From 9 September 2015, Biography writers and
history books will record the current Queen of
England, Elizabeth II as the longest reigning
Monarch in History of United Kingdom,
surpassing
the 63 years, seven months and two days reign of
Queen Alexandrina Victoria who ruled Great Britain
between 1861 and 1901. As the United Kingdom
and the entire world prepares to celebrate Queen
Elizabeth II’s divine gift of royal longevity, it is also
important to reflect on the legacies of Queen
Victoria, visa vise her leadership qualities and the
need for African and Nigeria leaders to imbibe
these qualities to enhance good governance for the
overall good of the citizens.
Queen Victoria, who ruled over about a quarter of
the whole world during her reign left no one in
doubt of her compassion, philanthropy and
willingness to go the extra mile to reach out to the
indigent in her immediate environment and across
the world. This she exemplified by her adoption of
a Nigerian princess, Sarah Forbes Bonetta, a little
girl of eight who was orphaned as a result of a
brutal massacre of her parents back in Nigeria. “My
black godchild” as Queen Victoria often refers to
Sarah, was raised and educated, along side the
Queen’s children without racial or social
discrimination. This is in contrast to what is usually
the case among the Nigerian high and mighty. Child
or children adopted through this nature are turned
into maids or house helps and are often used as
slaves. Battery and sexual exploitation of house
helps are a widespread vice among the rich. In
most cases, except when the adopting guardians
have no child or children of their own, adopted
children are usually enrolled in less expensive,
schools, dressed in inferior quality clothing and are
often treated with discrimination.
One of Queen Victoria’s successes is placing a law
that banned all women and children from working
in mines, due to the hazards and risks therein.
Queen Victoria originated the boarding school
system and built schools throughout Britain for
families that cannot pay for the expensive schools.
This rare display of thoughtfulness in providing free
education did not only endear her to many, it also
went a long way to lift the people from object
poverty. In Nigeria, free education has been turned
into a mere political slogan. State governors keep
introducing “free education” yet parents and
guardians are still being asked to pay school fees
and classrooms have been reduced to slums
because of the neglect of government to fund
education.
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It is on record that Queen Victoria always said to
her children that “I am not just your mother, I am
also your Queen” this style of treating her own
offsprings as children and subjects enabled her to
pamper them to an extent and also discipline and
punish them in line with the laws of the land like
every other citizen. Leaders should imbibe this in
raising their kids, especially here in Nigeria where
children of the high and mighty sees themselves as
demi-god, demanding to be treated and respected
as their parent. Children of political leaders in
Nigeria are simply above the law.
An intelligent leader she was, strong willed and
steadfast. Queen Victoria’s “stubborn” approach to
governance and decision making, rebuffing every
attempt by politicians to control or manipulate her
stand her out and reflected in the quality of policies
and programs made during her nearly 64 year
reign. The Revered Queen Elizabeth II may have
successfully surpassed the years of reign of Queen
Victoria, but what it really means and how it feels to
given an additional title of ‘Empress of India’ which
she earned in 1877 and the nickname ‘The
Grandmother of Europe’ and rule over / of the
world can only be imagined by her.
The fact that Queen Elizabeth II has overtaken
Queen Victoria on this day as United Kingdom’s
longest serving monarch is not only symbolic in the
history of the British empire, it is also worthy of
note for Nigeria in particular and all former
colonies of Great Britain in general. Although these
two great Queens have many parallels and some
marked differences as follows; Victoria and
Elizabeth both got married at the age of 21; They
were both crowned at the very young age of 18 and
25; Victoria had 9 children and Elizabeth has 4;
about 400,000 people gathered in London for
Victoria’s coronation, while an estimated 27 million
people in Britain watched Elizabeth’s coronation on
TV and 11 million listened on the radio; Victoria
married prince Albert, while Elizabeth married the
Duke of Edinburgh; Victoria oversaw an empire
measuring a quarter of the entire globe, while
Elizabeth is Head of state of the UK and 15
commonwealth realms; Both Victoria and Elizabeth
celebrated diamond jubilee on the thrown and;
they both have hundreds of streets named after
them within the UK and beyond, for Nigeria, the
greatest achievement under Queen Elizabeth II
remains our independence under her reign in
1960. Congratulations! Queen Elizabeth II on this
rare royal achievement as the longest serving
monarch in United Kingdom. Long live the Queen.
- MyNews24
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