TY Danjuma’s day of honour

That the durbar, a staple of celebrations in major northern cities of Nigeria, is cancelled for any reason whatsoever points to how much concern trails security in the north of the country.When Lt-Gen Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma was turbaned as Jarmai of Zazzau, he pleaded with the emirate to drop the planned durbar, “given the sad […]

That the durbar, a staple of celebrations in major northern cities of Nigeria, is cancelled for any reason whatsoever points to how much concern trails security in the north of the country.
When Lt-Gen Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma was turbaned as Jarmai of Zazzau, he pleaded with the emirate to drop the planned durbar, “given the sad reality of our present situation in northern Nigeria.”
The ceremony he called for was a low key “simple but dignified ceremony devoid of pomp and pageantry”.
But armed soldiers, gun-toting suits and rifled mobile police interspersed with the crowd. Every corner had security on the tail of high-profile politicians, leaders and past rulers entering Zazzau.
“We are in a season of sorrow and mourning caused by decades of neglect of a sizeable segment of our society. Now our people are dying in thousands in needless battles and conflicts.”
Few rich, multitude of poor
In recent times, conflicts with the terrorist group Boko Haram have dominated Northern, surpassing a rash of other clashes in sheer numbers of people killed.
Media reports in the weeks following declaration of emergency rule in Adamawa, Yobe and Borno coined an “axis of death” to reflect the situation.
When it didn’t kill outright, it’s rent the economy, throw children out of school, Danjuma said.
Danjuma was former Defence Minister and head of the Presidential Advisory Committee during the last days of former President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.
Penultimate week, he put responsibility for the country’s present problems on its leaders, especially in the north of the country, insisting there could be no peace and harmony “where there is wide disparity between the few rich and a multitude of the poor.”
“Our society and economy are in tatters. In a highly competitive world, our children are missing out in getting qualitative and functional education. The masses of our people are chained down in dehumanising and grinding poverty while we continue to maintain few islands of false prosperity in a turbulent ocean of penury and squalor.”
He said Nigeria, and indeed northern Nigeria, had surplus of politicians scheming and screaming for advantages but was short on patriotic elder statesmen willing to use their experience to give a clear sense of direction and purpose.
“When elders become decadent, the youths are bound to become delinquent,” he charged, noting that a country’s peoples like proverbial flock scattered on many hills without a shepherd was a “clear indication of failed leadership.”
Looking to the past
In the past, the Jarma commanded Zazzau emirate’s reserve force in battle and aided grassroot development in the kingdom, according to a telling by Emir of Zazzau, Alhaji Shehu Idris
In the present, the Jarma is expected to continue philanthropy that’s seen him move a chunk of personal fortune into education, community health, income generation and policy advocacy through the TY Danjuma Foundation in 14 states, including the FCT.
Grants to non-government organisations since 2010 have exceeded N843 million, along with nearly 50,000 eye surgeries, treatment for an estimated 1.5 million people with neglected tropical diseases.
The latest is N2 billion grant to the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria where former head of state Ibrahim Babangida compared Danjuma to the late Sardauna of Sokoto.
Penultimate week, Babangida said the past decade has seen Danjuma assume “his most important responsibility to the people of the country in the part of ministering to the needs and aspirations of the vast number of needful Nigerians in the area of education, health, community and rural development.”
They are the same challenges that have set what Danjuma called “our house” in disarray. “This is the time for elders to be circumspect and temperate in their utterances. It is not in our character as northerners to talk too much. We need to think more, pray more, plan more, work harder, relate better, but talk less,” he said.
But the root of Nigeria’s present problems is not so deep as to make the problems beyond solution, said Danjuma, insisting the country needed a “spirit of knowledge, tolerance, harmony, peace and prosperity.”
“In spite of the many years of mismanaged opportunities and resources, I still believe that Nigeria can be reawakened and rebuilt to achieve greatness. If we renew our mind and reconcile with one another, if we coordinate our determined efforts, we can make northern Nigeria self-reliant and self-sufficient, while enhancing the unity and prosperity of all Nigeria. But first we must have peace.”