President and Power in Nigeria

The Life of Shehu Shagari

David Williams

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781317792017
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: History

First published in 1982. This is the biography of Alhaji Shehu Shagari of Nigeria, Africa's most populous state and the world's third biggest democracy. He was elected in 1979, against four opponents, in the election which signified the peaceful end of thirteen and a half years of military rule. Alhaji Shehu was the first boy from Shagari, founded in what is now Sokoto State by his ancestors 170 years ago, to go to secondary school. Education has remained one of his main interests throughout a political career which included many ministerial posts. Thoughtful, scholarly and conciliatory he is now a world figure. The book presents the man and his policies against the lively political, social and economic background of a country of eighty million people, which is among the world's six most important oil exporters.

1
A Place Called Shagari

Alhaji Shehu Usman Aliyu Shagari takes his name from the old village of Shagari, which lies in the broad arid savannah of north-western Nigeria, forty kilometres south of the city of Sokoto. Once Shagari was a convenient night-stop for trading caravans of many tribes, with their camels, horses and donkeys, travelling to and from Sokoto, capital of the Caliphate which for almost a century before the British occupation in 1903 dominated most of what was to become Northern Nigeria. Now, bypassed by the great concrete and tarmac motorway leading to the south and Lagos, it is a backwater in Sokoto State and in the Sultan of Sokoto’s emirate.

The modest two-storey house Shehu Shagari built here for himself twenty years ago was already, apart from the mosque, the village’s main building. Now it has been expanded, though still modestly, to become a presidential rural retreat, with its own small mosque with a copper-coloured dome.

The future President was bom in the house of his father, then Shagari’s Village Head, in the middle of the village. It was built of sun-baked clay, reinforced by scantlings from fan-palms, which are uniquely resistant to white ants, was decorated with traditional motifs, and had a thatched roof. His elder brother, Alhaji Muhammadu Bello, Magajin Shagari, now himself Village Hèad, still lives in this traditional edifice.

Shagari has some 3,000 people and the area over which the Village Head holds jurisdiction has some 8,000 farmers and cattle-herders. From these surroundings come people austere and dignified; qualities which even his critics concede to the President, a devout Muslim, always dressed in traditional robes.

He was the fifth child and third son of Magaji Aliyu and Mairamu, daughter of Sarkin Kebbi Riskuwa, District Head of Yabo, which lies some ten kilometres north of Shagari. Other brothers and sisters followed, and all have homes in the village. He puts his birthday at February 25,1925, a different date from that given in reference books, but carefully calculated according to information from his mother and the guidance of Malam Bello of the Islamic Research Bureau, Benin.

Shagari, we have said, is now a backwater. But it once played a significant part in one of the most important episodes in the history of West Africa.

In the last decades of the eighteenth and first years of the nineteenth century the Hausa states, most of which were later to form part of Nigeria’s Northern Region, were the scene of a remarkable religious and social reform movement. This was intent on the purification of Islam, which had come to these states — if only, often superficially, to their rulers — some three centuries earlier. The movement culminated in 1804 in the Jihad or Holy War. This removed most of the Hausa rulers of the states, the Emirs, who were replaced with “flagbearers” of the movement’s leader, the pious and learned Shehu Uthman dan Fodio, the “Shaikh”. It also led to the establishment of the Sokoto^* Caliphate, which, in its religious aspect, under its Sultans, survives to this day.

The Hausa kingdoms were separate, independent, states, whose peoples, though sharing a common language and aspects of culture, and having ancient trade links, had distinctive national histories and tribal names. In spite of intermittent warfare among them no state established hegemony over all the others. Hausa was then, and should still be, used as a linguistic rather than an ethnic term, although of the many diverse cultures which have been brought together to shape modern Nigeria, the Hausa culture is among the most important. Even the Caliphate did not unite all the Hausa states politically; a few remained outside it, and the system was administratively loose and often challenged.

