Don’t go there! MURIC warns Sokoto Governor against attempting to depose Sultan
*As UK based Olumoro slams blames on Wamakko, says he’s behind the problem
*You will cost Sokoto its place in leadership and relevance in Nigerian History if–MURIC
*Renews its call on Sokoto Assembly to give Sultan immunity against politicians’ interference
*It is because of Sultan Sa’ad Abubakar that other Nigerians choose to visit Sokoto – Diasporan UK
By KEMI KASUMU
“MURIC reiterates its call on the Sokoto State House of Assembly to either repeal or review the state’s chieftaincy laws by adding the phrase ‘except the Sultan of Sokoto’ to Section 6, Cap 26 of the Laws of Northern Nigeria which empowers the state governor to depose the emirs including the Sultan.”
Governor of Sokoto State, Dr. Ahmad Aliyu Sokoto, has been cautioned against the attempt to allow the virus that infected the Emirate of Kano in 2019 infect the Sultanate of Sokoto by his own hand, directly or indirectly.
This word of caution came from the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), which expressed concern over the sour relationship between the governor and the Sultan of Sokoto as well as the rumour of impending dethronement of the Sultan.
According to the human rights organisation, Nigerian Muslims reject any thought of deposition of the Sultan, who is widely respected and regarded as most detribalized and exceptionally apolitical royal that any nation in the Sahel, African and the world has hard.
The DEFENDER reports that MURIC was speaking as the recent action of the Governor by which he deposed 15 traditional rulers under the Sultan, a responsibility that was never in history handled by political class, sparked controversies and public debates across the country and from abroad.
Abanikanda Olumoro, an editorial contributor from the United Kingdom earlier on Monday also made his position known on the matter as he directly exposed a former governor and sitting senator of in Sokoto State as being behind the unprecedented development happening from the governor to the Sultan.
The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC)’s position was articulated in a press statement issued on Monday 24th June 2024 by its Founder and Executive Director, Professor Ishaq Akintola.
MURIC, which provided sources of the reports he relied upon to come up with the press statement, noted that after the Governor had deposed 15 traditional rulers on 23rd April 2024, feelers in circulation indicate that the he mulls descending on the Sultan of Sokoto any moment from now using any of the flimsy excuses used to dethrone the 15 traditional rulers whom he removed earlier.
Akintola said, “MURIC advises the governor to look before he leaps. The Sultan’s stool is not only traditional. It is also religious. In the same vein, his jurisdiction goes beyond Sokoto. It covers the whole of Nigeria. He is the spiritual head of all Nigerian Muslims.
“Therefore, any governor who tampers with the stool of the Sultan will have Nigerian Muslims to reckon with because the Sultan combines the office of the Sultan of Sokoto and that of the President General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA).
“Governor Ahmed Aliyu should not force Nigerian Muslims to take a drastically revolutionary measure. Having a traditional ruler as leader has been a condition Nigerian Muslims accepted a long time ago as a necessary weakness in the structure which they have to live with.
“A military governor, Colonel Yakubu Muazu, exposed this soft underbelly when he deposed Sultan Ibrahim Dasuki on 20th April, 1996. Nigerian Muslims will be forced to make a hard decision if Sokoto governors continue to diminish the authority of the Sultan.
“For the avoidance of any doubts, Sultan Muhammad Sa’d Abubakar is not only the Sultan of Sokoto but the Sultan of the Nigerian people. His performance and style of leadership have warmed him into the hearts of Nigerians.
“Nigerian Muslims North and South of the country may be constrained to pick Islamic scholars only as President General of the NSCIA and overall leader of Nigerian Muslims. It will be farewell to the leadership of traditional rulers over the NSCIA and an irreversible departure from Sokoto’s privileged leadership position. But history will not be kind to Colonel Yakubu Muazu and Ahmed Aliyu for ruining the chances of Sokoto.
“That will make it impossible for any governor to harass or intimidate the leader of Nigerian Muslims. The power and influence of governors over traditional rulers have become absolute and totalitarian in recent time. Nigerian Muslims must be given space to breathe some air of freedom like all other associations.
“Once is happenstance, twice is a coincidence, the third time is enemy action. If the deposition of a Sultan and NSCIA leader happens a second time, Nigerian Muslims will not allow the embarrassment to happen a third time.
“MURIC reiterates its call on the Sokoto State House of Assembly to either repeal or review the state’s chieftaincy laws by adding the phrase ‘except the Sultan of Sokoto’ to Section 6, Cap 26 of the Laws of Northern Nigeria which empowers the state governor to depose the emirs including the Sultan (https://dailytrust.com/muric-seek-immunity-for-sultan-from-deposition/; https://independent.ng/sultan-of-sokoto-should-be-immune-from-deposition-group/).
“We urge Northern elites and Islamic scholars based in the North to intervene before it is too late. This is the time to lobby the Sokoto State House of Assembly and the governor himself. If the chieftaincy laws of Kano State can be repealed within 24 hours, nothing stops that of Sokoto State from being reviewed in favour of immunity for the office of the Sultan in a single day to save Nigerian Muslims from humongous embarrassment.
