Opinion

By Aliyu Nuhu

While congratulating the families of train victims for the safe return of their relatives, something very sad came to mind about the whole tragedy.

1- The ultimate winners are the terrorists. They achieved all their objectives without retribution. They have all their inmates released, collected hefty amounts of money in billions of Naira and foreign currencies and went away without losing a soul. Meanwhile they inflicted damages on Nigeria. They killed passengers, destroyed a train and stopped it from operation for seven months and instilled fear in the minds of Nigerians.

2- The biggest tragedy is that all the captives were released through payment of ransoms which impoverished family economies, some might never recover. The last victims were released by military committee which means more money were paid and the military might have also cornered part of the ransom money. In the whole saga there was no shooting, no arrest, not even declaring some people wanted. What kind of country do we have for God’s sake? Time will tell the kind of arrangement reached for the release of the victims.

3- We just have a paper military. What is there in a military that cannot use force on terrorists. There is nothing impressive about military that abandoned its trade and go to terrorists and pay ransoms. It is really a shame on NIGERIAN government.

4- As long as people benefit from train attacks and kidnapping there will be no end to this kind of tragedy. The terrorists have made a good, safe and profitable venture and have probably gone to plan another attack. Security agencies that benefit from it will be too willing to be part of the next attack. The Mamus that made billions from ransom negotiation will be waiting to make ransom harvest. A kidnapping Industry has been created by government’s inability to deal ruthlessly with criminals.

By Mohammed Aliyu

The National Peace Committee, headed by the former Head of State, General Abdulsalam Abubakar (retd.) and other elder statesmen would have been more respected and crucial had they played the committee with the grandeur it deserves. Established in 2014, the committee has not achieved anything following its record. As such, its function is nothing but a jamboree, where aspirants meet and share some private moments, thereby deceiving the gullible who trusted them by their words.

The vulnerability of the committee was so evident in 2019 when one of its members was seen dancing with another aspirant and denouncing the other candidate rather than playing neutral by preaching the peace he claimed to be advocating. Such an immodest attitude alone can create chaos, put doubt in the minds of other aspirants, and ridicule the entire process. Again, no need to mention names but a committee like this ought to have credible individuals that are all respected, who are also mindful of their utterances, actions and even public image – by extension, be less controversial.

To revisit the past, in 2015, President Goodluck Jonathan accepted defeat on his own without any influence from any quarter, as he stated in his book Transitional Hours. In 2019, electorates massively voted for President Buhari, yet no crisis was recorded. Still, the committee’s capacity has not been proven, although they claimed to have calmed Atiku Abubakar, who insistently went to court on his own but failed there.

The 2023 election that brought religion into politics is perhaps dosed with fear of violence, and this is the moment that the peace committee may save the country, but will they? The National Peace Committee is the initiation of some individuals that called themselves ‘Elder Statement’, and members were selected without merit. The peace committee is concerned with only the aftermath of election violence and not other forms of insecurity, let alone proffer solutions to lingering critical issues that the country is bedevilled with now and then. Like the present ASUU strike, agitations, persistent farmer/herder clashes, communal clashes, religious intolerance, and other vital issues that threaten national peace and security that may even not allow any election to hold.

To send a message that the peace committee is not credible, in 2019, PDP presidential aspirant Atiku Abubakar failed to attend the accord signing for reasons known to him. Instead, he went after the public ceremony. Bola Tinubu, another aspirant of APC, again failed to attend the September 2022 Peace Accord. Instead, he sent his running mate, Kashim Shettima. All this weakens the credibility and popularity of the committee. The priority given to candidates rather than parties is a clear sign that the peace agreement has lapses that must be corrected if they want to be relevant in the future. Electorates choose a party, not a candidate, even though they are by extension. Candidates are identified by their parties because, without the platform, they are idle. The peace committee must look inward and prioritise party chairpersons during such occasions. That way, they are dealing with an organisation, not an individual.

In my opinion, the National Peace Committee should be changed to the National Council of Elders, and their mandate should be transformed so that it will have a national look and have representatives from all sections of the country. The members should be credible people who are respected. They should advise the government on solutions to bring lasting peace before, during and after the election circle.

However, the interest of the National Peace Committee is not for peace to reign, nor for good governance but for the personal interest of what they may get in the new government. As such, expect nothing but flaws in their shoddy policies. While they are signing the accord in Abuja, I wish my fellow compatriots would do the same locally since we are the anticipated thugs that will cause violence.

Mohammed Aliyu wrote via aliyu.wasilu@gmail.com.

Abdelghaffar Amoka Abdelmalik, PhD.

The major newspapers published the speech delivered by the president at the “Fourth National Summit on Diminishing Corruption in the Public Sector” on the 4th of October 2022. In the speech, the president said, “corruption in the education system from basic level to the tertiary level has been undermining our investment in the sector, and those who go on prolonged strikes on flimsy reasons are no less complicit.” The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, is the union on strike, so the newspapers reported it with headlines that “Buhari accuses ASUU of corruption”.

The president definitely does not have a thorough understanding of the issues that led to the strike else he won’t call the struggle for the proper funding of the universities, better conditions of service for lecturers, the release of the white paper on the visitation panel reports, among other important demands as “flimsy reasons”. It is sad and most unpardonable that the president has got no proper information on the structure and workings of the university. Otherwise, he would have queried that ridiculous and false statement when the speechwriter presented the speech to him for presentation. So unbelievable that our president is not aware that ASUU is not the same as the university management.

To correct this unfortunate misinformation from the president, in the university, there are heads of departments who are academics who receive N50,000 every 3 months for operational expenses. We have the Deans and Directors who are also academics which is the next level of leadership in the university. The Directorates receive N60,000 every 3 months for operational expenses. Is the misappropriation of these N20,000 per month, which comes irregularly that is corruption by ASUU members?

Then, we have the principal officers, which include the Vice-Chancellor (an academic), the Registrar (a non-academic), and the Bursar (a non-academic). There is also the Council chaired by an appointee of the government. You can’t appoint politicians looking for jobs as University Council chairs and blame ASUU for corruption. ASUU is just a union and does not manage the affairs of the university. Then, there is the Presidential visitation panel that is meant to visit the university every 5 years to check the management of the resources of the university.

It’s true that the management of the university could be corrupt. There is no doubt about it. But since the administration of President Buhari took over in 2015, the “corruption fighting” president seems to have found accommodation with corruption in the university that it failed to send a visitation panel to any federal university. ASUU was worried about that, and part of the demands of the 2020 ASUU strike was the constitution of the visitation panel to all federal universities. Paradoxically, it took the strike by the union of supposed “corrupt lecturers” for the anti-corruption FG to send visitation panels to the federal universities in 2021 to check “corruption”.

