Diepreye Alamieyeseigha had taken it upon himself to travel a long way from home. He had traversed the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, and virtually waded through the swamps of the Niger Delta to honour the clarion call of a new dawn in the calendar of the Nigerian nation. He had entered through the five gates of Katsina, equipped with his own personal experience and exploits, to take the title of Ganuwa Katsina, with a pledge to defend the city against any form of aggression or evil.
He was set to enter a new covenant, to speak a new tongue, a language of unity across borders and across ethnic nationalities. He had no doubt that the event of Saturday, 12 March 2005, was not only historic in many ways, but one that would remain in the nation’s collective memory for a long time. An elaborate and colourful durbar had been staged to receive Alamieyeseigha, horse riders galloping gently in a procession announced by countless cow horns blaring from the lips of praise singers.
He felt highly honoured and elated, not only to have passed through the golden gates of this walled city, but to be awarded the venerable title of Ganuwa Katsina (Defender of Katsina), no less, a title last bestowed upon the late symbol of democratic governance and a respectable pillar of sports in Africa, Basorun Moshood Abiola, a Muslim.
This singular recognition situated Alamieyeseigha in the Katsina Hall of Fame as the first non-Muslim from the south to have earned such a lofty honour. His turbaning ceremony, therefore, symbolized the promotion of religious tolerance and unity in the country. It was a significant step taken by the Katsina Emirate and its great people.
The ancient wall city-state of Katsina had a rich and variegated history rooted six centuries ago. Its prosperity was great and widespread during the 18th century when the city became known throughout the Islamic world as a thriving commercial centre, and the seat of religious scholarship and the arts. It was the foundation of education in the north. Little wonder it could boast of a high number of scholars and career diplomats.
In spite of the changing fortunes of Katsina over the centuries, however, nothing fundamental had altered in terms of this enviable religious and commercial heritage. This gratifying reality underscored the political astuteness and maturity of succeeding Emirs of the Emirate whose ability to strike a balance between the ancient and modern had taken the city to fame and glory.
That was why Katsina, a frontline Islamic state, still maintained the secularity of the state as enshrined in the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. That was also why, in spite of the introduction of the Sharia legal system, its implementation invariably affected only Muslims.
This point was further driven home by the fact that Alamieyeseigha, a Christian minority from the southern-most fringes of the country, was being turbaned that fateful day as Ganuwa Katsina by his Royal Majesty Alhaji Muhammadu Kabiru Usman, Emir of Katsina, automatically admitting the Governor-General of the Izon nation as a member of the Katsina Emirate Council.
Up to that time, the Nigeria Project had been difficult to prosecute because there had been a clear absence of sincerity and unalloyed commitment in building bridges across borders. The decision to confer the title Ganuwa Katsina on Alamieyeseigha was a major unifying step that had been taken by the Katsina Emirate.
Nigeria, and indeed the world, had a lot to learn from Katsina in this regard. To build a strong, united and prosperous nation anchored on the tenets of equity, justice and fair play, the Katsina example was there to guide every step. Indeed the bond of friendship between the Ijaws and the north, particularly the Hausa-Fulani, had a long-standing history.
The alliance between the Niger Delta Congress, a political party founded by the Ijaws, and the Northern People’s Congress (NPC), became the basis for building and consolidating the young political infrastructure that kick-started Nigeria’s experiment in democratic governance at independence. It was this alliance that gave the NPC a national character.
In terms of character traits, the Ijaw and the northerners could be said to have a common tendency to speak the truth fearlessly at all times. By political orientation, both peoples are republican. It was a bond worth sustaining to strengthen the unity which Nigeria stood in dire need of.
It was also important to de-tribalise the popular consciousness of the people as a natural step towards securing national integration, mutual tolerance and prosperity, particularly at that crucial point in the nation’s political evolution when equity and justice had become key slogans on the lips of everyone.
There was every cause for all Nigerians to protect the unity and sovereignty of the nation, in spite of obvious differences. There was equally an intense need to secure and maximize the human and natural potentials of the country for the sake of generations yet unborn.
The only way to do that successfully was to promote those fundamental values that kept the people bound together under a common banner of love and brotherhood.
