As king, I’ve come to serve, not to rule -Emir of Gummi

Congratulations, Your Highness, on your coronation. Could you give us a brief history of the Gummi Emirate?Gummi town was established in 1625, nearly 400 years ago, by a group of people called ‘Baugawa’ who ruled the town for a period of 117 years before my great grandfather Muhammadu Waru came on the scene. He was […]

Congratulations, Your Highness, on your coronation. Could you give us a brief history of the Gummi Emirate?
Gummi town was established in 1625, nearly 400 years ago, by a group of people called ‘Baugawa’ who ruled the town for a period of 117 years before my great grandfather Muhammadu Waru came on the scene. He was a rich prince who came to Gummi from a settlement called Tunfafi, near Talatar Mafara.
He engaged the Baugawa in trade by barter. At a time, there was famine in the land and the people did not have sufficient food to eat. Waru then opened his granaries and distributed the entire foodstuff to people free of charge. This singular act of generosity endeared him to the people of Gummi and they decided to ask their reigning king, Muhammadu Titike (1718-1742), to abdicate the throne for Waru, who was appointed the first Sarkin Mafaran Gummi. His enthronement established the Zamfarawa Dynasty of the Gummi Ruling House in 1742. Since then, the Mohammed Waru descendants have been ruling Gummi. My grandfather ,Mohammed Audi, was the 10th ruler of Gummi from the Zamfarawa Dynasty.

What programmes do you have for the emirate?
I have told the good people of Gummi that I have not come to rule but to serve them. I had spent most of my life outside serving others, but now I have come back home, not to take their land, and not to touch their women or animals. I have enough to take care of my immediate needs. I intend to bring value to this community.
I am glad that Gummi emirate is one of the few emirates that have not had the problem of farmers-Fulani clashes. And that is for good reason. One of the first things I did when I heard about clashes all over was to call the farmers and Fulani pastoralists to a meeting on how to ensure the crisis doesn’t happen in our emirate. They deliberated on the issue for about 30 minutes, came back to me and promised: ‘Your Highness, it will never happen here; there will be no clashes’. I asked why they were so sure and they said, ‘what is happening in those places is because of injustice perpetrated against our people.’
They said because I have been fair and just to them, they will not invite anybody to come and cause trouble. Up till now, nobody has come to forment trouble.

How are you working to integrate the Almajiri system into western education models?
There is a misconception about the Almajiri and Islam. Many people are ignorant that Islam does not recognise the Almajiri system. Islam actually forbids begging.
The Almajiri system came about as a form of economic enslavement of the children by some people who would stay in their house and let loose these weak, helpless children on the society. Islam does not encourage that. So we’re trying by all means to ensure that our people are educated in both western and Islamic education. The conventional education is where you study for professions that will make your life better. But we also need to inculcate good morals in our children. And that they can obtain from good Islamic and Western education. So we want to impart in them good Islamic morals, as well as the conventional education.

You are a member of the ongoing National Conference. How has it been?
It has been a nice experience. When I was nominated to participate in that conference, I had a lot of misgivings on whether it was going to work. Because it appeared, from media reports, that many people from many parts of the country seemed to have taken positions already even before appearing at the conference. There was a great misconception, especially among delegates from the southern part of the country, that delegates from the northern part do not want the status quo to change.
That is not correct. Many of us from the northern part of the country are actually also fed up with the way things are going on in this country and we are determined to ensure that there is change. I don’t believe that anybody in this country is happy with, for instance, the way the national electricity assets are being managed or the way the local government administration is going on. Every day, you see youths leaving their villages and farming activities to go to the city. In Abuja for instance, you find people sleeping under the bridges because people are disenchanted with life in their rural areas. And a lot of youths have finished schools and universities but there is no work.
So we want to see change for the better like anyone else. We went to the conference to exchange ideas with our brothers and sisters from the southern part of the country so that we can make recommendations that will make our country better. When the conference started, some of these misgivings gave way and we now saw that actually we have the same views and the same problems. In the course of that, many bridges are now being built. I can assure you that friendships are being forged from the two divides. And despite what you read in the newspapers, there is a great feeling of conviviality and general camaraderie going in the conference and I am impressed with the way things are going.
The conference has also recommended that the traditional institution be giving a constitutional role. What is your position on this?
Initially, many of us who are traditional rulers at the conference really thought that we do not need any special mention in the constitution to enable us carry on our function as traditional rulers because we have been doing this for a long time. But many of us who are engaged in making peace within our communities felt there is need for a form of legal backing. In all the states, there is the Chiefs Appointment and Deposition Law, which defines how traditional rulers are appointed. But the Nigerian Constitution is above every other law and any other law that contradicts it is void to the extent of its inconsistency. Now we are able to agree that there is need for a role to be given to the traditional rulers, among other things that we want the constitutional conference to consider.

Are you bothered by political interference in the traditional institution, considering the crisis that attended the recent selection of Sanusi Lamido as Emir of Kano?
Traditional rulers are strictly apolitical. We are not supposed to be involved in partisan politics because we are fathers of the people. I treat everybody in this community as I would my natural children. I give them advice, assistance and chastise them if there is need as I would do to my own natural children. Now if you come to me to say, ‘I want to become the next governor of the state’ from a political party, I pray for you. Another one comes from another party I pray for him, too.
I don’t see what happened in Kano as a problem. There can only be a problem, if the person appointed is not worthy or not of royal lineage. We can only pray that those who lost out in Kano will overcome their feeling of disappointment. Mind you, Kano is a great city in view of its commercial nature, so it is important that peace should reign there.

As we approach the 2015 general elections, what should political and religious leaders do to douse political and religious tension?
We only need to tell the people that 2015 is a very important milestone in the history of our country. We should educate them to just go and out and register on the day of the election and vote for the person they prefer.
On religious groups, last week, we the traditional rulers and the Jamatul Nasri Islam (JNI), the umbrella group of Muslims, were in Kaduna with respected religious leaders to give a lecture and this issue came up. We impressed it on everybody the need to live in peace.