Oshiomhole goes full cycle

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By Francis Ehigiator

Let me admit that I am one of those who admired Comrade Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole when he was the nation’s Labour leader. His leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) was inspiring. He effectively represented the aspirations of Nigeria’s struggling workers and was able to squeeze out from government, amazing concessions and improvement in wages. In his usual all-khaki attire, he typified simplicity, truth and honesty.

His decision to veer into politics in the 2007 political ransition elicited mixed reactions from his admirers. Such decent men, we thought, had no business with politics which is believed to be characterized by dishonesty. We were persuaded, however, that only decent men could sanitize the system. Oshiomhole would make a difference, so we thought. Sadly, he has proved us wrong-sadly, because his tenure so far as Edo state governor has continued to disappoint with the series of controversies associated with him. Although, Edo state, as one of the nation’s melting pots of politics, is usually in the news, the state’s media portrayal has largely been negative since November 12, 2008, when Oshiomhole stepped in the saddle as its governor.

All through his first term, Edo was prominent in the news for the wrong reasons: there were several contentions over his style of governance, disputes over his government’s policies and projects as well as arguments over alleged contract costs inflation. For those of us who live outside of the state, we easily dismissed such scandals as the handiwork of the rival Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). We were wrong. Now it is easy to conclude that if his first term was stormy, recent reports of scandals coming out from Benin suggest that his second term which kicked off in November 2012, promises to be even more controversial. We wonder in amazement how the labour leader-turned politician has turned full cycle.
The twist came last April 4, when the governor threw a lavish party in Benin to celebrate his 60th birthday! The bash was attended by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Aminu Tambuwal and President Goodluck Jonathan’s representative, Senator Ben Obi while the Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Rev. Matthew Hassan Kukah was guest speaker at the lecture organized to commemorate the event. Tongues had started wagging about the obvious fraud, one by a man who has consistently dressed himself in saintly robes.

It didn’t take long to dig out the facts: Adams Oshiomhole, prior to the July 14, 2012 governorship election, had gone to the High Court in Benin, precisely on May 4, 2012 to swear to an oath that he was born on the 4th of April 1952. Perhaps, he had forgotten that on November, 12, 2008 at his swearing in as Governor for his first tenure, his citation which stated his date of birth as April 4th, 1953 was read in his presence and in the presence of the Edo state Chief Judge. In a similar event at his inauguration for his second term in 2012 his citation with April 4th, 1953 as date of birth was also read in his presence and the presence of the Edo state Chief Judge.

What then propelled him to rush to the Benin High Court ahead of the July 14, 2012 governroship election to depose to an affidavit in which he claimed for a fact that he was born on April 4, 1952? Curiously, this was about the period when the opposition PDP raked up allegations about how he had falsified his primary school leaving certificate. Was he trying to make some adjustments in the light of the allegation so as to be in a comfort zone? Unfortunately, these would appear to have worsened the situation as the opposition has continued to dig in.

Consequently, the nation has been riveted by the disclosure which bothers on fraudulent conduct and the propriety of the governor’s continued stay in office, having lied about his age under oath. Indeed, the governor’s response has been amazing. For a man accused of such dishonest and shameful conduct, Oshiomhole has been elusive and his response has been less than typical of him. He only dispatched his Special Adviser on Media and Public Affairs, Kassim Afegbua, to try papering the cracks with a response that sidestepped the issue. Afegbua who said the issue had been over-flogged, described the allegation as laughable and meaningless. According to him, those accusing Oshiomhole of perjury lacked the competence to discuss issues of honour and morality.

When Afegbua found that his response did not convince anyone, he changed tactic and admitted that the governor is indeed 61, not 60 years old. He said the governor’s true age, which is 61, is reflected on all his travel documents and credentials. When did he realize this and why were the good people of Edo being deceived? The PDP in Edo State which had drawn the attention of President Goodluck Jonathan to the glaring case of age falsification, asked the President to strip Oshiomhole of the national honour (Commander of the Order of Nigeria (CON) bestowed on him. It also petitioned the Inspector General of Police, Alhaji Mohammed Abubakar, demanding an investigation into the allegation of perjury against the governor. To say that the matter has brought so much discredit to Oshiomhole himself, and diminished his status as governor, is an understatement.

Oshiomhole needs to come out in the open. If indeed he has lived a lie and willingly fed his subjects and his admirers with falsehood all these years, then it is difficult to believe it was an honest faux pas. He needs to show courage and admit the deceit. Only then will he restore the badly eroded moral authority which a governor requires in the discharge of his duties. The issue hardly calls for subterfuge and his present stance reduces from whatever is left of his democratic credentials.

Francis Ehigiator is on Twitter

BENIN KINGDOM AND HISTORY

PRINCE KELLY UDEBHULU

A PRINCE KELLY UDEBHULU CULTURAL REVIEW

THE Portuguese were the first European travelers to visit Benin, which they called Beny, this was during the reign of King Ozolua c1472 and 1486 AD. The Portuguese admitted finding a highly developed kingdom with a very advanced system. This visit and subsequent interchanges led to King John II of Portugal who reigned between 1481 to 1495 exchanging correspondences with the King of Benin on a peer like basis. Between 1504 and 1550 AD, the Portuguese established diplomatic and trade relations with Oba Esigie and his kingdom of Benin

By the 16th century the Oba sent an ambassador to Lisbon and the king of Portugal reciprocated by sending Christian missionaries to teach the Binis the gospel.

The English made their first call in 1 553. This visit was a harbinger of lucrative business, for significant trade relationship soon developed between England and Benin. The British anthropology writer and curator, Henry Ling Roth, described Bini as Great Benin. Other European visitors to Benin in the 16th and 17th centuries brought back to Europe tales of the Great Benin”, a fabulous city of noble buildings and efficient administrative system.

The state developed an advanced artistic culture and wrought with unequalled mastery works of arts in bronze, iron and ivory. They expressed events that they considered history-making in carvings. Benin also developed a formidable military establishment.

