Why traditional rulers are under siege in the North – Sen. Abdullahi Adamu

Senator Abdullahi Adamu, 77, has been part of the democratic journey of Nigeria, right from the First Republic. He participated in the Constituent Assembly in 1978; served as National Secretary of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN), and much later, he was also in the 1994 Constituent Assembly. He was a minister shortly before the […]

Senator Abdullahi Adamu, 77, has been part of the democratic journey of Nigeria, right from the First Republic. He participated in the Constituent Assembly in 1978; served as National Secretary of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN), and much later, he was also in the 1994 Constituent Assembly. He was a minister shortly before the return of democracy in 1999; and upon its return, he served as governor of Nasarawa State for two terms, during which he also served as Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum. The Turakin Keffi equally served as a senator for three consecutive terms, and then capped it all when he became the Chairman of the ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), which he led to victory in the 2023 elections. In this interview with Weekend Trust, the retired politician went back memory lane on how Nigeria started, how each of the regions excelled at its own phase, the role of traditional rulers in nation building, and why the institution must be protected, warning that unless political leaders in the North retrace their steps, the happenings in Kano, Sokoto, Katsina, among other states, would spell a doom for the region. Excerpts:

What do you think we need to focus on now to get on a developmental trajectory that will move Nigeria out of the current woods that we found ourselves?

Well, thank you very much for the opportunity to share thoughts on the issues that you are raising regarding the fortune or misfortune of our great country.

The problem that I see immediately is the fact that we have deliberately refused to know who we are, and therefore try to develop along the lines of our values as a people.

Before colonialism we had our mode of governance. When the colonialists took over, they took a hard look at who we are, what was the system that was keeping us alive, and they identified our traditional institutions as key to our governance practices.

They, therefore, took a deliberate decision to let the traditional institutions survive. They ruled us over that period through the traditional institutions. I think it was deliberate. Nobody forced that on them. They saw what these institutions were, and they decided to make the best use of the institution in their colonial governance.

It is, however, also a fact that even at that point in time, it was not all of Nigeria as we know it today that had embedded monarchies.

The North stood out. The South-West also stood out. Some parts of the South-South stood out in terms of traditional governance. The Eastern part of the country as we know it today did not have the traditional ruling system. They were essentially republicans. But when the colonialists were to bring them to power with other parts of the country, they introduced warrant chiefs in the East.

Now, each of these regions had opportunity to develop at its own pace. Each of them set for itself priority areas for governance, for development.

The North took to agriculture, and to some degree, each of the regions also saw wisdom in agriculture because virtually every family in the Nigerian indigenous setting is a farming family. The North had groundnut, had cotton, had sesame seeds, and had shea butter for export.

Some parts of the East had timber; some parts had palm kernels. Now, the regions were in a very healthy competition, and for ease of governance, the traditional institutions were at the root. The colonial masters saw their significance. They let them operate, and they drove the spirit for cultural development. That took us through to independence.

And if you take the budgets immediately after independence, the North had a commendation with about 13 million pounds for the year after its regional independence. That was about the 1963/63 budget. This prompted the Colonial Office to write a letter of commendation to the office of the Governor of Northern Nigeria, Sir Kashim Ibrahim.

In the West, the same thing happened; they were also into agriculture, they were into cocoa. And as we were growing, we saw what they called the Cocoa House, which stands still today as the position cocoa enjoyed in the defunct Western Region. Of course, the Mid-West and parts of the East had rubber, timber, and palm plantaition.

So, things went very well, and we got to a point where the coup of 1966 came and destabilised that order.

But the military attempted to bring the traditional rulers to the fore in governance, perhaps because they weren’t elected. Once a new military governor was appointed to a state, the first point of call was the palace of the (most senior) traditional ruler. The governor pays homage, and assures that he will work with the monarch, and also requiring his advice.

 

And probably to get some sort of legitimacy?

