Implications of Governor Aliyu and his backer’s actions against Sultan in centuries old Usman Dan Fodio legacy of Sokoto Caliphate

By ABANIKANDA OLUMORO (UK)

Whichever way it leads these plotters against the Usmaniyyah Throne of centuries old tradition, 20^th Sultan of Sokoto Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar will have the last laugh because he will continue to be the Supreme Leader of the Muslim Ummah of Nigeria till his last on earth (may he live longer than his father) but will be the last Sultan of Sokoto to be Supreme Leader of the Nigerian Muslims. 

In my opinion article of published mainly by The DEFENDER (a newspaper currently online published by Defender Media Limited in Lagos with office in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital) and Royal News (with operational base in Ilorin and Abuja) one week ago precisely on Monday June 24, 2024, I took the bull by the horns when I helped the global observers of the unfortunate drama that had been started by Governor Ahmad Aliyu daring to touch the untouchable, the Sultan of Sokoto and President-General of the Nigeria Supreme Council for Islamic (NSCIA). I did that help by letting the cat out of the bag revealing, as clearly stated in my headline for the opinion article, “LET’S UNMASK THE ROOT: Wamakko not Governor Ahmad Aliyu has declared the war on Sultan”.

The governor’s insistence to go ahead with the Public Hearing of tomorrow Tuesday July 2, 2024 at 10:00am (Nigerian time) on his premeditated Anti-Sultanate Bill is not a surprise. The world already knows about the plan, despite their serial denials and reigns of abuses on the respected Vice President of our great country, His Excellency Senator Kashim Shettima, who they blamed for believing what they called the unfounded alarm raised by Professor Ishaq Akintola, Founder and Executive Director of Nigeria’s foremost Islamic rights organisation, the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), with statements of the state Commissioner for Information, Sambo Danchadi, and Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Abubakar Bawa, unfailing to let the MURIC leader collect from the reigns of abuses trying to paint him as purveyor of unfounded rumour.

In the content of their denials, they said they never had plans to dethrone the Sultan and that they never mull such plans but from my checks (because I do not just live far away here in the Diaspora without letting my part of ears that works well be on the ground over there in Nigeria to let me know what my day-to-day affairs of my country is since I am not one that left Nigeria and turns his back to my ancestral home country especially in the jet age of Information and Communication Technology (ICT)), I gathered that there are signs that what these aides of government and the governor were denying was exactly what they planned to do and reason they brought up the Bills to amend first the Zakat and Waqf Commission Law, which they know has been placed under the overseeing of the Sultan with Engr. Muhammad Lawal Maidoki as Executive Chairman for over eight years and then the Local Government Law under which category falls the Sultanate Council Law with which they would now take all including those Councillors in the Majilisa and staff that work in the Palace of the Sultan from under his control to that of the Governor.

When you take the powers to control his own chiefs and staff from him, what is the essence of your denying a deposition Mr. Governor? And you are a Muslim who reads the Qur’an and Hadeeth of the Holy Prophet of Islam, Muhammad Bin Abdullah (peace of Allah be upon him)?

Brain behind the unholy war

I already named who is pushing Governor Aliyu to wage this daring and disrespectful war against the Sultan and there is no way the governor will go back on this track except he himself will be sacrificed by him, Aliyu magatakarda Wamakko, who despite having served his own eight years tenure as governor without interference not even by his predecessor, Alhaji Atahiru Bafarawa whom he allegedly spread ills information against after allowing politics to separate the then ANPP Governor and Deputy Governor, respectively, and is now spending his third term as Senator of Sokoto North, has assumed the position of an emperor, whose word is now law and wants to push anybody he has ever helped to power beyond the assisted’s constitutional rights and duties.

This is the reason I said in the last article (and I thank The DEFENDER and Royal News) for allowing me the space in their internationally well regarded online newspapers that it is Wamakko and not Governor Ahmad Aliyu has declared the war on Sultan. Anyway, if this is allowed to scale through, after seeing how his Rivers State counterpart, Governor Siminialayi Fubara, has helped by his conscience that he will be the one to be held accountable not his predecessor and “helper” as claimed, Nyesom Wike, then there is no way anybody can convince this and next generations to come how Sokoto State Governor Aliyu can exonerate himself from the devastating blame and social boycott that will follow.  This because for every action there is always the consequence.

