Reforming Kano emirate

Also published in Daily Trust  

The achievements of the late Emir of Kano Alhaji Ado Bayero in preserving the integrity and moral authority of Kano emirate notwithstanding, the new Emir, Alhaji Muhammadu Sunusi ll, as he is now officially called, is not only expected to build on his predecessor’s legacy but is also expected to reform the emirate to enable it continue to inspire and command public respect from which it derives and maintains relevance and indeed on which its survival depends.   

Besides, considering his antecedents, Kanawa’s expectations in him are high and sometimes even unrealistic, because many of them don’t seem to realize that, due to the constraints of his new job he can’t remain the same liberal intellectual, social critic and whistleblower, after all.

Therefore, even though he is obviously one of the most influential traditional rulers in the country by virtue of the status of Kano emirate, Alhaji Muhammadu Sunusi ll can now only inspire and offer fatherly advice not commands, and can only lobby not give instructions, the grant of which depends on his charisma and the amount of respect he commands in the corridors of power at local, state and federal levels, anyway.

Incidentally, many observers have argued that a personality of his intellectual quality and perceived or real commitment to transparency in governance and due process in bureaucracy who is also rightly or wrongly seen as a radical progressive would have been more beneficial to Kanawa and the other Nigerians if he had remained in official public sphere of civil service or politics, especially in view of the current leadership challenges in the region and the country at large.

Anyway, now that he preferred his ancestors’ traditional throne to official duties and has actually become Emir, his imprint on Kano emirate is expected to be proportional to his professional, academic and moral antecedents.

Though reforming Kano emirate entails reviving and adhering to the ideals of the Usmaniyya Caliphate, which created it and which was established by the legendary revivalist, Sheikh Usman bin Fodio in 1804, yet the fact that the Caliphate itself lost political power more than a hundred years ago, it is not currently realistic to expect reforms that would restore Kano emirate’s lost political relevance.

Therefore the areas that can, and indeed should, be reformed in Kano emirate are largely related to some traditions, ceremonial practices and customary rituals, a great deal of which must have crept back into the emirate long after the death of the Sheikh when the status-quo of superstitious beliefs and heretical practices, which he had eradicated began to resurface.

It is important to note and keep in mind that, Sheikh Usman Bin Fodio was a well-versed Islamic scholar in the first place. Also contrary to some baseless claims, and though he was ethnically Fulani, he was never a mere Fulani tribal chief. He had preached, taught and revived the then largely distorted and forgotten Islamic creed, ideals and practices before going ahead to establish his Caliphate based on those bases when circumstances warranted it.

In any case, perhaps one of the most important things that need urgent review is the status of the so-called slaves in the emirate, how and on what bases their ancestors were enslaved in the first place and how their successive generations especially the kwarkwarori i.e. the so-called concubines among them have been made so.

Incidentally, I have always wondered why despite the obvious mystery surrounding the slavery phenomenon in the emirate, I have never heard any explanation about it neither from any Nigerian Muslim scholar nor from any social commentator or academic in the country. Obviously this phenomenon is considered taboo hence nobody wants to talk about even though it has affected the lives of many generations of people, restricted their rights and degraded their worth as human beings.

Moreover, all other traditional and feudal rituals practiced under the illusion that they generate fortune or prevent misfortune in clear violation of the concept of Tauheed should also be systematically discouraged in the context of a deliberate strategy to sanitise the emirate from all heretical practices practiced under whatever pretexts.

Unfortunately, so far things apparently continue as usual. As a matter fact and as an example; three of the palace’s walls were broken for the new Emir to enter into the palace through one of them, which was described as a traditional ritual conducted whenever a new Emir is ushered into the palace.

Besides, the new Emir reportedly went into seclusion for three days in “Dakin Duhu (dark room)” according to a national daily newspaper (not Daily Trust) whose insider source described as “a tradition that has survived thousands of years, and it predates the conquest of Fulani Jihadist in 1804.” Though the source added that the new Emir was expected to glorify Allah the Almighty throughout his three-day stay in the room, the tradition might not be free from some of such bizarre and superstitious practices, after all. Likewise, the traditional manner of paying homage to the Emir where people almost prostrate before him violates Islamic way of paying homage and greeting.

Admittedly, getting rid of ancient traditions like these and many others is not easy, yet with his courage and wisdom, the new Emir can gradually accomplish it and can also affect a comprehensive reform in the emirate for which the history would particularly recognize him before he reaps bountiful rewards in the hereafter.