The Adamawa State Governor, Alhaji Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri has just announced the appointment of emirs and chiefs to the new emirates and chiefdoms he created about two months ago through the fiat of the Adamawa State House of Assembly.
My hometown, Ribadu, happened to be under the newly created Fufore emirate, and I congratulate Hon. Sani Ahmadu Ribadu, for making history by becoming the emir, despite not being from a royal family.
Traditionally, emirs, even where new emirates are created within the Usman Dan Fodio flagship Caliphate territories in Northern Nigeria, appointees are selected from among members of the ruling houses.
I was expecting the new emir to have come from any of the families of the ruling district heads, especially the Lamdo Hamza family of Ribadu that produced notable rulers like my grand uncle, Mahmudu Ribadu, who later abdicated to join politics and served as a federal minister in the first republic.
The new emir, Sani Ribadu, who is the younger brother to the National Security Adviser, Nallam Nuhu Ribadu, and former Deputy Chief of Staff to Governor Fintiri, has link to royalty only through his maternal first cousin, Alhaji Hamma Tukur Njobdi, who is also my maternal uncle.
Ardo Balala Hamman Tukur was the only son of Ardo Balala Njobdi. His mother was the daughter of Alkali Atiku and also the elder sister of Hon. Sani’s father, Alhaji Ahmadu Ribadu. That makes them maternal first cousins.
It is also well known, going by tradition, a cousin from mother’s side, does not inherit the stool of a district head or that of an emir.
The bigger question that the people of Adamawa have been asking since the balkanisation of especially the Adamawa emirate is: why?
The answer to that is very simple. It is all politics and rooted from the last Adamawa State governorship election in which all the three emirs in the state; Lamido Adamawa, Lamido Mubi and Ganwari Ganye, were accused of openly endorsing the APC governorship candidate, Sen. Aishatu Dahiru Ahmad Binani.
Governor Fintirii vowed to deal with all the traditional rulers that did not support him, and a number of district, village and ward heads were removed immediately after he was sworn in for second term.
Some of his kitchen cabinet members pressured him to extend the same punishment on the first class emirs, but it was believed that the Waziri Adamawa intervened and asked the Governor not to sack any of the emirs.
Thus, the Waziri was able to save Ganye and the Ganwari from Fintiri’s whip, but could not do so for the Lamido and Adamawa Emirate. The Governor’s former Deputy Chief of Staff, allegedly, riding on the back of his brother’s (NSA) influence put pressure on the governor to ignore Atiku’s advise and at least, break the emirate into two as the Lamido’s punishment.
That did not come as a surprise to many who have been following the bad blood that had been going on between the Ahmadu Ribadu family and the Lamido, late and the present. I followed keenly their continued saga as a reporter with the NTA and till date.
In 1979, a young Prince Barkindo Aliyu Mustafa who was in his early 30’s and fully indulged in GNPP politics, played a role in mobilizing all the district heads within Adamawa emirate to vote for Abubakar Barde, and as a result, Alhaji Ahmadu Ribadu of the NPN lost the governorship election, though he was compensated with Ambassadorial appointment and posted to Niger Republic.
The then young Chiroma Adamawa, noted the role played by Ardo Balala Hamman Tukur Njobdi, Sani’s cousin, who failed to deliver Fufore to GNPP and used his influence as Commissioner of Works in the Barde administration, and also the Governor’s close confidant, to oust him from office as the District Head in 1981.
You could say it is the chicken that comes home to roost. It is EMI LOKAN for the new emir who is undoubtedly for now, a Prince in the Nigerian government by extension and the emir of Fufore in Adamawa State for real.
Allah juttin balde Lamdo Sani.
- Iyawa is a former Nigerian Ambassador to Mexico
