Beyond Sanusi II (II)

Our traditional institution has become a poster child of a dark irony. The more the politicians try to destroy it or make it irrelevant, the greater its attraction for great achievers in the various fields of human endeavour. I believe that the hostility of some of our politicians towards our traditional rulers resulted from the fear on their part that there is a contest of will and importance between them and the traditional rulers. Their unholy determination to subordinate their royal highnesses to their will is proof positive of this consuming but baseless fear. If there is such a contest, it must be between the vain and the principled.

Sometime last year, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, former governor of Nasarawa State, made brief remarks at the assembly of traditional rulers in Abuja. His remarks made but a blip on the public radar. He made some very fundamental points that must not be lost on us if we wish to rescue the traditional institution from the misguided actions and decisions of power drunk men who have a tenuous grasp of culture and tradition in a country such as ours built on the solid foundation of those very cultures and traditions.

I am borrowing largely from Adamu’s remarks because a) I cannot put it better and b) to show that some of our level-headed politicians do recognise the relevance of our traditional institution in our form of government and are willing to defend it and make it part and parcel of our government in which traditional wisdom guides the exuberance of political leaders. I think it is good to know that not all politicians are so power drunk that they hack at the trunk of our culture and tradition – not because it is right but because they have the power to do so. Former US president, Bill Clinton, once cautioned that you do not do something because you can but because it is right.

In his remarks, Adamu addressed the dark irony beautifully. He said, “Never before have so many men of calibre sat on the thrones of their fathers and forefathers. The traditional institution today has the largest gathering of achievers in the country. These are men of brains who came to their thrones fortified with the rich experiences of human and resource management. It attests to the resilience of an institution grounded in the culture and the tradition of the people. Its attraction for former supreme court justices, former top military, police and customs officers, a former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, former university professors, former permanent secretaries and other top technocrats and professionals in various fields of human endeavour, should give us hope that the institution will survive and willy-nilly, be given its rightful place in the scheme of things.” Hope is the anchor of human progress. So, let us not lose hope because some small masquerades are dancing highlife in the market square.

There must be something in the institution far higher than the throne itself for serving supreme court justices and military top brass to prefer it to their professions. Their primary objective, it should be easy to fathom, is for them to give the traditional institution the prestige it deserves and be bridges between the institution and our modern form of government. That would be a partnership forged on the anvils of mutual respect.

Adamu pointed out that given the calibre and the quantum of experience of our traditional rulers, “this should be the golden era for the oldest institution in the country. But it is not, sad to say. We face a clear danger of watching the potentially golden era turning into a bronze era for the institution. This, to me, is a huge irony. The best of times should not also be the worst of times for the institutions. The traditional institution is more than the sum of those who sit on the thrones. Our traditional rulers are the custodians of our cultures and traditions because cultures and traditions are the foundations of human progress and development. Without culture and tradition, the people are confused” because they are denied moral leadership. We see a clear evidence of this in the increasingly disturbing anti-social behaviours of our young men and women.

Is it not criminal for the Nigerian state to encourage highly educated and experienced men to go back to their roots as traditional rulers only to turn around to mothball them and deny them the right to make valuable and informed contributions to how we are governed? Is it possible to enthrone good governance while an institution that should be the backbone of governance is reduced to some irrelevance just because the politicians fear that its relevance erodes their power? I do not think that our traditional rulers are meant to speak in whispers in the ears of governors and other politicians. They must speak loud and clear when, as now, the times try the souls of men.

It is an ill balance of responsibilities for the politicians to monopolise voices in the public space and for the traditional rulers to be relegated to silence. We should welcome vocal and informed traditional rulers who afflict the comfortable politicians and rouse them to their responsibilities to the people. Sanusi II has paid the price for being vocal and afflicting the politicians but what he has lost personally should be the gain of the institution itself. It should wake up our traditional rulers to the challenges of fighting their cause in the dark climate of political intolerance in which the politicians believe that their exalted temporary positions make them the only wise men in the land despite glaring evidence that some of them are foolish.

The constitution should have room for the traditional institution and create a clear role for it. And also protect it from the egregious assault by power-drunk politicians. Since ours is a federal system with a central constitution, our federal law-makers can restore the house of chiefs to each state and fully define its functions. It is dangerous to tarry on this because, according to Adamu, “it is time to bring this very important institution back from the backwoods of governance in our form of government. We must not allow it to be mothballed. It would be a criminal waste of human knowledge and resources, especially at this critical time in our nation. It is wrong to deny the nation the views and the contributions of these highly qualified and experienced men to our national development. We must reject attempts to marginalise our royal fathers or turn them into fossilized relics of a glorious past.”

Join me in saying amen to that.

(Concluded)