THE SOKOTO CALIPHATE IN MODERN NIGERIA:
Ending it, Mending it or Reinventing it? - 8

[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? ]  Ending it, Mending it, or re-inventing It? The question therefore is what do we do with the Caliphate in modern Nigeria. As far as I can see there are three possible answers: End it, mend it or re-invent it. Ending it is clearly the easiest and infact the quickest, as, George Orwell would say, the quickest way to end a war is by loosing it. But this clearly is not feasible - for just as the British colonial Government found the Caliphate indispensable, so the government of modern Nigeria; the more so since the crude methods of yesteryears are no longer tenable. Today, even if we don’t like the Caliphate, we have to admit that we owe a lot of the peace and harmony we all here enjoy not so much to the police nor certainly the army but to what has remained of the Caliphate. The cohesion and social integration we badly need as a people can only come from the Caliphate. With out the Caliphate it is doubtful if we could have maintained half the values of our societies which we cherish and jealously guard. What about mending it? I must confess I am not an optimist, and I cannot see how in the context of modern Nigeria we could mend it? For modern Nigeria is still in the conquest mood bequeathed to it by colonial administration. Modern Nigeria is still ignorant of the Caliphate and too enmeshed in the arrogance bequeathed to it to see the superiority of the Caliphate system over the borrowed alien models. Modern Nigeria is still under the illusion, that the British once were, that you can create a nation on thoughts and ideas, philosophies and world-views that have neither roots in the history and culture nor a place in the hearts of the citizens. Having said all this I do concede the optimists can still try, after all there is no harm in trial, or so they say. The only viable and certainly the most rewarding and most durable option I could see is that of re-inventing it or better put regenerating the Caliphate. Let us first recall a point made in the beginning, when the Shehu and his team set out to reform Hausaland they did not set out to create a Caliphate as such, little infact did they realise their modest efforts would give birth to a huge polity with twenty emirates. Nor could they have ever imagined that their books and ideas would go beyond Hausaland and Borno, to Senegambia the Nile valley and even the far away Americas to trigger changes and transformation which were far reaching. In short the Shehu and his team were trying to revive and establish ideals. These ideals are not bound by time and space, they are the universal ideals of Islam that will remain valid until the end of time. These are the same ideals on which both the Sokoto and Borno polities were founded. These ideals are clearly articulated in the rich intellectual heritage of the Caliphate, all we need do is to set out to revive them. One sure way of doing it is to edit and translate these heritage and make them available at every level of our society. The other is to spread learning, identify with the Islamic ideals and mobilise the wider society, both our men and women, towards imbibing and living them. There must be several such other ways. Whether this will result into the creation of another Caliphate or the taming and transformation of modern Nigeria, is for God to determine. It is here more than anywhere else I find a very important role for Sarakuna in both the Sokoto Caliphate and Borno. It is sad that at every constitutional conference the Sarakuna look up to modern Nigeria to assign for them a role. It is sad that no one has been frank enough to tell your royal highness that modern Nigeria does not quite wish to concede a role for you. Your roots do not lie in modern Nigeria. Your roots lie in the glorious Caliphates, that still dominates the culture and world view of a great many Nigerians and which have a pride of place in the hearts of a great many not only in Nigeria but most part of Africa and even the Americas. We should all thank God that you have nothing to do with the sordid origins of modern Nigeria. Ranku Shi dade (Hausa salutation meaning "may your reign be long"), your future is not in modern Nigeria, you have a much better future, your future is in your past. As Shehu Abdullahi would say, in one of his many poems: "It does not harm the sun that blindmen deny its light, It does not harm the pool that camel which refuse to drink, decline it."   Usman Bugaje Sokoto, 21/4/97

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