However, a year after the panels submitted their reports, the same FG that is accusing ASUU of corruption has refused to release the White Paper on the panels’ reports for implementation. Part of the demands of this strike is for FG to release the White Papers. The “corrupt ASUU” is pushing the anti-corrupt government to fight corruption in the university. Isn’t that amazing? It goes without saying by its inaction, indifference, and condemnable refusal to set up visitation panels and release the White Papers after ASUU forced it to set up visitation panels to all federal universities, the FG under President Buhari is aiding corruption in our universities.

Meanwhile, you can’t be complaining of corruption but rewarding alleged corrupt people. The former VC of the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, that was accused of academic fraud, financial embezzlement, and administrative impunity by the ASUU branch of the university, made the list of the people to be awarded a national honour by the president. Same with the former Council Chairman of the Lagos State University, who, with the VC, deployed the pension of Staff for the purchase of luxurious cars.

Does it make sense to accuse the university managers of corruption and then nominate university managers that were accused of corruption for national honours without taking steps to investigate these allegations? That’s a joke. By the way, what is the correlation between the poverty wages of Nigerian academics with corruption in the universities? Does that explain why Nigerian lecturers are one of the poorest paid in the world?

The president further said that he task our academics to attract endowments, research, and other grants to universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education similar to what obtains in other countries. It has been rightly said that “if wishes are horses, beggars too will ride”. It does not take rocket science to know how those universities referenced achieved that. An endowment is not attracted by academics but by the university council and management. President Buhari should stop his trademark and uninspiring blame game and should be talking to the people he appointed as Council chairmen for our public universities.

The truth is, research grants are not attractive using an empty room as a lab. No international donor will fund empty space. Only the existence of avalanches and modern facilities are used to attract grants. When I got a PhD grant in 2008, I took the grant to a university in the UK because they have the required facilities for the research. For the 3 years, the UK university got thousands of pounds through me. That’s a return on investment. What have we put in place to attract such? That’s what we should be worried about. That’s why ASUU is asking for the required funds to be injected into the system to make our universities attractive for grants, as it’s obtained in other countries.

Despite the horrible condition of service of academics in the country, Nigerian academics are winning research grants. An Associate professor at Bayero University Kano recently received a research grant of £969,680 from Wellcome. A senior lecturer at Ahmadu Bello University Zaria recently won a research grant of about 48,000 USD from Geophysics Without Borders. Other researchers from the Federal University Dutse won a grant of $59,930 from The World Academy of Science (TWAS) and €220,801 from the African Academy of Science on renewable energy. These are just a few of the grants won by academics within the strike period.

The president’s speech was focused on ASUU, and the speechwriter chose his words with the utmost malice and mischief. There are sex scandals in every sector of the country. The rehash and blackmail of sex stories in the universities have become much like an expired drug with no potency. The stories of sex for jobs and contracts and sorting jobs and contracts in Abuja are in public space. Every sector has got the good, the bad, and the ugly. So, academia can’t be immune to the ills in our society.

But then, universities are still much better. They have rules and regulations that guide their operations, and they are enforced. Several lecturers have lost their jobs due to sex scandals or other similar offences. But we have a minister in this government that was accused of sexual harassment in 2020. If a student is a victim of such an act on campus and he or she refuses to report for appropriate actions to be taken, then you can’t blame ASUU for it.

Our Union frowns on sexual harassment in all its ramifications in our universities and is up in arms combating this evil. Hence, this speech which is similar to the words of their filthy-mouthed attack dog and other government agents at the presidency at this time, is an indication that it is either the people around the president are not telling him the truth about the strike or the depth of the poverty of sincerity is underestimated.

It is equally indicative that the administration has run out of ideas and initiatives to resolve a simple issue like the ongoing strike action. The Speaker of the House of Representatives, in an effort to bring an end to the 7-month-old crisis, has met with the president. Let’s hope that those agents of destruction around the president will allow him to think.

What baffled me is the fact that the Visitor to the university is publicly lamenting when he has not taken any action for 7 years to address all his allegations against the University. You are the president, sir. Please use your executive powers to solve problems, not passing bucks. Dear sir, you lament everything from the economy to insecurity to education, but lamentations won’t solve our problems. You need to be proactive, sir. You are the president; time is almost running out. Better late than never.

Finally, despite the way that academics in Nigerian public universities are handled, our research outputs are visible in the global research database. If political office holders should make one-tenth of the efforts and sacrifices made by academics in our public universities, they will be celebrated as heroes in office.

Professor Abdelghaffar Amoka Abdelmalik wrote from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.

By Dr. Isa Muhammad Inuwa

We woke up to the maddening, stunning macabre and grim sorrow of the demise of Sheikh Dr Youssef Al-Qardawi, renowned scholar and jihadist of international repute. As we weep profusely, both internally and outwardly, over this irreparable loss, his death indicates that the sun has set down for yet another era of Islam, as yet another chapter is closed.

Late Al-Qardawi can go down in history as a titanic whale in the fathomless ocean of Islamic knowledge and jurisprudence. He authored many valuable compendia and an estimated 120 to 200 books, famous among which is Al-Halal Wal Haram, that addressed and gave solutions to vital lawful and unlawful issues in Islam.

He was a contemporary of scholars and jihadists of like minds such as Sheikh Hasanul Bannah, Sayyid Qutub, Sa’eed Hawaah, Kishk and the rest. The personalities mentioned above formed the nucleus of the Islamic Brotherhood movement’ ‘Ikhwanul Muslimuuna’ in Egypt around the 1950s to 1960s.

Ikhwan’s formidable movement under the late Hassan Al-Banna’s leadership served as an alternative political group that brokered power in Egypt by participating in the democratic process and contesting political posts. Former president Muhammad Morsi was a testimony to Ikhwan’s influence in the mainstream politics of Egypt.

More so, the hitherto Islamic movement in Egypt, administered by vibrant and agile youths, had impacted and triggered similar gestures in many countries and Muslim communities worldwide.

While some Ikhwan eggheads, such as Hassan Al-Bannah, were martyred amidst the struggle, others, like the late Youssef Al-Qardawi, survived, lived longer and contributed to humanity on many fronts.

May The Almighty Allah accept the late Sheikh Qardawi and uplift his status in the highest and exalted Jannah, amen!

Dr Isa Muhammad Inuwa writes from Bayero University, Kano, Nigeria, via ismi2000ng@yahoo.com.

By Uzair Adam Imam

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Prof. Mamman Lawan, has described government’s interference in court’s decisions as one of the major challenges facing judges in Nigeria.

