The 2023 presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Prince Adewole Adebayo cautioned politicians against involving the traditional institution in politics.
He addressed the situation between the Oba of Benin and former Governor Adams Oshiomhole, emphasizing the importance of not using kings in political games where they cannot defend themselves.
The Oba swiftly replied to Oshiomhole, stating that he never opposed the selection of Obaseki at any point.
Adebayo, issuing the caution on his official Twitter handle @Pres_Adebayo, emphasized, “Our Kings cannot be pawns on the chessboard of politics and they should not be put in a position where they cannot defend themselves or where they have to defend themselves.
“The Royal Fathers don’t belong to the politicians and they are not seasonal hirelings of the political class to be hired and fired according to how the political fevers break.”
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He further emphasised that when politics has failed, it is the traditional institution that would provide the needed succor. He said: “We must separate the palaces from politics and separate politicians from the royal thrones because politicians don’t mind going to hell in high water as long as they can capture power, whereas the traditional institutions are part of what we have left when politics has failed.
“Pageantry, pomp, protocols, rites, and rituals that accompany the colours and sounds of the palaces are signposts of the remnants of our past glories salvaged to remind us that we came from a grand past and are entitled to claim a great future, especially when the borrowed western paradigms breakdown or fail us. At least we have something which is originally and authentically ours.”
Adebayo, on the other hand, criticized certain traditional rulers who, as he put it, have become willing instruments of the political elite due to the benefits they receive.
“I am not oblivious to some sad spectacles of late where some occupants of sacred stools have reduced themselves to carousing about and palling around corridors of power and verandas of influence and clubhouses of lucre as ubiquitous assistant celebrants and cheerleaders of all things mundane.
“But, such an unfortunate minority is no excuse for uppity commoners raptured in the exhilaration of captured power and ephemeral importance to trample over the dignity of true nobility and natural kings, and our collective symbols of respectable heritage. Let all concerned please respect themselves. Long live the kings,” he submitted.
