It is not always that a fairly obscure Nigerian traditional ruler of an even more obscure kingdom grabs the trends in the media, for the right reasons. His Royal Highness, Eze Lawrence Agubuzu, last week, did just that in Abuja before the august presence of President Bola Tinubu and other traditional rulers and dignitaries at an event in the State House, Abuja.

Honestly, I never heard of Eze Agubuzu before this. I needed to do some searching to pinpoint his domain which some sources called “Ezema Olo Kingdom” while others termed it “Eziama Olo Kingdom”, in Ezeagu Local Government Area of Enugu State. What matters most is that when the Eze took charge of the microphone, he represented the South East and even South-South with excellence and dropped a powerful topic of discussion on the table. He spoke the minds of millions with polite but firm authority and wisdom. He made many in the audience squirm with discomfort in their seats while others responded with applause. Of all the things he said, I had two takeaways.

The first was his passionate plea to President Tinubu to release incarcerated Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, or return him to Kenya or England. According to him, President Tinubu had already freed Chief Sunday Igboho, the Yoruba Nation activist “who is regarded as Nnamdi Kanu’s counterpart”. Indeed, Ooni of Ife, Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi (Oba Ojaja II), is making ready to confer a prestigious traditional honour on Igboho, while Nnamdi Kanu languishes in Sokoto Prisons.

The second point was his contention that “there is nothing like the Southern Nigeria Traditional Rulers Council”, adding that the system practised in the North cannot be used to create and operate a similar structure in the South. The Ooni later addressed the media, saying that the Council has come to stay, and that it is a voluntary organisation which members are free to join or leave. Why does this issue deserve our closer attention?

Eze Agubuzu provoked a debate on an issue which many traditional rulers had accepted without bothering to reason the deeper implications of their action. For ages, Northen Nigeria has always had their Northern Traditional Rulers Council, NTRC, with the Sultan of Sokoto as the permanent Chairman. They meet routinely, sometimes with their Governors, politicians, retired military and civil servants, businessmen/women and others, to take common stands on issues such as Tinubu’s tax laws.

This gives the North the façade of always adopting a common front on national issues. I say “façade” because “common front” has not resulted in peace and progress in the North. Rather, the North remains the most challenged region and producer of poverty and crises that bedevil the entire nation’s security and peaceful coexistence. The “common front” only promotes the interests of the ruling elite, while poverty continues to ravage the masses.

Southern Nigeria has never had a similar “common front” despite being the region that makes the bread that feeds the nation. Many Southerners have always lamented the absence of this “common front”, at least to countermand the often threatening postures of the Northern “common front”. President Tinubu has always shown his boiling desire to create a unified Southern “common front” to strengthen his own power base.

On July 31, 2024, he inaugurated the Southern Nigeria Traditional Rulers Council, SNTRC, in Owerri, Imo State. He appointed the Ooni as the “permanent” Chairman, while HRH Cletus Ilomuanya, Obi of Obinugwu (Imo State) and HRM King Jaja of Opobo, Amanyanabo Dandeson Douglas Jaja (now deceased) as “co-Chairmen”, or more appropriately, the Ooni’s deputies.

Eze Agubuzu is right to say that the Ooni-led SNTRC “does not exist”, for several reasons. Since the Amalgamation of 1914, there has never been a Southern Nigeria as a unified region in any form. The North was packaged by the British colonial authorities to be “one”, a farce they have managed to maintain till date despite everything. The Ooni’s SNTRC was created to service Tinubu’s political interests. Indeed, the Ooni’s assertion that those who wish to leave are free to go validates the claim that it is nothing more than a purposed-built Non-Governmental Organisation, NGO; a pet project.

The question is, why are other equally prestigious traditional rulers not part of the SNTRC as currently constituted? Why don’t frontline traditional rulers such as the Oba of Benin, Obi Onitsha, Obong of Calabar, Eze Aro, Rebisi of Port Harcourt, and others want to join? With the absence of so many first class rulers, the SNTRC looks rather ragtag compared to its Northern counterpart. It is more of another City Boy movement for willing royal fathers from the South. That is why Eze Agubuzu expressed the fear that when traditional rulers attend the meetings of such a forum, their subjects back home grumble that they have gone to “share money”.

An all-encompassing SNTRC is needful. A Southern counterforce will balance the North-South equation for national stability. There must be consultations and consensus on its objectives and hierarchy. The leadership must be rotational. You can’t mimic the North in such things because the North and South are not the same. East and West are not the same. Even within the East, differences exist and must be acknowledged. The Northern structure is based on conquests. It is an imperial structure. Something a bit similar exists within the Ooni’s traditional base, the South-West. The Eastern system is thoroughly republican and never based on conquests.

I caution traditional rulers, especially from Igboland, to discuss and agree with their people before taking up membership of the SNTRC or attending its meetings. Anyone who does not obtain his people’s consent is on a personal errand. If we are to have a Southern Nigerian Rulers Traditional Council that truly represents Southern Nigeria, it must be done properly.

It must represent the diversity of Southern peoples.