Honour for the honourable

This was the man that GOD (and atheists may call fate) forced to take a retreat from the military in the modern sector into the depth of tradition. Was this an uncanny coincidence? To man, yes! But to God, there are no coincidences….”

Connotation

Connotatively, the import of that introduction is that a bridge-building Sultan could only have been for Nigeria as a country and not just Sokoto State. That connotation sounds similar to my description of Archbishop Francis Arinze when he was appointed a Cardinal Deacon, with the title of S. Giovanni Della Pigna, in 1985. In my column in the then Concord newspaper, I called that great Nigerian ‘The Cardinal of Africa’ because he was the only African so appointed as at that time. I later followed his elevation to the rank of Cardinal Priest in 1996 as well as his appointment as President of the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue, the office which he held until 1 October 2002, when he was named Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. And with keen interest, I further followed his pontifical career until April 2005 when he as well as all other pontifical appointees lost their position during a sede vacante.

A Nigerian is a Nigerian

It did not matter to me then as an Islamic columnist that I was writing about the greatness of a Nigerian Archbishop who put the name of this country positively on the world map. What mattered to me then and even now was that such a great personality was a Nigerian. Gladly, no Nigerian Muslim reacted to that writing in a negative way. If my column in the Vanguard newspaper were still alive when Archishop Olubunmi Okogie was also ordained a Cardinal in 2004, I would have written a similar article about him. He is also a great Nigerian.

Who is a Fanatic?

However, in a similar vein last year, when I wrote an article in ‘The Message’ column describing Sultan Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar as ‘The Sultan of Nigeria’ based on his great national activities, I received scores of reactions (from non-Muslims), within 24 hours of its publication, condemning me for calling him ‘The Sultan of Nigeria’. Some of the authors of those reactions even threatened to deal with me for writing such an article. That is the extent of religious tolerance in Nigeria.

Most of the alumni of Nigerian Defence Academy who organised occasion in honour of the Sultan are bight-hearted Christians who know the value of such honour and its relevance to Nigeria of today.

That the Sultan is so revered is not an accident. In my writing celebrating the anniversary of his one year on the throne in November 2007 which I entitled ‘SULTAN AT ONE’, I said as follows:

“The man who commands efficiently must have obeyed others in the past, and the man who obeys dutifully is worthy of being, some day, a commander” CICERO De Legibus (c. 52 BC).

The above quote is as fitting to Sultan Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III as a scepter in the hand of a newly crowned king. Yet, Cicero did not have a Nigerian in mind when he coined his all-time axiom.

Congrautulatory Message

In my congratulatory message to His Eminence, I had to quote a famous American political leader, administrator and diplomat, Daniel Webster (1782-1852) who once said: “If we work marble it will perish; If we work upon brass, time will efface it; If we rear temples, they will crumble into dust; But if we work upon immortal minds and instill in them just principles; We are then engraving that upon tablets which no time can efface but will brighten to all eternity”.

I quoted Webster in that message because except for religion and royal blood, the Sultan shares many traits with that great man. Both men were born with the Silver Spoon in the mouth. They were brought up aristocratically and trained militarily and diplomatically. And they both travelled far and wide. Yet, their common hall mark is unblemished humility entrenched in service to humanity.

Reference

We were not born in the time of Webster to attest to his doings. Our reference to him here is based on what we read in history books. Sultan Sa’ad Abubakar, on the other hand, is a living evidence of our testimony to his conduct in royalty. Here is a monarch who throws open the doors of his royal palace to the talakawas including the Almajiris for festivities without any discrimination on the basis of religion. No other monarch has ever been known for doing that in Nigeria.

It is however not surprising that even with a royal crown on his head this revolutionary Sultan chooses to walk with the foot soldiers when and where he can ride on horse. It has to do with his state of mind as the Commander of the Muslim faithful in Nigeria, his occidental and oriental education as well as the name he bears.

