In the next 55 days, precisely on September 21, 2024, the people of Edo State will be at their various polling units to cast their ballots for who they would want to be their governor for the next four years, after the incumbent Governor Godwin Obaseki would have completed his second term on November 12, 2024. Expectedly, the various political parties are not sparing any effort at ensuring that they occupy the Dennis Osadebey Avenue seat of power. The state is on the edge over this. Different tricks are being deployed by the political class. The sacred places are not spared. Nothing is too small to let go. Such an ugly trend rears its head to the otherwise peaceful Edo Market Women Association, where the age-long tradition of Iye-Eki (head of market women) is being sacrificed on the altar of politics. In this piece, ‘SUYI AYODELE, REGIONAL EDITOR, SOUTH-SOUTH AND SOUTH-EAST, takes a look at the recent attempt to install an Iyaloja of Edo Market, and the resistance by the market women.
A few days ago, the peace of Benin City, Edo State capital, was ruptured. Market women in their hundreds were on the street in protest. They were led by their leader, Mrs. Josephine Blacky Ogiamien. Dressed in various multicultural attires, and holding various traditional insignias, and the Bible, the women said that there was an attempt to impose on them a new ‘Iyaloja of Edo Market’. The protesting market women said that the phrase, “Iyaloja of Edo Market” is strange to them. What they have had from time immemorial is Iye-Eki otherwise known in modern parlance as the Chairman, Edo State Market Women Association. The “Iyaloja” idea, they insisted, was an imposition from outside Edo State. It is a Yoruba title. The Benin don’t have an Iyaloja they said. Theirs is Iye-Eki.
And they were not mistaken on the identities of those behind the imposition. Mrs. Ogiamien, who spoke in Pidgin English, said that the planned imposition is alien to Benin tradition, as Iyaloja chieftaincy title is a Yoruba nation creation. They did not stop there. They alleged that the Iyaloja of Lagos, Mrs. Folasade Tinubu-Ojo who is the first child of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, was responsible for the proposed imposition. And the women would not have any of such!
Ogiamien said: “We’ve been in this association for many years, fifty something years, we dey exist. We never see any challenge. Barely one week now, we come hear say dem wan come. Tinubu daughter wan come inaugurate one person. For him Lagos State, nobody dey go there. So, for Edo State, she know me, me know am, we dey go there for that time. We dey go dey do meeting for there. But few month now, we just hear say dey wan come put another person. We no go gree.
“Make him dey him Lagos State, make him no come here. I no go go Lagos State now, go impose person there. So, na me get Edo State Market Women Association. If he say him want me, make he come tell me, say bring Market women Association. I go say, oya, make una follow. But this one wey he wan do so, we no go take am. We no go take am from am. Because politics dey come, he dey go. We remain inside market because person no go fit meet Folasade Tinubu make he go put person for Lagos State. He no possible. Na so he no go fit work. Because na Oba of Benin na him get us for here; na him get market. Na him be our grandfather. Na governor, any governor wey he come, na him be our small papa. Even Oshiomhole be our papa before. Lucky Igbinedion be our papa, Oyegun (past governors of the state) be our papa.”
Reiterating that the association had been in existence for many decades right from the time of Oba Akenzua, Mrs. Ogiamien added that whenever any leader of the association died, her deputy would take over. She disclosed that she became the leader of the market women during the reign of Oba Erediauwa and had overseen the affairs of the association without any crisis.
“We no be politicians. We no dey play politics, we be voters and we dey support any government wey dey there.” According to her, by the constitution of the association, “na only death dey remove our leader. We no dey do politics, dem no dey appoint leader for us.”
Oba is supreme
The Benin people of Edo State are very peculiar people. If you like, you can refer to them as culture enthusiasts. No matter how educated a Benin man or woman is, the Benin culture, custom and tradition, is supreme in his or her world views. The ultimate ownership of the people’s culture is the Benin Palace. After God, the next being the Benin reverence is their Oba. The position of the Omo N’Oba N’Edo, Uku Akpolokpolo, Oba of Benin, in the affairs of the people is sacrosanct. The Omo ‘N’Oba is the embodiment of the essence of the Benin people.