For thirty years before the Jihad, the Shaikh had been preaching reform. His home at Degel, in the north of what was to become Sokoto State, was a centre for scholarship and spiritual guidance. He did not, however, seek conflict with the Hausa temporal rulers; the Jihad in fact started as a defensive movement against the harassment of the Shaikh and his followers by those rulers.

The Shaikh was a Fulani. This people then, as now, lived throughout the savannah areas of West Africa, from Senegal to the north of the Cameroon Republic. They are called variously Fulani, Peul, Fulbe, Fourah, etc. Their origin is uncertain, although, whether or not it lay in Egypt or the Arab lands as has been suggested, they were established in the Futa Toro of Senegal well over a millenium ago. By the middle of the eighteenth century large numbers had migrated to and settled in the Hausa states. Many were largely integrated politically with the Hausa-speaking peoples, although maintaining a separate identity because of their longer adherence to Islam and their superior education. Others remained, as they still do, nomadic cattle owners and herders, sometimes in conflict with the long-settled Hausa farmers over grazing and water.

The Shaikh’s principal lieutenants, who included members of his family, were also Fulani, as were most of his “flag-bearers”, whom he sent to replace so many Hausa rulers. So it has often been asserted that the Jihad was a revolt, religiously inspired, of Fulani against their oppressive Hausa overlords, resulting in a system which in time made the Fulani themselves oppressive overlords of the Hausa peasantry.

Scholars now, however, emphasise that during the Jihad combatants from all ethnic groups in the area could be found on both sides. There was little “ethnic” about the movement which the scholarly Shaikh inspired. Nor was the Jihad simply a war between Muslims and non-Muslims; it represented a revolutionary movement inside a traditional society which was Islamic in character. And in the sometimes fierce resistance against British occupation of Hausaland at the beginning of this century, people of all races joined.

Now Nigerian scholars prefer to emphasise the social and religious ideas behind the Jihad; the conception of an ideal society, even if it was never achieved, and the belief that science requires knowledge of God’s law.

The nature of the Jihad is significant for Nigeria’s modern history. Sir Frederick Lugard, who was Britain’s first High Commissioner in Northern Nigeria, and later first Governor-General of Nigeria, frequently used the theory that the Fulani liberators had turned into oppressors of the Hausa peasantry to justify Britain’s own occupation of the northern Nigerian emirates in 1901–3. But even if the rule of the Fulani Emirs had by then degenerated, the main reasons for the British occupation sprang from trade and great-power rivalry.

Lugard also used the view that the Fulani had originally, after the Jihad, shown themselves to be unusually able administrators, to justify his support, after the British occupation, for continuation of the highly developed Emirate system. This the Fulani had maintained, although they had not created it. Lugard used it as the basis, suitably reformed and controlled, of “indirect rule” in Northern Nigeria, the system under which a handful of British administrative officers exercised authority through traditional rulers and institutions. Some Nigerian politicians, too, have attacked what they called “Fulani imperialist domination”, particularly in the days between 1951 and 1966 when the Northern Peoples Congress, based in the Emirates and enjoying the patronage of most traditional rulers in the then Northern Region, particularly in Sokoto itself, dominated Nigerian politics.

Alhaji Shehu visits his Fulani relations at an encampment near Shagari in January 1973. Photos by courtesy of Mr Jim Boyd.

At Shagari in 1972. Photo by courtesy of Mr Jim Boyd.

Today, although the earlier Hausa-Fulani division is not forgotten, and nobody denies that there were Hausa revolts against the new Fulani rulers at the beginning of the last century, this division is not significant politically.

The cattle-Fulani continue their nomadic existence and retain their language, and many their own religion. Their attachment to the nomadic life and their need of children to herd their stock creates obvious problems, for example for those administering Universal Primary Education, which was introduced throughout Nigeria in 1976. But the nomad and the semi-nomad Fulani, who number perhaps ten million in Nigeria and throughout West Africa, represent the world’s biggest nomadic community. And as main custodians of Nigeria’s livestock population, perhaps over ten million cattle, twenty million goats, and millions of sheep, they play a significant part in the agricultural economy.

