As Ohordua gets king, a new dawn begins

Fredrick Idehenre

To many sons and daughters of Ohordua Kingdom, and her friends from across the globe, against the milieu of her recent history, Saturday 27th July, 2019, marked a phenomenal transition of kingship reign from father to son.

About 500 years of existence, the predominantly agrarian community of Ohordua, located in Esan South-East Local Government Area of Edo State, that boarders Ika people of Delta State, had patiently awaited the presentation of staff Of office to her 19th monarch, traditionally referred to as Onojie.

The Edo State governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki was ably represented by his Commissioner for Local Government and Community Affairs, Hon. Jimoh Ijegbai.

His eminence the Oba of Benin Kingdom, Oba Ewuare 11 also pulled his spiritual weight behind the event by the presence of three of his senior chiefs, including Chief Ebose Okoboh, the Efeobasota of Benin kingdom.

The Esan South-East Local Government Chairman, Hon. Victor Emuakhagbon; Police Chief, AIG Dr. Wilson Akhiwu; Barr. Patrick Ibomhen, President of a forefront indigenous Association of Ohordua Sons and Daughters (AOSAD); and a number royal personages from across Edo State were amongst dignitaries that graced the occasion.

By dictate of the Edo tradition of primogeniture, His Royal Majesty Stephen Oribhabor Ailuogierio 1, now sits in the place of his late father, HRM Matthew Oribhabor Aikpaojie 11 (2010 – 2015), as king of Ohordua Kingdom.

Though a traditional institution, real constitutional authority of the monarch, according to the Traditional Rulers and Chiefs Law,1979, resides with the State.

Bearing no dissenting voice, upon the return of the crown Prince by the immediate family members of the ruling house, as ratified by the traditional king makers (as obtains among the Edo people and a few other autonomous communities that practice premogeniture across parts of the world), the Staff of Office is presented by the State.

This will have been foreshadowed by a letter of appointment from the Governor. With this, the monarch is entitled to statutory benefits from the State, as his office would have been gazetted. He is also once able to partake in other social State functions as may be required of him time to time.

The State also reserves the right to withdraw the staff of Office in the event of a considered infracture by the monarch.

Trouble began for the people of Ohordua in August 2002 when their Onojie HRM Burns I. Aikpaojie Oribhabor 1, suddenly ended his mortal residency.

According to reports, Prince Ailabogie, regarded by a few as the first son of the deceased monarch, had returned from his overseas abode in his quest to be crowned as the next king.

The Prince would meet a stumbling block posed by interpretation of tradition, which either failed to recognise his sonship of the king or admit his seniority to his brother – Prince Ailuogierio, also known as Matthew.

Prince Ailuogierio, born of a different mother, was instead regarded as the Crown Prince.

Explained, it was said that when Prince Ailabogie was born, the royal family was not duly informed so as to signal a strict adherence to the traditional rite due a Crown Prince.

They insist that “ede na bi Ogie khole arhen ogie (a king is recognised or known from the day he was born). Thus Prince Ailabogie was unknown to the royal family.

On the contrary, the traditional rights was said to have been performed at the birth of Prince Matthew, who, by a dint of fate, grew up around the palace more than Prince Ailabogie who was very itinerant after having observed his early education in Ohordua.

However, at the passage of time, in what appeared to be a twist of fate, the late monarch developed a paternal consanguinity with Prince Ailabogie, who had also become very affluent. This may have signaled the issues that followed.

While core adherents to the culture and tradition of the Esan people, key members of the royal family and a few laities would have Prince Ailabogie crowned only at their last breath, the liberals insisted that the time had come for Ohordua to enthrone for herself a monarch that possessed a relative high exposure to Western education and a cosmopolitan agility akin to the 21st century ruler.

To this group, which chiefly comprises the elitist youths, the view point of the former was antithetical to the development of Ohordua, as Prince Ailuogierio had little to offer. The debate however continues in quarters.

When the law eventually took its full course in court in 2010, after several failed mediation attempts by VIPs of Ohordua extraction and the then incumbent Governor Mr. Lucky Igbinedion, Prince Matthew Ailuogierio Oribhabor received a favourable judgement from the State High Court causing his enthronement by the Adams Oshiomole-led government.

With expected vehemence, Prince Ailabogie has since contested the enthronement of his younger brother as king over him in the court of public opinion.

He has maintained that “Prince Ailuogierio is my father’s third child and second son. I am the oldest and succession to the throne is by the oldest surviving son”

At the demise of HRM Matthew Oribhabor 11, on 23rd December, 2015, old scars had definitely been bruised. It leaves to reckon that the youthful monarch, HRM Stephen Oribhabor Ailuogierio 1, at the full assumption of the throne come next Saturday, would require the combined wisdom of his forebears and his teachable demeanour, to steer the Ohordua ship that has sailed in troubled waters for about two decades since his grandfather departed to eternity.

Whether the principal dramatis personae keep up with trading blames on who is responsible for the pains of the past, an incontrovertible fact lurks – there was a dark day in Ohordua! That day of needless hostilities that lends renewed credence to John Pepper Clark’s poem “The Casualties”, in which the literary icon argues that the boundaries of those who bear the incidence of war is infinite.

The Casualties of war, he says, are not “only those who are dead; not only “those who are led away at night”; they include those “outside the scenes of ravage and wreck”.

They include those Ohorduans who reside abroad but have their umbilical cord heated up by the fire of the fury back in their native land.

To consolidate on the gains of peace recorded so far would require a further concerted effort by well meaning sons and daughters of Ohordua. This, ofcourse, will require a deeper grasp of the issues and the symptoms they have presented.

A conscious reconciliation process between all aggrieved parties, chiefly Prince Ailabogie, the seven component villages, all aggrieved families and individuals would be none negotiable.

The present Staff of Office Planning Committee, with necessary adjustments, seem better placed to take up the pious responsibility of post Staff of Office event reconciliations – with reconstruction of minds and institutions as integral aspects.

It remains to say: Omokhaibho!

Long live the Onogie of Ohordua,

Long live the peaceful people of Ohordua.