Yes. So, that brought them close to the people. And the traditional institution across the country played its part positively to aid the military administrations. Each of these military administrations gave a commitment to enhancing respect for the traditional institution.

Somehow, all through the years there was no genuine effort to get the traditional institutions appropriately recognised, to the extent of proper involvement in governance, either through some executive function or a very strong advisory role to play in the governance of the country.

That was how we eventually got to where we are now after the military beat a retreat, and we started having pure democratic dispensations.

Again, the Nigerian politicians that came on board from 1999 to date were no different. I was privileged to serve as a governor. And I remember the days we would go to these palaces during our campaigns, to give assurances in the course of seeking support from these traditional institutions, that we would work with them; that we would respect the institution, that we would recognise the historical significance and importance of the institution during our stewardships.

One significant development is the transformation in the quality of education of the current traditional rulers as against those of the olden days. Whether it’s with respect to Western or Islamic education, the traditional rulers of today, with the exception of a negligible few, are far beyond what was the case in the past in terms of Western education.

The palaces today are manned by seasoned academicians, captains of industry, military top brass, and acclaimed businessmen. 

And one would have expected that there would be a major shift in the attitude towards governance. We have found however, that we cannot really judge these traditional institutions on the face of their performance only.

 

But what about the kind of environment or atmosphere under which the traditional rulers operate?

The politicians, especially the governors started making some subtle incursions into the positions of the traditional rulers. Some got involved in attempts to plant people that did not come through the accepted legal method of selection. And so, their rulership, their tenure, is dependent on what we call ‘he who pays the piper was dictating the tune.’ And this has become preponderant, unfortunately. And so, the spiritual strength of the traditional rulers began to be diluted.

So, most of these traditional rulers lost their strongholds on their communities. Normally, the traditional rulers don’t talk publicly. They are usually seen, but not heard. And so, they stomach whatever abuses that they suffer.

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But based on some of these latest points that you’ve mentioned, we know very well that the traditional rulers are like the rallying points of their people virtually everywhere you go.  If you take someone like the late Ado Bayero, for instance, no person dares point a finger at him during his reign. His people would rally round him and ensure that they crush that personality that tries to undermine him. With what is happening to them today, will it be right to say that the traditional rulers have lost their respect in the eyes of their people?

I think you are right on that. The example you gave, that of His Highness, late Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero, KBE, of blessed memory. He was the embodiment of natural rulership. Through his 55 or so years of rulership, he was never part of any controversy. He enjoyed support beyond what you can describe.

All these things you see happening in Kano currently started after him and that’s why people talk about the role of politicians in this. Because, the Kano case is still in court, I do not want to go into it beyond this.

We are under oath, or they are supposed to be under oath. And if you take a look at the oath of office of governors, some of the things you see happening now should not happen. They will tell you that they’re not involved with this, but they are involved with it, unfortunately. And there is more of this in the North than in the South. It’s not because they (in the South) don’t have problems. The problem you see in the South, if any, is in the selection or succession. If it doesn’t work the way they understand it to be according to the rules, they won’t accept it. They will protest.

But here, we don’t protest. We are very accommodating. And because we are very accommodating, the person who is an authority, or who sees himself as a person of authority, believes he can also make and unmake, sometimes with careless abandon.

There are some emirates in the North that are still very, very peaceful. Sometimes you begin to wonder if they are not part of the problem that we are seeing here and there. But they have been able to hold on. Their governors have been able to respect their offices, and do only that which their oath of office permits. 

So, the level of tolerance matters. If a ruler, a governor of any state believes that his supporters are not having their ways on certain matters, and believes that the traditional ruler has a link with that challenge, then he plots the removal of that traditional ruler.

The fact is, if you want to find fault in the work of a public officer, it is not a herculean task. There is nothing difficult in giving a dog a bad name.

So, once they (politicians) find a straw to clutch on to, then they start creating problems for the traditional rulers. Unfortunately, I said, I repeat, unfortunately, you find preponderance of these tendencies in the North of today.

