The Muslim Rights Concern, MURIC, has alleged that Governor Ahmed Aliyu of Sokoto State is planning to depose the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III.
While raising the alarm in a statement on Monday, the Executive Director of MURIC, Prof Isiaq Akintola, said Nigerian Muslims reject any thought of deposing the Sultan.
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The development comes amid the controversy and tension over the deposition of some monarchs in Kano State.
Recall that Governor Aliyu had earlier deposed 15 traditional rulers for various offenses.
According to Akintola, “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.
Akintola warned Governor Aliyu against forcing Nigerian Muslims to take a drastically revolutionary measure.
The MURIC boss said 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 April 20, 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 the hearts of Nigerians.
“Nigerian muslims in the 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 privileged leadership position. But history will not be kind to Col. Yakubu Muazu and Ahmed Aliyu for ruining the chances of Sokoto.
“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.”