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 ......Recalls Efforts Made by Babangida to Carve A Role for Traditional Rulers in the Constitution.

 ......Praises Makinde

The President General of Okpe Union, Prof Igho Natufe, has described as unfortunate the recent endorsement of President Bola Tinubu and some governors by scores of traditional rulers in Southern Nigeria, including Delta State.

“It is ironic that traditional rulers, who held exclusive powers in their respective kingdoms before the intrusion of British colonial rule, would now be pleading for a role in post-colonial Nigeria. Even under British rule, their role had significantly diminished from that of their imperious past. They found themselves as tools of the British indirect rule system. Their “subjects”, the anti-colonial nationalists gradually began to doubt the relevance of their role.”

He also detailed the efforts made by the military regime of General Ibrahim Babangida to carve a role for traditional rulers in the Constitution.

“As has been argued elsewhere, traditional rulership is incongruous with a republican political system. The search for a role for traditional rulers in the governance of Nigeria has been elusive, notwithstanding the promises of each succeeding government – civilian and military – to carve a role for them in the Constitution. Towards this end, the military regime of General Ibrahim Babangida established a Political Bureau to inter alia, “review Nigeria’s political history and identify the basic problems which have led to our failure in the past and suggest ways of resolving and coping with these problems.”

Natufe in a statement in Lagos said it was the view of the Political Bureau that “traditional rulers should have no specific role to play in government beyond the local government level, where they have relevance.”

“The Political Bureau “agreed that it is a misnomer, considering the scope and character of the contemporary Nigerian state to call them traditional ‘rulers’”. Therefore, the Political Bureau reasoned that it “will make no sense to install in the political system, people whose primary qualifications is ascribed to status at a time when the people are demanding a truly democratic polity. Even though the Political Bureau recommended that “traditional rulers should have no specific role to play in government beyond the local government level, where they have relevance”, the concluding section of its recommendations is more telling when it declared: “They possess no special qualities to enable them to be used in enriching the political system or instilling moral rectitude in public life. This was a very serious indictment of traditional rulers. To put it bluntly, as opined by the Political Bureau, traditional rulers are of no use to Nigeria’s political system.”

He attributed the endorsement of Governor Sheriff Francis Oborevwori to the“60 brand new Prados and five Land Cruisers” to traditional rulers in Delta State.

“Governor Francis Oborevwori recently referred to the traditional rulers as “tools of service" and “vital intermediaries between government and the people at the grassroots”. There is a conceptual congruency between Governor Oborevwori’s categorization of traditional rulers as “tools of service” and their status as tools of the British indirect rule system. In appreciation of the gifts, the Chairman of the Delta State Council of Traditional Rulers and the Orodje of Okpe Kingdom, HRM Orhue l, “assured the governor of the traditional institution’s unwavering support for his administration”. In underlining the “assurance” of the traditional rulers’ “unwavering support for” Governor Oborevwori, as stated by HRM Orhue l, the “tools of service” responded accordingly at their gathering at the Palace of the Ovie of Uvwie Kingdom. Is there any correlation between the “gifts of 65 brand new SUVs to the traditional rulers” in January 2026 and the declaration of the Urhobo Kings in September 2026.”

The Soviet Policy Advisor and Senior Policy Adviser to the Government of Canada between 1970–1978 and 1989–2011 praised Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State for urging traditional rulers to steer clear of politics and embrace all political actors without bias.

“A throne that campaigns for any political party or candidate automatically betrays the rest of the citizens of that given nationality. By doing so, the traditional ruler transforms his palace into a campaign headquarters for the said political party or candidate, a transformation which vitiates the sanctity of the throne. This is injurious to the reputation of the throne as the traditional ruler becomes a messenger, an errand man of the government. Prestige is lost, and the reputation of the kingdom is compromised.”