Editor's Note: This article was written by Sadiq Umar Abdullahi, an Abuja based legal practitioner and youth activist.
| (Eyo Festival. Image Courtesy www.nairaland.com) |
To the most gracious, most noble and most
royal Emirs, Kings and Chiefs of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. With total
gratitude to almighty Allah, I am most humble, obedient and respectful to your
esteemed, prestigious and royal personality ordained by almighty God.
It is
with a heavy heart and passionate, positive intentions for our culture and
heritage that I would like to appeal to your better judgement and publicly
pronounce my personal views which I consider a reality in our great country, and to inform your majesties that
it is my personal opinion and I believe I speak for other citizens of Nigeria
when I say our culture and heritage is dying and it is depreciating
at a swift pace. Westernization has infiltrated our country’s culture and
heritage making it superior to the old way of life we considered to be the only
history we have in our nation.
I strongly believe that we the younger
generation need to pull ourselves together and brain storm on how this important
issue can be dealt with swiftly and amicably, under the supervision of elders
like your royal selves and other leaders that share the same view. The bitter
truth is that, it is very obvious that in 10 to 20 years, children that were
born in this generation will have no regard for our traditional rulers and
their emirates. Some of them might even go as far as constructing a theory that
will depict the history of our traditional rulers as pioneers of slavery in the
19th century and even before then, when they read about how slaves were used in
the old kingdoms. This could motivate them to disregard everything that has to
do with our historic cultural heritage.
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| (Niger Delta Boat Regatta. Image Courtesy www.brookings.edu) |
Your majesties,
what I am trying to do is create an awareness that will depict the relevance of our
traditional rulers and how rich and important our culture is, so people all
over the world can see it, admire and appreciate our norms, values and
heritage. With all due respect to the 1976 local government reforms, there is a
growing general consensus clearly stating that it was a wrong decision and
judgement to weaken the authority and status of our traditional rulers and
their kingdoms to such a point that they are under state/local governments. I also believe
our kings and their emirates should be independent of the government and they
should be allowed to stand on their own and govern their subjects in a way they
see fit because at the end of the day, no one knows their subjects more than the
traditional rulers and no one can control their subjects and give them justice
in a manner of fair hearing and judgments more than the Emirs and kings of
those emirates.
| (Durbar Festival, Kano. Image Courtesy: www.nairaland.com) |
Presidents, Governors, Senators, members of the House of Representatives come
and go but Emirs and Kings will forever remain until the day God almighty
ordains their demise. To reiterate my statements and facts, it is clear that
the prestige, value and significance of our traditional Emirs in the northern
part of Nigeria and the Kings in the eastern and southern kingdoms are losing
their status at an alarming rate which needs to be looked into. It is my belief
that the issue of granting the emirates and kingdoms in Nigeria a more
productive role, most especially with regard to security. This was one
of the matters that should have been prioritized in the constitutional conference that
was conducted in the year 2014 as opposed to the political situations of the
six geopolitical zones of the country focusing on which part of the country
gets what and who becomes what. The traditional rulers of Nigeria have been
marginalized almost to the point of extinction and if things continue at the pace in
which our country is being governed, then, economic, security and unlawful
conduct will rapidly prevail in our societies.
I see
no reason why our Emirs and Kings should be subject to the authority and discretion
of the State and Federal Government which puts them in an unproductive role in
societies and reduces their status and power so low that even a local
government chairman is considered superior to them. With all due respect to the Federal and State government, it is obvious that
our traditional rulers know their subjects and the terrain of their emirates
and kingdoms more than anyone else.
This demise and low standards that have been invoked on our traditional rulers
has made them vulnerable and gives ample room for scrutinizing them even by the
lowest of the low among the Nigerian citizens, thereby giving any individual
and government in power, both the young and old the ability to treat them with
utmost disrespect and threaten them to comply with their wishes due to the fact
that they can depose them and at the same time impose whom they want in order
to protect their interest, as the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria gives them the authority to do so.
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| (New Yam Festival. Image Courtesy: www.zyrnolink.blogspot.com) |
Our
culture and heritage is very important and it is imperative that we preserve them as history will judge us as the generation
that contributed to its demise. Our traditional emirates and kingdoms should be
autonomous and independent from both the Federal and State government. They
should play a major role in the administration of the country at both State and
Federal levels, working hand in hand with government as opposed to just playing
a supervisory role in our society. The emirates and kingdoms need to move at a
pace which modernization and the way time changes which will synchronize the
efforts of running the affairs of the country swiftly and more effectively with
precise and specific ideologies. Last but not the least, the northern Emirs,
Southern and Eastern Kings and the Niger Delta Chiefs should encourage their local council members and
personal servants to acquire a certain degree of education and literacy in
order to keep up with the rapid change in globalization and
modernization.
There is a threat that happens to be emerging from underneath the surface. It
also happens to be inevitable and imminent and if things continue the way they are,
then I’m sorry to say that in a decade or two, maybe even less, a government
might emerge into power that will dissolve and reform all our northern Emirs
and southern kings to local council Chiefs, leaving only His Eminence, the
Sultan of Sokoto and the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria(CAN)
with royal status in Nigeria, knowing very well that if they dare try to reform
those two institutions of religious significance, then chaos and anarchy will
be the case. Violence and bloodshed will be unavoidable and absolutely
destructive to the nation’s peace and unity.
Sadiq
Umar Abdullahi. Bsc,LLb,MA,P.h.D
sadiqjust@gmail.com
sadiqjust@gmail.com
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