Prof. Mamman Lawan  stated this Tuesday, 4th October, 2022 during a one-day seminar organized by Faculty of Law, Bayero University, Kano, in collaboration with  Bn Baaz, Kariya and Naseeha Foundations.

The seminar held at Islamic Forum of Nigeria Hall, Farm Center, Kano, was themed: “Justice as a Panacea to Insecurity in Northern Nigeria.”

He decried how big office holders and politicians stick their noses into the courts’ decisions, thereby making it difficult for judges to do justice in their decisions.

Lawan stated: “Politicians used to interfere with the courts decisions and spend millions of naira in the cases they have interest in.

“Therefore, judges and lawyers need to know that it is ethically wrong to collect bribe and do injustice. Without justice, there would be no society and there would be chaos and insecurity.”

Govt needs to increase allowance for judges, lawyers to tackle corruption

Corruption roams our courts today and affect their decisions. The reason was believed to be unconnected with poor salary and allowances by the government.

One of the Judges confidentially told the TDR reporter after the event that the monthly salary of judges is between N100,000 and 180,000 and N125,000 as furniture allowance after every four years.

Lawan said that there is a need for government to increase allowance for the Nigerian judges and lawyers to tackle corruption in the courts.

He added, “Government does not provide our judges and lawyers with enough allowances to halt corruption in our courts.

“This will help stop the judges from taking bribe from any politician,” he suggested.

Lawyers contribute to injustice in Nigeria

Also speaking, the Kano State High Court Judge, Justice Saminu Nasiru, blamed Nigerian lawyers for contributing to injustice in court decisions.

He said, “For this reason, it has become necessary for lawyers and judges to fear God and to remember meeting with their lord in the day of judgment.”

By Abdulrazak Iliyasu Sansani 

Ahead of the 2023 elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has set 28th September 2022 as the date of the kick-off of the campaign for Presidential and National Assembly elections, while that of Governorship and State Assembly is on 12th October 2022.  

You may be confused about one thing or two, especially when I said the political campaign’s dos and don’ts. Some people may not have understood it. This is highly likely. But, of course, there are limits, and there is a red line that shouldn’t be crossed. There are things that politicians shouldn’t do in the name of electioneering. 

Now that you know, there are things politicians should not do to sell their candidature to the electorate. You will like to know what those things are. Relax. In the course of this piece, I will attempt to treat it. As Nigerians, we are fully aware of what an average political campaign season looks like. It goes with so many things that some of us might have thought are normal everywhere. But it isn’t. Once again, what are they? Political thuggery, mudslinging, killings, hate speech, etc.

While electioneering isn’t a tea party, it doesn’t have to be as nasty as it is in this part of the world. It takes all of us to reduce the toxic messages: from our places of worship, markets, schools, offices, parks, halls, farms, etc. This is everyone’s business. We must be involved. We have to work collectively to help our dear states and the nation.  We can only build this country under this dispensation by encouraging democratic conventions and not unacceptable practices to win or rig the election. 

Rig the election? I think this horrible phenomenon continues to rear its ugly head because many of our institutions are so weak, especially the critical ones that can put a stop to it. Unfortunately, in so many instances, they abet it, leading to many terrible results over the years. 

You will be increasingly sought-after during the electoral campaign to hatch out different plans. This is the time when there will be a multitude of recruitment. No, not in the civil service. But the thriving political industries need the strength and pep of youth to propel them. It is saddening to note that many youths will be required not on the dignified and visionary side but at the disdainable and thuggish position, where their youthful energy will be wrongly channelled to the despicable social oddity of thuggery. This trend has led to the horrible end of countless youth over the years. 

It is discernible that politics is much maligned and detested owing to the celebration of thuggery, cultism, and immorality in many quarters. All these have discouraged many  Nigerians from joining politics or exercising their franchise without necessarily being card-carrying party members. This has, over the years, aided in robbing Nigeria of some of its best brains in politics, a large swathe of its patriotic citizens, and a considerable number of Nigerians who believe in this country. My compatriots, we must change the narrative. We have to stand up and fight against any negative energy that permeates the polity: for the sake of our country. 

Am I advocating against joining politics? Definitely, no. But join politics as a decent, respectable, and patriotic participator, no matter how ‘insignificant’ your position is. In this way, your wit and vigour will be put into effect. Draw a line once your only place is a thug or any role that diminishes you or any other person. 

Value yourself and do only what is legal and aids your personal growth and collective development of society. Do not allow yourself to be used as a tool to destroy your future for a meal ticket. Be wise. You are as good as anyone else when you work hard sufficiently. 

The campaign season has been known to be a tense moment worldwide. This is not peculiar to Taraba or even Nigeria. However, political campaigns are usually anxious for the right reasons in saner climes, with each candidate coming up with competing ideas and plans forming the fulcrum of their manifesto. Therefore, it is anticipated that heated discussion will be a standard feature. But in most instances, the issues take centre stage. Therefore, there will be no need to recruit an array of youth to be engaged in thuggery to win elections. 

Over the years, we have seen how the tone of the candidates’ political campaigns has played a significant role in the level of violence witnessed before or after elections. Therefore, we must be deliberate in deciding our fate by categorically saying no to election violence, whether as candidates or electorate.  

We need to suffocate the polity from getting the stimulus of violence from the youth that has kept it going. We are sure of sanitizing the system. As more people are interested in politics, much more good and patriotic Nigerians will line up. It is a win-win situation for Nigeria. This will give us a better opportunity to choose good leaders to build the Nigeria of our dreams. 

Abdulrazak Iliyasu Sansani wrote from Turaki B, Jalingo, Taraba State. He can be reached via abdulrazaksansani93@gmail.com.

By Prof. Abdalla Uba Adamu

Being a keynote at the Kannywood Foundation film training workshop, on 2nd October 2022, Kano

Opportunities of Digital Technology

By 2012 the Hausa film industry has entered into the doldrums I have just described. There was a lot of head-scratching about the next moves. In the meantime, many individuals had formed YouTube channels and were uploading Hausa films with or without the knowledge and consent of the producers. Most of the films were old and were subscribed by internet newbies who had just acquired Smartphones and taking advantage of the cut-throat competition among Nigeria’s main service provers (MTN, 9Mobile, Airtel, Glo) were buying data and watching films on their phones. The DVD and CD players faded away, and although kids were still selling what were clearly outdated CDs at traffic junctions in the city of Kano, the process of watching free films on YouTube made the CD market non-viable. Then Arewa24 came along.

