·State chief executives should be stripped of powers over traditional rulers
The report of perceived moves by the Sokoto State government to depose the Sultan of Sokoto, His Eminence, Alhaji Sa'ad Abubakar, jolted not only the Muslim faithful but also the entire nation.
Coming at a time when there is a power tussle over the emirship of Kano, made the fears more real. The man, who sounded the alarm about the alleged plot at the seat of the Caliphate, Sokoto, Prof Ishaq Akintola, in this interview, gives reasons he made the matter public.
Akintola, who is the Executive Director of Muslim Rights Concern, MURIC, says talks have commenced with the state governor on how to resolve any contentious issue. He says the governor has assured him of the safety of the Sultan's stool. Irrespective of this assurance, Akintola wants an amendment of the laws of various states to ensure that governors no longer have the power to appoint and depose traditional rulers.
You expressed an important concern a few days ago about an alleged plot to dethrone the Sultan of Sokoto. What informed this fear?
The Sultan of Sokoto is not an ordinary traditional ruler who controls just his town or city. He is a paramount ruler, a first-class traditional ruler who controls all the monarchs, all the chiefs and emirs in the state. Not only that, he is also the President-General of Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs. That is the umbrella body for all Muslims in Nigeria. If you remove him, you have not only removed the Sultan of Sokoto, you have also removed the leader of the Muslims in Nigeria without consulting those Muslims. Today, the population of Nigeria is around 220 million.
Out of the 220, Muslims constitute around 150 million. Muslims must be concerned if there is evidence that a governor is planning to remove the Sultan. We cannot say it cannot happen. We have seen so many governors who have exercised their executive power.
Soludo of Anambra removed four traditional rulers in a single day. We have seen a governor who demolished the building in the House of Assembly so that lawmakers cannot sit. These governors are very powerful and they are not exercising their powers with restraint. When the governor of Sokoto removed 16 traditional rulers, we saw the signal.
Major concern
We also know that our major concern is the fact that the Sultan is the President-General of the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs in Nigeria. If a governor removes and appoints another Sultan, that one cannot be the same as the one who left. He may be one that would scatter the Sultanate. He may be one who would cooperate with the South-West and South-East. He may not be as warm as this Sultan. He may not be as peace-loving and dialogue-prone as this one. The fears were there, and we said we would not go down this road again because one Sultan had been deposed before.
Remember that Colonel Yakubu Muazzu, a former military governor of Sokoto State, dethroned Sultan Dasuki on the 20th of April, 1994, unceremoniously. They don't consult the Muslims when doing this kind of thing. The Muslims around the country. Not even the Muslims in Kano are consulted. Those in Niger are not consulted. With a stroke of the pen, the governor will just sign the deposition and we said it will not happen again because if they keep dethroning the Sultan and head of the Muslims, the embarrassment will continue ad infinitum.
That was our major reason for coming to say no, we don't want this embarrassment again. It has happened before, we don't want it to happen again.
Before the alarm you raised, the relationship between the Sultan and the governor was said to be far from cordial. How true is that?
We have a branch of MURIC in Sokoto. I can confirm to you that your thinking aligns with the feedback we got from Sokoto. The relationship was sour between the governor and the Sultan. As long as the Sultan remains the leader, the President-General of the Muslim community in Nigeria, what happens between him and the governor should be our major concern. The issue is he is our leader and he is our leader. He has performed creditably well even though we know that it is the governor who has the power to appoint the Sultan and to remove the Sultan and any Emir or king just as any other governor in other states has the power to appoint and fire. That is based on the laws of each state.
The question across the country is why would the state government contemplate removing such a revered traditional and religious leader.
The laws of Northern Nigeria empower the governor to remove the Sultan or any Emir after appointing them. But concerning the Sultanate, there should be some kind of regard for the Muslim community and our feelings. For instance, nobody even the President of Nigeria can tamper with the position of the President of the Christians Association of Nigeria. It is independent. Right now, what we are canvassing for is that kind of independence and immunity for the position of the Sultan so that no governor will have the power to remove him.
