The recent coronation of Oba Abimbola Akeem Owoade as the Alaafin of Oyo in a tumultuous celebration attended by thousands of his subjects brought to mind the tremendous support for traditional institutions by our people and raised the interesting issue of the superficiality of the republic imposed on our traditional institutions by purveyors of modernity. The abolition of the powers of the maharajahs in the republican constitution of India while leaving them their stupendous wealth paved the way and trajectory other countries in the Commonwealth have followed. Example of Malaysia is interesting as the diversity of combining traditional institutions with the modern system of democratic governance. In Malaysia the various sultans of constituent states rotate the presidency of the country amongst themselves while of course the headship of the government remains in the hands of the elected government. In Nigeria, each state is allowed to harmonise the various ways in which traditional institutions are harmonised with the power of elected governments. Nigeria is a republic which recognises the usefulness of traditional governmental institutions.
A republic is by definition a country of democratic governance that is, where the people vote periodically to elect their governments and where the governments are subject to the will of the people. The constitution of Nigeria enshrines this principle in its basic law. But at the same time allows the constituent states to have local governments allowing the existence of kings and kinglets chosen by the local people as allowed by their traditions which predated the existence of Nigeria to function the way the ordinary people want subject to rules set out in the local government laws of the state under the local executive. In other words, there exists a symbiotic relationship at the local level of democracy and autocracy limited by the constitution. An outsider looking in may not understand this apparent confusion but it works in Nigeria. The system, where it exists, works for the state government to maintain peace and to communicate with the local people at their own level.
The problem however is that not all states have these kings and kinglets like we have in northern part of the country where the monarchs have sufficient power to impose themselves on the environment either on their own or as agents of the state government. The emirs in the north have political and spiritual authority as local Amir al muminin (leader of the faithful) but not all the people living in the north particularly in the Middle Belt and several communities in the far north are Muslims to whom the rule of the emirs are foreign and so foreign that they were ready to resist them and are still ready to resist the imposition of the emirs and chiefs representing them. Governments have found it necessary to accommodate their requests either by separating them as much as possible from under the rulership of the emirs and giving them their own institutions of local chiefs or allowing the rule of elected local government authorities to supervene.
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In the southern part of the country in Yorubaland and Edoland or places influenced by Edo culture, we have centralised local authority institutions as represented in the various Oba, Obi and people bearing derivatives of these titles. The most powerful of the kings in these areas are the Alaafin of Oyo, the Oba of Benin, the Awujale of Ijebu land and the Owa of Ijesha land and the various other Obas in Ekiti and Osun, Owo and Egba land. Here power is diffused and several Obas wield considerable authority over their people as allowed by the local government laws.
The recent coronation of the Alaafin Akeem Owoade Abimbola of Oyo in which millions of people participated is a mark of the significance and importance of the title of the Alaafin in Yoruba land. Before the British came and as far back as the 16th century, the Alaafin and the Oba of Benin ruled over vast territories and in the case of the Alaafin, his empire stretched over territories covering the southwest of Nigeria, Benin Republic and Togo Republic with influence in the southern part of Ghana while the Oba of Benin’s political influence covered the north-eastern and south-eastern part of Yoruba land stretching to Lagos and the western extremity of Igbo speaking people. In these areas, it was possible to anchor local government institutions on the traditional institutions. But in the southeast in Igbo speaking areas generally, the absence of traditional chiefly institutional foundations made it tricky for local governments to prevail thus allowing direct local governments to be the option. Where there were no local chiefs, government created them and gave them warrants to rule over their own people resulting in many cases to abuse of power and consequent revolts during the colonial regime and which lead to their abolition.
The interesting thing nowadays is the growth of instant chiefs with big money trading in the day time but parading themselves as chiefs in the evening but lacking traditional structures and resorting to force. In the riverine areas of the Southeast and the Niger Delta, we have city statelets and traditional chiefs who ridiculously parade themselves as “kings”. They enjoy very little local government usage except to parade themselves in Shakespearean attires at state functions!
Where traditional institutions exist such as in the North and southwestern part of Nigeria, they play significant roles and they are adequately remunerated by force of the Nigerian constitution and where they do not exist, local government functioning is more done directly by elected or appointed functionaries of state governments.
Finally I write as the Baapitan of Oyo to prevail on the government of Oyo State to build a befitting palace for the Alaafin either on the existing grounds or somewhere else in Oyo because the existing old palace doesn’t reflect the status of the political primacy of the Alaafin. Towards this project, a funds mobilisation can be launched, into which individuals and governments, particularly the federal government can be called upon to donate as previous federal governments have done in the case of northern emirs. Even though there are still court cases against the process leading to the choice of the incumbent Alaafin and whatever the case may be, the post of the Alaafin institution remains sacrosanct.