The individual and collective dreams of the people could only be fulfilled in an atmosphere of mutual respect, peace and concord. That was the point Alamieyeseigha sought to underscore when he said: ‘We must accept and uphold the imperative of forming new alignments between the various ethnic and religious divides as a joint venture enterprise towards attaining national self-consciousness and progress. Reverting to territorial exclusiveness in this day and age of our socio-political development can only be injurious to the health of our nation’.
As far as Alamieyeseigha could tell, the conferment of Ganuwa Katsina on him was another demonstration by the north to rejuvenate common values that bound the people together, rather than those that put asunder. It was his solemn pledge that he would do everything in his power to sustain and further strengthen the cultural and political ties between the north and south. His pledge was to do so, not just with the Katsina Emirate alone, but with the entire North.
This was imperative, especially against the backdrop of the peaceful co-existence the Ijaw people had enjoyed in Katsina State as in other parts of the North. In the same vein, the northerners had peacefully lived with the Ijaws in Ijaw land and the South-South as a whole. Even in the face of this apparent peaceful co-existence, Alamieyeseigha felt compelled to mention the subject of resource control which appeared to have been misconstrued by some northerners.
Resource control, said Alamieyeseigha, was not about oil and gas producing states seeking to appropriate all oil revenue to the exclusion of other states. For that matter, the 13% statutory derivation provision was not limited to oil and gas. On the contrary, it was applicable to all natural resources derived from Nigeria. Other parts of the country, including the north, were blessed with huge deposits of natural resources which had been abandoned on account of the greater economic viability of oil and gas.
Alamieyeseigha’s appeal was for every state in the nation to look inward and fully develop the natural resources with which God had so richly endowed Nigeria. This meant that, on their part, the Ijaw people would remain committed to the territorial integrity of Nigeria, and support any process or procedure that would help Nigeria to achieve greatness for the benefit of Africa and mankind.
Alamieyeseigha’s sincere hope was that delegates to the National Political Reform Conference would work to ensure that the conference achieved its purpose for a better, more united Nigeria. He was convinced that the problems facing the government and people of Katsina State were the same problems confronting people in the South-South geo-political zone, and the Niger Delta in particular.
While the people down south contended with the hazards of flooding and erosion, the north was obliged to cope with the menace of desertification. In both circumstances, the Nigerian land was threatened by natural phenomena, and it was important to seek common solutions to the problems.
The turbaning ceremony qualified to be called a celebration of the positive role the traditional institution could play, and had been playing, in nation building. For Alamieyeseigha, therefore, it was difficult to understand why the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria provided no role for the traditional institution. In spite of this omission, however, the Bayelsa State Government had consciously and deliberately involved the traditional institution in peace-building and governance.
Alamieyeseigha said: ‘Not only do we pay our traditional rulers monthly wages and allowances, we equally provide them transportation and involve them directly in crisis management and resolution. We must serve notice to the National Political Reform Conference that, if the result of their work should lead to constitutional amendment, we shall be doing the nation a great deal of good by providing a definite role for the traditional institution’.
It was on record that the traditional institution had been effective in implementing the civic process of tax collection, sustenance of peace, and the building of inter- and intra-communal harmony. These roles were traditional to the patriarchs even before Nigeria attained political independence. There was no apparent reason not to return this noble duty to traditional rulers, especially when the nation was seized by occasional unrest at the communal level, to say nothing of the pervasive threat to security.
For Alamieyeseigha, it was heart-warming to know that Nigeria was blessed with a qualitative array of traditional rulers who could be counted upon to direct the nation towards a common destiny in the best interest of all. The Emir of Katsina was a shining example of the traditional institution, and Alamieyeseigha did not fail to acknowledge that.
He said: ‘You have ruled this great emirate with sterling leadership qualities, transparency and the fear of Allah. You have continued to hold high the tenets and cultural values which are peculiar to Katsina. Those who sincerely love Nigeria will emulate the example you have set today. You have demonstrated that Christians and Muslims alike should see themselves as serving one God.
‘Your Royal Majesty, today you have opened a new door for trans-border understanding and co-operation. As it were, the Atlantic ocean and the Sahara desert have virtually met at this auspicious venue of ethnic coalition. I hope that the hinges of this door would be constantly oiled to create a smoother access to our dreams as a nation’.
Alamieyeseigha was hoping that the event, initiated by the Emir of Katsina himself, would have a multiplier effect on other aspects of a cross-border relationship. For example, the trading post between the South-South and the North could be expanded, so that the know-how that was available to either side could be the subject of exchange programmes.