 

If Ado Bayero had it with integrity for those years that he reigned, what is fundamentally wrong with most of our traditional institutions now?

You see, that’s a different ballgame. I believe very strongly that the traditional institution has a role in governance in this country. I just gave you a rundown from the colonial days up to this point. These (traditional rulers) are tested people. This (traditional rulership) is a very tested institution. Whether you’re talking of the North, the West, or the East that even started with warrant chiefs, or to the Midwest and the South-South of this country, the traditional institution has done very, very well.

I am not saying, however, that they have no problems, or that there’s no element of failure in some cases. But how can we deny them a role (in governance), yet we want them to standout in a role that they don’t have? 

Here you are, as far as the Constitution is concerned, they’ve removed anything that will promote the traditional institution, anything that would promote the institution, or give them any role. There’s nothing that’s assigned to them (in the Constitution) but so much is expected of them.

 

So, based on this conviction of yours, one will wonder, you’ve played critical roles at different levels of governance, why have you not mobilised to ensure that we actually get certain constitutional roles, even if only adversary, for the traditional institution?

Well, today, I am toothless. But I did while I was in active political activities, particularly when I was in the Senate. In fact, let’s start with when I was the governor of Nasarawa State. The records are there, if they are not destroyed by now. I brought to the fore the laws of the defunct Northern Nigeria Emirate Council and Traditional Councils of Northern Nigeria, and replicated same for Nasarawa State. I gave traditional rulers roles in governance. Some of them are still alive to testify to this fact. We gave the traditional institutions roles to play.

Of course, we noticed that some of those in the executive arm of government have allergy for traditional rulers to share any of their executive functions.

So, being aware of this, I made sure I distanced myself and my administration from ensuring that they had any executive (power). But recognising the fact that they are an essential element of rulership in this state and in this country, I said charity begins at home. I decided, having made that law to ensure that when I was doing the budget, I took my budget to the traditional rulers’ council, under the leadership of the Emir of Lafia, late Isah Mustapha Agwai I. And the traditional rulers were meeting at least once per quarter.

Some of the activities that kept them busy when the practice was on were things like public health. I gave them role as public health inspectors. I tried to reintroduce it, they have a role for mobilisation and what have you. I also reintroduced tax and “Jangali”, being collected by the traditional rulers on behalf of government.

And why did I introduce tax? I reintroduced tax and “Jangali” because that is what makes the citizen feel the direct contribution to the public treasury; thereby feeling a sense of participation in the public till.

 

You reassigned these roles that were taken away from the traditional rulers in 1976?

Yes, and it worked for me. But a situation in which you don’t give a person any power and you want your own power to be effective, and you want him to be part of it doesn’t work.

 

Sir, what happened to the bill that you proposed while you were in the Senate for a constitutional role for the traditional rulers?

When I became a senator, I got some senators together and I got enough a number to initiate a bill, which went through a rigorous process for a whole year and then a whole term. That bill was not concluded. By the following term, that is the 8th Senate, I think, we initiated it again and we got it virtually completed but it was not passed for executive assent.

 

The Lower House did not concur?

No, it did. The House of Reps did. Then by the 9th Senate, we went over it again because each time you do something and it is not assented to, it elapses and you have to start the whole process again.

In the 9th Senate, we succeeded to the end and we sent it for assent and before the 9th Senate came to an end, I left the Senate to become the National Chairman of the APC. So, I cannot say on authority what happened to it.

But I remembered we mobilised the traditional institutions. Some of the times when the debates were taking place in the National Assembly, we got them to come and be part of it. And when we were doing a public hearing on the bill, the traditional rulers attended. But somehow, it was not signed into law.

 

What were some of the clauses in the bill, and what did you intended to achieve?

The essential thing, like I said the beginning, the executive does not want to share its power; that is the real no go area, okay?

So, what I did with my colleagues was to develop a bill in which essentially, all we were doing was giving them advisory roles. 