What we will be comfortable with is a situation whereby the Sokoto State House of Assembly will amend the chieftaincy laws of Sokoto state to disempower the governor from removing the Sultan at any point in time because of the interest of the Muslims. In the event of any such thing happening, the Muslims have a duty, they must save the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs from further embarrassment from severe assault on their psyche by ensuring that the Supreme Council reorganises itself. The Supreme Council will now move away from being under the Sultanate and become independent of the Sultan so that whoever is the governor of Sokoto can no longer remove the President-General of the Supreme Council.
The Supreme Council can organise that by convening a national conference where delegates will come from Islamic organisations all over the country.
Maybe four delegations from each group for an election to elect an Islamic scholar. There are so many good Islamic scholars. It has to be somebody with credibility and pedigree whose intellectualism is unassailable. In MURIC, we are not campaigning for ourselves. I can't even accept such a position because of my role as the Executive Director of MURIC.
Supreme Council
We have suggested that the first holder of the office under an independent Supreme Council should come from Sokoto. Muslims of Sokoto will know that this is not a rebellion against the good people of Sokoto. Let the first holder come from Sokoto.
We have many talented and highly incredible scholars from Sokoto. There will be tenure. The Sultan has no tenure, and no Emir, Oba or Obi has a tenure, but the position of the President-General of the Supreme Council is going to be democratic.
We are going to follow through if that suggestion is accepted. Of course, it depends on how the Supreme Council and other Muslim leaders view it. I am just a small errand boy without influence in the Supreme Council. If they accept the suggestion, which is tailored towards free, fair treatment for all, equality and good relationships among all, it is fine.
Our position again is that there should be a tenure of maybe five or six years each. After five years, the President-General goes, and another comes. The one from Sokoto who will be the first suggested by us may spend six years and go. Then somebody who is elected again from the South-West will take it up and become the President-General. He spends six years and leaves.
Another one from Kano will take it on. It will become rotational. Spend your term and go away. No governor will be able to influence the President-General. We will not be under any government influence. The Supreme Council will then be vocal. It will be able to speak freely and promote the interests of Nigerian Muslims.
Control
MURIC is allergic to the control being exercised over traditional rulers all over the country. Traditional rulers are our faces--the faces of our culture, values and morals. Our traditional rulers are the symbols of our past. They remind us of our past.
A people without a past cannot move forward, they cannot make any progress. If you want to know where you are going and how to get there, you have to remember where you are coming from. You study where you are coming from, how you stumbled and rose again and then you get to know where you are going. The governors today are too powerful and most of them are reckless in the exercise of that power. Unfortunately, no governor can be questioned, they have immunity and this emboldens them. They commit whatever atrocity.
Governors
We are saying that governors should no longer be allowed to remove traditional rulers. The House of Assembly should start this revolution. The question is who will bell the cat? Such sections in each state's chieftaincy laws should be amended in the state assemblies, they should start discussing it. Now is the time. Otherwise, our royal fathers will be dragged in the mud daily. It is getting too much. Traditional rulers warm themselves into the hearts of politicians.
They want to be accepted, they want them to talk to their people so they can vote for them. They are the ones who work themselves into the heart of traditional rulers first. If the traditional ruler refuses to campaign for them among his people, the governor will remove him. If he agrees to campaign for him, if that governor wins, the tradition is lucky. If the governor doesn't win, the other candidate who the traditional ruler did not campaign for will consider the traditional ruler an enemy and the first target that he must fight immediately after he assumes office.
We have to save the traditional rulers from this mess. No traditional ruler wants to antagonise the governor but they are in a dilemma. It's a cul-de-sac. Where will they run to? Whether they like it or not they must do the bidding of the governors. They must be at their beck and call and these governors are very heartless. You come in to spend four years at most eight years.
These traditional rulers have been there for more than 20 years, you come today and you want him to dance to your tune. If he doesn't do that, you remove him from power and he may not regain that throne again. I don't know of any traditional ruler who was able to walk back to power again. Whoever was picked by the governor will sit tight and it becomes a thug of war between the two families. I want governors to stop seeing themselves as alpha and omega.
A day after you raised the alarm, Sokoto State House of Assembly went ahead to pass the Sokoto State Emirate Council Bill, which had gone through first and second readings. How did you receive the news?
We frown at that and we are going to handle it through non-violence.
Our motto is dialogue, no violence. Since 1994 when we were established, there has been no report of MURIC being involved in violence. We warned our members never to be involved in violence. Because we are non-violence, there has been a tripartite talk between me as Executive Director of MURIC, governor of Sokoto State and an influential Islamic scholar from the North.