An initiative of the US Government, Arewa24 was part of the anti-terror and anti-radicalization program of the US State Department’s Bureau of Counterterrorism. The task was contracted to Equal Access International (EAI), which eventually established Arewa24, the first Hausa language satellite station rooted in peacebuilding and entertainment, in 2013. One of the ways the station revolutionized Hausa cinema – and thus succeeded beyond its expectations was the introduction of TV shows, hitherto a neglected entertainment segment in Hausa cinema. Broken into seasons and episodes, the first TV show on Arewa24 was Daɗin Kowa, a weekly drama about a melting pot city somewhere in the north of Nigeria containing a diversity of ethnicities, religions, languages and social classes. Of course, there are actual Daɗin Kowa settlements in Gombe and Kaduna State, but that did not deter the Series filmmakers. It was massively successful on multiple fronts.

First, it deconstructed the then-current Hausa cinema based on Hindi cinema with a lot of choreographed singing and dancing as well as romantic storylines, which was tiring to Hausa audiences. Second, it reconstructs Hausa TV shows of the 1970s, so beloved by cultural purists of Hausa storytelling. Third, as VOD (video on demand), Arewa24’s Daɗin Kowa blazed a new digital trail in film marketing for Hausa filmmakers. Being heavily subsidized, the producers can afford to load the entire series on an easily available platform of YouTube.

Yet, the second TV show on Arewa24, interestingly, was by an independent studio, Saira Movies, and the series was Labarina, made a year before Arewa24 took off in 2015. The novelty of Labarina as a series had a massive impact on online viewing of Hausa communities. Armed with Smartphones and cheap data from competing ISPs, millions tuned to Arewa24 to watch the series and later download it when it shifted to YouTube. It was the success of Labarina as a TV show that provided a backstory to the audience receptivity of Daɗin Kowa.

YouTube is an American online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched in 2005 and has become the main avenue for African cinema distribution. It is important to emphasize its American roots and origins to draw attention to the fact that the censorship regulations in any country do not apply to it. The Google-owned video service is also a major tool for self-distribution, as illustrated by the proliferation of web series in local languages in countries such as Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Senegal and Nigeria.

Kano filmmakers were quick to jump on the TV show bandwagon by cloning the success of Daɗin Kowa as a series broken up into episodes. Not only are the story arcs captivating, but they also provide a deeper script philosophy that is often critical analysis of the anthropology of contemporary Hausa societies. Although coming earlier than Labarina, Daɗin Kowa was more successful than Labarina, which was based on basically Bollywood soap operas. Daɗin Kowa was an authentic reflection of the contemporary realities of Hausa communities.

Other YouTube channels quickly followed. Table 1 shows a few of the channels and their overall viewership.

Bakori TV, which hosts Izzar So, has the highest number of channel views followed by Arewa24, then Saira Movies and Zinariya. These metrics, as indicated, reflect the overall channel views rather than the series – but provide an idea of the popularity of the series hosted by the channels.

Izzar So is a very popular TV show, judging by the audience metrics of each episode. Yet it was hard to determine its overall playlist metrics on YouTube. This was because the channel is so poorly organized that it does not even shift its individual episodes into an effective Playlist grouping. The channel has only two Izzar So playlists; Season 1 with 13 videos and Season 2 with 3. This, of course, is inaccurate since in the main listing of videos, the Channel listed episode 100 in the series at the end of September 2022, although it is unclear which season it was. The average views for the latter episodes are slightly over one million. Even their Facebook page does not promote the series in the light of providing information about the series, the stars or the stories.

Similarly, while Aduniya has a playlist, it only listed 33 videos in the list, whereas the list of videos with the episodes has the latest episode being number 73 with over half-million views. Labarina did not fare much better, with three playlists listing less than 30 episodes, when Season 5 EP1 was released in late September 2022.

While most of the TV shows streaming on either Hausa VOD or YouTube are romantic soap operas, Aduniya stood out because of its focus on the gritty urban life of a Kano city – exposing what I call ‘corruption from below’. It competes only with Daɗin Kowa but surpasses it in its presentation of the harsh, tough and ruthless social culture that operates below the radar of public spaces.

It is clear, therefore, that Hausa filmmakers are gradually favouring the TV show format, but their lack of digital skills to effectively present the contents limits their appeal. Further, with millions of views, the TV show filmmakers have not been able to provide adequate information on either the series or the synopsis of the episodes anywhere on a dedicated website (for which there is none, except Arewa24) or even Wikipedia entry.

Besides the challenges of poor digital marketing skills of the TV shows, filmmakers in Kano also faced the problems of censorship from the Kano State Censorship Board. In a bizarre revenue-driven focus, the Kano State Censorship Board demands that TV show series must be submitted to it for censoring before being uploaded to YouTube. Yet the servers are not based in Kano nor under Nigerian government control, so it is difficult to see how the Board will have authority over the contents on a server located in California.

Towards a Cultural Film Policy

The key objectives of film policy are to promote new artists, create new jobs, increase investments in film production, attract foreign producers and enhance the outward-looking character of Hausa cinema. So far, the only film policy available in the country is the policy of regulation from both the National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB) for the nation and the Kano State Censorship Board for Kano State.

The regulatory focus of these bodies was to ensure cultural specificity in film production in whatever language it is produced. The usual focus was on avoidance of foul language, nudity, and reproducible behaviour, especially for impressionable viewers and religious sensitivity. It would appear, therefore, that any policy would have to revolve around the cultural and religious frameworks of the audiences.

This issue had been a sore point with Hausa filmmakers right from the halcyon days of the industry from 1998 till its eclipse in 2007. Market-driven Hausa filmmakers are focused on commercial rather than an artistic success. Arthouse films like Kazar Sayan Baki, and Ibtila’i, did not sell because they had no commercial motifs of singing and dancing. And once the studio feels it is not selling enough to remain afloat, it simply closes shop and moves to selling essential commodities.

