Speaking earlier this morning to mark the 50th anniversary of the death of the Sardauna of Sokoto and former premier of Northern Nigeria Sir Ahmadu Bello, who was killed on January 15 1966 in the country's first military coup, the emir issued a tacit warning that the ongoing Biafran agitation must stop. Emir Sanusi pointed out that it was such issues of disaffection from a section of the country then ignited the coup that claimed the life of Sir Ahmadu Bello and other national leaders in 1966.
Over recent months, youths from across the southeast geo-political zone have been clamouring for the recreation of the defunct Biafran republic that existed briefly during the Nigerian Civil War that lasted from July 1967 to January 1970. Emir Sanusi said Nigerians have moved beyond the 1966 coup but it appears history is being repeated.
Although the emir avoided making reference to Biafra agitators, he maintained that Nigerians who are allegedly fanning embers of violence and disunity of the country should stop, in order to avoid violence. Emir Sanusi who observed that every section of the country had, at one time, tasted power and produced bad or good leaders, said all sections of the country must come together and move on as one country.
“We must not fail to learn from the past. We cannot get back to religious and ethnic divides, we are calling for tolerance, peace,” Emir Sanusi warned.
In his keynote address, entitled, The North : 50 Years After Sir Ahmadu Bello, Ambassador Maitama Yusuf Sule, the Sardauna's private secretary, emphasised the need for northern leaders to ensure the good values left behind by Ahmadu Bello and his colleagues were not thrown overboard. According to him, in the days of Sarduana, the north was a united region.
Alhaji Sule said: “We were our brothers' keeper then but we are no longer our brothers' keeper as things have gone astray. We used to respect our elders and the constituted authority but today, the respect is no longer there and today there is chaos in politics, immorality in the society.
"We need leaders, not rulers and if we follow the philosophy of Sardauna, Nigeria will be better for it. However, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.”
Former Niger State governor and chairman of the board of trustees of the Sir Ahmadu Bello Memorial Foundation, Alhaji Muazu Babangida Aliyu described the Sardauna as a generous northern leader who carried everybody along irrespective of religious and ethnic differences. However, he expressed regret that with all the Sarduana’s power and influence, he died a poor man with no bank account because he never amassed wealth from public funds.
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