Sultan Muhammadu Sa’ad at 10

Three days of colourful celebrations began in Sokoto yesterday to mark ten years since the ascension of Alhaji Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar as the Sultan of Sokoto, the top royal stool in Northern Nigeria. The celebrations kicked off with an international symposium on the Sokoto Caliphate. There was also a photo exhibition, a cultural night and […]

Three days of colourful celebrations began in Sokoto yesterday to mark ten years since the ascension of Alhaji Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar as the Sultan of Sokoto, the top royal stool in Northern Nigeria. The celebrations kicked off with an international symposium on the Sokoto Caliphate. There was also a photo exhibition, a cultural night and the unveiling of the Nana Asma’u College of Health Sciences named after the great 19th century Caliphate scholar Nana Asma’u. Special prayers are being held today at the Hubbare in Sokoto and a mini durbar is slated for tomorrow.
Sultan Muhammadu Sa’ad is the twentieth in the unbroken line of Sokoto Sultans since 1808, when the Jihad led by Sheikh Usman Danfodio ended on a victorious note with the establishment of the Sokoto Caliphate. The original title was Amirul Mumineen or Commander of the Faithful, which British colonialists renamed Sultan of Sokoto in 1903. The Jihad of 1804-08 was one of the most epochal events in the history of West Africa with far reaching impact on political arrangement, economic activity and trade, social organisation, scholarship and foreign relations throughout the region.
The Sultan of Sokoto is the President General of the Nigeria Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs; President General of the Jama’atu Nasril Islam; Chairman of the Conference of Northern Emirs and Chiefs and also Co-Chairman of the Nigeria Inter-Religious Advisory Council alongside the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN. In his ten years on the throne, Sultan Muhammadu Sa’ad has discharged all of these functions admirably and has been a foremost advocate and promoter of national unity, inter-religious dialogue, peaceful coexistence and national progress through peace and education.
All these he has been able to achieve despite the sad circumstances under which he assumed the throne, following the sudden death of his predecessor and elder brother Sultan Muhammadu Maccido in the ADC plane crash at Abuja Airport on October 29, 2006. Sultan Muhammadu Sa’ad was however able to easily fit the bill because of the tutelage he received under his father, the great Sultan Sir Abubakar III, and also his own successful career as a soldier and diplomat.
He had entered the Nigeria Defence Academy in 1975 and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in 1977. He led a battalion of peacekeepers in Chad during the early 1980s as part of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU)’s peace force. He was at one time the military liaison officer for the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in the mid-1990s. In his 31 years’ military service, Sultan Sa’ad also served as Nigeria’s defence attaché to Pakistan with concurrent accreditation to Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan. He established a firm reputation as a strict disciplinarian, patriot and scholarly soldier, virtues that have served him well on the throne.
His one decade on the throne has not been without challenges. The goal of achieving unity among the Muslim ummah was made difficult by unhealthy rivalries among Muslim sects. The Sultan has nimbly handled these issues through continuous dialogue and strives for peaceful resolution of disputes. Even more challenging has been the strive to minimise mutual distrust conflicts between Muslims and Christians especially in the Northern states. Things were not made easier by the coming of Boko Haram, the violent sect that has killed tens of thousands and rendered millions of people homeless allegedly in the name of Islam. In addition to domestic problems, Sultan Muhammadu Sa’ad has been very active on the international scene and has attended many seminars in Europe and America to present the true image of Islam as a religion of peace, a task also made difficult by the terrorist activities of Al-Qaeda and ISIS.
We congratulate Sultan Muhammadu Sa’ad on the tenth anniversary of his ascension to the throne and we wish him a long, peaceful and prosperous reign.