Claim that your own laws empowering Sultan conflict Constitution is a mockery of system, NACOMYO ex-President hits back at Sokoto Gov

By BASHIR ADEFAKA

This was as more Nigerians asked the Governor purge himself of sentiment by explaining to the world monitoring his political immaturity how the laws made by Sokoto State Government led by Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko, which has operated successfully since 2008 without hitches between his government and the Sultanate Council, suddenly became a breach of the Constitution under the same Sokoto State Government still under the control of the same Wamakko if not that political undertone exists.

As the dust of the rumoured dethronement of the reigning 20th Sokoto monarch has hardly not settled down, even in spite of the rebuttal by the Sokoto government, a former National President of National Council of Muslim Youth Organisations (NACOMYO), Alhaji Kamaldeen Akintunde, Esq, has again expressed worries that the Sokoto hullabaloo still ranges on because the Governor of Sokoto State, Mr. Ahmad Aliyu, is adamant to satisfy his political interest chosen over overriding Islamic interest to reduce the Sultanate Council that is embodiment of Sheikh Usman Dan Fodio in the Caliphate to an emptiness.

This is as Akintunde lamented that the state government had not heeded to the exhort by well-meaning Nigerians, including the nation’s number two citizen, Vice President Kashim Shetima, and dignified stakeholders, urging the government of the “Seat of Caliphate” to review its hardline stance on what he called the ill-conceived “agenda” to undermine or disable the Sultanate, using the instrument of law and/or the Legislature, which the Sokoto State House of Assembly represents, to amend the existing “Sokoto Local Government and Chieftaincy Law, 2008.”

He hit back at the Sokoto State Governor, Ahmad Aliyu, following an untenable excuse given in the statement of his government that the amendment of the Sultanate laws became necessary because they conflict with the Constitution.

This was as more Nigerians asked the Governor purge himself of sentiment by explaining to the world monitoring his political immaturity how the laws made by Sokoto State Government led by Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko, which has operated successfully since 2008 without hitches between his government and the Sultanate Council, suddenly became a breach of the Constitution under the same Sokoto State Government still under the control of the same Wamakko if not that political undertone exists.

In his words, the Muslim professional said, “despite government’s refutation of the news rumour of the deposition of the reigning Sultan of Sokoto, one is astonished or flabbergasted that government still went ahead with the amendment process, a public hearing on the state Chieftaincy statues, noting the step as inappropriate and an unpopular action, suggestive of a prejudice and/or bias against the highly respected and revered monarch and Chairman of the National Council of Traditional Rulers.”

The erstwhile National President of the apex Muslim youth group, who is also the Secretary-General of Ogun State Muslim Council (OMC), noted that no “query” or report of misdemeanor or an affront on the constituted authority or warning could be said to have been once issued to the Sultan. He insinuated that the scenario could, therefore, be deduced to that “taking his own pound of flesh”, especially as it “takes two to tangle”.

Akintunde contended that the state House of Assembly, apart from oversight functions, has a cardinal responsibility of making law that will engender good governance but, however, decried the present negative collaborative executive and legislative action, noting it to be repugnant, obnoxious and inordinate.

He contended that the statues being processed for enactment has multiple implication for the Islamic fashioned traditional systematic governance of the “Seat of Caliphate”. In other words, he pointed out that the present legislative action will indirectly erode or impair the revered Caliphate theory or principles, propounded and established by Sheikh Usmanu Dan Fodio.

Moreover, the claim or argument of the Sokoto Attorney-General and Hon Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Nasiru Binji, that certain provision(s) of the present “Sokoto Local Government and Chieftaincy Law”, which was reviewed and in existence since the era of the Wamako administration, is at variance or inconsistent with the Nigerian legal code is an overstatement, an hyperbole and an aberration of the Islam titled traditional institution, again, a mockery of the “system”, Akintunde stated.

The Ogun Muslim Council Secretary-General, having taken a look at the future of the action of today, contended that in order for the House of Assembly not to entangle or find itself in a melee, it should be magnanimous enough to reverse itself, thus embracing and heeding to the “voice of wisdom”, which many have handed out, buttressing that the constitutional Court do “reverse itself”.

Akintunde, who referenced a similar situation elsewhere in the country, enjoined all concerned to avoid an impasse as being presently witnessed in the “State of Commerce”.

He, therefore, urged the political class in the “Seat of Caliphate” to jettison sentiment and rise to the occasion by intervening in the avoidable crisis in the overall best interest and for an enduring peace, harmony and stability to reign in the peace loving state of Sokoto.

While he also counselled parties, stakeholders and concerned to exercise restraint, caution and for parties to display magnanimity, harping that it is often said that it is better to “jaw-jaw” than to “war-war”, the Ogun Muslim Council Chief Scribe suggested a “round table” option to amicably resolve any difference between the Governor and the monarch, who is the “de-facto” no one Muslim and head of the Nigerian Muslim “Ummah”.