By
SIMON EBEGBULEM,
BENIN
CITY
The
Benin Traditional Council, on Monday, announced the funeral rites
for the Benin monarch, Oba Erediauwa, who joined his ancestors. It
listed the funeral rites as Ekioba, Ekenaka, Agbado Eken. The rites,
according to tradition, are carried out by the Edaiken N’Uselu,
Crown Prince Ehenede Erediauwa, and within the 15 days of the
exercise, all funeral ceremonies are prohibited. In this
interview, Prince Solomon Ebuwa, the Chairman of the Assembly of
Benin Aborigines World Wide and a former National
Coordinator of the Great Benin Centenary, explains the rituals in the
kingdom just as he debunks the insinuation that human beings
are used for sacrifice.
Excerpts:
Can you tell us about the aborigines and the on-going rituals
in Benin Kingdom following the announcement that the king has joined
his ancestors?
The
Assembly is an umbrella body for all the Benins that migrated
from this kingdom to other parts of the country. For example, if you
go to Delta State, you find the Isoko and the Itsekiri who migrated
from Benin. If you go to Akoko Edo, they migrated from Benin; we have
many ethnic groups like that. We now look at the possibility of
uniting our people. People who were referring to us as minority are
making a mistake, we are majority people.
This
Assembly is a big umbrella that provides shade for every person that
falls within this concept. Talking about traditional rites, let me
tell you that our Oba is not dead, he only joined his ancestors. Of
course you witnessed the official announcement made by the Iyase of
Benin, informing Edo people that the Oba has joined his ancestors.
That is the first process. All that is going on now is internal
affair of the palace; after that, another programme will be out
to inform everybody about the coronation.
The
coronation will not come until after some rituals are
completed. Yes, the new king is already known, it is always like that
because, in Benin history, the ascending the throne of the Oba is
from father to the first son. After the Ogiso era that
transformed into the Obaship era, you found that His Royal Majesty
Oba Erediauwa was the 38th Oba of Benin and 69th
ruler of Benin Kingdom. You can then look at how many years this
throne has been in existence. The Oba that joined his ancestors was
on the throne for 37 years. Some Oba may have spent 40-50 years each
on the throne, so you can imagine the many years this process has
been on.
Nobody
can change the Obaship now it has been established by the authorities
of the kingdom and the ancestors. Erediauwa was a great Oba, the
Benin people across the globe are yearning for a greater Oba to come
and we have seen that quality in the Crown Prince. In Benin you pray
that your son will be greater than you. And His Royal Highness the
Edaiken N’Uselu possesses those qualities. Because of that, the
Assembly of Benin Aborigines is calling on every Benin son and
daughter across the globe to extend maximum support and
cooperation to the king in the making. The Almighty God
has made him to be the next king of Benin Kingdom and so shall it be.
But what is this issue with the Ogiamien family who are saying
they have their own kingdom? Besides it is said that any Benin king
must have mock battle with the Ogiamien? The period the Obaship
started is so many years ago and this kingdom has never had a deputy
Oba or acting Oba. Oba is Oba.
The
processes that have been on all these years, no individual or group
can change them. All the processes of becoming an Oba are well known
to the Benins, so for any group or persons or individuals to think of
revisiting the processes of coronation will be resisted.
If you look at our history very closely, the Oba appoint all
title holders. No one of them can come and rise against the authority
of the Oba because they are subjects of the Oba. There is only one
kingdom in Benin. And this issue of mock battle, with Ogiamien is
just for our children to understand the history of Benin Kingdom.
When a new king emerges, he develops his own style of administration
but he will never destroy the ones his fore fathers may have
put in place. But any of the processes can be altered if it
becomes an issue. When Oba Erediauwa was coming as king of Benin, he
told our people that he will follow everything that needed to
be done in the process of becoming king.
He
said he will not change anything. But a new Oba may come now
and say in this modern era he wants to embark on reforms; there
is nothing bad about that. I also recall that when Oba Erediauwa was
performing some rites for his father, when the news broke, people
were running away from Benin. They were afraid that they may be
used for sacrifice and the Force Headquarters had to come to
the palace to make enquiries and the Oba told officers that came that
there was nothing like that. What is the position of the
Aborigines on the Edo 2016 governorship race? We are looking towards
having a united state and people.
Our
stand is that there should be free and fair primaries by all
the parties, and whoever emerges is our candidate. It is not the duty
of the Benin Aborigines to go to the Electoral College to select who
will be the flag bearer. All these people involved are our people, so
we don’t take sides. We are not partisan but we believe
our people will elect capable hands that will take over from
Oshiomhole who has done very well for the state. Meanwhile, we are
not happy about the incident at Auchi where the deputy governor’s
campaign train was attacked.
The
Assembly abhors violence in this campaign. We appeal to the
contenders to see the election as not a do or die affair.
No comments:
Post a Comment