Security challenges will persist until borders are secure – Shehu of Borno
What is your message to the Muslim Umma as they mark the Eid-el-Kabir festival? My message to the people of Borno Emirate, the People of Borno State and Nigeria in general, is that I wish them a happy Eid-el-Kabir celebration. I am praying for the Almighty Allah to return our pilgrims back home safely. Secondly, […]
What is your message to the Muslim Umma as they mark the Eid-el-Kabir festival?
My message to the people of Borno Emirate, the People of Borno State and Nigeria in general, is that I wish them a happy Eid-el-Kabir celebration. I am praying for the Almighty Allah to return our pilgrims back home safely. Secondly, security is a collective responsibility for everybody. I am therefore, appealing to the good people of Borno and Nigeria as a whole, to be security conscious. Our major problem in Borno is in respect of our borders. I have said it to so many people that our borders are too porous. Borno State shares international borders with three countries: Chad, Niger and Cameroon. Unless proper control is taken of our borders, we would continue to have problems here and there. This is because some of the problems we are facing are being brought and injected into the country from elsewhere. So, border control is very important.
There is also another serious issue which I am appealing to the federal government to look into seriously. It has to do with access roads for our people. For example, the distance from Kuroskawwa in Kukawa local government to Malam Fatori is just a distance of about 100 kilometers or so. But it will take you between three and four hours to reach by a four-wheel drive vehicle. This is because of the bad road and this is a federal government project. I am therefore appealing to the federal government to look into this problem. The issue of national grid of electricity is another problem for our people. About eight local government areas in Northern Borno are not connected to the national grid. An example is Abadam which is a border town between Nigeria and Niger. Other areas like Kukawa, Monguno, Nganzai, Ngala, Mafa, among others, are all not connected. So even when there is anything that you want to relay to the people, there is poor network. Even GSM lines are not working there because there is no light. It is also not possible for the people from these places to contact us. This is another security problem if you look at it very well. I am appealing to the federal government again to look into the ongoing oil exploration in Northern Borno because once this project becomes a reality, the state will achieve so many things. On the issue of poverty alleviation, His Excellency, the governor of the state, Alhaji Kashim Shettima, is trying because he has provided tricycles to many youths, including other palliative measures. But despite that, we are appealing to the federal government to look at the issue of poverty eradication in Borno; they should assist our youths in this direction.
Your Royal Highness, from what you said, it appears as if the federal government is a bit far away from Borno State in terms of wealth distribution?
Well, we have 27 local government areas in Borno. Out of these, eight are not connected to the national grid. So, we want the federal government to assist us in this direction and at the same time on the issue of road network. You see, the inter-local government roads are the responsibility of the state government while roads from one local government to another is a federal project. I am therefore, appealing to both the state and federal government to help my people in poverty alleviation, job creation and provision of social amenities. I am not saying the federal government is far but I want the federal and state governments to help and assist my people.
What would you say on constitutional responsibility for traditional rulers?
It is very important. If they can give constitutional responsibility to traditional rulers, it will be good. This is because traditional rulers are important. If something bad happens, they would look for traditional rulers and if things are going smoothly, nobody talks about traditional rulers but once there is a crisis they will say look for the Bulamas, Lawans (district and ward heads). You see, it is very important for the traditional rulers to be recognized. Even collection of tax and Jangali, if this responsibility is given to traditional rulers, along with other duties, they would definitely assist.
The Sultan of Sokoto will very soon mark his fifth year on the throne of the Caliphate. We would want you to comment on his leadership?
Oh Sultan! He is my president and our president. He is a nice gentleman. If you look at the history of the Kanem Borno Empire and the Sokoto Caliphate; I am from the El-Kanemi Dynasty and he (Sultan) is from the Usman Dan Fodiyo Dynasty. Right from 1814 to date, his people and my people have been together. They are all religious leaders and they are all traditional rulers. He is my brother; we are like Hassan and Hussain – left and right. He is the President of the Nigerian Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs; President General of the Jama’atu Nasril Islam; Co-chairman of the Inter-religious Council of Nigeria and I deputize him. I am the deputy President General of the Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs and also of the Jama’atu Nasril Islam and a member of the Inter religious council of Nigeria. We do meet, we discuss smoothly. The Sultan is a peace maker, peace lover and a complete gentleman. In fact, he doesn’t interfere and he allows everybody to do his work. I am the chairman of the general purpose committee of the Jama’atu Nasril Islam and the Sultan is the chairman of the central council. Whatever decisions we take at my committee, we always refer it to the main council and whenever he sees our deliberations, he hardly tampers with them. Whatever the Sultan does, he does consult us. Example is on the issue of moon sighting and anything affecting the Muslim Umma. Recently, he was in Saudi Arabia but he contacted me and enquired whether we have sighted the moon and I told him yes. He said ‘being I am absent and you are my deputy, pronounce this direct to the Sultanate Council in Sokoto’ to announce it, which I did and they announced it. You see, this is a quality of a good leader. Even if he in far away, he used to contact me on any matter which he feels is necessary for me to contribute. Not only me, he consults many other people, like the emirs of Kano, Zaria, Kazaure, Lamido of Adamawa, emir of Bauchi…in fact all our emirs before he takes a decision. The Sultan used to delegate authorities to his subordinates. Look at it, of recent, being that he is the Amirul Hajj of Nigeria and was away, he directed me to go and do the flag off (of airlift) in Abuja, which I did. So, we maintain a cordial relationship and we don’t have any problems with him and I wish him all the best and Allah’s guidance. The last time I visited Sokoto was in 1972; I was in secondary school when I escorted my father and since then, I have never been to Sokoto until in 2010 when I was invited to attend the Qur’anic recitation competition, which was organized by Usmanu Danfodio University. We (Borno) were lucky because we won many prizes and the present Sultan jokingly asked about the language we used to win and I told him it is Kanuri. The Sultan honoured me by giving the opportunity to commission the renovated office of the Jama’atu Nasril Islam in Sokoto. I respect the Sultan and we always take his words.
There are many crises across Nigeria and individuals and groups are proffering solutions that seem not to be working. As the Shehu of Borno, what do you think is the way forward?
This is a very simple issue. To the federal, states, local government areas and communities, my advice is that we should all go back to Allah, the Almighty who created us. Let us keep on praying for our state and the nation to have peace. So many crises have come and gone. The civil war had come and gone in Nigeria; in Borno, Rabi came and went, so many things, to me, only prayers is the solution and I always tell my people to keep on praying and this is what they have been doing.