The Benin Bronzes
The Benin Bronzes are a collection of more than 3000 brass plaques from the royal palace of the Kingdom of Benin. They were seized by a British force in the Benin Expedition of 1897 and given to the British Foreign Office. Around 200 of these were then passed on to the British Museum in London, while the remainder were divided among a variety of collections, with the majority being purchased by Felix von Luschan on behalf of the Königliches Museum für Völkerkunde in Berlin (the present-day Ethnological Museum).

Bronzes are now believed to have been cast in Benin since the thirteenth century, and some in the collection date from the 1 5th and 16th centuries.

Between Benin and Britain
At the end of the 19th century, the Kingdom of Benin retained its independence and the Oba exercised a.monopoly over trade which the British found irksome. Pressure was mounted by figures such as Vice-Consul James Robert Phillips and Captain Gatlwey (the British vice-Consul of Oil Rivers Protectorate) who were pushing for British annexation of the Benin Empire.

Britain needed to establish a sphere of influence so that no other European power could later claim Benin as its own. This period in world history was the period of the scramble for Africa which brought about the Berlin Conference of 1884 and 1885 which partitioned Africa amongst the then European powers.

The agreement at the end of the Berlin Conference was contained in the General Act which has in part the rule of the Principle of Effectivity or Uti Possidetis “as it stands at the present”, which is that a nation could only claim a colony if that nation actually possessed the colony. To lay claim it must have treaties with the local chiefs, fly its flag there, and establish an administration in the territory to govern it. The colonial power must also directly use the economic resources of this colony; otherwise it could not claim it to the exclusion of other European nations.

Thus it became imperative to make local chiefs to put hand on paper and sign treaties with the European nations. Expeditions were therefore dispatched to coerce traditional rulers into signing treaties. At the time of concluding the Berlin conference in 1885, only the coastal areas of Africa were under European rules, 80% of Africa was effectively under the rules of their traditional kings. But by 1902, 90% of all the land that makes up Africa was under European control.

By June 5, 1885, Britain named her Sphere of Influence as extending from Lagos to
River Rio Del Ray near Cameroon. This sphere of influence Britain called Oil Rivers
Protectorate. But Benin in the middle was not part of it.

In March 1892, Henry Gallwey, the British Vice-Consul of Oil Rivers Protectorate (later Niger Coast Protectorate), visited Benin City hoping to annex Benin Kingdom and make it a British protectorate. Although the King of Benin, Omo n’Oba (Ovonramwen), was sceptical of the British motives he was willing to endorse what he believed was a friendship and trade agreement. He refrained from endorsing Gallwey’s treaty when it became apparent that the document was a ploy intended to make Benin Kingdom a British colony. Consequently the King issued an edict barring all British officials and traders from entering Benin territories. Since Major (later Sir) Claude Maxwell Macdonald, the Consul General of the Oil River Protectorate authorities considered the ‘Treaty’ legal and binding, he deemed the King’s reaction a violation of the accord and thus a hostile act.

Between September 1895 and mid 1896 three attempts were made by the Protectorate to enforce the Gallwey ‘Treaty’.

The “Benin Massacre”
In November in a letter to Lord Salisbury, the British Foreign Secretary, Vice-Consu Phillips requested approval to invade Benin and depose the Oba, adding the following footnote: “1 would add that I have reason to hope that sufficient ivory would be found in the King’s house to pay the expenses incurred in removing the King from his stool” In late December 1896, without waiting for a reply or approval from London, he embarked on a military expedition, He had a few Europeans and 250 African soldiers masquerading in part as porters. The force’s weapons were hidden in the baggage carried by the porters’.
The Benin king preferred to let the British enter the city so that it could be ascertained whether or not the visit was a friendly one. The head of Benin Army felt otherwise and without obtaining the kings permission ordered the formation of a strike force to destroy the invaders.

On 4 January 1897, the strike force caught Phillips’ column totally unprepared. Only two British officers survived the annihilation by the Benin soldiers.

Benin Punitive Expedition
On 12 January 1897, Rear-Admiral Harry Rawson was appointed to lead an expedition to capture the Benin king and destroy Benin City. The operation was named Benin Punitive Expedition, and on 9 February 1897 the invasion of Benin kingdom began. The field commanders were instructed to burn down all Benin kingdom’s towns and villages. The invasion force of about 1200 British Marines, sailors and Niger Coast Protectorate Forces, and composed of three columns. They reached Benin City after 10 days of bitter fighting. One column was routed by Benin soldiers.

Immediately after the British invaders secured the city, looting began. Monuments and palaces of many high-ranking chiefs were looted. Homes, religious buildings and palaces were deliberately torched.
The British Admiralty confiscated and auctioned off the war booty to defray the costs of the Expedition.

The dispersal of the Benin art to museums around the world catalyzed the beginnings of a long and slow European reassessment of the value of West African art. The Benin art was copied and the style integrated into the art of many European artists and thus had a strong influence on the early formation of modernism in Europe.

The King of Benin was eventually captured by the British consul-general Moor, deposed and sent to live out his days in Calabar.

On December 27, 1899, Britain at last was able to proclaim and promulgate the Protectorate of southern Nigeria, to take effect from January 1, 1900.

A new beginning
It is in the light of this history, the clamour by many notable persons, the efforts of the National Commission for Museums and Monuments and the positive attitude of these men and women of goodwill, representatives of some of the greatest museums in the world that a new beginning of rapprochement is being fashioned out.

The Great Benin Kingdom
By AMBROSE EKHOSUEHI

THE Portuguese were the first European travellers to visit Benin, which they called Beny, this was during the reign of King Ozolua c1472 and 1486 AD. The Portuguese admitted finding a highly developed kingdom with a very advanced system. This visit and subsequent interchanges led to King John II of Portugal who reigned between 1481 to 1495 exchanging correspondences with the King of Benin on a peer like basis. Between 1504 and 1550 AD, the Portuguese established diplomatic and trade relations with Oba Esigie and his kingdom of Benin

By the 16th century the Oba sent an ambassador to Lisbon and the king of Portugal reciprocated by sending Christian missionaries to teach the Binis the gospel.

