I’m not happy with politics in Nigeria – Emir

Weekly Trust: You are about to celebrate your 20th anniversary as Sarkin Zazzau of Suleja. Can you tell us briefly about the emirate’s history and how the journey has been for you   so far?Alhaji Muhammad Awwal Ibrahim: I give thanks to Allah. Briefly, Suleja was founded about 200 years ago, it was then part of […]

Weekly Trust: You are about to celebrate your 20th anniversary as Sarkin Zazzau of Suleja. Can you tell us briefly about the emirate’s history and how the journey has been for you   so far?
Alhaji Muhammad Awwal Ibrahim: I give thanks to Allah. Briefly, Suleja was founded about 200 years ago, it was then part of the southern end of Zazzau kingdom, the last Habe king of Zazzau to the Fulanis, Mallawas etc. decided it was convenient to settle down here in Suleja after he was forced out of Zaria by the Fulani jihadists. So, when he came here he settled in various locations within what was then the southern part of the Zazzau kingdom, finally settling in Zuba. As he was trying to consolidate his position, he engaged certain communities in various wars and according to record he met his demise around Lapai.  Before then he had instructed the warriors that were with him to rally round his cousin Abu-ja to be the leader of the Zagezagi community then. So Abu-ja was the founder of present day Suleja which was hitherto named Abuja   after him.
Soon after his reign he was succeeded by his brother Abu-Kwaka who was the full brother of Makau, the last Habe king of Zaria, and so two ruling houses were established and that trend continued until I came on board about 20 years ago.
As you may know this place was founded because of its military strategic importance, the town itself was built in a valley surrounded by high mountains for military strategy and since then, it started developing and accommodating the various tribes that were hitherto subjects of the old Zazzau kingdom.
Since the founding of Suleja we have had seven traditional rulers and I happen to be the eight in line of succession, and Suleja was never conquered by the Fulani jihadists. Even during the colonial era, the town did not succumb to the maxim guns of the colonial masters. Sarki Ibrahim was said to have resisted the colonialists and he lost his life in the process. He was succeeded by my grandfather Mamman Gani.
The colonialists then said we were a heady people and accused our people of waylaying traders who were traversing the land from the southern to the northern part of the country.
When did Suleja transform from a quiet, peaceful town to a commercial hub that it is today?
This is because of the accommodative nature of our past rulers especially the sixth Emir Suleiman Barau who I believe was the first western educated emir to be appointed by the colonialists. He welcomed people to come and settle here and encouraged the development of schools, which opened the gate for people particularly the Yorubas from the Ogbomosho area to come and settle here and such people are essentially commercialists.
The huge step taken to make Suleja a centre for commercial activity happened at the tail end of his time and the beginning of the tenure of my predecessor Ibrahim Dodo Musa of blessed memory. That was the time the Federal Government decided to move its headquarters from Lagos to Abuja. I was then a civil servant, a permanent secretary with the government of Niger State. That opened the gate for everyone to come and we had uncontrolled upsurge of people coming to settle down here.
That of course was a welcome development, but some of us knew the repercussions because the town became a hub for all sorts of social ills particularly by the teeming unemployed people. So, now security and land management has become one of our topmost concerns.
Suleja contributed about 80 per cen or more of the land territory that formed Abuja. Initially the policy of the government was to move everybody within Abuja to this place, but because it was exorbitant they couldn’t. Eventually, they changed the policy to say people can stay wherever they wanted. But there was no plan to cater for people who migrated or how to help bail us out as a result of the change of policy. And I must say we don’t have a strong voice to fight for our right.
Nigeria is witnessing security challenges; how has this affected Suleja and what measures are you taking to curtail such?
To answer your question would lead me to bear my mind as far as the political leadership of this country is concerned but I wouldn’t want to do so at the moment. All I can tell you is that after 30 odd years of our experimenting with the American system of government I am far from being happy or satisfied with what is going on today politically in Nigeria. And that can be measured by the kind of social ills and insecurity that we suffer today in Suleja. Our problem was compounded by the current scourge of Boko Haram activities. If you recall, about two or three years ago we suffered a number of bomb explosions in Suleja and that had discouraged or rendered some of us hopeless to fight for some of the rights that we ought to be given for accommodating Nigerians who come to help Abuja. However, we are doing our best, our clerics are very prayerful and we trust God to answer our prayers. We enlighten and encourage our people to continue to show resilience even in the face of utter show of enmity to our people and we try to make people aware or conscious of the need to be more security conscious, so that if there is any breach of security, people should report it immediately so that the security agencies, who are now be becoming more friendly, to nip such problems in the bud.
You mentioned social problems, what about environmental problems and lack of development in Suleja?
I have said earlier that we have not been given the kind of attention and rights that we ought to have been given as a result of our sacrifices to Abuja. And I mentioned the result of population explosion, the result of all these is of course the degradation of the environment, the lack of planning of the town coupled with the poverty and illiteracy level of our people. Consequently you see people trying to eke out a living by all means either through sale of their lands in spite of our advice against such or the engagement of social ills like kidnapping etc. People, particularly the youths, take advantage and engage in activities against the development of Suleja, we raised concern over a district here that was fast becoming a center for all sorts of social ills and we succeeded in getting that kind of development squashed.
If you look at our infrastructure we are suffering a great deal, I understand Suleja has the largest number of private schools, but some of them are not anything to write home about. If anything, we receive adverse comments about their performances, but more importantly because Suleja has not been planned in order to justify its role in becoming a befitting satellite town to Abuja we continue to suffer. Whatever efforts are being done by the government you don’t see it practically because our systems of control are very faulty, the kind of encouragement that our leaders ought to have is not there so we keep suffering.
What is the relationship of Suleja with its present host state of Niger?
Suleja is not being helped by the political leadership in Niger State, times without number we have told our political leaders that we are not rivals, an impression that is wrongly being created. Suleja Emirate is made up of seasoned professionals with vision, but unfortunately we don’t enjoy the understanding and support of our political leaders so there is not much impact.
How would you describe the current state of traditional institution in Nigeria compared to what it used to be in the past?
This is a very difficult question for me to answer in the sense that I know the effort that my senior colleagues are making towards making our government to appreciate the role we play particularly in the maintenance of peace, stability and enlightenment of our people by making some constitutional provision. I sincerely hope they will succeed, but as far as I am concerned, the traditional institution itself does not earn the kind of respect and appreciation it deserves by the political leadership, so much so we are only being utilized as fire brigades. But anyone who is conscious of the fact that we do the best we can to maintain peace and stability in the wake of poverty, illiteracy and disease, ought to appreciate and show some concern into how much we can really contribute towards the development of Nigeria and urge, support and encourage us in that direction.
As you celebrate 20 years on the throne, what message do you have for your subjects and residents of your domain?
My concern primarily is that Suleja must continue to be a peaceful area for everybody that wishes to come and settle with us. Such people should get to know us, respect our ways and cooperate with us.   If, however, their motive of coming here is to take over our land we will resist it, because I believe we have made sufficient sacrifice to every Nigerian by literally giving out our land for the new capital city.  So, anybody who wishes to come and settle with us must respect our tradition, our aspirations and cooperate maximally with us. We will ensure a level playing field for everybody, so I will urge my people to continue to be tolerant, to show their accommodative nature to all that come to settle with us here, to be wary of their security and to ensure they maintain their dignity and give no room to anyone who will wish to run them down.