Lesson Aliyu failed to learn from Wike’s Rivers and Ganduje’s Kano

He saw how then Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje did the undoable when he first caused the over 1000-year old Emirate of Kano to be split into five, not only reducing the Emir of Kano’s jurisdiction to mere eight metropolitan local governments of Kano City but went ahead using a Kano Emirate Council Law of 2019 to depose His Royal Highness Alhaji Muhammadu Sanusi II on the account he later gave as he not understanding the roles of a traditional ruler, alleging Sanusi of acting social critic and insubordination and banishing him first to Koko and later Awe in Nasarawa State before the deposed 14^th Emir of Kano went to court to reclaim his fundamental human rights of free movement. Asked recently why he did not go to court to put a fight against his deposition, Sanusi II told six visiting newspaper chiefs, who were in Kano to cover the Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf’s Declaration of State of Emergency on the Education Sector, he did not go to court because being an Emir of Kano is not his fundamental rights but that he went to court only to free himself from rights being trampled upon. He said if it was Allah’s wish that he would return, so shall he be. “It is not about me but about the Kano Emirate that is being touched,” he said, adding that Kano has now been returned to One United Emirate and that he was now satisfied.

What Governor Ahmad Aliyu should have learnt from that Kano experience is that, yes, as governor you can have a say in Chieftaincy matter depending and with a proviso that the Constitution gives you such power although chieftaincy matter is local government affair, but what you should not tamper with is the tradition. Ganduje tampered with the pre-Nigeria tradition of the Emirate of Kano that was not even created by the Nigerian Constitution talk less that there would be justification for his acclaimed ‘Kano Emirate Council Law’ review that he did in 2019. How do you review an inexistent law? But Ganduje reviewed inexistent law and used it to dismantle the ancient Emirate but, because tradition is the course existence of the powers of the same people whose votes you seek every four years to serve them as governor, they people waited for the right time and they not only sent you away with your planted stooge and brought in a man who gave them assurance that he would fulfill their request of helping them restore their Kano Emirate to what it used to be. That was the basic truth of the Kano episode.

Now you, Governor Ahmad Aliyu, having seen all of those unsuccessful attempts of Rivers and Kano, still allows yourself to do the Rivers and Kano to Sokoto. You should know to the deep side of your heart that there will be adverse effect for it, if you do not shelve this plan to whittle the powers of the Sultan now and let him traditionally and religiously rule his people the way the customs and traditions require him.

You should bear in mind that United Kingdom here where you as our Nigerian political leaders run to, despite their believe in democracy, Traditional Ruler is still the most revered power in the British country. Why do you have difficulty allowing that to happen in Nigeria if not that once you become a politician, all the good thing that people know with you are eroded because you want to satisfy the man who believe he is the godfather that put you in office as governor forgetting that nobody appoints a leader other than Allah.

Wamakko, Bafarawa and why Tambuwal left APC for PDP ahead 2019

When this same Wamakko, because he believed he was responsible for the seamless governorship of His Excellency Alhaji Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, started doing to him what he is now doing to you, controlling your destiny, and Tambuwal defected from All Progressives Congress (APC) to Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), did heaven fall? Were the people of Sokoto State not repeat the ceding of their mandate to him in 2019 although you and your godfather believed that Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, CFR, mni, was the reason he won.

That is where you both missed it. As Muslims, if you believe that nobody appoints leader except Allah, the kind of grudge you have nursed since 2019 till today would not be with you. Remember the word of your Holy Prophet Muhammad that it is not in the character of a Muslim that he allows anger against fellow Muslim or any human being (non-Muslim like me) to remain in your mind until sunset. But you kept that grudge in mind for five years and at the end of the day we have investigated your involvement of Sultan in the politics of 2019 and found out that you were wrong.

Even we have just read from a non-Northerner, President General of the League of Imams and Alfas, South West, Edo/Delta, Papa Jamiu Kewulere Bello, who said “you can go to seek this Sultan’s help for all things but politics” because, according to him, if you ask him to support you politically like our Yoruba Obas mostly do having been blackmailed and spoilt with money by your fellow politicians in the South West region, he will tell you point blank that he does not understand what you are saying because he does not want to do anything will being embarrassment to him, his faith in Allah and the Muslim Ummah that he leads. Now, where is the justification for your accusation for which you now want whittle his powers and depose him for?

Once this is correct and I believe – and from all information I gathered from that Usman Dan Fodio’s Empire now being manipulated by the transient era politicians – it is correct, the ante-institution and anti-Islam mission the Governor of Sokoto State Ahmed Aliyu, and his “garrison commander of Sokoto politics” are pursuing will not be rescinded because they already made up their minds and who will stop a straying dog that has now refused to listen to the whistle of the hunter? That is Yoruba parlance that says a dog is destined to get lost will never listen to the whistle of the hunter. Likewise, they will not rescind the Bill, under which they will now hide to amend the Sultanate Council Law so as to give themselves the temerity within the chance of space and time to achieve their aim.

