WHY EDO PEOPLE ARE UNIQUE IN NIGERIA

THE SOLILOQUIES OF THE ELDERSTATESMAN

By Elder Ojealaro Friday

Yesterday,one of my Igbo friends liked our page- CONSCIOUS MOVEMENT FOR EDO UNITED KINGDOM'S REBIRTH. I decided to thank him when he informed me that he liked the page. But do you know what he asked me thereafter? He said, " WHY DO YOU EDOS THINK YOU ARE UNIQUE IN NIGERIA?" My answer to him formed the substance of this soliloquy. I also got the caption of the treatise from his query.

ELDERSTATESMAN ANSWERED;

(1) WHEN THE COLONIALIST GUILEFULLY INVADED NIGERIA;

**History recorded that it was only Oba Ovonramwen Nogbaisi of
Benin,Nana of Itsekiri and Jaja of Opobo( All of Edo ancestry) that
resisted colonialism. Note that,Oba Ovonramwen was in prison
when Nigeria was almagamated in 1914 by Lugard. He was not a
party to the forced document of merger. He died shortly after in
Calabar.

**The Hausas,Fulanis,Yorubas,Igbos and other ethnic groups in Nigeria
were annexed to the British empire without so much as raising their
now vociferous orifices. They were captured by the white man like
you would a snail or a pathologically shy armadillo( Ekhun). As my
People would say in pidgin," Dem pick dem from ground"

(2) WHICH OF THE OLD KINGDOMS WAS STILL STANDING WHEN THE BRITISH ENTERED THE NIGER AREA( PRESENT DAY NIGERIA)?

** None in Igboland as they never had any.

** None in Yoruba Land as Nupe has laid waste to the often overhyped
Oyo Kingdom

** None in Hausaland as Fulanis from Futa-Jalon and Niger led by
the trickster-Usman Dan Fodio had already sacked all the Habe
city-states

BUT,

** The Greatest of all Indigenous Nigeria Kingdoms- the Benin Empire
was still flourishing and resplendent in her majestic aura and glory. It
is a kingdom that is not new to the whiteman's ways. In fact,the
Benin Empire had a diplomatic mission and embassy in Portugal(
another European power). The secondary language of the Benin
people then was Portuguese.

(3) WHO SOLD THEIR KINSMEN AS SLAVES TO EUROPEANS?

** The Igbos did via Arochuku slave dealers.

** The Yorubas did. It was why the Yoruba civil war lasted decades.
Bishop Ajayi Crowder and the Kutis family were victims. Note that
Wole Soyinka is a Kuti via Eniola Kuti his mother. Herbert Macaulay
is a grandchild of Ajayi Crowder the slave who became a Bishop.
80% Caribbean countries are made up of Yoruba whose kinsmen
sold into slavery.

** The Hausa-Fulani did. It has been their way of life since the Trans-
Sahara slave trade.The almajiris system till date gives an insight into
their penchant for inhumanity to their kinsmen.

BUT,

The Edo people never DID. In the old empire,the worst that can happen to a criminal is punishment commensurate to his crime. He can be made a domestic servants instead of a slave to foreigners.

(4) WHO FIRST MADE MADE CONTACT WITH THE WHITEMAN

** Not the Yorubas

** Not the Ibos

** Definitely not the Hausa-Fulanis

BUT,

Clearly the Edos. It was During the reign of the Philosopher-King Esigie that Roy De Squierra the Portuguese visited benin in the 15th century and facilitated the establishment of Diplomatic relationship between Portugal and the Great Kingdom of Benin. Edo people can speak Portuguese fluently after that. After the advent of the British colonialism and the almagamation of 1914,Edo people who could speak Portugal very well started learning a new " Oyinbo" language-English. Those who are not so Educated decided to mix Portuguese with the new English language and thus,the Edo people gave Nigeria their unofficial but most effective lingua-Franca,the "pidgin" English. The pidgin is not incorrect grammar as some people have come to believe. It is an admixture of Edo,Portuguese and English languages distill from the lingua laboratory of the Edo people. e.g the pidgin sentence, " DASH ME" is made up of Portuguese word "dash" meaning,"give it to me free of charge" and the English pronoun "me".

So you see. Na Edo people give Nigeria pidgin.

(5) NIGERIA DARES NOT IGNORE US:

Of course,they can't. When they tried it during the first republic,the country boiled and it was not with their clear eyes they hurriedly carved out Midwest( Bendel) for us.
** Awolowo had to ally with Enahoro an Edo man to succeed.

** Babagida had to ally with Aikhomo an Edo man to succeed

** Abacha refused to acknowledge Edo properly and ended badly

** Abdulsalami learnt his lesson and allied with Akhigbe an Edo
man to succeed.
** The defunct SDP the party who won a presidential Election did
it through Anenih an Edo man as their Chairman.

** The then opposition party NRC,which had most governors in the country
performed the feat via Tom Ikimi an Edo man as the Chairman.

** Anenih the same Edo man was the brain behind the 16 year elect-
oral success of the PDP

** APC now have a President because an Edo man Oyegun is their
Chairman.

**Most importantly, Nigeria got their Independence through the motion
moved by Enahoro an Edo man who precipitated other events that
Evicted the WHITEMAN.

(6) MOST ROYAL DIGNITY.

** How do the Yorubas feel when they see their foremost paramount
Ruler,the Alafin of Oyo posing for photographs with his Solomonic
harem of young wives in front of the Buckingham Palace in
London? He is even at war with his skin. He is bleaching it red.

** How do the Hausa-Fulani feel,when their foremost Ruler,the Sultan
goes to Abuja most times to curry favours. One of the sultan died
in a plane crash during one of those trips.

** Do you know that a former chairman of Igbo traditional council
died in a hotel in Abuja when he went there to see late Abacha?

BUT,

The Oba of Benin;

* Cannever leave his domain frivolously to another.
*Can never go and receive a President or any other VIP at the Airport.
They have to come to his palace to pay homage or submit a petition
* Cannot be deposed by a president or governor.

I wanted to go on and on but my Igbo friend suddenly shouted:

" Prince, e don do. I gree. You people are very unique indeed! "

I am proud to be an Edo man! Aren't you?