9 May 2004
opinion
PRINCE Michael Isede, a grand son of the last Ogiso of Benin Kingdom and deputy national chairman, Community Development Committee of Oil Producing Communities in Delta State, says heads of former Benin monarchs were buried in Ife.
"The Ooni is very right in saying that Oduduwa came from heaven. Nobody can doubt it because we have it here in Benin too. The Bini people believe that God usually comes down to decide issues. What actually happened is this- the last Ogiso who was my great grand father was an autocratic ruler, he could tell Benin people that nobody should meet any woman for three months or eat for three days and nobody will dare contrevene his order. So the people were not happy with his dictatorship, they held a meeting and called the seven Uzamas to remove him. Evian was the brother to Ogodomigodo, both Oliha' sons.
After Oliha completed his reign as Ogiso, his first son,Ogodomigodo took over and was having only one child by name Ikaralederan. Later , the women in Ogiso's house were barren and because they could not deliver, they went to the oracle. The oracle man told them that the first wife called Ison was the cause of the problem but she was able to corrupt others to tell the Ogiso that the native doctor said that she was raped and Ekaladerhan was the problem and should be killed. He was taken to the bush but the people who were sent to kill him had a change of mind and set him free in the forest while they returned with their cutlasses, stained with blood of animals they slaughtered in the bush.
Ekaladerhan soon became a famous hunter in the forest and one day the people that the Ogiso sent to kill him decided to go and look for him to find out if he was still alive or dead. While searching for him, they saw Ikaralederan full of hairs and wanted to run but he asked them to stop. He spoke to them in Bini language, pulled his clothes and showed them a particular mark in his body. They went back to tell his father that he was alive but his father did not believe. By this time he had started to understand the language of all the animals.
Then secretly, the Ogiso went to the forest to find out whether it is true that his son was still alive. At that time, the palace is not where it is now, it was at the Third East Circular.
The remains of Ikaralederan are at Ughoton. Ikaradeleran's first son was Edaiken. He founded Ughoton and after his death, his first son took over as Edaiken.
Any first son of the Oba is Edaiken. So when the man died, Evian came in as the ruler, Evian is the brother of Ogodomigodo and people asked him to take over because Ogodomigodo had no other issue that would take over from him. Evian became Ogiso automatically and was very autocratic. The Bini moved against him, toppled him and made Esogban their ruler. They made him a powerful man and gave him the traditional staff of office.
That is why Esogban is the head of all Benin people and because of that staff of office which he holds, he is in-charge of witchcraft and everything. After installing him, the Bini people wanted somebody to serve as a ceremonial head and the seven Uzamas had to go to Ife to get a ceremonial head. This is because if they had left Esogban, there would have been a big trouble from Evian,who was the former Ogiso and who the Bini did not want again. He had strong diabolical powers and the people preferred a foreigner to rule them to an Ogiso.
This is the reason the Uzamas went to Ife, they went several times before Oduduwa agreed to give them Oranmiyan to come to Benin and when Oranmiyan came to Benin , he was not allowed to enter Benin immediately. They built a hut for him at Egor and the Enogie of Egor's daughter , Egio Egor, was passing , carrying Agidi , Oranmiyan called that girl and made love to her. Later, Benin people asked the Ogiso to give Oranmiyan a place to stay, but the Ogiso said he would stay where strangers normally stayed which is small house you see between the Reservoir and Oredo secretariat in Benin City.
That was where Oranmiyan stayed for seven days, after which they took him to Evian and Evian made him to swear that this place is for Benin people. Oranmiyan did not stay up to three months before he left. He told the Benin people that he was going back to his father at Ife, and that it was only the person who was in Benin that could rule the Benin people. No Benin man crowned Oranmiyan, even the Ogiso did not crown Oranmiyan because he was still alive.
Esogban did not crown Oranmiyan . Oranmiyan went back to Ife but when he went back, the girl he impregnated delivered. Esogban ruled for about 56 years. The child that was delivered for Oranmiyan was deaf and dumb but Oranmiyan told them that it was not time for him to talk. When he grew up, the father sent seven marbles to him to play with his mates in a competition. So when he got to the last round, he played and it hit the last marble, and he exclaimed, Owomika, meaning "I got it" and that was what the Bini translated to Eweka 1.
The Benin people then told Oduduwa to let his grandson stay with Esogban. So they kept Eweka , son of the Egior Egor, in the palace, though he belonged to a stranger. He later became King. As the Ooni of Ife rightly said, the heads of former Obas of Benin were taken to Ife for burial. It is only recently that it was stopped. I can tell you that it started with the head of Oba Eweka, it is only Oba Ovonranmen I can say his head was not taken to Ife because he died on exile in Calabar.
So, anybody saying that Ife people came from Bini or that Bini is bigger than Ife is talking nonsense. The Ooni is very right in what he is saying but for him to say that the Yeye (mother) Oodua, Chief (Mrs.) HID Awolowo, is also t he mother of Benin is very wrong because the Bini people are not captured people.
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