{OPINION} LET’S UNMASK THE ROOT: Wamakko not Governor Ahmad Aliyu has declared the war on Sultan

By ABANIKANDA OLUMORO (UK)

“Yes, the Sultan is the Sultan of Sokoto but 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,” says Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Senator Kashim Shettima.

The Governor of Sokoto State, Engr. Ahmed Aliyu Sokoto, the first Sokoto township indigene to ever govern the state, is now the next Governor of Nigeria to be in the eyes of the storm by his recent action sacking some 15 District Heads in an attempt putting him up like want to rewrite history by now taking upon himself the powers of control of affairs of the Sokoto Caliphate, removing all the powers of the Sultan of Sokoto and reducing him to mere turban giving monarch| after he must have ended the business of politically selecting who becomes a traditional ruler (District Head) in the Caliphate. God forbid!

Governor Aliyu should not reopen now in Sokoto, a wound caused by another politician but which Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf has succeeded healing in Kano. Half a word is said to the wise children a good home, when it gets into him, it becomes a whole meaningful word.

From comfort zone here in the UK, I would want to give to the Sokoto State Governor the best advice any serious state leader would ever be opportune to have by telling how not to allow some vested interests in the political realm of the state push him into starting an anti-institution war that neither he nor those pushing him to start it will be able to finish.

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 Kano because when the traditional institution and cultural heritage of a people are destroyed, the values are lost. God forbid.

Say anything you like, I don’t care. You can say the Sultan or his Sultanate Council, Sokoto paid me but, if you cannot prove your allegation of me being paid to put this concern of mine out there in print and in the media space, then, your disgrace is double. It is not my first to defend people who are unjustly treated. I have done it in the defence of Lagos State natives, who are being deprived to govern their own state by some non-indigenes that have dominated their political power since 1999. I am now doing it in defence of Sultan of Sokoto and his son, Governor Ahmed Aliyu Sokoto, against an individual, who thinks life should be all about him and him alone. He lies!

Lest I conclude this all-important and instructive article, let me borrow from the word of the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, His Excellency Senator Kashim Shettima, which he gave at a programme of national importance in Katsina saying”

“…my point of reference to recognize and appreciate all our royal fathers present here. And to the Deputy Governor of Sokoto State, I have a simple message for you. Yes, the Sultan is the Sultan of Sokoto but 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) and regular contributor to The DEFENDER.