His words are final, his pronouncements supreme, very unappealable! It is almost as sacrilegious as the Biblical ‘sin against the Holy Ghost’, for anyone to contradict the Omo N’Oba! Anyone who tries such instantly becomes an oghionba- enemy of the Oba. An enemy of the Oba is an enemy of the people. Such an individual becomes a pariah; avoided and completely ostracised like a leper! Civilisation or no civilisation, an average Benin man tells you that Edo no Oba ye. That simply means that Benin (Edo) is where the Oba is. That is how high the Omo N’Oba is held in Benin. A Benin palace chief once remarked, when an Oba outside Edo wanted to confer on him an honorary chieftaincy title, that after taking a title given by the Omo N’Oba, he could not kneel before any other traditional ruler to take another title! The Oba of Benin owns every land in the Kingdom. Nobody drags land that with the Oba. The saying, Aiguobasinwimwin-oto- nobody drags land with the Oba, situates that properly!
If the Omo N’Oba owns the land, it follows the natural course of justice that he owns everything on the land and under it. That culture had been with the Benin before the advent of modern-day land laws and statues. One of the things the Oba owns is the market. From the most popular Ekioba (Oba Market), to Ekiosa; Agabdo to Oliha Markets and any other place where buying and selling take place in the entire Benin kingdom, belongs to the palace symbolised by the Uku Akpolokpolo. Oba yeki yon yan ki hia,(the Oba does not go to the market but he owns the market), the Benin relish! With that tradition in place, the Oba appoints the Iye-Eki, the leader of the market women. Such an appointee is supported by other chosen leaders. She holds the office till death happens.
But that is about to change. Edo State is on the verge of yet another election. The gubernatorial election in the state is slated for September 21, 2024. The state is on the edge. Violence and other shenanigans that have been the hallmarks of Nigerian politics are playing out in the state. The political class, it appears will not spare anything to achieve their aims. The Benin Palace, in recent times, has been dragged into politics, such that one begins to wonder if the Omo N’Oba will be on the ballot in September. There has been accusation and counter accusation of which political party is denigrating the revered throne and which one holds the Palace in utmost respect. Now, the issue has moved from the Palace. It has gone to the marketplace. Tradition may change, and an aged-long practice of the people stands the risk of being slaughtered on the slap of politics!
Botched ‘coup’
Saturday Tribune gathered that the inauguration of Iyaloja of Edo Market, was later shelved by the planners because of the public outcry against such a move. The Edo State chapter of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria, Edo State (ALGON), in all the 18 local government areas of the state also rose in condemnation of the attempt. The local government, by virtue of the residual power as entrenched in the constitution, has direct control over markets. In a statement endorsed by Deaconess Newman Ugiagbe, Edo State ALGON Chairman, the association said that the aborted inauguration was slated to hold on Thursday, July 25, 2024, at Viewpoint Hotel, Benin City.
According to the Edo ALGON, the “purported inauguration ceremony and summit of Association of Community Market Women and Men negated the provisions of the fourth schedule of the 1999 constitution as amended which saddles the responsibility for the establishment, maintenance and regulation of markets including all market associations therein with Local Government authorities, as this said association is alien to the 18 Local Government Chairmen in Edo State.
“The purported inauguration is foreseen to create an acrimony which is contrary to the lye-Eki age long structure of market management as presently headed by Madam Blacky Ogiamien at the state level as well as lyeki at local government level and at various Markets which have long been inaugurated in all our markets. The convener of the purported inauguration, meeting and the public is by this notice informed that such inauguration is illegal and negates the principles of peaceful co- existence among market women and men and will lead to breakdown of law and order which is foreseen as a threat to peace in our various markets and Local Government Areas at large, such activities likely to cause breach of peace will not be tolerated”, ALGON warned.
The association therefore called on all law enforcement agencies “to ensure that such purported inauguration do not hold either at the proposed venue nor any other venue within Edo State as such gathering is unconstitutional, illegal and may lead to break down of law and order.”
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