The settled Fulani, however - although a high proportion of traditional rulers, Emirate notables and politicians in the Hausa-speaking states, as well as President Shehu Shagari himself, can today claim Fulani descent - have, with the exception of those of Adamawa, lost their language. They have adopted Hausa, now the language in widest use in West Africa. Their dress is Hausa, as are their Emirate titles, and intermarriage and the former institution of concubinage have eroded Fulani identity.

Whatever the origin of the Fulani people, those Fulani who finally settled in the area which was to become Sokoto and the southern areas of the modern Niger Republic, and from whom Alhaji Shehu Shagari himself is descended - the Toronkawa, or people of the Toronke clan - were among those who came from Senegal. From there they migrated slowly across the Sahel as far as what was to become North Cameroon. In Futa Toro an Arab missionary called Ukba ben Yasir had been married to a Taurudo wife called Bajamangu and by her had four sons, who had developed the Fulfulde language, neither Arabic nor Toro. Some Fulani became Islamic teachers and missionaries, some herdsmen.

The Toronkawa were the descendants of Musa Jokollo, a grandson of Ukba ben Yasir. Famous as Islamic scholars throughout West Africa they moved eastwards to what is now Sokoto State. Today the name is applied only to descendants of the Shaikh, who, born in 1754 at Mara ta, which is now in the Niger Republic, was eleventh descendant of Musa Jokollo who led the migration eastwards from Senegal.

Among leaders of Fulani clans in the Sokoto area was Namoda, whose headquarters, Kaura Namoda in the now extinct kingdom of Zamfara, was some hundred miles northeast of what was to become Sokoto, and who gave the Shaikh notable support in the Jihad. In Namoda a member of the ruling family, Muhammadu, head of the long-settled village of Kungurki, found himself passed over for the succession. He decided, around the year 1810, to leave the area and to seek service with the Shaikh, now “Commander of the Faithful” and Caliph.

Muhammadu was rich by the standards of the time; when he set out on the 120 mile journey to join the Shaikh he took with him many people - his wives and children, his servants and herdsmen, and his “berebere” slaves from Bomo. He had, too, many cattle, and flocks of goats and sheep as well as horses.

At that time the Shaikh resided at Sifawa, some twenty miles south of the site of Sokoto, where his son, Sultan Bello, was to build a capital for the eastern part of the newly founded Caliphate, responsibility for administering which had been given to him by Uthman dan Fodio. The site was so exposed and bleak that the pious Shaikh hoped that it would deter all biit dedicated followers from settling there, so that it would become a place of learning and devotion, not of commerce.

Muhammadu of Kungurki learnt, however, that the Shaikh, who still constantly taught and preached, was then, during a return journey from a visit to Gwandu, at a village called Sala, some 28 miles to the south of Sifawa. There Muhammadu took his caravan and met the Shaikh; and from there the two set out for Sifawa.

On the way the party stopped to pray under a huge baobob tree in an area with many such trees. When the prayers were completed the Shaikh turned to his new disciple and suggested to him that, because his people and animals were so numerous, it might be wiser for him to travel no more. Here was an ideal site for a settlement. There appeared to be grazing and water; there was certainly firewood. And although dye-pits suggested that people had once lived in the area, there was now no sign of habitation. Led by the Shaikh’s scholar brother Abdullahi, whose own residence was at Bodinga, near Sifawa, the men of the party eagerly cleared a site for the settlement and Abdullahi himself suggested a plan for it.

Before he continued on his own journey to Sifawa, now only some ten miles to the north, the Shaikh told Muhammadu; “here you can sit and drink for ever your ‘gari’ “. In other words - and to this day the people of the small town believe it to be true - there would never be famine in the village which was to be named Shagari, after the nickname by which Muhammadu came to be known. (“Gari” in Hausa means guinea corn “flour”, which Hausa people mixed with water. The Fulani adopted this staple food, but mixed it with milk.)