World and Nigerians in the Diaspora watch Aliyu’s premeditated Public Hearing and the story of Cock and the Wolf

The more beautiful thing in all of these is that the world, as fore-stated, watches this crop of politicians that will, in time more to come, place Nigeria on watch list of countries where leaders climb on the back of democracy only to rule their terms as dictator respecting institutions but whims and caprices of their self-aggrandizement and so called political benefactors, whose existence has never impacted any positivity or growth in their people except ignorance and abject poverty.

World leaders and even fellow Nigerians in Diaspora all over the world are watching as Governor Ahmed Aliyu and former Governor Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko will tomorrow morning of Tuesday July 2, 2024 disappoint the over 150 millions they asked MURIC not to fight for because they had changed their minds as they will set in motion their Legislative Public Hearing By Proxy, which is known by all to be premeditated, jam-packed with their representatives, who are surely the majority in the Sokoto State House of Assembly fully mobilized with use (abuse) of powers and resources of state, seamlessly, to pave the way for themselves to achieve their aims and objectives passing the unholy anti-Sultanate Executive Bill.

And more pathetic, for what appears to be their ignorant and arrogant manner of pursuing this ambition, is that they are doing this thinking that they are fighting, by their never-seen-before disrespect, occupant of the Usmaniyyah Throne and Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, CFR, mni, without knowing that they are only pulling the sky on Sokoto and when the heavens fall on the Caliphate, not even they will escape. It is just like the Christian prophet who told his congregation the day the world will come to an end and still ordered them to bring all their savings from banks forgetting that when the world ends, will he be here to spend the wealth? That is the danger number one for Governor Ahmad Aliyu and Wamakko.

If other politicians are misbehaving with their traditional rulers in other parts of Nigeria, should it give any Governor in the much revered saner environment of Northern Nigeria temerity to replicate such misbehaviour with their highly revered Sultan and Emirs in that largest and widest region of the amalgamated Nigeria? Now, Governor Ahmed Aliyu and former Governor Wamakko, by their attempt, have done the cock (the male fowl with a comb) to themselves. Remember how that Fuji star, Saheed Osupa, sang the cock and the wolf song?

He said the cock with its comb (the fleshy, red outgrown on top of a male fowl head) used to be dreaded by the wolf but one day, for selfish reason of the cock, he called the wolf and asked, “Why do you so much fear me?”  And the wolf told the cock it is “because of your reddish head top, comb”. By the cock himself, he told the wolf “This is nothing but fleshy thing that can be easily removed.” That way, the wolf penetrated the hitherto dreaded cock and brought its reign to an end.

By doing the Abdullahi Umar Ganduje’s Kano to the Sokoto Caliphate and the Sultan of Sokoto, His Eminence Alhaji General Dr. Ambassador Ash-Sheikh Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, Commander of the Federal Republic, Member of the National Institute, recipient of almost countless Honourary Doctorate Degree Awards from across reputable public and private universities in Nigeria as well as foreign countries, you have dug a hole of relegation for the collapse of the very beautiful Ash-Sheikh Usman Dan Fodio’s globally celebrated legacies of a reformed Empire laced with colourful flags of true Islam and the One United Muslim Ummah of Amalgamated Nigeria that Sardauna Ahmadu Bello, his grandson by Sultan Muhammadu Bello, improved upon, and  his descendants spanning from the first Amir-ul Mumineen through the 17th, 18th, 19th Sultans of Sokoto – all of blessed memory – until the current 20th Sultan of Sokoto have further picked up and improved upon in succession.

Sultan Sa’ad Abubakar may be last Sultan of Sokoto to lead Nigerian Muslims if…

Whichever way it leads these plotters against the Usmaniyyah Throne of centuries old tradition, 20^th Sultan of Sokoto Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar will have the last laugh because he will continue to be the Supreme Leader of the Muslim Ummah of Nigeria till his last on earth (may he live longer than his father) but will be the last Sultan of Sokoto to be Supreme Leader of the Nigerian Muslims.  The only thing that is threatened of him now will only be the “Sultan of Sokoto”. The over 150 million Nigerian Muslims whose interest he represents as President-General of the Nigeria Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) know that he is their Permanent Supreme Leader, members of the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC), organization of Muslims and Christians in Nigeria co-chaired by both him and the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), know that he is their Permanent Co-Chairman of NIREC, even the Jama’atu Nasir’il Islamic (JNI) members across Northern Nigeria know that he is their Permanent President-General and the World Religions for Peace with headquarters in New York will continue to recognize and respect him as their very highly cherished Co-President even as his repeated rankings as One of Top 50 Most Influential Muslims In The World and One of Fourth Most Influential Royalty in Africa will remain with him.