This is where the Kannywood Foundation comes in. A training program such as this will pave the way to the future after emerging from a cloudy and rocky past. I will not presume to give a policy here because it is a group effort. However, while thinking about the policy directions of Hausa cinema, the following might be points to ponder:

1. Move away from commercialization to professionalization. Other professions include specific, targeted and focused entry points and exits. You don’t wake up one day and claim to be a doctor. One has to go through a rigorous process of certification. This should be the same with the film industry. It is not to say, ‘I am creative, and I have money’. You have to demonstrate competency since what you do is representation.
2. Seeking storylines in community arcs. A policy should demote the idea of transnational copying of films that focus on blindly copying Indian or Western films. It should focus on the anthropology of our experiences – of which there are myriad ways of getting story arcs. A policy can, therefore, effectively reward those ethnographically based films, through additional funding, rather than ineffective ‘film awards’, most of which were bought by the filmmakers
3. Any training program that would be part of a policy should include cultural studies. Scriptwriters, directors, actors and production designers must know what constitutes public culture – beyond what they experience. They need to be aware of it from the structural perspective of a research process. Production designs, therefore, must be not only accurate enough to the period being recorded but also aesthetic enough to convey a sense of elegance and pride in cultural tradition
4. A greater focus of the policy and training should be on digital marketing. It is not enough to simply open a YouTube channel and upload films. Practitioners need to be aware of how to drive traffic to their channels and organize their content in a structured and easily accessible form.
5. Reaching out to the larger world. While it is pleasing that many Hausa TV shows are now flooding YouTube, most have no subtitles in an international language that will communicate to international audiences. This is clearly a misuse of the social media platform – where although open to the world, Hausa TV shows are restricted to Hausa audiences. If there is anything to copy from Hindi cinema, it should be its marketing strategy. With their subtitles, their films are seen and accepted as cultural products worldwide – for language is the best representation of culture.
6. Careful attention must be given to Hausa VOD services, particularly Northflix and Kallo. While still in their early stages, these VOD streaming services effectively show the way to the future.

Cultural commodities – whether tourism-related or popular culture – are marketed with the assumptions of their impact on the daily lives of their consumers. Marketing determines the success of especially media industries, often with a disregard for the content. The commodification of the Hausa popular cultural industries was premised on profitability motives, not art or aesthetics. Financiers are ready to continue investing in the industries as long as they can make effective profits. It is this profit motive that commoditizes art and elegance to common supermarket products with a short shelf life.

Prof. Abdalla Uba Adamu wrote from the Department of Information and Media Studies, Bayero University Kano, Nigeria. He is, among many other things, the former Vice-Chancellor of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN). He can be reached via auadamu@yahoo.com.

By Abdulhalim Ishaq Ringim

The giant of Africa and emerging global giant in all ramifications; the story of Nigeria’s journey to greatness has become a subject for intellectual and academic delineation, for it eludes the projections of even the most reputable global think tanks.

Nigeria solidified its position as the largest economy in Africa and became the fastest growing economy in the world. The nation achieved such a feat by restructuring its economy. Successive governments have over the years focused on structural economic transformation for long term economic growth with commensurate development. The economy became diversified not only in terms of output, but also in terms of productivity and revenue generation.

Today, Nigeria no longer depends on oil revenues courtesy of our booming value-added manufacturing-led industrialization and knowledge-based economy. This positive economic trend was further crystallized by the diversification and expansion of the tax net through an efficient and leakage-free tax regime. The expansion of our export basket with processed agricultural commodities and mineral resources produced by our manufacturing sector have ensured steady inflow of foreign exchange and that has stabilized our currency’s exchange rate. We are now a global power in trade.

We are witnessing massive capital influx in form of Foreign Direct Investments(FDIs) due to our favorable business environment, abundance of material resources and a skilled labor population. This has guaranteed an upward trend in our employment rate and a resultant free fall in our unemployment and poverty rates. The skills and technology transfer initiatives that accompanied the massive FDI influx has increased the employability of our working age population and our productivity.

Additionally, the huge tax receipts and social responsibility commitments from our large private sector formed a gargantuan financial resource base that funds our human capital development endeavors. Basic and Post-basic education is now free and compulsory. We have increased the penetration of healthcare institutions across the country and have driven down maternal and child mortality and morbidity rates. We have invested hugely on tertiary education, research and development and such have greatly contributed to our transition to a knowledge-based economy. We also have developed a robust social protection system that adequately caters for our vulnerable geriatric and pediatric population.

Gratifyingly, the number of out-of-school children we have is very insignificant today. Thanks to a proper diagnosis of the problem and the deployment of a robust solution. We understood that we had over 10 million out-of-children and we realized that the almajiri population in Northern Nigeria was the major source. So we restructured our education system in such a manner that it will be able to accommodate and admit a significant percentage of the out-of-children. We also deployed variable policy actions based on the individual peculiarities of Nigeria’s states and regions.

In the North, which contributed the highest number of out-of-school children, we revitalized more than 150 Tsangaya Model Schools and operationalized a standard curriculum for these schools which included modern education, Islamic education and technical/vocational education.

We then systematically engaged all stakeholders involved and secured their support to absorb all the Almajiri population into these schools in batches. The Almajiri teachers continued to offer lessons in Islamic studies while other teachers complemented their efforts with modern and entrepreneurial education.

We then banned the Almajiri system and imposed stringent penalties in case of violation. We trained all the absorbed Almajiri students in batches and the moment we were done with that, we converted all Tsangaya Schools to conventional primary schools. At that point, we had no Almajiri roaming on the streets. So these conventional schools became an addition to the pool of primary schools we have. And we now hardly have a child that is out of school.

In our bid to improve the productivity and employability of our working age population, we effected broad changes in the upper levels of the education sector in a manner that created extra routes to employment. We created a skill-based educational system that complemented the university education system. This new system assured the creation of what we call “new-collar jobs” or skill-based jobs. To achieve this, we constituted a broad apprenticeship program that trained and acquainted students with high demand industrial and technology skills. We then created a certification system for these students which was used to confirm their competencies by industries and organizations that require their services.

With this, many youths who were not able to pass through the university and could not get jobs in the previous system we operated were now suitable for the “new-collar” industry we created. This was how we reduced our unemployment rate and improved the productivity and employability of our working age population. A lot of industries of both local and international origins found Nigeria as a suitable investment destination because of our highly skilled, productive, employable and easily trainable working age population. Resultantly, our national productivity and output increased greatly. And millions of families were brought out of poverty because of the resultant increase in employment and income.

We witnessed a massive reorientation of the entire Nigerian population. The Nigerian people even with huge diversities in ethnicity and religion have been peacefully living together. This stems from the national reorientation exercise that prioritized the understanding of our differences and learning to tolerantly adjust and accommodate one another. The political terrain was sanitized in a way that disincentivized ethno-religious manipulation. We had series of constitutional amendments that reshaped the country towards true federalism where every federating unit is autonomous and productive.

The characteristic recurrent political crises that usually ensued from ethno-religious causations was put to an end by a political settlement arrangement backed by constitutional provisions that mandates the rotation of political powers among the 6 geopolitical zones of the country. This arrangement was conditional and was to be abolished after all geopolitical zones have had their share of political power. The underlying principle was that the frequency of political crises would be reduced. This resulted in smooth political transitions and Nigeria was no longer in a state of constant crisis management. Ultimately, this served as an enabler for the new political coalition that have ruled Nigeria over the years to be visionary and to focus on consolidating on successive efforts to achieve long-term structural transformation.

