Sokoto Gov planning to depose Sultan – MURIC

The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has raised an alarm over plans by Sokoto State Governor Ahmed Aliyu to depose the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, who also doubles as President General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA).

The Executive Director of MURIC, Prof. Isiaq Akintola, raise the alarm on Monday in a statement.

The development is coming on the heels of the controversy and tension surrounding the emirate tussle in Kano State.

It was also coming after Governor Aliyu deposed 15 traditional rulers, for various offences.

Akintola said that Nigerian Muslims reject any thought of deposition of the Sultan.

Daily Trust reports that the Sokoto State Government gave the green light to amend section 76 of the local government and chieftaincy law to align with prevailing practices within the state.

Under the current law, the authority to appoint district and village heads lies with the Sultanate Council.

However, in practice, the Sultanate Council merely provides recommendations to the state government, with the governor ultimately making the appointments.

Nasir Binji, the state’s attorney-general and commissioner for justice, clarified that the proposed amendment aimed to synchronise the legal framework with the customary procedure in Sokoto State.

Addressing journalists after the State Executive Council meeting, Binji explained that under the proposed amendment, the Sultanate Council would retain the power to recommend candidates, while the authority to appoint would be vested in the governor.

This move comes in the wake of recent dismissal of certain traditional rulers in the state due to their alleged involvement in land-related issues and security concerns.

However, Prof. Akintola said that the Sokoto State government deposing 15 traditional rulers on 23rd April 2024, two months ago, was part of plans to depose Sultan Abubakar.

“Feelers in circulation indicate that the governor may descend on the Sultan of Sokoto any moment from now using any of the flimsy excuses used to dethrone the 15 traditional rulers whom he removed earlier.

“MURIC advises the governor to look before he leaps. The Sultan’s stool is not only traditional. It is also religious. In the same vein, his jurisdiction goes beyond Sokoto. It covers the whole of Nigeria. He is the spiritual head of all Nigerian Muslims.

“Therefore, any governor who tampers with the stool of the Sultan will have Nigerian Muslims to reckon with because the Sultan combines the office of the Sultan of Sokoto and that of the President General of the NSCIA,” Akintola said as reported by Daily Trust.

The MURIC boss warned that Governor Aliyu should not force Nigerian Muslims to take a drastically revolutionary measure.

He said that having a traditional ruler as leader has been a condition Nigerian Muslims accepted a long time ago as a necessary weakness in the structure which they have to live with.

He said, “A military governor, Col. Yakubu Muazu, exposed this soft underbelly when he deposed Sultan Ibrahim Dasuki on 20th April, 1996. Nigerian Muslims will be forced to make a hard decision if Sokoto governors continue to diminish the authority of the Sultan.

“For the avoidance of any doubts, Sultan Muhammad Sa’d Abubakar is not only the Sultan of Sokoto but the Sultan of the Nigerian people. His performance and style of leadership have warmed him into the hearts of Nigerians.

“Nigerian Muslims North and South of the country may be constrained to pick Islamic scholars only as President General of the NSCIA and overall leader of Nigerian Muslims.

“It will be farewell to the leadership of traditional rulers over the NSCIA and an irreversible departure from Sokoto’s priviledged leadership position. But history will not be kind to Col. Yakubu Muazu and Ahmed Aliyu for ruining the chances of Sokoto.”

He said that this will make it impossible for any governor to harass or intimidate the leader of Nigerian Muslims.

Akintola said that the power and influence of governors over traditional rulers have become absolute and totalitarian in recent time and that Nigerian Muslims must be given space to breathe some air of freedom like all other associations.

“Once is happenstance, twice is a coincidence, the third time is enemy action. If the deposition of a Sultan and NSCIA leader happens a second time, Nigerian Muslims will not allow the embarrassment to happen a third time.

“MURIC reiterates its call on the Sokoto State House of Assembly to either repeal or review the state’s chieftaincy laws by adding the phrase ‘except the Sultan of Sokoto’ to Section 6, Cap 26 of the Laws of Northern Nigeria which empowers the state governor to depose the emirs including the Sultan.

“We urge Northern elites and Islamic scholars based in the North to intervene before it is too late. This is the time to lobby the Sokoto State House of Assembly and the governor himself. If the chieftaincy laws of Kano State can be repealed within 24 hours, nothing stops that of Sokoto State from being reviewed in favour of immunity for the office of the Sultan in a single day to save Nigerian Muslims from humongous embarrassment.

“It is arbitrary, irrational and condescending for a state governor to possess the power to dethrone the leader of all Muslims in Nigeria when even an ordinary chairman of a local government cannot sack the president of a campus students union. It is unacceptable. Enough is enough,” Akintola said.

He said that it is tactless, reckless, myopic and senselessly audacious for any governor of Sokoto State who has the power to remove the Sultan of Sokoto and head of all Nigerian Muslims to actually use that power.

He warned that once bitten, twice shy as Nigerian Muslims travelled this road once, under military rule and will not ply the same road again.