 

It should be part of the Constitution?

Yes; it should be part of the Constitution like an amendment. There will be a committee of traditional rulers at the national level that would be advising the president when the president needed such advice.

If there is a budget, the budget is presented to them; if there is an issue, if there is an order that the president wants to make, they should be consulted, so that the government will have their buy-in into such a matter(s).

 

Will it look like the Council of State where you have former presidents meeting with the president?

Something like that; so that they can feel a part of it (governance). A person cannot be a ruler, you recognised his rulership, you believe he has a role he can play for you to succeed, yet you deny them any form of role/ say in the affairs of state.

 

Sir, there is a concern about the bid of complexity in our society. For instance, in the United Kingdom, there is only one royal family and it has certain functions recognised constitutionally. Here, you have multi-faceted levels of even the traditional rulers. So, is it something that you still think would have worked if this bill that you proposed had actually been assented to?

You see, this has nothing to do with our complexities. It has to do with the recognition of an institution; that is what it is all about.

In fact, after the attempt to do this and we didn’t quite get through with it as it is now, the traditional rulers, by themselves, have come together, the Emirs and Chiefs and Obas and what have you, and have established the National Council of Traditional Rulers of Nigeria (NCTRN). Now, they were probably advised to do that but that is too informal. If the president or governor wakes up tomorrow, and doesn’t want it, all he says is stop it. Shikenan! And there are no remedies whatsoever.

 

Sir, who is deceiving who? During election cycles, you see those looking for elective positions visiting traditional rulers. They assure them of roles.

That is why I said to you a while ago, people should always remember God. These governors that are complaining about the traditional rulers are under oath. Take a look at their oath of office, that of the governor, that of the president and that of others; it is very clear. Some of them, what they are doing is absolutely ungodly. And we have a society that has got the capacity for absorbing nonsense, unfortunately.

 

Sir, with the heightened attempt to dethrone and enthrone traditional rulers in many states in recent times: we have one bill being debated at the Sokoto State House of Assembly about what functions or roles the Sultan should perform, what he should not, and other similar cases, what is the solution?

It is already messy, unfortunately. Well, I am afraid I will take the bullet on this. I have resisted the temptation to talk for sometime now; but this subject is dear to me. It is dear to me because I have seen what it (the traditional institution) has been able to do for this country. I believe there can be no true stability for as long as this institution is just shelved aside. The institution must be brought in (through a constitutional role). What is happening now is, with due respect to the leaders at various levels in the country, we need to be careful. 

And I want to make a clear distinction here. This case of the traditional institution, until we have a definite constitutional provision, lies with the governors than with the president. Because they are under direct purview of the state administrations. We must keep the president isolated from the politics of traditional institutions, because unless you take the matter to him, he doesn’t interfere.

Of course, where it becomes absolutely necessary, the president can be invited to intervene.

I think a generation or two, if not three, maybe even four of our state chief executives, and I say so with due respect to those of them who may not be at fault in what we are discussing, we seem to have learnt nothing and have forgotten nothing; otherwise, we wouldn’t be where we are today. They are behaving as if they have learnt nothing.

We must commend those governors who have truly been showing respect to this revered institution. 

There is no single ethnic nationality in Nigeria today that hasn’t got an institution as recognised by the communities as providing leadership than the traditional institution. Come to think of it, the governor is not involved in the day-to-day running of the state, he is not. This traditional institution runs the state affairs of our citizens, on a daily basis. Which governor knows what is happening in every part of the remote areas? A competent traditional ruler knows what is happening within his emirate or area of jurisdiction. He has district heads, he has village heads, he has hamlet heads, and everyday, if they are working, he gets reports from them as to what is happening on day-to-day basis. That is if the system is working.

But because over the years, we are weakening the traditional institution progressively, we are having to deal with insecurity in this country today.

