by Ayodele Ibiyemi

Continuing in the looting and brigandage in Lagos, aggrieved youth ransacked the palace of the Oba of Lagos Wednesday, October 21, 2020, and the king had to scamper to safety. Unfortunately, videos from the attack showed hoodlums bringing out food items labelled as COVID-19 palliatives.

This has thrown up many questions and people are asking why the king is still holding these food items. Also, the desecration of the king’s palace, while condemnable showed the people’s dissatisfaction with the king.

The king was accused of having kept quiet at the height of the protests. As the ruler of Eko and an influential king across Lagos, his voice does matter. However, he is not the only silent monarch as other kings in the state, including the newly installed Oniru of Iru kingdom, in whose domain the Lekki Massacre happened is not bothered.

This issue calls into question the role and necessity of monarchs in current-day Nigeria. Legally, they hold no power but culturally, they wield a lot of power and command respect from citizens. Technically, they have no power to stop the protesters or even make the kind of changes that protesters want but it is assumed that they have influence with the ruling class.

Ideally, kings should be the bridge between political office holders and the people. Over the years, kings have sided with political leaders as they themselves are part of the ruling class. In the case of the Oba of Lagos, he is known to openly show a preference for certain candidates during elections and in a video, he showed preference and even threatened another ethnic group based in the state.

Seeing that he talks during elections and is capable of issuing threats and influencing elections, it is only normal for citizens to expect him to speak out during the protests against police brutality. Even if it is the regular condemnation that some religious leaders and opposition figures have done, he is supposed to have calmed his people and show concern in the trying period. If he had made a statement identifying with the ordinary people during the protests, the palace might have been spared in the unfortunate onslaught that followed the protests.

Power, by nature, does not go with silence. Powerful people cannot afford to be silent, as long as they are able to exert the power they have been conferred with. This is a wakeup call for monarchs and everyone with a semblance of power. The people are intolerant of being neglected or not being taken seriously.