When
an emir speaks
By
Wada Nas
Going
by customs and in normal circumstances, it has never been in the character of
traditional rulers to express views, one way or the other, on major national
issues of discourse. Mostly, they express their views in the silence of their
offices, far removed from the piecing eyes of the media and other news hounds.
Even then, they do so with heavily refined diplomatic language if only so as
not to offend officialdom and the puritants of bureaucracy, who, sometimes read
nasty meanings into even the honest of statements.
Furthermore,
since even the most decent and honest statements attract all manners of
criticism, from the greater loud mouth among us, traditional rulers on their on
elected to insulate themselves from the rowdiness of noise makers, some of whom
delight in slaughtering the highly placed, some times out of mindset and
indecorous behaviour.
The
sum here is that a “good” traditional ruler must be deaf and blind person
such that no matter how excellent his ears and eyes are, he must remain deaf
and blind.
Thus,
when a traditional ruler speaks, breaking all barriers, we are bound, by logic
and reason, to listen, for, undoubtedly there must be meat and weight in what
he says. Generally, when a person, who speaks a little, decides to shout
loudly, then something must be wrong. For these are royals who fear to store
words for missile throwing. Words are meant to be uttered silently and not in
the market square of professional shouters, as quite characteristic of most of
us.
Only
a few, for instance, know that a number of traditional rulers, from up the
Niger, including the former Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Ibrahim Dasuki, made moves
to prevail on Gen .Babangida to
de-annul June 12, contrary to the rantings of our high-tech noise makers and
professional complainants. Perhaps because June12 was beyond IBB, they
couldn’t make a head way. This is quite different from the assumption that
they were doing some siddon looking during that time.
They
also approached, Abacha to release Abiola. They succeeded but their efforts
were scuttled by the June12 advocates who prevailed on him not to accept
conditional bail, as if there is such a thing as unconditional bail. When Diya
told the Oputa Panel that those advocates were responsible for the death, in
detention, of Abiola, he knew what he was saying. One of the current governors
in the South West once told a weekly magazine that they were the ones who
advised Abiola not to accept such term of bail. When asked why, his reply was
to the effect that the plan was to release him to an Ibadan based politcian and
that if this was the case it would count against their political interest in
favour of the Ibadan politician. That if Abiola was seen riding through the
streets of Yoruba cities with the politician, this would mean their political
waterloo; meaning therefore that they allowed MKO to die in detention in order
to protect their own interests. Such selfishness!
Anyway,
this is now history. The issue here is that traditional rulers prefer operating
in the secrecy of silence rather than in the company of noise makers in
contributing to public discourse.
This
again was reported in the heat of the hate campaign against Na’abba. The
highly respected Emir of Kano, undoubtedly one of the senior traditional rulers
in the whole country, reportedly saw President Obasanjo on the matter, who
allegedly gave him assurances that good relations would now prevail between the
two. The president himself confirmed this when he told Newswatch magazine that
‘the chief of his area’ [imaging calling the emir chief] approached him. No
sooner he left Aso Rock than the president went back on his promise; as usual.
When
the Lagos barbarism broke out, which has been hailed by some people as a
‘good job’, as recently
corroborated by Gani Fawehinmi, on the NTA program
‘point blank’ in
which he quoted the speaker of the Lagos state House of Assembly as saying that
the ‘OPC is doing a good job’,
the president sent a delegation to the emir so as to appeal to him to prevail
on his people not to over react to
the massive massacre of innocent Northerners by the Afenifere cum AD OPC.
In
the silence of the courtesy call, by the presidential team, the emir was said
to have expressed displeasure to the effect that when they [emirs] politely
request Mr. President to obliged them one thing or the other , he would only
make promises without fulfilling them. But when it is his turn to request them
for a favour, they don’t hesitate obliging him. He was said to have
diplomatically protested such a relationship again in the silence of his
palace.
Such
has been the tradition of traditional rulers, voicing their opinions on issues
in the whispers and silence of their palaces or such isolated and secretive
places, as highly places offices, only perhaps to the hearing or seeing of
hidden recorders and cameras.
Recently
however, the Emir of Kano ‘broke’ this tradition and for a reason. As
reported, he went on the offensive to innocently and correctly draw attention
to the utter neglect of the Aminu Kano International Airport, the oldest of its
kind in the country. In case we may not know, it came into existence, along
with the Mubi Airodrome, in Adamawa state, during the second world war, to
protect the British war interests against the Germans. Thus, even for its
historical significance, as a relic of national monument, it deserves better
treatment than it has been getting so far. Besides, it is one of two airports
serving some bilateral interests between Nigeria and Great Britain. Thus when
it collapses, this would be offensive to the relationship. Furthermore, it
serves the interests of about 55% of our population. And with the fear of
entering Nigeria through Lagos by air, the Aminu Kano International Airport
ought to remain international in name and in practicality. It must not be
anything otherwise.
This
was the point the emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero sought to bring home to the
administration when he was paid a courtesy call by the officials of the
Aviation Ministry.
He
was indeed making a good point on behalf of the vast majority of air travellers.
Air safety begins with good and standard airport facilities. Where these
don’t exist, the greater chances are that such an airport may be boycotted by
air service operators who would not like to lose their huge investments and the
lives of their customers. It is necessary for us, therefore, to join the emir
to appeal to those concerned to pay equal attention to the Kano International
Airport as is being done to its peers. Indeed, as long as that airport is still
in use, it becomes obligatory, on the part of the authorities, to ensure its
safety, for neglecting it means neglecting the lives of its users and they are
in millions. No good would therefore be served by allowing it to rotten to some
bad shape.
It
is for this reason, therefore, that the emir of Kano spoke publicly in order to
save lives and property. By now, we ought to have gone beyond this culture of
being reminded of our responsibilities, for service to the people is not a
favour but an obligation in the interest of greater human good.
In
the same breath, we also ought to have made, as a cardinal tradition of
service, what is generally known as maintenance culture. Any piece of modern
technology has a life span beyond which it cannot go. It becomes worse, in such
a short time, when no attention is paid to it regularly. Part of our problem
has been that we don’t now things are dead until they start oozing out bad
odour. It is only then we know that the sick man is dead. We are like those who
prefer to spend N500,000 on a burial ceremony than spend N20,000 to cure the
sick. This has been our approach to the maintenance of our services. And this
is why we are where we are today. Alhaji Ado Bayero was, therefore, merely
appealing to those of us in service to pull ourselves away from this culture of
neglect until situations get out of hand
This
attitude has never taken us anywhere and would never take us anywhere. No
nation could prosper by allowing things to get bad before paying adequate
attention to them. The message of His Royal Highness is that we must change
from the usual rottenness of our casual attitude in order to move the nation
forward. He certainly made a point in the interest of the nation and deserves
the support of all. Aminu Kano International Airport certainly deserves a better
status than its current stature.
You can read more about my views in my webpage https://www.gamji.com/wada.htm
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