Wazirn Katsina: The loss and the gain

When the news reached me in late February that Dr Sani Abubakar Lugga had resigned from the position of Wazirin Katsina, I took it with a twinge of sadness. This is because I know how he relished holding the post and I have witnessed how he promoted Katsina wherever you met him. There is hardly […]

When the news reached me in late February that Dr Sani Abubakar Lugga had resigned from the position of Wazirin Katsina, I took it with a twinge of sadness. This is because I know how he relished holding the post and I have witnessed how he promoted Katsina wherever you met him. There is hardly a traditional title in the emirates of the far-North that had over the years captured the imaginations of the public than that of the Wazirin Katsina. I guess it had to do with how the office grew in importance in the last century and also the aura of those who occupied it, despite its being more or less a sinecure appointment.

We might recall that when the British colonial power engineered a dynastic change in Katsina by appointing the Durbin Katsina, Muhammadu Dikko, as Emir in 1906, he in turn chose his closest associate, Mallam Haruna, a famous Islamic scholar of the time, as his first Waziri. Not only that, Sarki Dikko also invited the Waziri to live with him in the palace.

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He later gave him the additional title of Sarkin Kaita. Sarki Dikko and his Waziri must have collaborated so well to put Katsina high up as the educational power house of the North. The first college in the North, Katsina College was sited there in 1922 and that’s where Sardauna Ahmadu Bello, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Sir Kashim Ibrahim and a host of Northern leaders had their early tutelage. When Waziri Haruna died, he left behind one of the largest families ever in Katsina with 105 children out of which 71 reached adulthood. It has been the privilege of that lineage to provide Katsina with all its waziris since then.  

In recent memories, we can recall Isa Kaita as Wazirin Katsina. One of the sons of Waziri Haruna, he was the Minister of Education Northern Region, and was reputed to have spearheaded the creation of ABU Zaria, Abdullahi Bayero College, Kano and a host of quality secondary schools across the North. At his death in 1995, he was succeeded by Hamza Zayyad, one of the first two northerners to become chartered accountants. He was the Group Managing Director of New Nigerian Development Corporation, Kaduna, Nigeria’s single largest diversified holding company with a portfolio of 145 companies. Hamza Zayyad was later in 1988 to become the Chairman of the Technical Committee on Privatization and Commercialization (TCPC) an outfit that was to privatise and commercialise federal government enterprises. Hamza Zayyad was well regarded as the leader of the northern technocrats.

When Waziri Zayyad died in 2002, Lugga from the same family of wazirai was appointed to take his place. A scholar with shining academic credentials, Lugga brought a new impetus to the office. He had written books about Katsina and was reputed to be the promoter of Al Qalam University, one of the earliest private universities in the North. Very much grounded in Katsina, Waziri Lugga became one of its foremost ambassadors. I met him a number of times in 2010 when he was on the board of the National Orientation Agency (NOA) where I represented the Federal Ministry of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation. Waziri Lugga was prompt at meetings. He comported himself regally and never refrained from sharing his rich and varied experience at discussions. The most unique aspect about him is that he always carried the books he had authored to the board meetings which he shared freely. I have quite a number now in my study and I must say that I learnt more about Katsina from his books than anywhere else. 

It is a great pity that Waziri Lugga, had to resign shortly after responding to an administrative query issued by the Emirate Council requesting him to explain his comments on insecurity in the state. I guess his passion for Katsina had made him to probably say things he shouldn’t have on the matter of insecurity, and took the honorable way out.

Nevertheless, I consider his resignation a great loss to Katsina, but I also welcome his replacement, Ibrahim Ida. A consummate technocrat, Ida has also established himself over the years as a community leader in Katsina. He held the posts of Dan Maje and was lately appointed as the Sardaunan Katsina. He was Katsina State Commissioner of Finance when he transferred his services to the Federal Civil Service. He was appointed Permanent Secretary and served in various departments and ministries including the Ministry of Defence. As Permanent Secretary, Economic Office of the Presidency, Ida was coordinator/ secretary of Vision 2010, a major planning tool with a forward-looking programme that took a whole year to prepare, drawing from the experiences of the leading lights in both the private and public sectors.

He helped set up the Petroleum Trust Fund, a body created by the federal government in 1994 to manage the excess funds from the petroleum pump price and use it to address the infrastructural deficit in the country. He coordinated the activities of PTF, until when it was solidly on its feet. Later he was Permanent Secretary Ministry of Defence from where he finally retired to take a Law degree. He became a barrister and established his practice before jumping into the political arena. He stood and was elected Senator for Katsina Central in 2007.

That’s what the office of Wazirin Katsina has gained.