The rotational system has today been abolished having accomplished its ultimate objective and Nigeria’s political terrain is now completely meritocratic and significantly devoid of ethno-religious divisive undertones. Elections have also become very credible and peaceful. The structural and functional capacities of agencies of government responsible for enforcement of electoral laws and punishing election-related crimes were enhanced. The government also improved the country’s financial intelligence network for effective monitoring of financial flows during election seasons by responsible agencies and resultantly ensured enhanced compliance to financial regulations during election periods by political actors(individuals and parties). These among other measures improved Nigeria’s political climate and sanitized the country’s election processes.

Corruption which was once a major challenge we faced is now alien in this country. Few years back when Nigeria was still in a troubled state, we consistently ranked lower than average in most indexes that measure countries’ transparency, accountability and Integrity. However, the fact that most of the ranking organizations were mostly overseas made it easy for Nigerians and the government to fault the validity and accuracy of the data and methodologies employed.

Resultantly, home-grown transparency, accountability and integrity indexes were designed to assess the compliance of governmental institutions and organizations to national and global anti-corruption and good governance standards, regulations, guidelines and statutes. The indexes ranks these governmental organizations based on their respective compliance levels.

The ranking system exposed a lot of cases of lack of compliance to national and global commitments to anti-corruption and best governance practices. Some of the local statutes that were not being complied to included Freedom of Information Act, 2011; Executive Order No. 001, 2017; Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007; Federal Character Principle; Framework and Guidelines for the Use of Social Media Platforms in Public Institutions, 2019; and Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities (Prohibition) Act, 2018.

United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC), 2004; Nigeria’s Open Government Partnership (OGP) Action Plan II; Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 10 and 16; African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption, 2006; Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women; and Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and many others were on the other hand part of the international commitments that a lot of the government institutions contravened even while Nigeria was a signatory to them all.

Based on the discouraging results obtained from the assessment and ranking exercise, Nigeria embarked on a massive public service and institutional reform exercise. Government organizations were restructured and the capacity of public and civil servants was improved through a robust capacity building exercise. Those among them who could not withstand the rigor of the retraining exercise were retrenched in accordance with labour laws and were replaced by young, capable hands.

Accessibility and Functionality of Institutional Websites; Fiscal Transparency and Accountability; Transparency in Procurement; Citizens Engagement, Responsiveness and Effective Feedback Mechanisms; and Effective Human Resources Management were assured by the reformed public and civil service. The combination of these public service reforms and reforms in anti-corruption administration largely alienated the magnitude of corruption in Nigeria. Long-term stability in government, judicial independence and improved citizen consciousness contributed to the establishment and sustenance of this resilient anti-corruption regime.

The insecurity that characterized Nigeria was approached from a holistic perspective. With de-escalated ethno-religious tensions resulting from massive citizen reorientation and improved political settlement, marked improvement in all human development and economic indices and a rejuvenated armed forces; Nigeria applied a hybrid of kinetic and non-kinetic interventions to solve her insecurity problems.

We restructured our security architecture holistically, amended our constitution to legalize state and community policing and rebranded our Federal Ministry Of Interior to Federal Ministry Of Internal Security And Home Affairs. The rebranded Ministry housed new security bodies that were responsible for border and forestland security. We developed and employed efficient technology-based methodologies in the surveillance of our borders and other spaces of concern. We also leveraged spaces that were formerly ungoverned for real estate, recreation, tourism, agriculture, modern livestock management and other industrial endeavors.

Our media sector also restructured itself to conform with the vision of a new Nigeria. While we were still in troubling times, the media adopted a role that was defined by a balance between freedom of press, social responsibility, fact-seeking and healthy media-government relationship. As a guiding philosophy, the media assumed a role that discouraged the glorification of terrorism/Insurgency and encouraged the operationalization of selective censorship or measured reportage of terrorist activities in favor of counterterrorism efforts. This was of course adopted without losing cognizance of the imperative of protecting freedom of expression.

The media continued to consistently condemn acts of terrorism and adopted editorial policies that embodied patriotism while denying the terrorists the notoriety they so much desired. The media and government worked closely towards disincentivizing the lack of balance between patriotic and unpatriotic reportages by discouraging the receipt of funding specifically meant for reporting terrorist incidences from both local and international organizations. This process was driven by pure patriotism. Due to the influence of national reorientation, the love for our country was the only incentive that drove this media restructuring process.

Resultantly, the stability of our economy and security and our status as a global power in trade and commerce guaranteed us improved recognition in the international community. And as we continued to consolidate on our renewed patriotic consciousness, Nigeria defied all odds and rose to take her proper place in the comity of nations. We joined important global power associations including the BRICS(now BRINCS), G-20 and G-8. We also got nominated into the United Nations Security Council as a permanent member.

Deep sigh! How I wish the above exposition was our reality. Sadly, it is just a compilation of many of my dreams which I have overtime documented in a collection I call the “Nigeria of my Dreams”. But the fact that I was able to dream of a prosperous Nigeria(including the details of the road to prosperity) means it could indeed become reality.

Abdulhaleem Ishaq Ringim writes, being an entry submitted for Sana’a da Ilimi Foundation’s Independence Anniversary Essay Competition.

By Prof. Abdalla Uba Adamu

Being a keynote at the Kannywood Foundation film training workshop, on 2nd October 2022, Kano

A Tale of Two Cinemas

In November 2007, I was privileged to participate at the African Film Conference held at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, United States. It was a stellar gathering of what I call the ‘Nollywood Mafia’. The outcome of the conference was reflected in the publishing of selected papers in Viewing African cinema in the twenty-first century: FESCAPO art films and the Nollywood video revolution, published by the Ohio University Press in 2007. At the tail-end of the conference, a session called The SIU Nollywood Project Brainstorming was held on Sunday, 11th November 2007. Containing well-known Nollywood scholars such as Jonathan Haynes and Onookome Okome, as well as Nollywood stars such as Joke Silver, Francis Onwochei and Madu Chikwendu, among others (including those who study Nollywood from the fringes such as Brian Larkin and Birgit Meyer), the session sought to determine funding for research on Nollywood from the US National Endowment for the Humanities. A critical point of discussion during the session was the name ‘Nollywood’.

While discussions were on course for the funding mechanism, there was a feeling from the participants that the term Nollywood should be used to reflect all films from Africa, regardless of region, to create a unified view of African cinema. As the only northern Nigerian with a focus (and paper earlier presented) on Hausa cinema, I objected and spent time arguing why the term Nollywood cannot be used as a blanket term for African cinema. Continentally, films from north Africa from Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria and Mauritania are radically different from those produced by Nigerian Nollywood. Similarly, filmmakers from Chad, Burkina Faso, Senegal Cote d’Ivoire are more ethnographic to their cultures, which makes them required viewing for film and cultural studies across the world.