We have said it time and again; maybe we have not got the listening ears to hear this, before any governor sitting in his office in his state capital knows what is happening in a village, the traditional ruler who is effective knows it through his chain of commend of the institution down the ladder.

He has, like I said, the hakimai, dagatai, masu unguwowi, that is in the North here. I don’t want to pretend to know much of what the traditional institutions in the South are or are not doing. But I do know, if they were not working well, you would have heard that long before now. They have as much responsibilities as we have in the North.

 

Why does the traditional institution in the South appear to be more stable compared to what we have in the North?

The fact of the matter is, they are stable because there is little or no interference in who becomes Oba or Igwe. They have their set methods of selection or succession and they go by it. They hardly can alter the order without facing the consequences of their actions or inactions.

 

Isn’t it because of the homogeneity of their culture, mostly the same tribe?

That can be a factor, no doubt about it. And they are supposedly, generally speaking, more educated, especially in terms of Western education than us in the North here. Their tolerant culture is miles away from us. And if you touch their nerves, they will react almost instantly.

 

Sir, if we would ask you to put a final word to the politicians in Northern Nigeria; just what is it?

Well, I want them to be careful. I want our political leaders in the North to be careful. All this attitude of playing to the gallery will not take them anywhere. This institution has become a very critical part of us from time immemorial. It is our cherished heritage.

Those who still think they can destroy it or weaken it beyond salvation are deceiving themselves, and they should all know that no condition is permanent. I was a governor; I am not a governor today. I take my car, drive myself to any place in the state (Nasarawa State), and I don’t get molested. I am not saying that I am Mr. Perfect, I am not. I have my weaknesses no doubt about it. But when it comes to this kind of responsibilities we must all tread with caution.

There is no point making our part of the country, which used to be part of the ideal or model now become a laughingstock. Our leaders must be careful. This is not the North they inherited, and a good child wants to keep the legacy of his/her parents.

 

But are there certain things the traditional rulers must do in order to protect the sanctity of their institution?

The fact of the matter now is that the institution is being polluted, unfortunately. Of course, every responsibility has an obligation that goes with it. They have their own obligations but are not even allowed to perform what is basic to our model of governance.

So, it is the failure of the government to let them do what they should do or for interfering unduly with their established roles, that is giving them big cover in their own cases. You have not allowed him to work. But a person who is so revered, the office of say the Sultan of Sokoto (sorry I have to give an example here), if what we are hearing and reading are correct, then that would amount to an abomination!

If this is happening to the Aku Uka of Wukari, I will also call it an abomination because these are institutions that have come such a long way. If this should happen to the Shehu of Borno, I will call it an abomination.

So, to sum it up, these (present) leaderships (at the state level) must be careful. We have come a long way and we would want to be seen as a generation that brought the North to its knees by being the destroyers of our cherished legacies.

Only a year or two ago, the Southern governors who stood their grounds saying this time around, they must have a president from their own part of the country. Though they were not from the same political platform they worked hard and they have a president. But the point here is that they stood by their people.

The issues of bad governance, if you hear of them, they are from the North. Now, the North is at the receiving end; and we must be careful.

They (the traditional rulers) are our spiritual leaders of the North. They are the Shehu of Borno; they are the Aku Uka of Wukari; they are the Lamido of the Adamawa; they are the Tor Tiv. Outside the emirates in the olden days, the Tor Tiv was the first most senior traditional ruler in Northern Nigeria.

Now, you begin to wonder what is happening? This interference (in the traditional rulers’ affairs) is too much and they have been tolerant. They have pulled back too much and their institution is being abused. I am sorry to say this, but I say so with good intention.

That is why I said isolate the president in this matter. It is not the president’s matter. The more you bring it (the presidency) in, then you start complaining, oh the president has intervened, the president is not interfering in this matter. No! Of course, not every northern state governor is guilty of this charge. Those who are involved with this unbecoming attitude towards this revered institution must retrace their administrative steps. By God, the institution has survived for centuries; it will continue to survive.