-indigenes across Edo State.

Members of the Benin Royal family, Edionwere (village heads), youth leaders across the various communities in Benin, market women group, palace chiefs, traditional priests and priestesses in Benin, were also in attendance.

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READ ALSO:Oba Of Benin Declares Two-week Fasting, Prayer For Edo

A special prayer offered on behalf of the palace by Chief Enorense Ozigbo-Esere, the Osuma of Benin, paved the way for the commencement of the feast, where Secretary to the Benin Traditional Council, Frank Irabor, welcomed guests and highlighted the essence of the gathering.

Speaking in an interview, Oba Ewuare younger ancestral relations from Issele-Uku led by Chief Michael Odiakosa, expressed delight for the privilege to be part of the historic celebration.

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He explained the relationship between Benin and Issele-Uku, reaffirming that, “Issele-Uku is an extension of Benin Kingdom. We are all descendants of Benin. So, we are at home”.

READ ALSO:Oba Of Benin Ushers In ‘Emorọ’

We are in a safe place. We came to celebrate the festival with our father, the Omo N’ Oba, and we are happy to be here”, Odiakosa said.

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On his part, 99-year-old Pa. Paul Osarumwense Oyemwen, the Odionwere of Orior-Ozolua community in Uhunmwode LGA who thanked the Oba for the gesture, said the festival is not new in Benin and it’s devoid of sacrifices.

Expressing her appreciation to the Oba of Benin, the ‘Edo markets leader’, Pastor (Mrs) Josephine Ibhaguezejele, noted that members of the group have been waiting anxiously for the opportunity to partake in the yearly festival, while praying God that the blessings of the festival to transform lives.

Also speaking, Pa. Daniel Osunde, the Odionwere of Idumwun-owina, N’ Iyeke-orhiomwon, also prayed for the Oba and thanked the first Class traditional ruler for his foresight.

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Excited guests in their numbers were fed with African delicacy, amid dancing and jubilation, while members of Isikhian women group who gave a good account of their stewardship, were not left out in the celebration by the Oba who rewarded them with cash gift and other items in acknowledgement their duties in Benin.

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Okpebholo Poised To Surpassing People’s Expectations — Edo Deputy Gov

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Edo deputy governor, Hon Dennis Idahosa has assured that the Governor Monday Okpebholo-led administration is poised to surpass the expectations of the people of the state in terms of campaign promises fulfilment.

Idahosa said that the administration had hit the grand running right from the day of inauguration by identifying and prioritising the key areas of the SHINE agenda for implementation.

A statement by Mr Friday Aghedo, Chief Press Secretary to the deputy governor, said Idahosa spoke when he received the prestigious Peace Ambassador Award from the International Association of World Peace Advocates (IAWPA).

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The award ceremony held at the deputy governor’s office during a courtesy visit by the leadership of the IAWPA led by the President, Amb. Per Stafsen, the South-South Coordinator/Edo state Director, Amb. Amos Areloegbe, and other zonal representatives.

READ ALSO:Okpebholo Warns Companies Against Fuelling Edo–Delta Boundary Dispute

“We pray, by the grace of God, Edo State will surpass the expectations of the people when we are through with our tenure,” he declared.

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Idahosa described the recognition as a source of pride, not just for him, but for the Governor Monday Okpebholo-led administration.

Governor Okpebholo is a man of peace, and his government stands firmly for peace. This award is a validation of his unwavering commitment to building a safe and harmonious Edo State,” he said.

The Deputy Governor emphasized that peace and security remain central pillars of the government’s five-point SHINE agenda, noting that collaboration with traditional institutions, religious leaders, and civil society organizations has been vital in sustaining stability across the state.

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Peace is extremely important in any society. Where there is peace, there is security; where insecurity prevails, peace cannot exist.

“This recognition today strengthens our resolve to continue being ambassadors of peace,” Idahosa stated.

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On his part, Amb. Amos Areloegbe noted that IAWPA, a United Nations–certified body aligned with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), deliberately chose Edo State to commemorate the International Day of Non-Violence on October 2.

According to him, “Edo State remains one of the most peaceful states in the federation, hence our choice to celebrate here.”

The investiture was hailed by observers as not only an honour to Idahosa but also as an acknowledgment of Edo’s growing reputation as a bastion of peace under Governor Okpebholo’s leadership.

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Ogoni Women Protest Resumption Of Oil Production, Demand Accountability In $1Bn Cleanup Funds

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Ogoni women drawn from all works of life have come out to protest against the resumption of oil production in the area without proper negotiation.

The women expressed anger over the non-transparent nature of the entire oil resumption exercise, accusing the government of attempting to manipulate them into giving up on their demands as expressed in the Ogoni Bill of Rights (OBR).

The women further demanded that the Nigerian government account for $300million Ogoni infrastructure development fund which is alleged to have been diverted by some key government personalities in alliance with some Ogoni leaders.

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They further demanded accountability for the $1Billion Ogoni cleanup funds which they said is a failed project.

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The women, who marched on the streets of Bori, the traditional headquarters of Ogoni, accused the government of neglecting the core demands of the Ogoni people including the demand for the creation of a Bori State and compensation for livelihood losses due to decades of devastating oil spills in the lands.

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“We lost everything, crops, drinking water sources, food and farming lands and we now live with strange illnesses which ultimately will lead to our death. No one is interested in all that. The only thing the government is interested in is our oil resources. We reject the insensitivity of the government and we want to be heard”; one of the protesters who pleaded anonymity told Ogoninews.

Another speaker, Mrs Helen Huoma said the plot to resume oil production in Ogoni is deceptive.

“The oil industry people are always lying. They will tell us something and do another. When we ask our MOSOP leaders, they tell us they know nothing about what the government and the oil industry are doing. It’s all a bunch of confusion and deceit. We will resist this move because we paid heavily to give Ogoni a name and the pride it has today”

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A woman identified as Janet from Gokana Local Government Area alleged that the Nigerian government has never been interested in the welfare of the Ogoni people.

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She alleged that the government had only been interested in the oil and after that, they appeased political leaders with contracts to suppress local residents.

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“All they do is deceive the Ogoni people and we continue to suffer in the midst of abundant natural resources. If they can divert $300million, then how can we trust them? Before we start, let them account for the $300 million and the cleanup program which, at least, should have solved some basic problems.”

The Nigerian President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu had recently directed the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu to engage the NNPC Limited and work out modalities for the resumption of oil production in Ogoni. This directive followed a meeting with some Ogoni leaders in Aso Rock, Presidential Villa.

The president had also recently granted pardon to the Ogoni nine including Ken Saro-Wiwa and to four Ogoni leaders who were murdered on May 21, 1995. The Abacha regime had blamed Ken Saro-Wiwa for the murders and executed him along with 8 others on November 10, 1995 despite global outcry acknowledging their innocence.

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Following the executions, a United Nations fact finding team visited Nigeria. The team acknowledged that the entire trial process was flawed and noted that Nigeria did not even follow the minimal prescription of its own laws in the conduct of the trial.

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