Lalong’s Offensive Traditional Ruler’s Bill -By Festus Adedayo

A nauseating bill is currently before the National Assembly. With the aim of establishing the National Council for Traditional Rulers, when passed into law, Nigeria would have formalized natural rulers’ roles and recognition. Sponsored by Simon Lalong, APC-Plateau South, the bill, which was first introduced on October 8, 2024, has passed its second reading in the Senate. In reifying why the bill must be passed, Lalong went into history to situate the fact that, before the 1914 amalgamation, traditional authorities wielded enormous influence in Nigerian governance. A ready example was how the Ooni of Ife, Oba Sir Titus Martins Adesoji Tadeniawo Aderemi (Atobatele 1) alias Adesoji Aderemi, KCMG, KBE, became Western Region’s Governor between 1960 and 1962. So also was the case of Oba Claudius Dosa Akran, a politician and Western Nigeria’s Minister of Finance, who also doubled as the traditional title holder of Aholu Jiwa II of Jegba in Badagry.

Lalong also beautifully situated the enormity of the powers held by traditional rulers of old when he said that, between 1910 and 1960, these natural rulers held significant authority, while being custodians of culture, tradition, values, and religion. Apart from these, they also played significant roles as custodians of their people’s values, managing communal conflicts, setting the tone for intra-communal commerce, industry and trade with other kingdoms.

However, beginning with the long years of military regimes which commenced with the General Aguiyi Ironsi’s unitary government in 1966, traditional rulers have been stripped of these powers. While the 1979 constitution even attempted a restoration of these roles to them, the 1999 constitution gave them no consideration at all.

Apart from the bill’s vexatious attempt to institutionalize the Ooni of Ife and Sultan of Sokoto as permanent co-chairmen, its most abhorrent part was the idea of its founding. As it stands today and even by the wording of its nomenclature, traditional rulers are local concerns of states and local governments. To nationalize their office is to follow the infamous Ironsi 1966 unitarization of a federal Nigeria. With Lalong’s  Traditional Rulers Council Bill, the bubble of natural rulers’ a-political role in Nigerian government is about to burst. While states can be made to acoommodate the rulers in their governance, to federalize them and their relevance is to ensure that their appointment and removal will be guided by the federal government in power. It cannot but further erode their essences and estimation by government and their people. Already, traditional rulers’ subordination under local governments who have the power to depose and remunerate them is seen as a denigration of their essences. This will also lead to further politicization of the stools as it is currently being done in Kano State. In that state today, there are two emirs occupying one stool, with federal and state governments in a consuming tiff over their control, for political reasons.

Tinubu’s Greek gift

Nigerian President Bola Tinubu did the unthinkable last week. As Nigeria hailed the women’s national football team for a hard-earned victory at the recent Women’s Africa Cup of Nations, (Wafcon) either excessively overjoyed, a manifest showboating, or an influence-seeking celebratory evangelism, Tinubu splashed gifts and cash rewards that lack precedent on the girls. As he hosted them at his presidential residence last Monday, Tinubu offered $100,000, (about N150 million) a three-bedroom apartment and a huge national award, the Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON), on all the 24-woman squad players and staff, “on behalf of a grateful nation”.

That the gifts were unprecedented is not even the argument. Recall that reward for previous Nigerian champions from competition wins have always been consistent. Super Eagle’s three-times winners got far less. In 1980, 1994 and 2013, Super Eagles players were similarly rewarded but Super Falcon previous players in their ten times of participation in WAFCON were haphazardly rewarded, the effusive reward system pioneered by the Tinubu government has the tendency of putting huge pressure on Nigeria’s reward system. In a Nigeria where there is humongous lack and poverty and where heroes in all sectors of the economy like teachers are treated with disdain, singling the girls out for such fanfare and splurge of gifts reduces national commitments.

Rather than embark on that effusive binge of showmanship, methinks the best the president could have done was to put up a system which will grow champions of the girls’ hue. One of such efforts would have been to put measures in place to grow grassroots sport development. Funding such and mounting necessary infrastructure for all categories of sports would have endured and solidified Nigeria’s championship position, not only in female football but all other categories of sport.

Equally, rather than this Father Christmas garb in July, government should have announced a sponsorship and scholarships system to student athletes from primary schools to university and beyond as they do in Japan, USA, Brazil etc. What would have memorialized those amazons’ win would have been a Hall of Fame which future heroes and heroines could look up to, while setting aside a funding pool for such heroism which would also include for physically challenged athletes.

Establishment of standardized preparations for athletes playing in major competitions such as Olympics/FIFA World Cup for Men and Women etc, would also have had long-lasting effects. Today,  Nigerian sports associations are not only ineffective in their roles and duties for reasons which include wrong recruitment of leadership and executive members, as well as lack of capacity and creativity, corruption and unworkable plans are the bane of effective Nigerian sports administration.

All these together have resulted in many of Nigerian athletes changing their nationalities, as well as due to poor treatment. An example is Favour Ofili who just hinted Nigeria of her decision to move to Turkey following the AFN’s refusal to register her for an Olympics and World championships 100meters event twice in a row. The same Super Falcons who have become recipients of a tipsy Nigerian state’s gift that is akin to a drunken sailor’s, were not paid their previous games allowances until the semi final match against South Africa. It took the president’s intervention before the NFF could pay them.

What Tinubu did with that splurge of rewards was to equalize rewards with money. In saner societies, a handshake with a national leader is an eternal emblem that athletes wear to their graves.