The Mystery in Name

There is something mysterious about name which humanity is yet to comprehend fully. A puzzling secret seems to exist in the vocabulary of life which sticks to every man like a second skin. That secret, pearled in the yoke of name, is an effective evidence of destiny in man. Our names are the light that glows at night to lighten up our ways through the threshold of life. And when the dawn comes to render the glowing light ineffective, the bearer bows out into the recluse of death leaving behind an indemnified signature on the sands of time. This was the case with Prophet Muhammad (SAW), the greatest man that ever lived on the surface of the earth. Even as an unlettered son of Arabia who was born in an era of blatant ignorance he introduced into the world, an unprecedented civilization that opened the eyes of humanity to everlasting guidance. In recognition of his exemplariness, Allah said in Q 33: 21: “You have a good example in Allah’s Apostle (Prophet Muhammad) for anyone who looks to Allah and the Last Day and remembers Allah always”.

Reminiscence

The name Muhammad which means ‘Praiseworthy’ was never known to have been borne by anybody in Arabia before the birth of the Prophet. And no other person was known by that unique name in Makkah and its environs until after his call to the office of prophet-hood when Muslim parents started giving the name to their children in appreciation of the Prophet’s greatness and in emulation of his exemplary character.

Today, at the mention of Prophet Muhammad anywhere in the world, everybody around responds torrentially with the traditional chanting of ‘Salla Llah alayhi wa sallama’ meaning: ‘Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him’. This is even chanted sometimes unconsciously by non-Muslims.

Sultan’s first name is Muhammad which he bears in emulation of the Prophet. His second name is Sa’ad meaning good luck which makes him a namesake of one of the Prophet’s disciples (Sa’d bn Abi Waqqas) who was a great Army General of Islam. And his (Sultan’s) surname is Abubakar which means ‘father of youths’, a name which he shares with the first Caliph in Islam (Abubakr Siddiq). In every one of these names is a profound meaning with profound influence on the personality and conduct of the Sultan. As an Army General, like Sa’d bn Abi Waqqas, Sultan is demonstrating the courage of a brave leader. As the father of the youths, like Abu Bakr, he bridges the gap between leadership and follower-ship by breathing a breeze of hope into Nigerian Muslim youths.

Qualities of a Leader

A leader is known, not by the office he occupies, nor by the enormity of the power he wields but by the magnanimity with which he exercises the power entrusted to him and the humility he demonstrates in his interaction with the people. This is the lesson which Prophet Muhammad taught Muslim rulers in his Hadith when he said: “A powerful person is not the one who can suppress others (with the instrumentality of office) but the one who can resist the temptation to use such power”. Sultan Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar 111 seems to have fully imbibed this prophetic teaching as a Muslim ruler and a faithful one for that matter. He demonstrated this much as Amirul Hajj in Saudi Arabia during the 2006 Hajj and the result was tremendous. No Amirul Hajj has been so successful in the history of Hajj performance in Nigeria.

Through his humble interaction with all Muslims in Nigeria irrespective of tribal or geographical boundaries, he has become the first Sultan to have created a strong feeling of a united Ummah under a competent leadership. And by speaking out incessantly against policies which seem to deliberately impoverish ordinary Nigerians, irrespective of religions, this Sultan has brought a lucky era to this country and the Muslims are the luckiest for it. Such a leadership deserves absolute allegiance, loyalty and regular prayer from the follower-ship…”

Memory Lane

Going down the memory lane in the lecture he delivered at that Friday occasion, Professor Elaigwu alluded to the role of traditional rulers in the areas that later came to be called Nigeria. He dwelt extensively on Traditional Rulers in Pre-colonial Societies; Traditional Rulers under Colonial Rule: 1900-1960; The changes which the various colonial constitutions brought to traditional institution in Nigeria; Traditional Rulers and Politicians; Traditional Rulers and the Military Political Avalanche; Traditionalisation of Modernity and Modernisation of Tradition; Traditional Rulers and Nation Building and the challenges facing traditional rulers in today’s democratic Nigeria.

Conclusion

Professor Elaigwu’s detailed analysis on each of these interesting topics aroused the policy attention of the Legislators present, some of whom confessed that they were enlightened enough by that lecture to know how to contribute to any policy formulation concerning traditional ruler-ship vis a vis politics in Nigeria.

In the 18 Regular Course of the Nigerian Defence Academy were 60 cadets. At the end of their course, 35 ended up in the Army including the Sultan, 19 went into the Air Force while six took to Navy.