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Queen Elizabeth II: London Bridge Has Fallen

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Many in the world, including myself, did not expect the long reign of the longest serving monarch in British history and the world, Queen Elizabeth II, to end on September 8, 2022. At 96 years old and struggling with her health, we knew her death was imminent, but no one saw it coming that Thursday when the news of her passing hit the media.

Queen Elizabeth II’s death, no doubt, will etch itself in history as one of those rare moments that many would remember where they were or what they were doing when they heard the news of the passing of the world’s most famous and influential monarch.

Born on April 21, 1926, Queen Elizabeth II was the first child of the Duke and Duchess of York, who became King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in 1937, following the abdication of Edward VIII. She became queen on February 6, 1952 and had a huge influence over her people in the United Kingdom. She had been a stabilisng factor in her kingdom since the end of the Battle of Britain.

Glo

I recall in August 2020, as the number of deaths from the respiratory health hazard that was the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK climbed over 4,300, Her Majesty the Queen, Elizabeth II, broke with tradition to deliver a rare address to a nation under the scourge of the outbreak. In her distinct, high-pitched voice with precisely clipped vowels that became a staple of her reign, she urged her subjects to demonstrate that traditional “self-discipline” and “quiet good-humoured resolve” that characterised previous generations, while delivering that special broadcast.

Queen Elizabeth II Caricature

In her exemplary maternal character, the then 94-year-old monarch, took it as her responsibility to douse the growing sense of uncertainty and dread that was beginning to take root in the hearts of many of her people and in an atypical bid to rally the nation with confidence and perseverance, not only acknowledged the grief, financial difficulties and “enormous changes to the daily lives” felt by many families during “a time of disruption” but also reminded them of the qualities and characteristics that typified them as a country.

“I hope in the years to come everyone will be able to take pride in how they responded to this challenge,” the Queen said. “And those who come after us will say that the Britons of this generation were as strong as any,” said the Queen.

Elizabeth II, who only normally delivers televised messages to the nation on Christmas Day, was aware of her larger-than-life persona among her people and the unifying power she embodied, especially at a time of grave concern. The COVID-19 address was only the fifth time during her 70-year reign that she made a special broadcast, with the fourth one being in 2012 for her Diamond Jubilee. She had also had cause to address the nation in 2002 after the death of the Queen Mother, ahead of Princess Diana’s funeral in 1997 and during the Persian Gulf War in 1991. In those broadcasts, as in the 2020 address, she recognised her identity not only as Queen Mother but also as the monarch her people looked up to, idolised, respected and adored for her graciousness, her panache, her non-partisan clarity and her dedication to the long-standing ideals of the House of Windsor.

More than any other quality of the late Queen Elizabeth II, the most endearing that made her most appealing to her people was her unyielding dedication to her country and her unreserved determination to work tirelessly for the United Kingdom in the face of changes around the world and a growing negative perception about the monarchy by neo anti-monarchists. Yet, the woman who was to become the UK’s most respected and revered leader and a well-admired symbol of comfort and continuity did not seem destined for the throne but for the turn of fate as she was to third in line to the throne after her uncle and her father. There is no telling what direction the kingdom could have taken under a different monarch but a scandalous royal love affair changed the course of history and resulted in her emergence.

As fate had it, her uncle King Edward VIII abdicated the throne in 1936, just before the start of World War II, after a scandal involving his marriage proposal to Wallis Simpson, an American divorcee, rocked the royal family and entangled the nation’s political leaders. Elizabeth’s father, next in line, reluctantly took over as King George VI as the UK became embroiled in the war. The then princess trained as a mechanic and eventually joined the all-female Auxiliary Territorial Service toward the end of the war.

The young royal started dating her future spouse, Prince Philip, her third cousin and a Greek royal, in the midst of the conflict. The couple first crossed paths in 1934 at a family wedding and then met again in 1939 when she was 13 and he was 18. They announced their engagement in July 1947 after Elizabeth returned from her first trip abroad to South Africa. They wed that November, and Philip renounced his Greek title and became a British citizen.

Two years later, the couple relocated to Malta, where she lived as an officer’s wife away from the spotlight while Philip was stationed there with the British Navy. There, the Princess was free from the layers of protocol and security that came to characterise her 70-year reign. However, that period of relative independence was short lived as King George’s health, which had been deteriorating for some time, suddenly got worse. When he passed away in February 1952 at 56, Elizabeth and Philip were on a royal tour of Kenya. Philip told Elizabeth the news while they were out for a walk after word got to him. Therefore, on February 6, 1952, Elizabeth became queen at the age of 25, just as Britain was beginning to recover from the effects of World War II. Winston Churchill was the prime minister, and rationing was still in full effect. She ruled at a time of profound cultural and political changes, including the end of Britain’s era of deference and its empire and the start of the globalisation and multimedia era.

