KEY NOTE ADDRESS BY USMAN BUGAJE AT THE NATIONAL
WORKSHOP AND BOOK LAUNCH ON THE LIFE AND LEGACY
OF SHEHU USMAN DAN FODIO ORGANISED BY NDCC & SSWI
AT THE INTERNATIONAL  CONFERENCE CENTRE, ABUJA,
NIGERIA 17TH - 18TH MAY 2004 - Part 2

[Sokoto Caliphate ]   [Critical Success Factors ]    [Our Contemporary Time ]  CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS In listing the critical success factors I can not be exhaustive, if only because this is only a keynote address and the organisers have urged me to keep it short. For the same reason I have to assume a general knowledge of the events and the chronology of the movement that gave birth to the Caliphate. I have found Five Factors particularly critical: The development of a huge and robust educational network and the institutionalisation of a formidable intellectual culture; the education and emancipation of women; the acquisition of a sound moral capital; the respect for due process and the enthralment of a rigorous standard for justice; and the ability to manage change. Educational Network & Intellectual Capacity – As a young graduate with many career options to choose from, Shehu’s choice to pursue teaching was clearly informed by the deplorable level of ignorance of the 18th century Hausaland he was born into. It would appear that when Shehu took the decision to devote all his attention and resources to teaching he under-estimated the challenge. It was with time, and as he had to travel the length and breadth of Hausaland to further his own education that he realised what he knew of his home state of Gobir is actually the same of others. In fact, as he discovered, Zamfara was worst, prompting him to spend five years there instead of the few months stint that he used to take to teach and establish a school before moving on to another location. Learning had been the exclusive preserve of a few and with the devastating consequences of creating islands of learning in a sea of ignorance. The challenge for Shehu was how to democratise access to education and popularise learning. He went about setting up schools and a network of students and scholars that were criss-crossing the length and breadth of the vast expanse of Hausaland. He not only set up schools to train the teachers but had to write the text books, though he later got helping hands from Shehu Abdullahi, 12 years his junior, and a host of others. It took him about twenty years of itinerant and peripatetic career, before he could settle down in one place, Degel in Gobir, to now address the intellectual yearnings of a growing number of students and scholars all looking up to the Shehu. By 1793, he had completed the Ihya-u-Sunnah one of the first and more advanced textbooks and took residence in Degel, which soon became a kind of university town, full of scholars of all disciplines, busy with teaching and learning. By this time the educational machinery he created had acquired a momentum of its own and in time went beyond his imagination, to incorporate students from as far as Garwa in current Cameroon to Masina and Segu in today’s Mali; from the deserts of Agades in northern Niger to the rain forests of the Guinea. This robust education industry which the Shehu worked to establish was to produce massive human capital spread throughout the length and breadth of Hausaland and beyond. This human capital was not only massive, and extensive, but had been fed on the educational diet of a team of scholars with a deep sense of mission that are out to change the fortunes of their decadent society. There was, thus, an increasing number of men and women ever ready to run any errand and carry out any orders from the leadership of a growing movement. So when the hijra was declared there were hands and when the jihad came there were ready soldiers and after the jihad there was ready leadership and managers of change to see the new order through. But for this human capital the enterprise could not have gone far and we would not perhaps be here today, for there would not have been a Caliphate to celebrate. The robust educational industry could be sustained for the first quarter century and beyond because of the intellectual capacity of the group to continue producing knowledge as learning could not have continued without knowledge. This was particularly so because a lot of what was available in terms of books and literature were books written by scholars of old, addressing societies of old. New issues emerged that needed attention. For example the receding of learning had given pagan practices space to grow and syncretism had become wide spread, it was necessary to know where to draw the line and there was a huge debate as to what constituted Islam and what did not. The theological school of Kalam was engaging the minds of scholars and was exacerbating the issue of who was a Muslim and who was not. There  was the issue of women’s rights, the legality or otherwise of taxes charged by increasingly tyrannical kings, issues of land ownership and the limits of the powers of the state etc. The intellectual challenge was simply enormous. The Shehu and his growing team had to address these issues even as they were attending to the more rudimentary needs of the ordinary Muslims. Books upon books had to be read, new ones had to be written to service the debate and explore new options. It was not surprising then when Muhammad Bello recalling the challenges in his Infaq al-Maysur, a history of the Jihad and the caliphate, said that he must have read a minimum of 20,000 books. We should have no difficulty understanding that, because the personal holdings of the library of Ahmad Baba of Timbuktu, some two hundred and fifty years earlier, was about that. It was in this process that the movement had to develop the intellectual capacity to handle the issues at hand. Thus the three alone came to produce a total of over three hundred works, covering subjects ranging from jurisprudence, hadith, tafsir, administration, political theory, sociology, to psychology, town-planning and medicine. The depth and breadth of the fields are simply astonishing, for even in medicine, they covered general medicine, dieting and nutrition, ophthalmology, anthemeneutics, exercise and sports. There was hardly an issue that confronted them that they did not address. But the feat is not in the production of extensive literature on such variety of subjects, rather it is their firm grasp of the goals of Islam and unique appreciation of the future that allowed them to transcend the past and understand the needs of the present. This allowed them to restore to Islam its dynamism and give it the capacity to deal with all matters arising. For example, Shehu argued that Muslims should give priority to the books written by the scholars of their time as they know their situation better and are more likely to guide them correctly. Thus relieving his followers of labouring under the dead weight of obsolete fatawi that may have lost its relevance and empowering them to address the issues of their times without losing sight of the transcendental goals of Islam. Similarly Shehu in his Hidayatu-t-Tullab, demystified the idea of having to follow only the Maliki school of law, arguing that each of the schools are correct and since neither the Qur’an or the hadith gave any directive to that effect, no one is obliged to follow a particular madhhab.  