Governor Wamakko

Governor Wamakko, Sultanate and the Rumbles: The Reality About The Matter!!

Yusuf Dingyadi, Sokoto

The Wednesday (July 8) edition of the Daily Trust newspaper carried a report on the ongoing misunderstanding between the Sokoto state government and the Sultanate Council. The paper limited its analysis to the attempts by the state government to forcefully suspend quiet a number of traditional title holders, particularly the District Heads, and the refusal of the Sultanate Council to endorse such government’s proposal.

Going by these stories it is clear now that Sultanate and the state government are enmeshed into the battle of wits to outdo each other through show of power and relevance, more on justification of the suspension of some district heads, who are now are trying to be made as sacrificial lamp to the political survival of the Wamakko’s administration.

The whole episode began when the state Government ordered the suspension of four district heads without the knowledge of Sultan and ordered them to vacate their houses and submit their vehicles to their respective local governments. The letter of their suspension was allegedly written and copied to Sultanate for effective action by no other person than the commissioner of local government and chieftaincy Affairs.

The District Heads were Sarkin Gindi, Baraden Wamakko, Sarkin Gabas na Dadin Mahe and Dikkon Gande. These are in addition to the long list of the remaining District Heads now awaiting their suspension order as par the paper’s report.

However, what the Daily Trust reported as hot news is no longer news to the people of Sokoto, as the state government’s attempts to deal with those traditional title holders perceived to be associates of the former governor of the state, Alhaji Attahiru Bafarawa, have been in the pipeline since the inception of Wamakko’s administration.

For instance, the paper ought to have dig further to realize that indications are strong that some Senior Councilors perceived to be loyal to former governor Bafarawa in the palace are being hunted by the state government, and schemed to be relieved of their appointments. They are constantly been harassed and accused of maintaining cordial relationship with or loyalty to the former governor Attahiru Bafarawa. Moreover, they are seen as constituting a stumbling block in the state’s government’s attempt to easily influence the Sultanate to endorse the suspension of the so-called ‘Dangerous District Heads’.

More worrisome is the fact that the state government is vigorously auditing accounts and expenditure profile of the Sultanate Council for the period of some time after the Sultan Sa’ad Abubakar’s ascension to the throne. It’s no longer news that a group of Chartered Auditors along with some state officials of Audit Department under the leadership of Yusuf Nawawi (the same Auditor General who indicted Sultan Dasuki) are investigating all financial transactions of the Sultanate Council. They are daily collating relevant data from the officials and staff of the Sultanate Council for the past one month.

Another issue bringing the state government and Sultanate Council on collision is the realization by the Council that youth restiveness and area boyism in Sokoto metropolis must be checked, as it makes no sense that while the Sultan is shuttling nationwide preaching peace, back home the Seat of the Caliphate is being taken over by hooligans. The Sultanate Council’s attempt to stop the menace of this hooliganism collided with state government’s interest, which no doubt is the sole financier of such bastardly activities. The Sultan, while receiving the new Commissioner of Police in his Palace, voiced out his concern with the menace of the youth hooliganism in the state and the relationship between such youths and their sponsored across the state.

Further to this, the state government was allegedly upset by the Sultan’s attendance at the funeral prayers of the late Bafarawa’s father, who was until his death a prominent District Head. This action of the Sultan was wrongly interpreted by the state officials as an indication of the Sultan’s cordial relationship with the Bafarawa’s family, in spite of political wrangling between the state government and former governor.

To most progressives, however, nothing is widening the gap between the State government and the Sultanate than the non-performance of Wamakko’s administration in terms of the provision of infrastructures and other social amenities to the people in the state. For sure, the Sultanate has now realized that the state government is only feeding the citizens with rhetoric, with no matching actions.

The Sultan who travels wide and long might have been seeing how governments are impacting on the lives of the citizens only to see to his immediate domain retarding backwardness, with levels of poverty, unemployment, hooliganism, illiteracy, disease, etc rising up. The Sultanate must be right in calling the state government to take appropriate steps to address this ugly trend.

While this entire trend was apparently going on, both the state government and Sultanate Council want to conceal the bare fact they are on collision course these days. It surprises no one that a day after the media reported the matter, the Sultanate Council called a press conference and debunked the media reports by asserting that both the two institutions are having a cordial relationship and that never has the status of the Council been accorded its due regard and recognition than under Wamakko’s administration.

To bring out the reality about the control of the Palace by the state government the denial press conference was held at the Government house and addressed by the Magajin Gari, instead of Sultan Palace officials as usually observe or rather Magatakarda or the Sultan.

Yes, the Council has done the right thing here by not engaging the State government on media war. But the fact remains that the Sultanate Council is no longer backing the arrogant style of Wamakko’s leadership where all state resources are daily expended on mere propaganda, waging baseless war on Bafarawa and his perceived associates, two years after he has stepped down.

Ironically, while the Magajin garin Sokoto was busy denying the rift with journalists inside government house, the Magatakarda’s cabinet are composing the panel to investigate the suspended district heads, charge, prosecute and sentence them to removal without delay.

The panel is under the leadership of Magajin Rafi, which was handpicked from the Palace, others are three members who are representatives of the state government, they are Permanent Secretary in-charge of Local government Affairs, Director Public Prosecution of the Ministry of Justice and Director Security, office of the Secretary to the state government.

Both Police and SSS have their representatives nominated by the influence of the state government even before the setting of the panel, according to the sources.

The bone of contention over the panel legitimacy is that, it was set up by the government not the Palace, such things have never occurred in the history of Caliphate, that the state government to determine the fate of highly traditional rulers answerable to the Sultan. According to a sources within the Palace, said the normal procedure are that, it is the prerogative power of the Sultan and council to appoint and set up a committee or a panel to investigate, determine and discipline or remove any erring district head, village head and traditional title holder not the government.

The Sultan has the power and capacity as Amirul Muminin or Leader of the faithful to ask or call any of his subject to order on anything pertaining his activities not only in the state but throughout the entire country.

While all these are going the government is romancing with one of the architects of this ploy to destabilize the Sultanate, the person in question is also one of the senior councilors in the Palace; he mortgaged the entity of the caliphate through collecting contracts and appointments of his cronies into some lucrative positions in the government.

He was branded as enemy of the Sultanate long after he was dashed a Jeep y the state government, which it was alleged as appreciation of doing their dirty work of ensuring the dethronement of certain title holders in the Palace.

It is little surprise according to one of the sympathizers, that one of the senior Councilors in the Sultanate display desperation to stand between the people and truth.

He received contracts worth 200 million naira from the government, worse still, he even collected mobilization fee and denied compensation fees to farmers whose lands were marked for the road construction given to him.

These are the problem of the government that is claiming to be upright as it channels the payment of compensation of ordinary people through the contractors.

It is pertinent for the Sakkwatawa and all other well meaning Nigerians to wake up and stop the excesses of disgrace by the Wamakko’s government on the Sultanate and the institution of traditional leadership for which Sokoto is much looked up to.

It is clearly that Wamakko and his cronies are making all their effort for the destruction of this revered Sultanate without learning from the mistakes of former military government of Yakubu Mu’azu, it is time for him and all those behind him to learn from the history of our past.