It is such that we are still discussing the issue and I am not prepared to make the contents public. But I can assure Nigerians that the governor gave the Islamic scholar and I an assurance that the Sultan's position is safe. To that extent, in order not to diminish the love that I have for the Islamic scholar and the governor, I will keep the content secret. The way to go is dialogue. We will dialogue with the governor, the Sultan and Sokoto State House of Assembly. We will allow this climate of tension to dissipate before we set the machinery in motion for this dialogue.
But people are still concerned that the bill, if passed into law, would strip the Sultan of the powers to appoint district heads without government approval, among other things. Does this give credence to your fears?
The laws are made by men. And since it is men who make laws, laws cannot make men. It is the application. The House can pass any law as it wishes. It is left for the governor to handle issues like these with wisdom and tact. And from the discussion I had with the governor yesterday, Wednesday, I want to believe the governor is going to be tactful.
This matter is coming on the heels of the deposition of Aminu Ado Bayero as Emir of Kano and the reinstatement of Muhammadu Sanusi II as Emir of Kano. Don't you think it is high time the powers of the governors over traditional institutions are reviewed?
We have said it several times. It was as if we saw it coming. We have addressed politicians over this matter, asking them to caution the governors. We addressed the governors separately, asking them to let the traditional rulers be. They are in the palaces and do not know when they will be removed. Sometimes, they hear about their removal over the radio. Sometimes, the governor invites stakeholders to an executive meeting, including the king to be removed. And as he sits down, policemen surround his palace and ask people to move out. And the king will never return to the palace.
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He would be banished. This is tyranny and wickedness. What we are saying is that the practice should become history. Traditional rulers should be allowed to rule. And the powers to remove and appoint traditional rulers should no longer rest with governors. It all starts with the appointment of traditional rulers all over the country.
The governor should not be involved in the selection of traditional rulers. Three names are usually picked by kingmakers and sent to the governor, who selects whoever he likes. Look at what is happening in Ibadan, Oyo State. It is not Kano alone. Governor Makinde has been playing god over the selection of a traditional ruler. The name has been on his table for the past three months and he is telling the people that he is studying the situation. What situation are you studying? They have selected the person and have given you his name. Kingship in Ibadan is regimented, there is no controversy about it. They know who is next. They have given you the name and you haven't done anything.
That is the kind of thing the governors do. When a governor selects the person of his choice out of the names given to him, he announces the name of the person. Such a person can be removed by the governor at any time. MURIC had asked lawmakers to review these laws. It started from the colonial masters. In those days, nobody dared to look at the kings in their faces.
They were respected and their position was dignified. But when the colonialists came, they enslaved the people and their kings. We recall that King Jaja Opobo was deposed and manacled by the colonialists. They also removed several kings in the North and South. Some were forced to take poison. This kind of atrocities continued until we got independence in 1960. What went wrong with Nigerians? Why do we still retain colonial mentality decades after independence? Now that the colonial masters are gone, why can't we review the situation and return the kings to their position of prominence? Politicians should stop bastardizing the traditional institution. MURIC is calling on lawmakers in Nigeria to stop governors from ridiculing our kings. If the laws are repealed, the governors shouldn't be the ones to present Staff of Office. The governors should only play ceremonial roles at the installation of kings. The governor becomes an ordinary citizen after his tenure, but the king remains so long as he lives. The governor will become the subject of the king after his tenure.
Can we know the motivation behind your activism because some think you work for Muslim politicians?
The motivation is from the glorious Quran and the Hadith of Prophet Mohammed, Peace Be Upon Him. For instance, the Quran talks about justice in Chapter 16 verse 90. Every Friday, Muslims are reminded of this special verse, which the Imam recites. Allah commands justice and good doings. Since Allah commands justice, wherever I see injustice, I address it. The Holy Prophet said whoever among you sees any evil, any atrocity should use his hands to change it. If he is in a position where he cannot use his hands, he should speak against it by using his tongue. If he cannot speak against it, perhaps he is afraid for his life, he should use his heart against it. This is a philosophy I have pursued ever since I matured and I became aware of that injunction in the glorious Quran. There are other verses of the Quran, which command Muslims to act when they see injustice anywhere.
