Benin Prince faults FG’s proposed centenarycelebration

BENIN CITY—THE Enogie of Obazuwa and younger
brother to the Oba of Benin, Prince Edun Akenzua,
yesterday described the proposed centenary
celebration of the birth of Nigeria by the Federal

Government as a misplaced priority.
The Benin Prince, told to newsmen that the
banishment of his great grandfather, Oba
Ovonramwen to Calabar by the British and his
eventual death paved way for the amalgamation,
adding, however that “the amalgamation was a
coercion that should be celebrated by Lord Lugard
and his descendants not us.
“If anybody is to celebrate that, to my mind, I think
it is Lord Lugard and his descendants, who should
be celebrating it. It is like we want to be celebrating
the Berlin Conference, where Africa was partitioned
among European countries. The amalgamation was
something Lord Lugard and his people did for their
personal interest and not for us, that is why I said I
don’t see anything to celebrate.
“We must do exactly what the early Americans did,
we must sit down, all of us and talk, talk about how
we will want to relate to each other, talk about what
we really are. Today, they are making superficial
peace. This group is fighting the other group; let us
forget about what divides us, let us talk about what
unites us, those are just platitudes.
“There are no two ways to it, we cannot pretend
that there will be no need for us to talk, we have to
talk. We are different people just like the early
Americans began, we don’t need the constitution
the soldiers gave to us, we don’t need the one the
British gave to us because there is evidence that
the British participated in rigging elections in our
country.”