“It is arbitrary, irrational and condescending for a state governor to possess the power to dethrone the leader of all Muslims in Nigeria when even an ordinary chairman of a local government cannot sack the president of a campus students union. It is unacceptable. Enough is enough.
“In the same manner, it is tactless, reckless, myopic and senselessly audacious for any governor of Sokoto State who has the power to remove the Sultan of Sokoto and head of all Nigerian Muslims to actually use that power. Well, once bitten, twice shy. Nigerian Muslims travelled this road once, under military rule. We will not ply the same road again.”
The hand of Wamakko I see in this – Olumoro
In the meantime, an editorial contributor and Nigerian in the Diaspora, who wrote from United Kingdom, has cautioned the Governor of Sokoto State not to allow anybody push him into a war against the Sultan he described as his father, which only starting he would know but would not know its end.
“I am speaking through my only means of communicating being provided by a Nigerian media platform now because I have watched patiently and seen enough since the governor announced those decisions of deposing those District Heads in Sokoto in April 2024 and I have also been able to see that singular action shows that he was out to ridicule the personality of the Sultan but, alas, what I see coming after that will be worse than he plans for the great, world class monarch, because the Sultan is bigger than anyone of the plotters thinks.
“Those actions taken have now sparked controversies as they put the innocent Governor in the eyes of the storm to say that he has declared a war on the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, and his entire Sultanate Council, Sokoto, as he made the decisions under untenable excuses to remove the historic powers embedded in the Sultan, which is a history said to be older than Nigeria itself.
“However, from the look of the Governor Ahmed Aliyu that I know, and he being a Sokoto township son of the soil, I believe he is not responsible for this sacrilege but is being pushed to put a fight against the Sultan and we know that Wamakko is behind all of these things. He should not allow Wamakko to push him into crisis and war he will start but cannot finish.
Let me be frank with you, Wamakko himself has always said it that Sultan Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar helped him especially when he was removed twice as sitting Governor to get back to his seat in the Government House. I am also telling you, during my several visit to Sokoto during Wamakko era, I saw that it was this Sultan who attracted all of the activities that you are saying now making the state boom into the place. Do you want to talk about how several organizations fix their conferences to hold in Sokoto and how airlines now began to operate Lagos-Abuja-Sokoto and Sokoto-Abuja-Lagos or direct Lagos-Sokoto or Sokoto-Lagos route (private) or you want to talk about how all Nigerian religious and traditional institutions and leaderships now see Sokoto as headquarters of culture and history that they now choose to visit? This Sultan, a retired General-turned monarch, has been behind all of those things. It is because of him that people choose to visit Sokoto but Wamakko, who himself was fully a beneficiary of the benevolence of the Sultan during his eight years in power as Governor, is now the one wanting to bite the same finger that fed him.
“Wamakko should also be told that we, as Nigerian lovers and followers of this Sultan, will not hold the current Governor of Sokoto State responsible for show of ungratefulness towards the Sultan as an embodiment of Great Nigerian Institution with his pet project of peace, unity and development of Nigeria. It is him, former Governor Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko that we will hold responsible because we know that he is only using Governor Aliyu to achieve his aim of fighting the unputdownable Sultan. If you go ahead with it, I see regret at the end of it all. Caution, the only way to stop the imminent war before it commences.
“We started hearing this misbehavior of Mamakko ahead of 2019 general elections when his supporters would go to the frontage of the Sultan Palace said, ‘We will have a new government and we will have a new Sultan’. As God would have it then, they failed in the governorship election and Wamakko, as it is now clear to us, and his cohorts at the time failed to convince Retired Major General Muhammadu Buhari’s Presidency in their behind-the-scene campaigns of calumny to make it believe that Sultan of Sokoto His Eminence Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, CFR, mni, was pro-Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) monarch working against the Buhari’s administration.
“We saw it all as they were sponsoring media writes up from saying Sultan took N650 million Nigeria Sokoto State money to buy a private house in Abuja to other reports including those in which they wrote that a very prominent traditional ruler, that is known to be the most influence both in North and entire Nigeria was behind certain insecurity and the rest. They all hid behind one finger and shame would never let them come out place and clean to mention the name of the traditional ruler.
“We thank God that Buhari resisted their evil plots and he is resting peacefully in Daura, Katsina State today. It is also believed that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu too will not allow himself to be convinced against the Sultan, first, traditional matter is local and Governor Ahmad Aliyu Sokoto, who we know respect the Sultan so much and well, will not allow somebody who is from nowhere and known not anywhere near royalty to push him to destroying the Usmaniyyah Throne that has been preserved for well over a century.
“We pray that God will help the Governor against a so-called a politician, who after having spent and enjoyed his own eight years tenure as governor of Sokoto State, now on his second term to complete eight years as Senator representing Sokoto North at the Nigerian Senate wants to ruin his career by making him do things that will have adverse effects on his future as a personality and the future of his children and his entire family.
“Sokoto State, like Kano State people, should stand up against this uncharitable and unpatriotic behavior of the politicians whose target is no more or less than to destroy the values of the people of because when the traditional institution and cultural heritage of a people is destroyed, the values are lost. God forbid,” he said.
