Traditional and religious institutions had played and continue to play varied and dynamic roles in various parts of the world, including our country, Nigeria. These institutions provided the cohesion and harmony required to sustain the functionality and dynamism of our local communities and the relevance of our socio-cultural traditions and values in the wider arena of national discourse.

His Eminence, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar

It is therefore vitally important to provide our traditional institutions with the enabling environment to adapt and respond more efficaciously to the emerging challenges of nation-building as well as to the exigencies of peace, security and socio-economic development.

Our task in this preliminary discourse is to highlight the character and essence of our traditional institutions, with particular reference to my domain, the Sokoto Caliphate. This may help us gain greater insight into the characteristics of our traditional institutions, the values they cherish, their transformation during the colonial period and how they could be repositioned to play effective roles in National Security.

It is our hope that this discourse, albeit abbreviated shall go a long way in complementing other discourses on the subject matter.

Sokoto intellectual culture

The Sokoto Caliphate was the result of a socio-political and religious movement which was led by Shaykh Uthman Ibn Fodio and ably assisted by his brother, Shaykh Abdullahi and his son, Shaykh Muhammad Bello.

The physical confrontation with the Gobir authorities which marked the commencement of the Jihad began in 1804 AD and set into motion one of the most extensive political transformations in the West African sub-region and created a polity which encompassed much of Northern Nigeria, Northern Cameroon and significant positions of Chad, Niger and Burkina Faso.

But the legacy of the Sokoto Caliphate lies not only in the expanse of territory it had controlled but in its wider contribution to scholarship and learning in the sub-region and beyond. The Sokoto triumvirate, consisting of Shaykh Uthman Ibn Fodio, Shaykh Abdullah and Shaykh Muharnmad Bello, were veritable Islamic scholars who had contributed, between the three of them, over three hundred scholarly works.

These contributions focused not only on Islamic Jurisprudence and Qur’anic Exegesis but also on Principles of Politics, Astronomy, Pharmacology and Medicine. It is worthy of note that when Hugh Clapperton visited Sokoto in the 1820s, the major items of interest which he presented to Sultan Muharnmad Bello was a Greek astronomical treatise, the Euclid, a work on Medicine by Ibn Sina and portions of the Old Testament, including the Psalms of David.

Sultan Muhammad Bello remarked to Clapperton that he lost his copy of the Euclid to a fire incident. He also attempted to engage Clapperton in discourse on biblical history, only to find his guest not well tutored in the subject.

It is also pertinent to point out that the Sokoto Caliphate leaders had also held the position that governance must be predicated on knowledge and learning. It was a view strongly held by Shakhy Uthman Ibn Fodio, the Caliphate’s founder, that a person should not be charged with responsibilities of leadership. unless he is properly tutored in the rudiments of Law and Jurisprudence as well as Good Governance and the proper management of human affairs. In the words of Shaykh Uthman Ibn Fodio, in his Bayan Wujub al-Hijrah, written as early as 1804,

“A man without learning is like a country without inhabitants. The finest (qualities) in a leader, in particular, and in people in general, are the love of learning, the desire to listen to it and holding the bearer of knowledge in great respect – this is in fact the surest way for a leader to be beloved of his people. On the other hand, if the leader is devoid of learning, he follows his whims and leads his subjects astray, like a riding beast with no halter, wandering off the path and perhaps spoiling what it passes over …

For a leader has set up himself to deal with people’s natures, to settle their disputes and to undertake their government. All these require outstanding learning, keen insight and extensive study. How would he get on if he had not made the necessary preparations and made himself ready for these matters?

Other people do not lack those who oppose them, point out their shortcomings and hold contrary views. That helps a man to train himself and learn where the right way lies. A leader, on the other hand, does not encounter any of these things because his high position cuts him off from

them, since the only people who associate with him are those who glorify his status, conceal his drawbacks and praise him for what he does not possess. Their only reply to him is, “the leader is right”.

Values and collective security

One of the distinguishing features of the Sokoto Caliphate had been its emphasis on key societal values which the Caliphate leaders took pains to enunciate in their various writings and pronouncements. The upholding of these values was deemed essential in sustaining the continuity of the State and ensuring the collective security, human and physical, of the citizenry.

In my speeches at various fora, including Columbia University, New York, Harvard University, Institute for Security Studies, Bwari, Abuja and National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) Kuru, I had occasion to draw attention to these seminal values and their strategic significance to nation-building and national security.