The English made their first call in 1 553. This visit was a harbinger of lucrative business, for significant trade relationship soon developed between England and Benin. The British anthropology writer and curator, Henry Ling Roth, described Bini as Great Benin. Other European visitors to Benin in the 16th and 17th centuries brought back to Europe tales of the Great Benin”, a fabulous city of noble buildings and efficient administrative system.

The state developed an advanced artistic culture and wrought with unequalled mastery works of arts in bronze, iron and ivory. They expressed events that they considered history-making in carvings. Benin also developed a formidable military establishment.

The Benin Bronzes
The Benin Bronzes are a collection of more than 3000 brass plaques from the royal palace of the Kingdom of Benin. They were seized by a British force in the Benin Expedition of 1897 and given to the British Foreign Office. Around 200 of these were then passed on to the British Museum in London, while the remainder were divided among a variety of collections, with the majority being purchased by Felix von Luschan on behalf of the Königliches Museum für Völkerkunde in Berlin (the present-day Ethnological Museum).

Bronzes are now believed to have been cast in Benin since the thirteenth century, and some in the collection date from the 1 5th and 16th centuries.

Between Benin and Britain
At the end of the 19th century, the Kingdom of Benin retained its independence and the Oba exercised a.monopoly over trade which the British found irksome. Pressure was mounted by figures such as Vice-Consul James Robert Phillips and Captain Gatlwey (the British vice-Consul of Oil Rivers Protectorate) who were pushing for British annexation of the Benin Empire.

Britain needed to establish a sphere of influence so that no other European power could later claim Benin as its own. This period in world history was the period of the scramble for Africa which brought about the Berlin Conference of 1884 and 1885 which partitioned Africa amongst the then European powers.

The agreement at the end of the Berlin Conference was contained in the General Act which has in part the rule of the Principle of Effectivity or Uti Possidetis “as it stands at the present”, which is that a nation could only claim a colony if that nation actually possessed the colony. To lay claim it must have treaties with the local chiefs, fly its flag there, and establish an administration in the territory to govern it. The colonial power must also directly use the economic resources of this colony; otherwise it could not claim it to the exclusion of other European nations.

Thus it became imperative to make local chiefs to put hand on paper and sign treaties with the European nations. Expeditions were therefore dispatched to coerce traditional rulers into signing treaties. At the time of concluding the Berlin conference in 1885, only the coastal areas of Africa were under European rules, 80% of Africa was effectively under the rules of their traditional kings. But by 1902, 90% of all the land that makes up Africa was under European control.

By June 5, 1885, Britain named her Sphere of Influence as extending from Lagos to
River Rio Del Ray near Cameroon. This sphere of influence Britain called Oil Rivers
Protectorate. But Benin in the middle was not part of it.

In March 1892, Henry Gallwey, the British Vice-Consul of Oil Rivers Protectorate (later Niger Coast Protectorate), visited Benin City hoping to annex Benin Kingdom and make it a British protectorate. Although the King of Benin, Omo n’Oba (Ovonramwen), was sceptical of the British motives he was willing to endorse what he believed was a friendship and trade agreement. He refrained from endorsing Gallwey’s treaty when it became apparent that the document was a ploy intended to make Benin Kingdom a British colony. Consequently the King issued an edict barring all British officials and traders from entering Benin territories. Since Major (later Sir) Claude Maxwell Macdonald, the Consul General of the Oil River Protectorate authorities considered the ‘Treaty’ legal and binding, he deemed the King’s reaction a violation of the accord and thus a hostile act.

Between September 1895 and mid 1896 three attempts were made by the Protectorate to enforce the Gallwey ‘Treaty’.

The “Benin Massacre”
In November in a letter to Lord Salisbury, the British Foreign Secretary, Vice-Consu Phillips requested approval to invade Benin and depose the Oba, adding the following footnote: “1 would add that I have reason to hope that sufficient ivory would be found in the King’s house to pay the expenses incurred in removing the King from his stool” In late December 1896, without waiting for a reply or approval from London, he embarked on a military expedition, He had a few Europeans and 250 African soldiers masquerading in part as porters. The force’s weapons were hidden in the baggage carried by the porters’.
The Benin king preferred to let the British enter the city so that it could be ascertained whether or not the visit was a friendly one. The head of Benin Army felt otherwise and without obtaining the kings permission ordered the formation of a strike force to destroy the invaders.

On 4 January 1897, the strike force caught Phillips’ column totally unprepared. Only two British officers survived the annihilation by the Benin soldiers.

Benin Punitive Expedition
On 12 January 1897, Rear-Admiral Harry Rawson was appointed to lead an expedition to capture the Benin king and destroy Benin City. The operation was named Benin Punitive Expedition, and on 9 February 1897 the invasion of Benin kingdom began. The field commanders were instructed to burn down all Benin kingdom’s towns and villages. The invasion force of about 1200 British Marines, sailors and Niger Coast Protectorate Forces, and composed of three columns. They reached Benin City after 10 days of bitter fighting. One column was routed by Benin soldiers.

Immediately after the British invaders secured the city, looting began. Monuments and palaces of many high-ranking chiefs were looted. Homes, religious buildings and palaces were deliberately torched.
The British Admiralty confiscated and auctioned off the war booty to defray the costs of the Expedition.

The dispersal of the Benin art to museums around the world catalyzed the beginnings of a long and slow European reassessment of the value of West African art. The Benin art was copied and the style integrated into the art of many European artists and thus had a strong influence on the early formation of modernism in Europe.

The King of Benin was eventually captured by the British consul-general Moor, deposed and sent to live out his days in Calabar.

On December 27, 1899, Britain at last was able to proclaim and promulgate the Protectorate of southern Nigeria, to take effect from January 1, 1900.

A new beginning
It is in the light of this history, the clamour by many notable persons, the efforts of the National Commission for Museums and Monuments and the positive attitude of these men and women of goodwill, representatives of some of the greatest museums in the world that a new beginning of rapprochement is being fashioned out.
The Great Benin Kingdom
By AMBROSE EKHOSUEHI

THE Portuguese were the first European travellers to visit Benin, which they called Beny, this was during the reign of King Ozolua c1472 and 1486 AD. The Portuguese admitted finding a highly developed kingdom with a very advanced system. This visit and subsequent interchanges led to King John II of Portugal who reigned between 1481 to 1495 exchanging correspondences with the King of Benin on a peer like basis. Between 1504 and 1550 AD, the Portuguese established diplomatic and trade relations with Oba Esigie and his kingdom of Benin

By the 16th century the Oba sent an ambassador to Lisbon and the king of Portugal reciprocated by sending Christian missionaries to teach the Binis the gospel.

The English made their first call in 1 553. This visit was a harbinger of lucrative business, for significant trade relationship soon developed between England and Benin. The British anthropology writer and curator, Henry Ling Roth, described Bini as Great Benin. Other European visitors to Benin in the 16th and 17th centuries brought back to Europe tales of the Great Benin”, a fabulous city of noble buildings and efficient administrative system.

The state developed an advanced artistic culture and wrought with unequalled mastery works of arts in bronze, iron and ivory. They expressed events that they considered history-making in carvings. Benin also developed a formidable military establishment.

The Benin Bronzes
The Benin Bronzes are a collection of more than 3000 brass plaques from the royal palace of the Kingdom of Benin. They were seized by a British force in the Benin Expedition of 1897 and given to the British Foreign Office. Around 200 of these were then passed on to the British Museum in London, while the remainder were divided among a variety of collections, with the majority being purchased by Felix von Luschan on behalf of the Königliches Museum für Völkerkunde in Berlin (the present-day Ethnological Museum).

Bronzes are now believed to have been cast in Benin since the thirteenth century, and some in the collection date from the 1 5th and 16th centuries.

Between Benin and Britain
At the end of the 19th century, the Kingdom of Benin retained its independence and the Oba exercised a.monopoly over trade which the British found irksome. Pressure was mounted by figures such as Vice-Consul James Robert Phillips and Captain Gatlwey (the British vice-Consul of Oil Rivers Protectorate) who were pushing for British annexation of the Benin Empire.

Britain needed to establish a sphere of influence so that no other European power could later claim Benin as its own. This period in world history was the period of the scramble for Africa which brought about the Berlin Conference of 1884 and 1885 which partitioned Africa amongst the then European powers.

The agreement at the end of the Berlin Conference was contained in the General Act which has in part the rule of the Principle of Effectivity or Uti Possidetis “as it stands at the present”, which is that a nation could only claim a colony if that nation actually possessed the colony. To lay claim it must have treaties with the local chiefs, fly its flag there, and establish an administration in the territory to govern it. The colonial power must also directly use the economic resources of this colony; otherwise it could not claim it to the exclusion of other European nations.

Thus it became imperative to make local chiefs to put hand on paper and sign treaties with the European nations. Expeditions were therefore dispatched to coerce traditional rulers into signing treaties. At the time of concluding the Berlin conference in 1885, only the coastal areas of Africa were under European rules, 80% of Africa was effectively under the rules of their traditional kings. But by 1902, 90% of all the land that makes up Africa was under European control.

By June 5, 1885, Britain named her Sphere of Influence as extending from Lagos to
River Rio Del Ray near Cameroon. This sphere of influence Britain called Oil Rivers
Protectorate. But Benin in the middle was not part of it.

In March 1892, Henry Gallwey, the British Vice-Consul of Oil Rivers Protectorate (later Niger Coast Protectorate), visited Benin City hoping to annex Benin Kingdom and make it a British protectorate. Although the King of Benin, Omo n’Oba (Ovonramwen), was sceptical of the British motives he was willing to endorse what he believed was a friendship and trade agreement. He refrained from endorsing Gallwey’s treaty when it became apparent that the document was a ploy intended to make Benin Kingdom a British colony. Consequently the King issued an edict barring all British officials and traders from entering Benin territories. Since Major (later Sir) Claude Maxwell Macdonald, the Consul General of the Oil River Protectorate authorities considered the ‘Treaty’ legal and binding, he deemed the King’s reaction a violation of the accord and thus a hostile act.

Between September 1895 and mid 1896 three attempts were made by the Protectorate to enforce the Gallwey ‘Treaty’.

The “Benin Massacre”
In November in a letter to Lord Salisbury, the British Foreign Secretary, Vice-Consu Phillips requested approval to invade Benin and depose the Oba, adding the following footnote: “1 would add that I have reason to hope that sufficient ivory would be found in the King’s house to pay the expenses incurred in removing the King from his stool” In late December 1896, without waiting for a reply or approval from London, he embarked on a military expedition, He had a few Europeans and 250 African soldiers masquerading in part as porters. The force’s weapons were hidden in the baggage carried by the porters’.
The Benin king preferred to let the British enter the city so that it could be ascertained whether or not the visit was a friendly one. The head of Benin Army felt otherwise and without obtaining the kings permission ordered the formation of a strike force to destroy the invaders.

On 4 January 1897, the strike force caught Phillips’ column totally unprepared. Only two British officers survived the annihilation by the Benin soldiers.

Benin Punitive Expedition
On 12 January 1897, Rear-Admiral Harry Rawson was appointed to lead an expedition to capture the Benin king and destroy Benin City. The operation was named Benin Punitive Expedition, and on 9 February 1897 the invasion of Benin kingdom began. The field commanders were instructed to burn down all Benin kingdom’s towns and villages. The invasion force of about 1200 British Marines, sailors and Niger Coast Protectorate Forces, and composed of three columns. They reached Benin City after 10 days of bitter fighting. One column was routed by Benin soldiers.

Immediately after the British invaders secured the city, looting began. Monuments and palaces of many high-ranking chiefs were looted. Homes, religious buildings and palaces were deliberately torched.
The British Admiralty confiscated and auctioned off the war booty to defray the costs of the Expedition.

The dispersal of the Benin art to museums around the world catalyzed the beginnings of a long and slow European reassessment of the value of West African art. The Benin art was copied and the style integrated into the art of many European artists and thus had a strong influence on the early formation of modernism in Europe.

The King of Benin was eventually captured by the British consul-general Moor, deposed and sent to live out his days in Calabar.

On December 27, 1899, Britain at last was able to proclaim and promulgate the Protectorate of southern Nigeria, to take effect from January 1, 1900.

A new beginning
It is in the light of this history, the clamour by many notable persons, the efforts of the National Commission for Museums and Monuments and the positive attitude of these men and women of goodwill, representatives of some of the greatest museums in the world that a new beginning of rapprochement is being fashioned out.

HOW TO BECOME MORE ATTRACTIVE TO PEOPLE AROUND YOU

Judith Daniel-Imagoro

Author: Judith Daniel –Imagoro.

1. Be flexible: Flexibility is the mother of friendship and friendship is the foundation for relationship. Flexibility means the ability to adjust quickly to situation, not holding too firm to a particular position. When you are too rigid, you make enemies too quickly. Flexibility does not mean you give up your integrity or violate your righteous stand. I mean denying yourself of some comfort in order to please or win over somebody.

It is very difficult for a rigid person to have a fruitful relationship even in choice of a partner, don’t be too rigid. That your thought that is fixed on a ‘’tall, dark skinned man or light skinned woman for as long as ever is rigidity. Look for other quality that could cover up for those attribute you initially liked, instead of allowing choices to hold up your marital destiny; learn to be flexible in your choices.

As a husband do not just make decision and say that is final, seat down with your spouse to talk over it, see how that your decision affects your spouse, consider her own view then adjust.
Two things happen to men that do not regard their wife and their opinion; they either die early or die poor.
Some ladies are not married today because of some doctrines they had held onto too rigidly. Flexibility makes you a friend of all.


2. Be slow to anger: Proverbs says “ He that is soon angry deals foolishly” but He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding. Nobody loves to hang around a foolish person; one of the ways not to be easily angered is not to easily think of the worst of situations. Always think positive of situation even when it does not look it initially

3. Build a good character: Character is a person’s personality which could be influence by his/her environment. So character is personality plus all external influences; this means character can be built. For you to be a friend of all, you need to develop a warm attitude, because for any relationship to succeed, attitude plays a major role. Your personality is discovered by your character, so character is a primary qualification for you to attract and relate to people around you. 

Proverbs says “ The poor is hated even in his own neighbourhood” poverty means lack, when you are poor in Character, personality, kindness, in smiles, in heart, in material substance etc, you are hated by neighbours but the rich in those qualities has many friends. It is hard to relate with people when you do not good character, and have poor ability to communicate softly or deal with issues prudently

4. Don’t be over religious: Being over religious will make people perceive you wrongly and that drive people away from you. God is not constrained to a particular individual way of life so; do not allow doctrines stop you from relating to people. Your Christianity should reflect from your heart. Show kindness, compassion, care, love and always be willing to help. That is a genuine way to show you are of God, Not your religious talk and conversations.

5. Be friendly: He that wants a friend must first display an attitude of friendship.
You must consciously develop a friendly attitude, if you must win people’s friendship.
The bible says “He that despises his neighbor sinned but he that hath mercy on the poor, happy is he”

A friendly attitude can win over unfriendly people.

Author: Judith Daniel –Imagoro

To read more of my articles visit my facebook page glorious living singles and married ministry.

BENIN KINGDOM AND THE PORTUGUES

A PRINCE KELLY UDEBHULU CULTURAL REVIEW

THE Portuguese were the first European travelers to visit Benin, which they called Beny, this was during the reign of King Ozolua c1472 and 1486 AD. The Portuguese admitted finding a highly developed kingdom with a very advanced system. This visit and subsequent interchanges led to King John II of Portugal who reigned between 1481 to 1495 exchanging correspondences with the King of Benin on a peer like basis. Between 1504 and 1550 AD, the Portuguese established diplomatic and trade relations with Oba Esigie and his kingdom of Benin

By the 16th century the Oba sent an ambassador to Lisbon and the king of Portugal reciprocated by sending Christian missionaries to teach the Binis the gospel.

The English made their first call in 1 553. This visit was a harbinger of lucrative business, for significant trade relationship soon developed between England and Benin. The British anthropology writer and curator, Henry Ling Roth, described Bini as Great Benin. Other European visitors to Benin in the 16th and 17th centuries brought back to Europe tales of the Great Benin”, a fabulous city of noble buildings and efficient administrative system.

The state developed an advanced artistic culture and wrought with unequalled mastery works of arts in bronze, iron and ivory. They expressed events that they considered history-making in carvings. Benin also developed a formidable military establishment.

The Benin Bronzes
The Benin Bronzes are a collection of more than 3000 brass plaques from the royal palace of the Kingdom of Benin. They were seized by a British force in the Benin Expedition of 1897 and given to the British Foreign Office. Around 200 of these were then passed on to the British Museum in London, while the remainder were divided among a variety of collections, with the majority being purchased by Felix von Luschan on behalf of the Königliches Museum für Völkerkunde in Berlin (the present-day Ethnological Museum).

Bronzes are now believed to have been cast in Benin since the thirteenth century, and some in the collection date from the 1 5th and 16th centuries.

Between Benin and Britain
At the end of the 19th century, the Kingdom of Benin retained its independence and the Oba exercised a.monopoly over trade which the British found irksome. Pressure was mounted by figures such as Vice-Consul James Robert Phillips and Captain Gatlwey (the British vice-Consul of Oil Rivers Protectorate) who were pushing for British annexation of the Benin Empire.

