I have observed with keen interest how many assumed elites exposed their poor level of understanding of the words they use wrongly in some occasions. The title which most elites especially yes-men of royal fathers do misuse in public space is “His Imperial Majesty”. Let me describe the word in its simplest form.
His is a pronoun or determiner which points to something belonging to or associated with a third person /male person previously mentioned, described or easily identified. In other words, “his” is used to refer to a thing or things belonging to or associated with a male person previously mentioned.
Similarly, Imperial literarily means anything relating to an empire. Meanwhile, an empire is a totality or an aggregate of many separate states or territories or vast land under a supreme ruler or oligarchy. That means it is an extensive territory or enterprise under single domination, dominion or control of a ruler generally recognized as having legitimate control of that territory.
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On the other hand, majesty means a royal power or a title given to a sovereign leader, royal father or a sovereign leader’s wife or widow. This means that all royal heads are majesties.
In Nigerian history, only Oyo, Benin, and Kanem-Bornu empires existed and still exist till today. That was why only Oyo empire, Benin empire and Kanem Bornu empire existed in the Nation history. These empires have their royal heads as the Imperial lord as did in the olden days through which the current occupants still hold sway.
From the foregoing that Imperial relates to empire, it is succinct to understand that only the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba of Benin and Shehu of Bornu deserve to use the title “His Imperial Majesty”. It is therefore sheer demonstration of ignorance and half education for anyone else without empire to use the title or for anyone to use ‘His Imperial Majesty’ for any other royal father other than those listed above.
Luqman Soliu
Abeokuta, Ogun State