Great Test for the Caliphate

Mohammed Sani

For how long shall our world wallow in the apocryphal greatness of the likes of Governor Attahiru Bafarawa? Sokoto has just celebrated 200 years of civilization. The caliphate bicentenary event- that is two hundred years of institutionlised affairs-from the Ameer down to the Native Authority, this modest place enjoyed some of the wisest counsels the correspondences between the founding fathers of Sokoto caliphate and other empires, speak volume of the pool of knowledge endowed on the leadership.

The counsel proffed up by Sultan Muhammadu Bello, in a modest volume, Bayanul Amri captured the essence of how not and why not a leader should be counseled by an unenlightened “Council”. When president Obasanjo then, a military Head of State, thought of the need for our own Version of Ombudsman and appointed to such a sacred duty, Alh. Maitama Sule, he (maitama) turned down all overtures from the government to take trips abroad, as a way of familiarizing himself with concept and principles of the Ombudsman:- according to him, he had found an unrivalled exposition of the principles of public complaints, in the work of Sheik Abdullahi Fodio- Diya al Hukkam; another work by the same Islamic Jurist on the same subject is also in his Sabil al- Salamah.

From the Sokoto Native Authority emanated seasoned Administrators like Sir Ahmadu Bello the Sardauna of Sokoto and the premier of Northern region, from the same N.A, came Alh. Shehu Shagari, first executive president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The History of this modest setting is awashed with venerated though self-effacing, personalities; and in the History of this civilization, not even by coincidence, was the likes of Bafarawa brought to fore as leaders.

Sultan Muhammadu Bello may not have built roads, but he established a terrain so plain for the exercise of Justice, a feat enviously acknowledged by Mr. Huge Clapperton on a visit to Hausa land, that, a woman could carry a basket of Gold from Sokoto to Adamawa, without being molested.

Even from amongst those seemed as lacking in sound education, they were successful administrators because they relied heavily on and drew from a pool of wise counsel around them, they knew and accepted that, there was team work to be done, raised the general spirit of the people.

Ever since Bafarawa came to power, he has left everybody standing on the pretext that, he alone and nobody, helped him to serve the Governorship of Sokoto State; his naivity or do we say fool-hardship, is thus, upon all the above examples of Adminstrative tradition in Sokoto, here resurrects “King Solomon” the wise. Having personalized the treasury, referring to the money in it, his, he drops, very occasionally, into pits, a times equating himself with Sardauna Sir Ahmadu Bello, who he(Bafarawa) floored down as having built only two mosques in Sokoto, while he(Bafarawa) has over eighty, to his credit.

It is on record that, his biggest footman, with an insatiable lust for money and has “Kwabo” prefixing his name, invoke (Tagammadahullah or Radhiyyallahu) anytime Bafarawa’s name is mentioned.

Bafarawa came in with an obnoxious first degree, inferiority complex. It is not about how he treats the current custodians of the tradition, barring the sultan from gracing certain functions on(Bafarawa’s) personal political grounds or starving the sultanate of the necessary funds despite first charge deductions from local governments to run the sultanate and only recently, he(Bafarawa) attempted alas failingly, to draw the sultanate into a scuffle with the people over its custodianship of the two revered mosques in Sokoto.

A close look at this personality reveals a wounded psyche, a psyche embattled by inadequacies; on one hand. Bafarawa just refuses to accept who he is, like Mohammed Haruna would say, “I am Nupe” proudly, I have never heard this kind of statement coming from Bafarawa; coming closely to this, his poor education, he has to grapple with a very poor Grade II result and that is all. It is the combination of these two that spurred a serious feeling of hate particularly, on those seemed revered for factors of genealogy; and or those that have achieved success on the dirty of proper education, as in most of the bureaucrats/technocrats whose boots Bafarawa has leaked all his life.

So immediately on clinching the Governorship, the story that became the sing-song of this fellow was how he, as an ordinary petrol retailer, became a millionaire; and today, it has remained so, while still a Governor, Bafarawa launders peoples’ resources-his “government” not the ordinary folks in the markets, buys and sells construction materials that is cement, iron-rod, paints etc; as a contractor, it is a most you buy from them even though, with a good bargain, you may have these same items, at a cheaper rate, in the open market.

Barely Educated as Bafarawa is, he still could have achieved greatness, but he perceives those properly educated with contempt; ill-educated as he is, he feels grossly inadequate before his Pittsburgh-university trained, Deputy, A.B.U Zaria-trained S.S.G or another American university-trained Head of Service; so whenever an issue crops up, the next thing is for Bafarawa to ensure that his own views prevail, no matter what. The same thing transpired anytime he was with the likes of Senator Badamasi Maccido, who was his commissioner for works; encounters between these two had always been pierce for he(Bafarawa) would always want to floor this unassuming engineer, whose only fault was coming from the Great Shehu bn Fodio family. It is a serious matter when you have a leader with complex.

Thus, Bafarawa listens to nobody but his voice, and the melody from the voice is always, money! He runs the State