Britain needed to establish a sphere of influence so that no other European power could later claim Benin as its own. This period in world history was the period of the scramble for Africa which brought about the Berlin Conference of 1884 and 1885 which partitioned Africa amongst the then European powers.

The agreement at the end of the Berlin Conference was contained in the General Act which has in part the rule of the Principle of Effectivity or Uti Possidetis “as it stands at the present”, which is that a nation could only claim a colony if that nation actually possessed the colony. To lay claim it must have treaties with the local chiefs, fly its flag there, and establish an administration in the territory to govern it. The colonial power must also directly use the economic resources of this colony; otherwise it could not claim it to the exclusion of other European nations.

Thus it became imperative to make local chiefs to put hand on paper and sign treaties with the European nations. Expeditions were therefore dispatched to coerce traditional rulers into signing treaties. At the time of concluding the Berlin conference in 1885, only the coastal areas of Africa were under European rules, 80% of Africa was effectively under the rules of their traditional kings. But by 1902, 90% of all the land that makes up Africa was under European control.

By June 5, 1885, Britain named her Sphere of Influence as extending from Lagos to
River Rio Del Ray near Cameroon. This sphere of influence Britain called Oil Rivers
Protectorate. But Benin in the middle was not part of it.

In March 1892, Henry Gallwey, the British Vice-Consul of Oil Rivers Protectorate (later Niger Coast Protectorate), visited Benin City hoping to annex Benin Kingdom and make it a British protectorate. Although the King of Benin, Omo n’Oba (Ovonramwen), was sceptical of the British motives he was willing to endorse what he believed was a friendship and trade agreement. He refrained from endorsing Gallwey’s treaty when it became apparent that the document was a ploy intended to make Benin Kingdom a British colony. Consequently the King issued an edict barring all British officials and traders from entering Benin territories. Since Major (later Sir) Claude Maxwell Macdonald, the Consul General of the Oil River Protectorate authorities considered the ‘Treaty’ legal and binding, he deemed the King’s reaction a violation of the accord and thus a hostile act.

Between September 1895 and mid 1896 three attempts were made by the Protectorate to enforce the Gallwey ‘Treaty’.

The “Benin Massacre”
In November in a letter to Lord Salisbury, the British Foreign Secretary, Vice-Consu Phillips requested approval to invade Benin and depose the Oba, adding the following footnote: “1 would add that I have reason to hope that sufficient ivory would be found in the King’s house to pay the expenses incurred in removing the King from his stool” In late December 1896, without waiting for a reply or approval from London, he embarked on a military expedition, He had a few Europeans and 250 African soldiers masquerading in part as porters. The force’s weapons were hidden in the baggage carried by the porters’.
The Benin king preferred to let the British enter the city so that it could be ascertained whether or not the visit was a friendly one. The head of Benin Army felt otherwise and without obtaining the kings permission ordered the formation of a strike force to destroy the invaders.

On 4 January 1897, the strike force caught Phillips’ column totally unprepared. Only two British officers survived the annihilation by the Benin soldiers.

Benin Punitive Expedition
On 12 January 1897, Rear-Admiral Harry Rawson was appointed to lead an expedition to capture the Benin king and destroy Benin City. The operation was named Benin Punitive Expedition, and on 9 February 1897 the invasion of Benin kingdom began. The field commanders were instructed to burn down all Benin kingdom’s towns and villages. The invasion force of about 1200 British Marines, sailors and Niger Coast Protectorate Forces, and composed of three columns. They reached Benin City after 10 days of bitter fighting. One column was routed by Benin soldiers.

Immediately after the British invaders secured the city, looting began. Monuments and palaces of many high-ranking chiefs were looted. Homes, religious buildings and palaces were deliberately torched.
The British Admiralty confiscated and auctioned off the war booty to defray the costs of the Expedition.

The dispersal of the Benin art to museums around the world catalyzed the beginnings of a long and slow European reassessment of the value of West African art. The Benin art was copied and the style integrated into the art of many European artists and thus had a strong influence on the early formation of modernism in Europe.

The King of Benin was eventually captured by the British consul-general Moor, deposed and sent to live out his days in Calabar.

On December 27, 1899, Britain at last was able to proclaim and promulgate the Protectorate of southern Nigeria, to take effect from January 1, 1900.

A new beginning
It is in the light of this history, the clamour by many notable persons, the efforts of the National Commission for Museums and Monuments and the positive attitude of these men and women of goodwill, representatives of some of the greatest museums in the world that a new beginning of rapprochement is being fashioned out.

The Great Benin Kingdom
By AMBROSE EKHOSUEHI

THE Portuguese were the first European travellers to visit Benin, which they called Beny, this was during the reign of King Ozolua c1472 and 1486 AD. The Portuguese admitted finding a highly developed kingdom with a very advanced system. This visit and subsequent interchanges led to King John II of Portugal who reigned between 1481 to 1495 exchanging correspondences with the King of Benin on a peer like basis. Between 1504 and 1550 AD, the Portuguese established diplomatic and trade relations with Oba Esigie and his kingdom of Benin

By the 16th century the Oba sent an ambassador to Lisbon and the king of Portugal reciprocated by sending Christian missionaries to teach the Binis the gospel.

The English made their first call in 1 553. This visit was a harbinger of lucrative business, for significant trade relationship soon developed between England and Benin. The British anthropology writer and curator, Henry Ling Roth, described Bini as Great Benin. Other European visitors to Benin in the 16th and 17th centuries brought back to Europe tales of the Great Benin”, a fabulous city of noble buildings and efficient administrative system.

The state developed an advanced artistic culture and wrought with unequalled mastery works of arts in bronze, iron and ivory. They expressed events that they considered history-making in carvings. Benin also developed a formidable military establishment.