In his words, “neither Allah ta’ala in his book nor His Messenger in his Sunnah obliged anyone to adhere to a particular madhhab of the mujtahidun nor have we heard that any of the ulama’ of the salaf commanded that a particular madhhab be followed.” In these ways the movement took a refreshing break from the age of taqlid, and started a more vigorous examination and re-examination of issues in the light of current realities. He also, therefore, broadened the space for ijtihad and pushed the frontiers of knowledge further. These are landmark developments that freed the Hausaland of its inertia and gave it a fresh impetus to reposition itself and grow intellectually and therefore socially, politically and economically. Education and emancipation of Women – What clearly distinguished Shehu Usman from his contemporaries was not so much his learning like his sense of mission. He was particularly moved by the pathetic position of women, who had been deliberately left ignorant and turned into chattels. In his words “They (scholars of Hausaland) leave them (women) neglected like cattle without instructing them … indeed they regard them as nothing but a pot which they use and when it breaks to pieces, they throw away in the place for dung and rubbish.” Showing his disgust for and astonishment of this behaviour of the ulama, he proceeded to conclude “One wonders at their custom of leaving their wives, their daughters and their slaves in the darkness of ignorance while at the same time they teach their students every morning and evening. Indeed the only motive in teaching their students is self-aggrandizement and nothing else.” Thus early in his public teaching sessions he encouraged women to attend even as they were then mixed with men. This naturally elicited virulent attacks from obviously envious scholars who were concerned about the growing popularity of the promising young man. Shehu was committed to seeing that women were educated and emancipated from the kind of slavery their poor education had relegated them to. He took his time to reply these misogynist scholars, occasionally asking his brother Abdullahi to do so, but never allowed himself to be intimidated by their status or their academic credentials. He weathered the storm and continued to urge them to come out to seek learning, with the permission of their husbands. Abdullahi Fodio, much younger and with a revolutionary bent went beyond Shehu asking them to go out for knowledge with or without their husband’s permission, since they have God’s permission to do so. This marked the point of departure for Shehu and it became a cardinal point in his teaching career and the hallmark of his movement. As if to make good his commitment to women education and not give room for his adversaries to criticise him he made sure his wives were educated as well as his daughters. Nana Asma’u is easily more well-known among his daughters for she was most prolific, having written well over eighty works in Arabic, Fulfulde and Hausa. She was also a great mobiliser of women. Shehu produced in this way a coterie of learned women who had been liberated from the shackles of decadence and could not be intimidated, not even by learned men. These confident women who have imbibed the passion and mission of the jama’a eventually established a women’s wing of the movement called the ‘Yantaru sisterhood. It was not surprising this movement came to be led by Nana Asmau. This reservoir of women teachers and mobilisers was unprecedented in Hausaland and gave Shehu a broader support base and provided the movement with a potent tool not only in the establishment of the Caliphate but also in sustaining it. The Moral Capital – By this I mean the cumulative confidence, good will and moral authority leaders build over time which elicit respect, awe and reverence from their followers. It is a quality of leadership which not only inspires followers but also sustains their commitment through thick and thin. This is a kind of parental love that binds followers to their leaders even as they go through periods of difficulties of reform and revolution, believing that their leaders, like their parents will never do anything that will put their real interest into jeopardy. First Shehu’s stoical disposition of living on little and not inclined to accumulation inspires confidence. His early Sufi training, from his father and uncles all of whom where scholars, had made him to seek to be a good man rather than seek to be thought as one. Second, Shehu’s humility was simply disarming; he exhibited great respect for his audience and his followers and does not take them for granted. Third, his concept and therefore style of leadership emanates directly from the Hadith of the Prophet which likens leaders to Shepard’s who will be ready to go hungry so long as their flocks get a good grazing. To be sure, Shehu did not just sermonise about these ideals he lived them all his life, perhaps I can give one or two examples here: In 1789, when Shehu Usman was teaching in Zamfara, Bawa Jangwarzo, the dreaded ruler of Gobir, invited Shehu to Magami for an Eid celebration in which Bawa distributed wealth to scholars, with Shehu getting the lion’s share. Shehu politely declined to accept this wealth and in its place made five requests among which was the freeing of political prisoners and the lightening of the burden of taxation on the poor people. This singular act, unprecedented in his times endeared him to the wider society who began to turn to him for guidance. When in 1804 the jama’a arrived at Gudu for the Hijra and the Jihad was to break out Shehu, the undisputed leader of his community did not take that leadership for granted. He reminded them what