Where the challenge will be for Wamakko and Aliyu is, will they now have to sight their own New Moon to commence and terminate Ramadan fasting and do other important acts of worship that 20^th Sultan of Sokoto Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar has helped them do seamlessly in the last 18 years in a way that has profoundly united the entire Nigerian Muslim Ummah under him as the Sultan of the Sokoto Caliphate? Already, we had wondered who could be behind the betrayal being displayed by Musa Lukwa. This cleric is the only self-acclaimed Islamic scholar in Sokoto who, despite the uniform moon sighting for commencement and termination of Ramadan fasting in Nigerian administered by the Sultan in the last three years, has always commanded his own misled yet ignorant congregation to commence fasting of Ramadan and terminate same based on his own decided volition and still go to the mimbar (podium) to announce, “I will never follow this Sultan”. And what is the offence of the Sultan, he never allowed him and his sponsors to have a permanent Ramadan fasting system that is 29 days against the Islamic directives. That is a position that should not be heard of one, lucidly Islamic scholar, with fear of God, my findings at the disturbance of the attitude of the Mallam revealed.

I am the only one living outside Nigeria and still possess the wherewithal to know what is happening. Sheikh Abdullah Kaim Quick, an American-Canadian Imam and senior historian with a lot of achievements, had said when he visited Nigeria speaking at the 9^th Usman Dan Fodio Week in Sokoto and Abuja telling Nigerians to, “Forget the stereotypes and what you may think you know – Africa and African Muslims have deep and sophisticated traditions of scholarship and leadership.” He got all of that facts because of his special studies on Sheikh Usman Dan Fodio, the ancestral father of one united family of Sokoto Caliphate rulers of which the 20^th Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar is one.

My advice for Muslim Ummah of Nigeria

To wrap up my article this time, which is simply another opportunity that I have to once again warn Governor Ahmad Aliyu and Former Governor Aliyu Wamakko against the war they want to start by their anti-Sultanate Law, which only beginning they will know but not the end, I want to offer the Muslim Ummah of Nigeria one costly but costless advice and that is if they will accept for me and not call me a non-Muslim so advising. The advice?

Never mind some politicians, who are already rewriting history to, wittingly or unwittingly, tell a story that the future of Sokoto Caliphate will hold against them and their family. God has been so kind to Abdullah Umar Ganduje (although he knows not) that he has a committed indigenes of Kano, who know what they want and they have a governor in Abba Kabir Yusuf that under five years corrected that despicable wrong his predecessor committed against the over 1000-year Emir of Kano. You have a long way to go. Let them, who are just starting it in Sokoto, satisfy themselves. They are the ones who will have Political Sultan from whatever day and time that they feel it is time for them to install him because, ahead of 2019 election they had a mantra of ‘We will have a new government and a new Sultan’ but they failed that 2019.

The Sultan, Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar son of Sultan Siddique Abubakar III, that you have as your Supreme Leader of the Muslim Ummah of Nigeria is apolitical and, in or out of Martaba of Sarki in Sokoto, he will remain your Supreme Leader till the end of his life when you will then choose another Supreme Leader but who will never be their Political Sultan of Sokoto any longer but any well screened Muslim personality a Shu’rah (pardon me if I don’t know how to pronounce the Arabic word you use for Islamic Consultation) you will have to form will pick and who will must possess prerequisites of quality education, well position locally with his legs well footed in the League of Muslim World, just like this Sultan and Supreme Leader Sa’ad Abubakar’s respect and honourability extent from Africa the West, Islamic World particularly Saudi Arabia, East and Middle-East and all over the World.

This should form the documentation of successor plan for leadership of the Muslim Ummah of Nigeria after the current Supreme Leader, who, except these political players correct their wrong steps, will not be Sultan of Sokoto any longer. And their correction of wrong steps taken will also mean that never again will they tamper with the Sultan of Sokoto beginning from this reign of His Eminence Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar and grant him Immunity as the truly untouchable by any Governor of Sokoto State in succession because, the only rights that Sokoto State Government has on Sultan of Sokoto has been the right to approve his ascension to the Usmaniyyah Throne and that makes him the Sultan of Sokoto but, like Vice President Kashim Shettima right said, he is much more than that. He represents an idea. He is an institution that all of us in this country need to jealously guard, protect, promote, preserve and project for the good of our nation.

A stitch in time, the adage says, saves nine!

*Olumoro is a Nigerian in the Diaspora (United Kingdom).