Oba Ewuare, who stated this while receiving the General Officer Commander, GOC, 2 Division of the Nigerian Army, Major General Anthony Omozoje in his palace in Benin said that Buhari must not ignore the constructive criticism of the people.

“I want to appeal to our leaders to keep on listening to the cries of our people and hope that our leaders will not ignore the yearnings, complaints, and constructive criticisms of our people. When I was in Abuja on a visit to the President I also had the opportunity to highlight the matter in a way that he should please be a listening President so that things can be much better for Nigerians,” he said.

The Benin monarch called for fervent prayers for peace to reign in the country.

“Those of us that are prayerful should keep praying hard for Nigeria and when it is beyond us, we leave it in the hands of God Almighty and our ancestors.”

He regretted the huge loss of life by military personnel in the ongoing fight against insurgents in the North East.

He said, “Please accept our condolences over the loss of lives. We feel sad anytime we hear this. It is not an external war where we had to engage external aggressors, it is a pity that we still have so much insecurity in the country.

“On some occasions, I have had to speak on insecurity in the country. I was even invited to the National Defence Academy on security meeting in Abuja to deliver a lecture and have had the opportunity to highlight the role of traditional rulers in peacekeeping, conflict resolution and how to solve the issue of insecurity”.

Earlier, Major General Anthony Omozoje had told the monarch that he was at the palace on a courtesy visit and to seek for his royal blessings.