As Queen, Elizabeth worked relentlessly to make the crown relevant in a changing world and managed the monarchy’s transformation into an advocate of a smaller United Kingdom both at home and abroad.

The queen’s commitment to fulfilling her position to the best of her ability and her reserve in expressing any opinions that would offend provided her moral authority above and beyond anything she might have asked for. Her calm, dependable cheer made her extremely well-liked among the British populace.

In her 70-year reign, she never once forgot who her constituencies were and where her focus rested as she eased the UK into its new post-World War II role, which had been diminished after the loss of its colonies around the world. She met a number of iconic, usually male, world leaders in the years that followed, but stayed laser-focused on seeing her Kingdom through the fall of its empire and its rebirth as a medium-sized multicultural land that remained ultra-conservative while existing in a rapidly-changing world around them.

As a constitutional monarch and head of the Church of England by virtue of her position, Queen Elizabeth did not directly interfere in the politics of the day. Yet, she understandably wielded “soft” power and made the monarchy a unifying, focal point for the nation amid great societal divisions. She functioned as an essential part of the government. As she did most recently after the election of Mary Elizabeth Truss as Prime Minister, it was her role to call on the political parties to form a government.

In addition, it was her duty to approve all laws passed by Parliament, and she regularly consulted with every prime minister on affairs of state. She was also legally permitted to “advise and warn” the Ministers of the government. During her long reign, Elizabeth collaborated with 15 British Prime Ministers and met with 14 of the last 15 US Presidents (Not sure why she and Lyndon Johnson missed each other).

Yet, her enduring legacy will be the remarkable fashion she strove to ensure that the monarchy survived an era of rapid change and thus became a lasting symbol of the country over which she reigned for 70 years even as it changed as presidents, popes and prime ministers have come and gone, the Soviet Union collapsed and Britain’s empire no more, replaced by a Commonwealth of 56 nations which she was instrumental in creating.

Across the globe, reactions to her death have evoked leaders to reveal how her years of experience have been of great help, allowing them to speak candidly with her without fear of their conversations ever being made public and to listen to her wisdom and candour. There is a vast majority of Britons today that have never known another monarch, and she remained overwhelmingly popular until her death. There were tough times that tested her reign as she and her family experienced unprecedented levels of public exposure and, at times, a fractious relationship with the media.

Early in the 1990s, news of Charles and Princess Diana’s troubled marriage, which ended in divorce in 1992, was widely reported. The queen alluded to 1992 as an “annus horribilis,” or disastrous year, in one of her most well-known addresses honouring the 40th anniversary of her coronation. Elizabeth II was condemned for not commenting for days and retreating to her home in Scotland with Charles and Diana’s boys, her grandsons Princes William and Harry, after Diana’s death in a car accident in Paris five years later. Most recently, her grandson Prince Harry and his wife Meghan claimed that an anonymous royal asked how dark their child’s complexion will be. In 2020, the pair renounced their royal obligations and emigrated abroad.

The Queen also had to deal with a developing scandal with her son Prince Andrew’s acquaintance with the alleged sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein just before that.

Still, the Queen’s reign, which lasted from the industrial age to the internet age, was unforgettable for the people she called her own. Despite family scandals and the sadness of a dead princess, she smiled, waved, shook hands, and chatted with a sizable number of her subjects and admirers from the time she was a young queen to the time she was the grandmother of the country decade after decade. She was the focus of numerous plays, movies, and TV shows, including

“The Crown,” “The Queen,” and “The Royal House of Windsor.” Soon, her image, which adorns stamps, money and mailboxes, will be changed to that of King Charles III, her son, but it will be a long time before she will be forgotten because, like with so much else that she did, it was her actions and not her words that carried weight and she continued until the very end.

She was an exemplar of leadership and it will be good for the countries, whose leaders aspire to the status of heroic legacy to borrow pages from Her Majesty’s handbook. The poise and finesse with which she carried herself was founded in the knowledge of the office she represented and the bearing of her upbringing. Seeing her country live through challenges, changing periods and shrunken influence without losing its identity was her life’s mission.

The selfish brand of governance that is characteristic of Nigeria’s history of leaders could have wrecked the English monarchy if that was Elizabeth’s style. What her legacy imprints on the rest of the world is to desire a class of leaders, monarchical or democratic, who embody the essence of exemplary leadership that lives, breathes, exists for the benefits, progress, growth and prosperity of their subjects or citizens, whatever it takes. As Nigerians, we must ensure we identify and vote for candidates that have the characteristics of Queen Elizabeth II in next year’s election if indeed we want to make our country better from the ruins we presently find ourselves in.

Queen Elizabeth II is survived by three sons, Prince Charles, Princes Andrew and Edward; a daughter, Princess Anne; four grandsons; four granddaughters; and 12 great-grandchildren.

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