There Is Need For Clear Understanding Of Who A Traditional Ruler Is- Oba Of Benin

His Royal Majesty, the Oba of Benin, Omo' N' Oba N' Edo, Uku Akpolo Kpolo, Oba Ewuare 11, has stated that there was the need for a clear understanding of who a traditional ruler is before the clamour for assigning constitutional roles to them.

 He made the call in his palace in Benin City the Edo State capital recently during a media Parley with the Edo State Journalists who were led by the Council Chairman, Dr Festus Alenkhe.

The Royal Majesty who commended the chairman of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Dr Festus Alenkhe and his entourage for the visit to the royal palace, admonished them to always cross check and balance their stories before publication so as to avoid misrepresentation and misinterpretation of facts as he averred that there has been a lot of clamour for constitutional roles for traditional rulers amids gross misunderstanding of who a traditional ruler is.

According to His Royal Majesty, "you will recall that there has been a lot of clamour for the constitutional roles for traditional rulers.

"I did an extensive paper on the subject matter which was submitted by my lawyer to the constitutional review committee . When we are talking about constitutional roles for traditional rulers, those who are entrusted with the responsibility of determining the constitutional roles for traditional rulers need to first and foremost understand who traditional rulers are. At times when you read some stories in the papers for instance, you see headlines such as " A monarch Arrested, Detained" , "A monarch was Arrained" A monarch was this and that" and all kinds of similar demeaning stories tagged to traditional rulers and you keep wondering if the people writing all these actually understand who a monarch or traditional ruler is. There is therefore the need for a thorough understanding of who a traditional ruler is.

"Like I said earlier, I did an extensive paper on the constitutional roles of traditional rulers, outlining who a traditional ruler is, which was submitted by my lawyer to the constitutional review committee, because as it were presently, there is a proliferation of traditional rulers all over the place and there is the need for a clear understanding of this subject matter before roles are assigned .

"It is time to identify who are the traditional rulers because I can recall vividly when I was in GRA, there was this particular person that used to come see my father. I think he was a chief and he used to come lodge at the guest house at the GRA and there was this one day he came to see my father and he was lodged at the guest house and I came home and I decided to go and say hello to him. He was lying down on the couch with only a trouser and a singlet and after exchange of pleasantries he said, "I am happy to announce to you that I have been made the Oba of my street" and I said oh, congratulations.

" I just recall this encounter because of our discussion on assigning constitutional roles to traditional rulers because such individuals will go about parading himself as a traditional ruler.

"You are all well familiar with the story of the suspension of the 71 Enigies issue when it came up and the interference by the state government. Suddenly, I heard that some of the suspended Enigies are from Igbanke and are no longer from Edo South and I asked one question. When they listed their names among the Enigies that wrote to the former governor to carve out some councils for them, their names were among the Enigies of Benin, the Enigies of Edo South and that was why they were affected by the suspension in the first place and some of those Enigies are here seated here with us today because these ones came back to the Palace to explain their involvement in the conspiracy because they knew what they were planning to do was totally wrong and they are from Edo South just as those Enigies who are now claiming they are from Igbanke? Go and check their names, they are all Benin names but they are now claiming they want to go to Anioma.

"Members of the Press, please, help me ask these suspended Enigies who are now claiming to be Igbanke people what they were before now in the Benin kingdom? Where they Igbanke Enigies in Benin kingdom?

They are under Edo South and we cannot have Eze as traditional rulers in Edo South 

"But I assure you all that we will do our best to resolve whatever issues that are there.

Still speaking he thanked the Edo NUJ for the wide coverage and publicity of the return of the artifacts to the Palace 

"I would like to thank the Edo NUJ for adequately publicising the return of the stolen artifacts to the Palace 

"You saw on the day of the return of the artifacts, that I rose to do a ceremonial royal dance, it was simply to honour my grandfather and the ancestors of our land while also appreciating the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the governor of Edo State, Senator Monday Okpebholo for the significant roles they played in ensuring the return of the stolen artifacts.

He assured Edo journalists that the suspended media Parley was not as a result of any fault of Festus Alenkhe, the Chairman of the Edo NUJ neither the fault of any Edo journalist, adding that it was as a result of the financial strangulation by the past administration of Godwin Obaseki. 

He also attributed the suspension to the fact that it was a very busy period considering the whole drama following the return of the artifacts of his ancestral fathers that generated a lot of needless controversies which made his royal Majesty and the chiefs to go into prayers to avert that which did not happened in the times of his forefathers to happen in his time.

"You will recall that for seven (7) months or more, that the allocation to the Benin Traditional Council was slashed and we were coping with the situation until it was totally stopped and that put a whole lot of financial burden on the Palace.

"But we have to call for this media Parley to allay the fear that neither the Edo NUJ nor Festus Alenkhe did anything wrong to warrant the suspension of media interaction with the palace hence this interactive session we are having today." he said 

 Festus Alenkhe thanked the royal father and assured him of the competences of the Edo practicing Journalists who are well trained in the art of fact checking and balancing of stories before publication as opposed to the untrained social media bloggers whose only qualification to practice is ownership of an android phone.