Even back in Nigeria, there is a radical difference between Hausa language cinema and the type of films produced and promoted by Nollywood. Labelling all African films as Nollywood is to cancel the identity of the portrayals of the films by different cultural groupings in the continent and project Nollywood as the only ‘African voice’. I am unsure whether the funding was obtained, but I know that the idea of labelling all African films as ‘Nollywood,’ regardless of cultural point of origin, was dropped.

***

By 2012 the Hausa film industry had literally crashed. The major marketers-cum-producers had all pulled out of the industry. Their shops in the major video markets in Kano were subsequently filled with clothing—particularly blouses and football jerseys; for these make more money than selling films. Others took to selling Smartphone accessories, while others returned to the farm and became serious farmers. The few Hausa megastar actors took to commercial advertising of noodles, milk and other household commodities – often moving from house to house with products’ marketers – relying on their faces and voices (making sure they introduce themselves in all the commercial jingles) to sell to increasingly hungry population caught in the vortex of economic depression. The frequency of releasing films drastically dropped because no one was buying. International Satellite channels like the Indian Zee World, especially their English-dubbed TV series, caught Hausa urban attention more than recycled Hindi film clones that were the hallmarks of Hausa video films. Consequently, many reasons combine to lead to the crash of the Hausa film industry towards the end of 2016. 

Market congestion

The popular cultural industries in Kano were marketed into market hubs. The Bata market at the edge of Sabon Gari controlled the predominantly foreign films and music sales and the main distribution centre to other parts of Nigeria and Africa, where a sizeable market existed in Niger, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Cameroon, Chad and Congos.

When the Hausa video film arrived in 1990, it found a ready template to attach itself. The other was Kasuwar Ƙofar Wambai, located at the edge of the walls of Kano city and near a cluster of old colonial cinemas. The Wambai market focuses mainly on leather, textile and plastics. However, it was also the hub of audio tape sales – with marketers doing brisk business pirating old EMI, Polydor and HMV tapes of traditional Hausa musicians recorded in the 1960s. Road construction work at Bata in about 2003 created unfavourable conditions for many of the stall owners, and some decided to shift to the Wambai market. By 2005 the video film market had moved entirely to Wambai, which now became the new Bata.

The Wambai market, hitherto occupied by cassette dealers who ignored the Hausa film industry, suddenly became a virgin territory for film marketers and producers, with each opening a stall. In less than five years, it had reached its ascendency and crashed due to the massive congestion of producers and marketers – all selling the same thing. When I visited the market in May 2017, I counted less than ten stalls selling either videos or audio; contrasted to some five years ago when it was bursting at the seams with these products. The stalls have now been taken over by stocks of cheap blouses, football jerseys and cloned Smartphone accessories.

Lack of new or captivating scripts

By 2005 the Hausa video film industry had become fully established, with over 1,600 officially censored releases. With an extremely few exceptions of less than 0.5%, they all revolve around a pastiche of Hindi films in one form or other aimed, as the video filmmakers themselves kept insisting, at urban Hausa children, youth and housewives. Yet, most Hindi films could be classified as musicals, especially due to their reliance on a strong dosage of song and dance sequences blended with a melodramatic storyline, which employs formulaic ingredients such as star-crossed lovers and angry parents, love triangles, corrupt politicians, kidnappers, conniving villains, courtesans with hearts of gold, long-lost relatives and siblings separated by fate, dramatic reversals of fortune, and convenient coincidences.

This stylistic technique provides a vehicle for echoing a fundamental Hausa emotional tapestry in three main creative motifs: auren dole (forced marriage, the love triangle, and the obligatory song and dance sequences—with an average of about six songs in a two-part video. With every producer trying to outwit everyone with more love triangles, song and dance routines, the market became saturated, and audiences got bored – and indicated this by refusing to buy the films.

Monopoly by Megastars

Those actors lucky enough to be accepted early enough in the film industry came to dominate the system. This was actually imposed by the marketers who insisted on a particular actor appearing in a film they would sponsor or market because such actors were more bankable and guaranteed quick sales of their films. With this economic force behind them, such few (perhaps less than five) came to dominate almost every ‘big’ budget Hausa film. By 2017 their stars had started fading; audiences became tired of seeing them in nearly the same film with different names, and marketers dropped them. While still making films, they diversified their faces and voices to commercial advertising for major telephone service providers and essential commodities such as chicken noodles and milk and soup seasoning.

The fading of the fortunes of the megastars became evident with the ascendency and popularity of relatively unknown stars of a TV series, Daɗin Kowa, shown on Arewa24 satellite TV that began on 21st January 2015. Daɗin Kowa (pleasant to everyone) is an imaginary town that serves as a melting pot, housing Nigerians of various ethnicities and religions and yet living peacefully. In 2016 it won Africa Magic Awards over Sarki Jatau, an expensive lavish, traditionally cultural Hausa period drama.

The coming of Arewa24, initially conceived and funded by the United States State Department’s Bureau of Counterterrorism to counteract insurgency in 2014, merely placed another nail in the coffin of the Hausa video film market. Transnational in its outlook, the Arewa24 TV series provide a level of script sophistication unheard of in the Hausa film industry. Other Satellite TV stations, such as StarTimes, and Hausa Channels on Africa Magic DStv, including GoTV, became increasingly affordable. Showing a massive amount of Hausa films, they eclipsed the purchase of CDs and DVDs of Hausa films. Audiences prefer to watch for free than to go through the hassle of purchasing DVDs that often do not work and requiring DVD players, mostly Chinese knock-offs of international brands that often turn out dodgy.

New Media, New Poverty

The Internet provided the biggest blow to the decline of Hausa video films. With telecommunication companies competing for customers and undercutting each other in offering data plans, Hausa youth have more access to social media sites such as Instagram and YouTube. The latter, in particular, provided them with opportunities to upload hundreds of Hausa films for all to see. While this has increased the visibility of Hausa films worldwide, such popularity does not translate to return on investment, as most of the films were illegally uploaded to YouTube.

