THE recent conferment of a traditional title on the All Progressives Congress’ governorship candidate in the September 19 Edo State election, Osagie Ize-iyamu, by the Otaru of Auchi, HRH H. A. Momoh, has continued to cause ripples among the political class with accusations that the award was politically motivated.
First to react to the development was the political class, who saw the conferment as a tacit endorsement of the APC candidate by the traditional stool.
On the religious angle, some people have said they find it extremely difficult to fathom how a Redeemed Church pastor would feel in a chieftaincy robe with Islamic connotations.
Both arguments have their pros and cons.
To the Edo State PDP family, the entire episode stinks and represents a complete miscarriage of traditional functions.
In a press statement, the party roundly condemned the conferment and went on to introduce a new dimension to the unfolding saga by linking the monarch’s action to plans to establish the controversial RUGA settlement in the state.
Chris Nekhihare, the party’s state publicly secretary, signed the statement, in which the party raised a lot of posers on the chieftaincy title the Otaru of Auchi conferred on the APC governorship candidate.
One of the posers restated the Islamic nature of Auchi kingdom and wondered the link between the “supposed” recipient and the mode of dressing so as to reflect the significance of the chieftaincy title.
The PDP said, “The turbaning yesterday of the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo State, Pastor Osagie Ize-iyamu, in Auchi has finally exposed the plans of the APC and its candidate to establish a RUGA settlement in Edo State.
“Edo people were inundated with the pictures of Pastor Osagie Ize-iyamu dressed like Miyetti Allah cattle breeders, whose preoccupation is the welfare of Fulani herdsmen, including securing lands for pastoralists.”
Coincidentally, a few days after the PDP went public with its objections to the conferment of a chieftaincy title, another monarch, within the same council area, the Ogieneni of Uzairue, HRH Omogbai Kadiri, bestowed a chieftaincy title on Governor Godwin Obaseki and his deputy.
Whilst the fire rages on, observers have asked the question about the difference between the Otaru’s action and that of the Ogieneni that warranted the PDP to label Ize-iyamu as the purveyor of RUGA settlements?
By tradition, traditional rulers of these Muslim community, serve the dual role of being both the religious and administrative heads of their respective kingdoms.
Stakeholders have therefore urged politicians to be careful not to incite the public with misguided statements.