Unhappily within a month Shagari was dead. His people took his body for burial to the Shaikh’s town, Sifawa, which he had never seen. The Shaikh led prayers for him, and he was buried between two ancient trees on the edge of the town, in a simple grave kept in perfect order to this day, with a small place for prayer adjoining.

Leading the mourners from Shagari was Muhammadu’s son, Muhammadu Iggi, whom the Shaikh had already “turbanned” so that he could take his father’s place as “successor”, or Magaji, in the village (the modern term Village Head was not then in use). He led the people back to Shagari. His brother Usuman, who followed him as leader, was father of President Shehu Shagari’s grandfather.

The settlement was soon moved about a mile to the south, the present site of Shagari, and was rebuilt more durably to accommodate some of the Shaikh’s lieutenants and scholars. The Shaikh himself died in 1817 and is buried in Sokoto, where his tomb is visited by pilgrims from as far away as Senegal. Near the tree under which the Shaikh and Shagari first prayed, and which still stands, was built a small mosque which today serves the people of Gurawa hamlet, one of those which come under the Shagari Village Head.

A Village Head in the Emirates, in spite of the démocratisation and politicisation of local government in the northern states, as in the rest of Nigeria (Shehu Shagari himself, before standing down to participate in the presidential election, was an elected councillor for the Shagari area) still has important functions and considerable local standing. In the past his great job was local tax collection, a job now obsolete because of the abolition of “community” and cattle taxes. He was also responsible for law and order, and had his own court. This is now restricted to matrimonial cases, but he is still looked to for informal adjudication in personal disputes, and for dealing with disturbances. He is Registrar of Births and Deaths (he knows everybody and everything) and collects some tolls.

A man who is himself a District Head, Alhaji Shehu Malami, Sarkin Sudan of Wumo, in Sokoto, described the still continuing role of ward, Village and District Heads in the Nigerian emirates in a lecture to the Army Command and Staff College at Jaji in August, 1978. Village and ward heads, Alhaji Shehu explained,

are the encyclopaedia of the administration. They know every single individual in their locality and have detailed knowledge of their movements. They know the location of all the farms and grazing grounds and to whom they belong; and have even detailed knowledge of how many wives a particular man has, how many children, and their various ages. The ward head even knows how many head of cattle or how many donkeys a particular person possesses. You may be surprised to know this. I never believed it myself until I became District Head in 1974.

With this detailed knowledge of the area, security of the place is guaranteed. Indeed one of the cardinal duties of the ward head is to report movements of strangers with a view to preventing the villagers from harbouring thieves and other criminals. They must report immediately the occurrence of violent deaths and any outbreak of human or animal diseases … as well as any unusual movements of livestock, game, and news of, the appearance of locusts. They are even expected regularly to report the sighting of the new moon!! In addition to all these duties, with other ward heads supervised by the Village Head, they must play an active role in organising and implementing village social and economic activities such as adult education, community developments, etc., etc., etc.

The District Head, the Village Head’s superior, is

both the Emir’s on-the-spot agent and official head of his district. He performs not only the task of co-ordination but he also ensures that all the activities of the Government are carried out according to policies laid down …

His regular touring reports covering all aspects of life in the district, from the condition of crops on the farms to self-help efforts, from availability or scarcity of water or food to the conditions of various roads are sent to the Emir, with copies to the Local Government and the State Government officials concerned.

This, said the Sarkin Sudan, was “the system that the British had found working in this country, a system that has now served us for nearly two hundred years.”

The Village Head, in short, is rather like an Elizabethan Justice of the Peace. But he depends for the greater part of his living, like most of his people, on farming, as does the President’s elder brother.

It was in 1930 that Alhaji Muhammadu, who is fourteen years older than the President, succeeded to the office now known as “Village Head” of Shagari at the age of nineteen, in place of his and the Presid...