The first Principle extolled by the Sokoto Caliphate leaders is safeguarding the welfare of the citizenry and the primacy of the Public Interest. In the words of Shaykh Uthaman Ibn Fodio, “seeing to the welfare of the people is a more effective tool of governance than the use of coercion. The crown of a leader is his integrity, his stronghold is his impartiality and his wealth is the welfare of his people”. In addressing the Governors of the Caliphate, Shaykh Abdullahi Ibn Fodio, also stressed on the same principle:

“The Governor has to see to the welfare of the people ……… The Governor must not think that he is the owner of the province over which he is appointed to govern, whereby the land becomes his personal property which he can give to whom he likes and refuse whom he wishes. Such action is misguided and belongs to the era of Ignorance (Jahiliyya). He should realize that he has been entrusted to take charge of the affairs of the people only for the purpose of looking after their religious and temporal interests‘’.

Caliph Muhammad Bello, who succeeded to the Sokoto Caliphate after the death of his father, Shaykh Uthman Ibn Fodio in 1817, took a developmental approach to the issue: The Sixth Principle (of Governance) is that the leader or the Emir or the Governor should provide public amenities for the people of his State for their temporal and religious benefit. For this purpose, he shall foster the artisans and be concerned with tradesmen who are indispensable to the people, such as farmers and smiths, tailors and dyers, physicians and grocers, butchers and carpenters and all sorts of trades which contribute to (stabilize) the proper order of this world. The ruler must allocate these tradesmen to every village and every locality.

He should urge his subjects to seek foodstuff and keep it for future use. He must keep villages and countryside in prosperity; construct fortresses and bridges maintain markets and roads and realize for them all what are of public interest so that the proper order of this world may be maintained. “

The second Principle enunciated by the Caliphate leaders is the imperative of Equity and Justice in the attainment of good governance and collective security.

“One of the swiftest ways of destroying a State, “ according to Shaykh Utham Ibn Fodio, “is to give preference to one particular tribe over another or to show favour to one group of people rather than another and draw near those who should be kept away and keep away those who should be drawn near … Other practices (destructive to Sovereignty) are arrogance and conceit which take away virtues.

There are six qualities which cannot be tolerated in a leader: lying, enry, breach of promise, sharpness of temper, miserliness and cowardice. Another is the seclusion of the leader from his people, because when the oppressor is sure that the oppressed person will not have access to the leader, he becomes even more oppressive. A State can endure with unbelief but it cannot endure with injustice. “

Shaykh Abdullahi Ibn Fdio, putting it in more legal terms, admonished: “The Sultan is also under obligation to observe justice and goodness. Justice is that he restores to everyone his right. It is all the same whether that right is extracted from himself or from others. “

The Third Principle essential for the sustenance of Good Governance and engendering Peace and Mutual Co-existence is Consultation and Consensus- building on major issues of state. According to Shaykh Uthman Ibn Fodio, “The [next] principle is to adhere to consultation … because the person, who seeks advice, if he is of sounder opinion than the one consulted, confirms his own view; if he is less knowledgeable, he benefits from another opinion. A certain leader once said: Your own high status should not stop you from adding other people’s points of view to your own.

Intoleranceof  Corruption

For if you seek advice and are thereby successful, people will praise your opinions, but if you make a mistake they will share the consequences of your error. One of the worst qualities in a leader is to be self-opinionated and to neglect consultation. “

The Fourth Principle enunciated by the Caliphate leaders and deemed essential in the realisation of Good Governance is the Intoierance of Corruption on the part of the leaders as well as public officials. “A governor”, according to Shaykh Abdullahi Ibn Fodio, “is forbidden to touch property acquired unjustly such as bribes obtained for appointing a judge or any other officer. The use of such property is unanimously regarded as illegal. It corrupts the Religion and leaves the door wide open for other briberies and the oppression of the poor.

It is also illegal to accept any gift from the common people, for such an action is the door leading to all types of calamities. When a gift finds its way to a man in authority, justice and goodness find their way out of him. “ As for the employees, Shaykh Abdullahi posits that the “ruler should be to his employees like a shepherd among wild lions; they look after his subjects for him and he looks after them. All corruption comes from evil employees.”

Caliph Muhammad Bello was equally emphatic on this issue: “The ruler must be resolute in being on his guard against the employees.

By His Eminence, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar