BY TONY ERHA
“Okuo na hon y’ oto ighi gb’ adowe”. A war foretold does not consume the lame; echoes a Benin idiom. What started as mere ruse and a bottled-up emotion, some months ago, had finally reached a boiling point. By hindsight, both opponents were prepared for the showdown, as things tend to manifest. Edo, the Nigeria’s heartbeat state that had been enmeshed in serial political crisis, is in another mess that is most quaking, but of a different dimension.
The amalgamated market women of Benin City, the state capital, are incensed and ‘showing their red eyes” to a daughter of Nigeria’s President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Chief (Dr.) Mujidat Folasade Tinubu-Ojo, the Iyaloja-General of Nigeria and the National Market Council of Nigeria, for imposing on them, Pastor Isi Ibhaguezejele, as leader of the city’s market women. Ibhaguezejele, meaning, “I lay no claims to the throne of the king”, is entangled in an alleged forceful claim to a non-existent ‘Iyaloja’ of Benin markets. She wasn’t accused of angling to preach the Bible in their market places (hence she is called a pastor), but of an intent to advance her political relevance.
“Her aspiration is unwarranted and be thwarted”, said one of the market women, Mrs. Osayi Aiwekhoe, as she recalled a popular Nigerian idiom in Pidgin English; “trouble dey sleep, yanga go wake am”.
Numerous other critics are united that the installation of Ibhaguezejele by Chief Tinubu-Ojo, is a raw show of political strength and use of her father’s presidential powers, and she came from a distant Lagos, to impose a market leader in Benin City. The market women, in their thousands, had besieged Benin streets, in protests. At the Oba Palace, His Royal Majesty, Ewuare II, Uku Akpolokpolo, the revered monarch of Benin Kingdom, among other things, had voiced his disapproval for the installation of an Iyaloja into the Benin market affairs, where its tradition holds sway and an Iyeki is chosen from among Benin women and not from the outside.
“Ahenmwen ere omase ese na zo”. “Obedience is better than sacrifice”. Perhaps, if Chief Tinubu-Ojo wasn’t obstinate at installing Ibhajuezejele, she would have heeded the wise counsel of the Oba of Benin, and there would have been no crisis. Before the installation, the respected Benin monarch had cautioned her about the futility of Iyaloja for Benin markets, which is exclusive to Lagos. SaharaReporters, an investigative news media, had chronicled the episode, revealing that Chief Tinubu-Ojo had earlier written a letter on 30th April, 2024, to the Benin monarch, requesting for support to carry out the installation.
The President’s daughter wrote same letter at the same time to Mr. Godwin Obaseki, the immediate-past governor, contrary to what was said that it was to Senator Monday Okpebholo, the present governor. Governor Okpebholo was accused by the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) of being a mastermind of the installation, as a move to please President Tinubu and to work ahead by using Ibhajuezejele to muster the block votes from the market women in the 2027 presidential election, when Tinubu would have opted for re-election.
But the All Progressives Congress (APC) responded that Mr. Obaseki had worked ahead to appoint an Iyeki, who would have assisted him to firm up his plot to further deal with the Oba, as he hoped that his protégé Dr. Asue Ighodalo, would win the 2024 governorship election and finish his well-known evil scheme to reduce the huge influence of the Oba and his kingdom.
Nevertheless, it is hard to believe the PDP’s theory that a Governor Okpebholo, who is so much loved by the Oba, had orchestrated the Iyeki’s imposition in order to also slight the Edo monarch, whereas Governor Okpebholo holds him as a father-symbol and in higher esteem.
The Iyaloja crisis had rekindled the undying rivalry between the Yoruba and Benin ethnic groups, where the provenances of Benin and Lagos had always been the bone of contention.
Imposition of Iyaloja of a Lagos tradition upon the Iyeki, a Benin sphere, if upheld, would have diminishing implications on the Benin Kingdom before Lagos, especially as history has it, sometimes disputably, that a Benin Oba founded Lagos.
In another flank, the Iyeki dispute has worsened the longstanding mutual distraught between the Binins and their Esan kin. Particularly, the Iyaloja imbroglio ‘has a k-leg’ (a difficult one that can’t fly), as the Edos would say, as Ibhaguezejele is from Esan, ‘the enemy’s camp’. Ibhaguezejele is from Igueben, a variant Esan community that is the closest relative to the Benins, among the Esans and the other affiliate tribal groups of the Benin suzerainty. In Esan, Igueben is about the only one that speaks a tongue closest to that of the Benin. Ironically, Igueben is often sidelined in the affairs of the Edo Central senatorial district, consisting of five local government areas, including Igueben.
Being closed to Benin, Ibhaguezejele, a native of Igueben would ordinarily have had no problem becoming leader of the market women hence there isn’t much difference between Igueben and Benin. The angst of the imposition of Iyaloja and the alleged rebellion by the king of Ibhaguezejele’s town, were said to have informed the crisis. The Igueben king was said to have addressed Esan kings and the people never to pay obeisance to other monarch outside of Esan, a rude innuendo directed at the Ojirrua of Irrua and the Oba of Benin Kingdom, where Igueben came from.
The imposition of leader for Edo markets that are dominated by women may seem a non-issue. Not in Edo, where women and markets are traditionally sacrosanct. It is the same thing with the almighty market men of Onitsha, Anambra State.
Edo market women definitely hold their place in a society that is otherwise male dominated. History reminds all that a despotic Oba would ‘zegbele’ if the market women performed certain rites, where the Oba refused to vacate the throne, although there are no proven cases of despotic Oba(s) who broke such checks and balances of power. But don’t ask me the meaning of ‘zegbele’!
Such is the power the Benin market women have until modern times, more so that they are engraved in its robust history. Edo market women are a massive political force that swings block votes in elections. Politicians will dare them at their perils! If you don’t know this, the ‘humbling’ of ex-Governor Adams Oshiomhole by a market widow in the ‘go and die’ scandal would jerk you.
Whilst the installation of ‘Iyaloja Ibhaguezejele’ is an aberration and affront, one wouldn’t skip mentioning some areas where the Benin market women and their leaders haven’t done well. For a group that has the traditional support of the valuable monarch of the world’s oldest kingdom and the public, it is lamentable that they play partisan politics and sometimes are mentioned in financial scandals. They are also grossly implicated in the exorbitant cost of staple food and other items, which puts Benin City as the most expensive of Nigeria’s state capitals. Despite the huge campaigns and penalties against street trading, most market women are lawbreakers who trade their wares on motor ways, thus obstructing vehicular traffic.
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