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SUMMARY
The Benin Empire in its period of glory was famous for her powerful monarchy and centralized system of government with built in checks and balances which facilitated a healthy competition among the political institutions. The Oba regulated the socio political and economic activities not just for his benefit but for the wellbeing of his people. It is not an easy task to pinpoint with precision the factors which were responsible for the emergence of this vast empire which began from just a cluster of villages, but from the study so far it is quite obvious that the long standing survival of this kingdom was mostly as a result of the distinguished personalities whose reign brought about a lot of reforms and development which transformed the character of the kingdom, in this study we have been able to highlight the significant reform made such distinguished monarchs and analyze the length at which these changes went to contribute to the overall strength and survival of the Empire. Although the kingdom suffered a brief decline in the 18th century as a result of the inconsistency in government and the relatively weak monarchs who ruled uneventfully during that period but the Empire seem to undergo a turnaround from the decline especially during the reign of Akenzua I. within a few years of his reign he was able to reassert the effective authority of the throne and restoring the kingdom to much of its former prosperity. Although it is quite contestable weather the kingdom ever regained the splendor it had it the 16th and 17th century. In a bid to deprive the chiefs of their control over the succession to the throne he reintroduced the system of primogeniture. He revived the Obas sole power to create and confer titles which in a way had also been high jacked by the chiefs, he used it as a social and political instrument to reward and inspire loyalty from his subjects.
