Nigeria: The Plight of Potiskum People

12 January 2013
opinion

Potiskum is the commercial nerve centre of Yobe State. The town is like a crossroad which connects Maiduguri with Bauchi, Jos and Kano. Demographic and geographical details indicate that Potiskum is the largest city in Yobe State. It is observed that people leave Potiskum for the State Capital, Damaturu purely for state cum administrative functions.

The city of Potiskum hosts one of the most organised traditional and community administration known as Fika Emirate. Historically, what is known as Fika Emirate with headquarters in Potiskum was the brain child of the British Colonialists who harnessed the indigenous tribes in the area namely, Kare-Kare, Ngizim, Ngamo, Bolewa, Fulani and Hausa to form a Central Administration. The British met the Bolewa tribe as the most organized group in Fika and this prompted the District Officer, Mr. Whitely, who was in charge of Fika Division, to move his headquarters to Potiskum in 1918 for administrative convenience and rapid development of the area. At the directive of the British Colonial Authority, the grandfather of the present Emir of Fika, Mai Muhammadu Ibn Idrissa moved the headquarters of Fika Emirate to Potiskum in 1924 where all the indigenous tribes had representatives in the Emirate Council with the Emir of Fika as the overall king of the area.

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