The Benin Bronzes
The Benin Bronzes are a collection of more than 3000 brass plaques from the royal palace of the Kingdom of Benin. They were seized by a British force in the Benin Expedition of 1897 and given to the British Foreign Office. Around 200 of these were then passed on to the British Museum in London, while the remainder were divided among a variety of collections, with the majority being purchased by Felix von Luschan on behalf of the Königliches Museum für Völkerkunde in Berlin (the present-day Ethnological Museum).

Bronzes are now believed to have been cast in Benin since the thirteenth century, and some in the collection date from the 1 5th and 16th centuries.

Between Benin and Britain
At the end of the 19th century, the Kingdom of Benin retained its independence and the Oba exercised a.monopoly over trade which the British found irksome. Pressure was mounted by figures such as Vice-Consul James Robert Phillips and Captain Gatlwey (the British vice-Consul of Oil Rivers Protectorate) who were pushing for British annexation of the Benin Empire.

Britain needed to establish a sphere of influence so that no other European power could later claim Benin as its own. This period in world history was the period of the scramble for Africa which brought about the Berlin Conference of 1884 and 1885 which partitioned Africa amongst the then European powers.

The agreement at the end of the Berlin Conference was contained in the General Act which has in part the rule of the Principle of Effectivity or Uti Possidetis “as it stands at the present”, which is that a nation could only claim a colony if that nation actually possessed the colony. To lay claim it must have treaties with the local chiefs, fly its flag there, and establish an administration in the territory to govern it. The colonial power must also directly use the economic resources of this colony; otherwise it could not claim it to the exclusion of other European nations.

Thus it became imperative to make local chiefs to put hand on paper and sign treaties with the European nations. Expeditions were therefore dispatched to coerce traditional rulers into signing treaties. At the time of concluding the Berlin conference in 1885, only the coastal areas of Africa were under European rules, 80% of Africa was effectively under the rules of their traditional kings. But by 1902, 90% of all the land that makes up Africa was under European control.

By June 5, 1885, Britain named her Sphere of Influence as extending from Lagos to
River Rio Del Ray near Cameroon. This sphere of influence Britain called Oil Rivers
Protectorate. But Benin in the middle was not part of it.

In March 1892, Henry Gallwey, the British Vice-Consul of Oil Rivers Protectorate (later Niger Coast Protectorate), visited Benin City hoping to annex Benin Kingdom and make it a British protectorate. Although the King of Benin, Omo n’Oba (Ovonramwen), was sceptical of the British motives he was willing to endorse what he believed was a friendship and trade agreement. He refrained from endorsing Gallwey’s treaty when it became apparent that the document was a ploy intended to make Benin Kingdom a British colony. Consequently the King issued an edict barring all British officials and traders from entering Benin territories. Since Major (later Sir) Claude Maxwell Macdonald, the Consul General of the Oil River Protectorate authorities considered the ‘Treaty’ legal and binding, he deemed the King’s reaction a violation of the accord and thus a hostile act.

Between September 1895 and mid 1896 three attempts were made by the Protectorate to enforce the Gallwey ‘Treaty’.

The “Benin Massacre”
In November in a letter to Lord Salisbury, the British Foreign Secretary, Vice-Consu Phillips requested approval to invade Benin and depose the Oba, adding the following footnote: “1 would add that I have reason to hope that sufficient ivory would be found in the King’s house to pay the expenses incurred in removing the King from his stool” In late December 1896, without waiting for a reply or approval from London, he embarked on a military expedition, He had a few Europeans and 250 African soldiers masquerading in part as porters. The force’s weapons were hidden in the baggage carried by the porters’.
The Benin king preferred to let the British enter the city so that it could be ascertained whether or not the visit was a friendly one. The head of Benin Army felt otherwise and without obtaining the kings permission ordered the formation of a strike force to destroy the invaders.

On 4 January 1897, the strike force caught Phillips’ column totally unprepared. Only two British officers survived the annihilation by the Benin soldiers.

Benin Punitive Expedition
On 12 January 1897, Rear-Admiral Harry Rawson was appointed to lead an expedition to capture the Benin king and destroy Benin City. The operation was named Benin Punitive Expedition, and on 9 February 1897 the invasion of Benin kingdom began. The field commanders were instructed to burn down all Benin kingdom’s towns and villages. The invasion force of about 1200 British Marines, sailors and Niger Coast Protectorate Forces, and composed of three columns. They reached Benin City after 10 days of bitter fighting. One column was routed by Benin soldiers.

Immediately after the British invaders secured the city, looting began. Monuments and palaces of many high-ranking chiefs were looted. Homes, religious buildings and palaces were deliberately torched.
The British Admiralty confiscated and auctioned off the war booty to defray the costs of the Expedition.

The dispersal of the Benin art to museums around the world catalyzed the beginnings of a long and slow European reassessment of the value of West African art. The Benin art was copied and the style integrated into the art of many European artists and thus had a strong influence on the early formation of modernism in Europe.

The King of Benin was eventually captured by the British consul-general Moor, deposed and sent to live out his days in Calabar.

On December 27, 1899, Britain at last was able to proclaim and promulgate the Protectorate of southern Nigeria, to take effect from January 1, 1900.

A new beginning
It is in the light of this history, the clamour by many notable persons, the efforts of the National Commission for Museums and Monuments and the positive attitude of these men and women of goodwill, representatives of some of the greatest museums in the world that a new beginning of rapprochement is being fashioned out.
The Great Benin Kingdom
By AMBROSE EKHOSUEHI

THE Portuguese were the first European travellers to visit Benin, which they called Beny, this was during the reign of King Ozolua c1472 and 1486 AD. The Portuguese admitted finding a highly developed kingdom with a very advanced system. This visit and subsequent interchanges led to King John II of Portugal who reigned between 1481 to 1495 exchanging correspondences with the King of Benin on a peer like basis. Between 1504 and 1550 AD, the Portuguese established diplomatic and trade relations with Oba Esigie and his kingdom of Benin

By the 16th century the Oba sent an ambassador to Lisbon and the king of Portugal reciprocated by sending Christian missionaries to teach the Binis the gospel.