Another dimension of the new media political economy was the proliferation of Download Centers in northern Nigeria, with the largest groups in Kano. Operators of these Centers rip the CD of DVDs of Hausa films and convert them into 3gp formats and make them available to customers at N50 per film—with discounts given for volume purchase. A 1GB microSD card can pack as many as 20 films. The 3gp format makes it possible for people to watch the films on their Smartphones, which readily and rapidly replaced DVD players, which require a TV and electricity – something not always guaranteed in Nigeria. Often the Downloaders ‘lease’ the films from street vendors – children hawking the CDs and DVDs at traffic lights – for N100 per film, rip them off, and return back to the hawker who simply puts them back into its pristine cellophane wrapper and eventually sells it – thus gaining double profit. Both the various Associations of Hausa filmmakers and the Kano State Government’s Censorship Board had tried to stamp out the Downloaders, but without success, as the latter had become so powerful and organized that they formed various Associations. The punitive steps were usually to arrest them, fine them, and order them to delete the illegal ripped-off films from their computers. These measures proved so ineffective that a deal was worked out in 2017 between the filmmakers and the Downloaders to ‘officially’ lease the films to the Downloaders for a fee in the form of a ‘legal license’. However, these measures did not work because the Downloaders prefer to obtain their films cheaply rather than being registered with the Government as licensing the films. On the other hand, the Kano State Censorship Board simply asks them to register their business and charge them fees, regardless of their downloading bootleg business.

Southern Indian Competition

A final factor in the decline of the Hausa film industry by 2012 was the massive popularity of ‘Indiya-Hausa’ films. These were Telugu and other southern Indian films dubbed into the Hausa language by, first, Algaita Studios in Kano. When the marketers at Wambai market noted the popularity of these dubs, they also moved in and commissioned their own dubbed translations.

The original Telugu films were brought to Kano by an Indian national with full license to translate into local African languages. The first film translated by Algaita Studios was the Bhojpuri film, Hukumat Ki Jung (dir. S.S. Rajamouli, 2008). It was translated as ‘Yaƙi da Rashin Adalci’ (Fighting Injustice). Others that followed included Dabangg (dir. Abhinav Kashyap, 2010), Racha (dir. Sampath Nandi, 2012) and Nayak: The Real Hero (dir. S. Shankar, 2001). In an interactive session in June 2016, Buzo Ɗanfillo, the CEO of Algaita Studios and whose voice is used in the translations, told me that the Algaita Studio had translated 93 films by 2016. They were paid ₦80,000 by the Indian licensee of the films.

The first few films that appeared from the Algaita Studio from 2012 were considered novelties, providing relief from watching complete remakes of Hindi films by Hausa filmmakers or even the originals themselves. What made them more attractive, however, was the translation of the titles of the films in a single powerfully expressed word, or a couple of words, that seems to take a life of their own and communicate either adventure, danger or defiance. For instance, Nayak: The Real Hero (dir. S. Shankar, 2001) was translated as ‘Namijin Duniya’ (lit. Brave); Indirajeet (dir. K.V. Raju, 1991) as ‘Fargaba’ (Fear), and Velayudham (dir. Mohan Raja, 2011) as ‘Mai Adda’ (Machete). Referred to as ‘India-Hausa’ (Hausa versions of Indian films), they quickly became the new form of transcultural expression in the Hausa entertainment industry.

The Indiya-Hausa translations were massively successful and attracted audiences not attuned to Indian films in the first place. This can be deduced from the numerous comments on the Facebook pages of the Algaita Dub Studio (https://www.facebook.com/algaitadub/).

Their success created a public debate, mainly online on social networks, about their cultural impact. In the first instance, there does not seem to be any attempt by the translators to mute some of the bawdier dialogues of the originals – translating the dialogue directly into Hausa. Kannywood filmmakers latch on to this as an indication of cultural impropriety of the translated films. Additionally, the often-romantic scenes revealing inter-gender sexuality were not edited out by the translators since their focus is not the visuals but the voices. This, again, was pointed out by Hausa filmmakers as a direct attack on Hausa cultural sensibilities. Kannywood filmmakers accept that they appropriate Hindi films but argue that they culturally adapt the stories to reflect Muslim Hausa sensibilities.

Prof. Abdalla Uba Adamu wrote from the Department of Information and Media Studies, Bayero University Kano, Nigeria. He is, among many other things, the former Vice-Chancellor of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN). He can be reached via auadamu@yahoo.com.

By Safiyanu Ladan

The death of Emir of Zazzau Alhaji Dr Shehu Idris on 20 September 2020 has thrown hundreds of thousands of people across the length and breadth of this country into mourning. As it also provided an opportunity for princes in the four ruling houses of Zazzau Emirate to jostle for the vacant throne.

Per the law, the Zazzau Emirate Council, under the leadership of Wazirin Zazzau Ibrahim Muhammad Aminu, as the chief custodian of the tradition of the Zazzau Emirate in the absence of the emir, wrote to the Kaduna State Government notifying the governor of the demise of the emir and the vacant position created by his death.

On the third day of Fiddau prayers, the governor, while eulogizing the late monarch, said ever since the emir died, he could not sleep in the night until he took drugs, saying that the late emir used his wisdom, knowledge and experience in helping his administration.

In the selection of the emir, he openly demonstrated his neutrality as he prayed for the kingmakers to get a worthy heir to the throne that would emulate the good leadership qualities of the late emir.

Having been empowered by the law to select a new emir upon the death or deposition of an emir, the kingmakers have every right to choose any person they deem fit and worthy of the throne without prejudice against any person or group.

The law said that, and I quote, “Upon the death, resignation, or deposition of any chief or any head of chiefs other than a chief of a kind referred to in section 4, the Governor may appoint as the successor of such chief or head of chiefs any person selected on that behalf by those entitled by customary law and practice to select in accordance with customary law and practice.”

Any ulterior motive from any individual or group in this will set unprecedented hostility in a peaceful and all-accommodating emirate.

The ill decision of the government to undermine the most peaceful selection process by appointing Ahmed Nuhu Bamalli and other than the three nominees forwarded by the kingmakers has further divided the once united ruling houses, which they have enjoyed for decades as a result of intermarriage between them that produced hundreds of children.

In 2020, Wazirin Zazzau Ibrahim Muhammad Aminu, chairman of the Zazzau Kingmakers committee, was suspended by the Kaduna state government for dishonouring an informal invitation and was subsequently taken to court for allegedly violating the government’s rule.

While still in court, he was removed and replaced by Khadi Muhammad Inuwa Aminu in 2021.

In what appeared like an unending tussle last week, the removed Waziri notified both the Kaduna State Government and Zazzau Emirate of the decision to take legal action against his wrongful removal and wrongful appointment of Ahmed Nuhu Bamalli as the Emir of Zazzau.

As we await to see how the court events would unfold in what seems like there are numerous vested interests in the tussle but hiding in the shadow of Waziri, time would expose and unmask their faces.

Safiyanu Ladan wrote from Kaduna. He can be reached via uncledoctor24@gmail.com.