THE SOKOTO CALIPHATE IN MODERN NIGERIA:
Ending it, Mending it or Reinventing it? - 6

[Preamble ]   [Formation of the Caliphate ]   [Foundation of the Caliphate ]    [Decline of the Caliphate ]   [British Intervention ]   [Modern Nigeria ]   [The Caliphates in Modern Nigeria ]   [Ending it, Mending it or Re-inventing it? ]  Modern Nigerian Modern Nigeria is nothing but a creation of British imperialism and largely a continuation of colonial Nigeria with all its biases and prejudices. It was founded to replace the two Caliphates on the ruins of which it presently stands. The state had brought together people of diverse history, culture and world-view, sharing only the common misfortune of falling prey to British imperialism. Furthermore this was done not by some gradual process of integration or assimilation but by a military fiat of an alien force whose business was essentially the exploitation of the human and material resources of the peoples of modern Nigeria. To be sure this was not peculiar to Nigeria, it was a common feature of almost all colonial states. Thus the problems of national integration and cohesion of Nigeria as of other colonial African states is congenital. Congenital diseases in Human medicine are hardly curable. There is an emerging consensus among Africa’s political scientist that it might also be so in African politics. Professor Ali Mazrui, for one, believes that what is commonly referred to as the crisis in governance in contemporary Africa may well be the death pangs of a decaying and collapsing colonial structure. Two and half decades ago, Professor Abdullahi Smith, a perceptive historian, was clearly convinced "that the most important set of political problems facing the African continent today is that relating to the formation of States." The problem, he observed, was that "so many ‘new states’ have been theoretically created over-night during the past two decades by the sudden passing of constitutional laws, or the signing of constitutional agreements, that the process of state formation would seem to be one of almost magical simplicity. Yet ... no amount of waving the wand of ‘independence’ can make a state if the human conditions in which the attempt is made to create it are not appropriate." With these shaky foundations Nigeria was handed over to the heirs of British imperialist. Since independence, regime after regime have laboured to keep Nigeria one. A civil war was fought, coup and counter coups were made to keep Nigeria one. How successful these efforts have been is not easy to say. What is easy to say is that keeping Nigeria one is not the only problem, making it work is easily the most serious problem now. But this I will leave in the competent hands of seasoned administrators and scholars at another occasion. Beyond keeping Nigeria one, the leaders of modern Nigeria did not pretend to better our spiritual lives, for theirs was a material world. Their greatest promise was material progress. They undoubtedly did their best and given their constraints, they achieved quite a remarkable success, if often at social costs yet to be computed. But in that last one decade or so all that had been squandered and we are only left with the gains of SAP. The orientation of modern Nigeria and its attitude to the Caliphate is largely determined by the perception of the Western educated elite, in whose hand the British handed over Nigeria. The education they received first in the hands of the colonial and Christian missionaries schools and later in public schools fashioned along the same lines had sought to Westernise them, shaking whatever faith they may have come with and imbibing Western values, especially Western ideas of progress and development. It came in subtle tones and measured doses at first, increasing in both content and velocity as the resistance weakens. That it did not quite succeed with the earlier generation was not for lack of trial. It looks like the more thoroughly educated the natives the more ignorant they are about their history and the less tolerant they become to their cultures and traditions. In fact what the British were ready to tolerate the natives, in their zeal to display their new found wisdom, were not prepared to tolerate. The Caliphate was thus bound to suffer more in the hands of western educated natives than in the hands of the British.

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