The English made their first call in 1 553. This visit was a harbinger of lucrative business, for significant trade relationship soon developed between England and Benin. The British anthropology writer and curator, Henry Ling Roth, described Bini as Great Benin. Other European visitors to Benin in the 16th and 17th centuries brought back to Europe tales of the Great Benin”, a fabulous city of noble buildings and efficient administrative system.

The state developed an advanced artistic culture and wrought with unequalled mastery works of arts in bronze, iron and ivory. They expressed events that they considered history-making in carvings. Benin also developed a formidable military establishment.

The Benin Bronzes
The Benin Bronzes are a collection of more than 3000 brass plaques from the royal palace of the Kingdom of Benin. They were seized by a British force in the Benin Expedition of 1897 and given to the British Foreign Office. Around 200 of these were then passed on to the British Museum in London, while the remainder were divided among a variety of collections, with the majority being purchased by Felix von Luschan on behalf of the Königliches Museum für Völkerkunde in Berlin (the present-day Ethnological Museum).

Bronzes are now believed to have been cast in Benin since the thirteenth century, and some in the collection date from the 1 5th and 16th centuries.

Between Benin and Britain
At the end of the 19th century, the Kingdom of Benin retained its independence and the Oba exercised a.monopoly over trade which the British found irksome. Pressure was mounted by figures such as Vice-Consul James Robert Phillips and Captain Gatlwey (the British vice-Consul of Oil Rivers Protectorate) who were pushing for British annexation of the Benin Empire.

Britain needed to establish a sphere of influence so that no other European power could later claim Benin as its own. This period in world history was the period of the scramble for Africa which brought about the Berlin Conference of 1884 and 1885 which partitioned Africa amongst the then European powers.

The agreement at the end of the Berlin Conference was contained in the General Act which has in part the rule of the Principle of Effectivity or Uti Possidetis “as it stands at the present”, which is that a nation could only claim a colony if that nation actually possessed the colony. To lay claim it must have treaties with the local chiefs, fly its flag there, and establish an administration in the territory to govern it. The colonial power must also directly use the economic resources of this colony; otherwise it could not claim it to the exclusion of other European nations.

Thus it became imperative to make local chiefs to put hand on paper and sign treaties with the European nations. Expeditions were therefore dispatched to coerce traditional rulers into signing treaties. At the time of concluding the Berlin conference in 1885, only the coastal areas of Africa were under European rules, 80% of Africa was effectively under the rules of their traditional kings. But by 1902, 90% of all the land that makes up Africa was under European control.

By June 5, 1885, Britain named her Sphere of Influence as extending from Lagos to
River Rio Del Ray near Cameroon. This sphere of influence Britain called Oil Rivers
Protectorate. But Benin in the middle was not part of it.

In March 1892, Henry Gallwey, the British Vice-Consul of Oil Rivers Protectorate (later Niger Coast Protectorate), visited Benin City hoping to annex Benin Kingdom and make it a British protectorate. Although the King of Benin, Omo n’Oba (Ovonramwen), was sceptical of the British motives he was willing to endorse what he believed was a friendship and trade agreement. He refrained from endorsing Gallwey’s treaty when it became apparent that the document was a ploy intended to make Benin Kingdom a British colony. Consequently the King issued an edict barring all British officials and traders from entering Benin territories. Since Major (later Sir) Claude Maxwell Macdonald, the Consul General of the Oil River Protectorate authorities considered the ‘Treaty’ legal and binding, he deemed the King’s reaction a violation of the accord and thus a hostile act.

Between September 1895 and mid 1896 three attempts were made by the Protectorate to enforce the Gallwey ‘Treaty’.

The “Benin Massacre”
In November in a letter to Lord Salisbury, the British Foreign Secretary, Vice-Consu Phillips requested approval to invade Benin and depose the Oba, adding the following footnote: “1 would add that I have reason to hope that sufficient ivory would be found in the King’s house to pay the expenses incurred in removing the King from his stool” In late December 1896, without waiting for a reply or approval from London, he embarked on a military expedition, He had a few Europeans and 250 African soldiers masquerading in part as porters. The force’s weapons were hidden in the baggage carried by the porters’.
The Benin king preferred to let the British enter the city so that it could be ascertained whether or not the visit was a friendly one. The head of Benin Army felt otherwise and without obtaining the kings permission ordered the formation of a strike force to destroy the invaders.

On 4 January 1897, the strike force caught Phillips’ column totally unprepared. Only two British officers survived the annihilation by the Benin soldiers.

Benin Punitive Expedition
On 12 January 1897, Rear-Admiral Harry Rawson was appointed to lead an expedition to capture the Benin king and destroy Benin City. The operation was named Benin Punitive Expedition, and on 9 February 1897 the invasion of Benin kingdom began. The field commanders were instructed to burn down all Benin kingdom’s towns and villages. The invasion force of about 1200 British Marines, sailors and Niger Coast Protectorate Forces, and composed of three columns. They reached Benin City after 10 days of bitter fighting. One column was routed by Benin soldiers.

Immediately after the British invaders secured the city, looting began. Monuments and palaces of many high-ranking chiefs were looted. Homes, religious buildings and palaces were deliberately torched.
The British Admiralty confiscated and auctioned off the war booty to defray the costs of the Expedition.

The dispersal of the Benin art to museums around the world catalyzed the beginnings of a long and slow European reassessment of the value of West African art. The Benin art was copied and the style integrated into the art of many European artists and thus had a strong influence on the early formation of modernism in Europe.

The King of Benin was eventually captured by the British consul-general Moor, deposed and sent to live out his days in Calabar.

On December 27, 1899, Britain at last was able to proclaim and promulgate the Protectorate of southern Nigeria, to take effect from January 1, 1900.

A new beginning
It is in the light of this history, the clamour by many notable persons, the efforts of the National Commission for Museums and Monuments and the positive attitude of these men and women of goodwill, representatives of some of the greatest museums in the world that a new beginning of rapprochement is being fashioned out.