Setting the record straight on Zazzau Emirate

The series of interviews by Ahmed Nuhu Bamalli, the appointed Emir of Zazzau, with the Hausa Radio station of FRI did not change history, but it reopened old wounds. His account of the process was far from the truth. He made history sound like a matter of personal opinion. For the affected communities of Zazzau, […]

The series of interviews by Ahmed Nuhu Bamalli, the appointed Emir of Zazzau, with the Hausa Radio station of FRI did not change history, but it reopened old wounds. His account of the process was far from the truth. He made history sound like a matter of personal opinion. For the affected communities of Zazzau, this history is not up for debate. A wrong does not become right simply because time has passed. Whether it happened 4 years ago or 50 years ago, it remains wrong.

Bamalli was appointed the Emir of Zazzau despite not being elected by the five kingmakers. He focused on how he was graded instead of accepting that he did not satisfy the traditional and contemporary requirement—the kingmakers’ votes. It is surprising how he omitted the historical context of all the 18 Emirs of Zazzau, as well as the modern guidance of Kaduna State Chieftaincy and Traditional Council Laws.

Presenting himself as the victim, after benefiting from an abusive process, is an insult to the Zazzau community. People are still affected by the attempts made to legitimise his appointment. They have changed the chieftaincy laws, launched media campaigns, and even went as far as instituting lawsuits, cancelling traditional titles, land grabbing, and demolishing houses, to silence the aggrieved. But every attempt only exposes their guilt and desperation to twist history. It’s fair to say that the State Assembly has received several petitions on this matter.

Luckily, the challenge continues. Waziri Ibrahim Aminu remains resolute. For the first time, he spoke to the media to debunk the assertions made. Waziri clarified that the selection process for an Emir is based on the votes cast for the candidates, not grades. They voted for three out of 11 applicants. Of the three who secured votes from the five kingmakers, one got three votes, and the other two got one vote each. Two are still alive. By law and tradition, only they are eligible to be appointed Emir. Any other appointee lacks legitimacy, as in the current case. This is why people of Zazzau are challenging Bamalli’s appointment with the seriousness it deserves, regardless of how long ago it happened.

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From the start, everyone knew el-Rufai’s preference. It is public knowledge that government officials were scrutinising the process. These include the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), the Commissioner for Local Governments, the Commissioner of Police, and the DSS. And Waziri’s interview confirmed it.

However, given that the voting did not favour him, Bamalli claimed the Kingmakers designed the criteria to exclude him. Waziri clarified that the grading was done after they voted and graded the three selected candidates. It was the then-Governor who pressured them to grade everyone who sent their applications. Bamalli came seventh. And no matter the number of marks anyone received from the grading, it is useless as long as they did not receive a vote from the kingmakers.

We all remembered how el-Rufai was tweeting about reading books and finding historical documents so that he could have support to appoint Bamalli. He frustrated the effort quite badly to the point of losing credibility in the eyes of the people.

Bamalli claimed that during the selection chaos, even President Buhari called on the Governor to do the right thing. But did he? Did Buhari order the military tankers to suppress the people of Zazzau? People still have memories of military tankers surrounding their houses and the death threats sent to parents, how soldiers were publicly saying they were ordered to shoot on sight.

People still remember when a Northern elder cautioned the Governor that, “it is important to remind el-Rufai that only God’s choice is perfect. The longer the process is delayed, the more widespread the speculations that the government is looking for its own Emir, not the Emir of Zazzau.”

After the vote failed to favour Bamalli, the government continued to persist. Sanusi Lamido even appeared via video to lobby for him, to no avail.  The same Northern elder cautioned them again, saying, “Sanusi should stay out of the Emir of Zazzau debacle. If he must get involved, he should advise his friend (el-Rufai) to resolve this problem now, and justly. The Governor is boxing himself into a corner. His options are getting worse by the day.” In this digital age, these things remain fresh in people’s memories.

In other justifications, he provided unsubstantiated examples from other emirates in recent times, in the North, where princes were elected as Emirs without being district heads. He attempted to argue that he should have been compensated for not being a District Head, citing his ambassadorial post in Thailand and Myanmar. He went so far as to compare himself to the late Emir of Kano, Ado Bayero, who was an Ambassador when elected as the Emir. He also mentioned one “Sanusi”, which we all reckon he was referring to Emir Sanusi Lamido of Kano. Some would think this sounds uncultured. He also mentioned Sultan Sa’ad Abubakar of Sokoto, Sultan Ibrahim Dasuki, and the Emir of Gwandu Emirates. But he sneakily omitted the fact that, unlike himself, their kingmakers had legally elected them.

He even went to great lengths to equate the position of an ambassador with that of the President. For the record, an ambassador is a diplomat appointed to represent a government in another country. They follow instructions from the foreign ministry. That position is not equivalent to a president who is the chief executive of the government and the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces. In short, he is a messenger, not the master.

He went on to claim that no emirate in northern Nigeria has multiple ruling houses apart from Zaria. This is incorrect. Kano and Katsina have multiple ruling houses, even though they have not ruled for a long while. The lineage of Dallazawa, the descendants of Ummarun Dallaje, the first Fulani emir of Katsina, are still active in the Emirate. The active families of Suleiman dan Abu Hama, the first Fulani Emir of Kano, will also not be happy with this assertion. These two emirate neighbours are with Zazzau. He owes them this respect and would not be happy if this treatment were meted out to the Mallawa ruling class five years ago. The good thing is that people are not buying this cheap explanation.

For the neutral onlooker, the people of Zazzau are expected to get over the Emirate tussle like they do when elections are stolen or when people are brutally massacred. It does not work like that. Yes, it is easy to move on when it does not affect your own community. But do not tell that to those who lost their loved ones innocently. Since his imposition, no day passes without the people of Zazzau remembering those who abused the laws and process that brought him to the throne.

But power is transient in today’s Nigeria, even the righteous suffer—more so the unjust.