by law the community needed to do in electing a leader, the Amir al-Mumunin. This humility and respect for process further endeared him to his followers and elicited substantial respect and reverence. It also meant that through out the caliphate, leaders were not imposed, thus setting a firm foundation for internal democracy, accountability and good governance. Justice – The quest for justice was at the centre of their struggle to re-order society. This was very clear early enough to attract growing supporters in a society where a great majority have been pauperised and traumatised by the tyranny of the then Sarakuna. Very early in the life of the movement Shehu had in his writings articulated these injustices and mobilised society around their eradication. His book Kitab al-Farq and his popular poem ‘Boneji Hausa’ had catalogued them and presented them very much in fashion of contemporary party manifesto for later implementation. So the goal of the movement was not some abstract philosophy that ordinary people may have difficulty in grasping but a down to earth reality they were living with daily. This gave the movement a broader support base, for many, it was their only hope for liberation from a tyranny that knew no limits. Their concern for justice was beyond just rhetoric for even after the Jihad and the establishment of the Caliphate the struggle continued, indeed the more so, now that they are in a position to implement their manifesto. In fact soon after the main battles were fought and won some kind of war crime courts were set up to listen to the claims of people who were mistaken for enemies in the frenzy of the Jihad and their property taken. The thoroughness and the painstaking manner in which this issue was handled showed the very high standards of justice that the new caliphate was founded on. The new governors were summoned to a meeting, at Birnin Gada, in which the policy of the caliphate was issued. The address was given by Muhammad Bello and premium placed on justice in that policy was unmistakeable. The triumvirate continued to write books upon books on matters that relate to the administration and delivery of justice in the caliphate. So the centrality of justice in the venture has been a critical factor in ensuring not only the success of the establishment of the caliphate but even more importantly in sustaining it. Management of Change – perhaps this is the most important of all the factors. For this is a delicate skill which calls for all the composure, insight and vision. Conceiving change is not easy but the perceptibility, perseverance and restraint required to nurture it to fruition is even more difficult, as many examples in history have shown. The change the Shehu and his team engineered and which ultimately gave birth to the Caliphate went through four different and distinct phases: the first was the educational phase during which a network of schools and scholars were established throughout the length and breadth of Hausaland; this was followed by a phase of consolidation of this scholarship and the mobilisation of the agents of change; this mobilisation frightened the authorities and triggered the hijra followed by the Jihad; the last phase was that of victory and the establishment of the Caliphate. Each of these phases had its distinct challenges and called for distinct skills in managing it. This perhaps is not the place for details, but we may, if only for illustration, refer to one or two incidences. In the first phase Shehu’s appreciation of the level of decadence meant that he expected very little and allowed for a very gradual dissemination of knowledge. He gladly accepted and tolerated barely dressed women, even as he was being criticised by detractors, and was clearly not in a hurry, having taken nearly twenty years teaching and writing before settling down in Degel. If he had insisted in judging the wider society by his obviously higher standards he would have, at best, ended up with islands of knowledge in a sea of ignorance. When he was consolidating his gains and mobilising he was keen to restrain the restive youth and the zealots from hurrying up the movement into confrontation before they were ready. He bent over backwards to accommodate the increasingly suspicious tyrants whose dwindling power base was making them more desperate by the day. Following the victory Shehu worked hard to ensure that the new leadership came from the locality and were duly elected, in some cases the old rulers were left to continue ruling once they accepted the new terms. This policy of internal democracy and inclusion of all forces brought about the confidence that was needed to sustain the necessary peace, carry out the reforms and guaranteed their successes. Shehu did not find it easy to manage these changes all along, but it was more difficult after the Jihad when the reforms and policies were being implemented. Riding over the crest of victory the morale of the jama’a was high now that they had won they only needed to decree their wishes especially when they felt they had the military strength to back it up. Shehu knew there was more to change than force, in fact like he argued persuasion is far more effective than power in the entrenchment of change. He was also careful to avoid blanket application of one view while there were alternatives, for example he resisted the blanket ban on music which some younger scholars wanted. On the whole he encouraged healthy and enlightened debate over a range of issues, the plethora of literature on these make an interesting reading even today, 200 years after, and reveal the depth of learning and meticulousness of the founders of the Caliphate. Summarising the debate and capturing their skills in the management of change, Mahmud Tukur aptly observed: “The point at issue between the Shehu and Abdullahi may, however, be that the former thought he knew better just how the ‘Caliphal Ideal’ could be more effectively achieved. What he may be saying is that in deciding on policy for the achievement of a change of heart and outlook among a particular group of people it is necessary to pay great attention not only to the ideal itself, but also to the spiritual and intellectual conditions of the group as it actually is. In other words, effective reform cannot be achieved by a simple decree enumerating principles (as Abdullahi may have thought in his administration of Kebbi), but by a more complicated and inventive process devised after a careful appreciation of local conditions and the local cultural heritage”