I’ll leverage my banking experience to transform Lafiagi – Emir

In this interview with Daily Trust on Sunday, Alhaji Mohammed Kudu Kawu, who was recently turbaned as the new Emir of Lafiagi, Edu Local Government Area of Kwara State, speaks on the tussle for the stool, his aspirations for the people and role of the traditional institution in the present security situation plaguing the country, among other issues of interest. 

How do you feel being chosen among the several others that contested?

Thanks to Allah for choosing me amongst so many others. No matter what you do, it is the will of Allah that prevails at the end of the day, so I thank Him.

How will you describe the process itself?

The responsibility of choosing a new king lies with the kingmakers. So, all the candidates submitted their application to the kingmakers who did their reviews and then narrowed it down to a smaller list, which they presented to the government to select from. Alhamdulillah, my name was on the list that was recommended to the government and at the end of it all, I was selected.

What do you think made you the best candidate?

I think the question will be better answered by the kingmakers because we all submitted our CVs, but the criteria that were set out was by the kingmakers and they didn’t share that information with us. So, they are in a better position to answer that question.

As a top banker, how do you think your experience will impact on your new royal status?

The banking industry and the traditional institutions are two different environments. But Alhamdulillah, it’s like every other career. You will have your strength and your weaknesses. My experience in banking in the North will definitely come as a strength for me because I will be bringing in a lot of it here. It also afforded me the opportunity of knowing what our people can benefit from both at government level, private sector and international agencies. My background has exposed me to a lot of things. I have been to almost all the states in the Northern part of the country and I have worked with so many governments. I have a fair understanding of the opportunities that lie there, so naturally I will only go out to see how much that can translate to the benefit of our people.

Lafiagi is a revered stool and contest for such at times might cause acrimony. How is your relationship with those you contested with now?

Fortunately for us in Lafiagi, all the ruling houses are descendants of one person, so it’s either your aunty is in that house or your sister is in that house. What I’m trying to say is that we have a close-knit relationship among the families. Since we descended from one person, I think enmity is not the right word and like I have also said, every prince has the right to contest, even if they’re siblings. As long as you’re a prince, you have that right to contest. Nobody should take offense or see it as a bad thing for any prince to signify his intention to contest for the throne. Then, different people align to different candidates. It is a natural process once you have more than one person contesting for something, definitely you’ll have people aligning, but what is important is that when Allah’s choice emerges, then others should rally round and support the person and that is what has happened in Lafiagi. 

All the families have come and showed their allegiance to me. I can say almost all the candidates have continued to call me to show their allegiance and support. So, Alhamdulillah, there is no enmity or fight here, what we’re doing is to pull our strength together and see how to improve the lot of our people. For every kin that signified intention to the throne, the bottom line is how do we bring value to our people. A leader has finally emerged and we’re all together to bring progress and benefits to our people.

What will be your priority for the people now that you have been turbaned?

We’re basically an agrarian community and a lot of our people are farmers. So, the area of interest for us, firstly, is how to improve the lot of our farmers. A lot of technological advancements are going on in agriculture, so how do we bring this to our people to improve the yield they get from their farmland because the more they get, the better the quality of lives they will have. 

Secondly, education, how do we improve the education of our children and infrastructures? How do we push to get more from the government? These are basically the areas. We will reach out to our people in the diaspora, we will pull our strengths together to improve the lives of our people, In Sha Allah.

What is your take on the security situation in the country and the role of traditional rulers to mitigate it?

Traditional rulers are the closest to the grassroots and more often than not, they get the first line information about what is going on, so they’re playing a very important role. A lot is being done by them to manage the crisis. What I will urge them to do is to continue to cooperate with government agencies and continue to appeal to our own people. If you don’t have peace, there won’t be progress, all of us should indeed realise that a lot is at stake. Whatever government want to bring in term of development, whatever we want to do as a people to develop ourselves will only happen if there is peace. So, we will continue to preach that, we will continue to push for that and we will continue to support our government. The crisis is very severe, we’re praying for an end to it and for locations like ours where it is very mild or non existent, we will continue to work hard for it to stay that way and continue to pray that we see a quick ending to these crises all over the country. 

Nigeria is a multi-ethnic and multi-religious nation but we should learn how to tolerate each other irrespective of our ethnic and religious differences. We however enjoin both the federal and state governments in the country to be more proactive in settling disputes before they escalate and lead to loss of lives and property.

What is you message to the people?

I will continue to thank them profoundly for their support for me, I’m very grateful and I want to assure them that we will do our best within our own abilities to improve their lot and deliver on their aspirations. We’re not perfect, we may not have the capacity to do it all but we’re prayerful and we believe that God will do it for us. I therefore call on the emirate and entire people of Lafiagi and environs to, as a matter of importance, continue to show love, commitment and all round support for us to succeed in the task of contributing positively to the growth and development of the area. 

I will also want to thank Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq of Kwara State for this opportunity. He maintained a free hand in the emergence of the new Emir in Lafiagi; we’re indeed very grateful and we will continue to give him our utmost support for the betterment of our people.