The governor expressed optimism that with the creation of the Seyawa Chiefdom, the crises that had dodged the area would soon end and called on the people of the area to reciprocate government’s gesture.
Yuguda said: “It is hoped that there will be lasting peace in Tafawa Balewa and Bogoro. We have done our best and we may not have 100 per cent success but we are glad that our people have accepted our efforts 80 or 90 per cent.” He disclosed that the temporary headquarters would now be situated at Bogoro and not Marte Giji as recommended by the House initially.
The inhabitants of Tafawa Balewa includes Fulani, Kanuri, Hausa, Jarawa, Sayawa and other tribes, and they are predominantly farmers. Crisis had been lingering between the inhabitants area for over 50 years. Weekly Trust gathered that the area witnessed crisis of monumental proportion in 1948, 1959, 1991,1995,2001, 2005, 2010 and 2011, resulting in the loss of hundreds of lives while property worth billion of naira were destroyed.
Genesis of the crisis
There are many reasons giving as the causes of frequent clashes between Sayawa and other communities in the area but it all centred on chieftaincy and ownership of Tafawa Balewa. While the remote course of each fracas differs, various governments in Bauchi state had set up commissions of inquiries but the implementation of the various recommendations made had differed successive administration.
The Secretary of Za’ar Elders and Traditional Rulers Forum, Barrister Bukata Zhadi told Weekly Trust that crisis in Tafawa Balewa started since 1948 and that since then it kept re occurring owing to what he alleged, was the attitude of the Bauchi Emirate Council and the Bauchi State Government’s intention to undermine the Sayawa people by denying them chiefdom. Zhadi said the only way to maintain permanent peace is to allow the Sayawa to have their chiefdom with the headquarters in Tafawa Balewa as recommended by the Babalakin Commission of Inquiry.
On his own part, the Secretary of Tafawa Balewa Development Association (TABTODA), Malam Yunusa Ado, alleged that crisis in the areas is always ignited by the Sayawa as a “continuation of their grand design to realize their objective of driving away all non –Sayawa inhabitants from Tafawa Balewa town and Lere District with a view to declaring the chiefdom for themselves.”
Yunusa alleged that “the main propelling force behind the Sayawas transgression against us Hausa Fulani Muslims and other tribes is their quest for farmland which they want to acquire at all cost; they lay false claim to land that did not belongs to them , their first target has always been Tafawa Balewa and the surrounding villages which they invade at any slightest opportunity”. He said Tafawa Balewa and Lere district does not belong to Sayawa because over 90 percent of the people of Lere district are non Sayawa and that the Sayawa constitutes only 10 percent of the population. He said the original home of the Sayawa is Bogoro but “they continue making efforts to invade Tafawa Balewa in their quest for farmlands.”
Mixed feeling had trailed the creation of the chiefdom by the Yuguda administration. The Secretary of the Sayawa Elders Council, Barrister Zhadi Bukar said they were not surprised that the governor went ahead to accent to the law despite protest from the Sayawa people over the location cited as headquarters of the chiefdom. Bukar said they would not accept anything short of making Tafawa Balewa the headquarters of the Sayawa chiefdom.
“ The creation of the Sayawa Chiefdom, not comprising of the former Lere District and the situation of the temporary headquarters at Martin Geji and the subsequent passage of the Bill by the Bauchi State House of Assembly on the 9th day of June 2011, contradict with the Executive Bill submitted, without our consultations, approval, consent, authority and or notification, first sought and obtained, is hereby vehemently rejected, disregarded and totally refused, inclusive of both the temporary and permanent headquarters of the Sayawa Chiefdom in Bogoro and Martin Geji respectively”.
He said, “we resolved that the headquarters of the Sayawa Chiefdom, either temporarily or permanently, unconditionally be sited at Tafawa Balewa, our ancestral home town, consisting of the former Lere District as and when Mallam Aliyu Wullumba Dadi was the first indigenous District I-lead of the former Lere District from 1970, as a lasting solution to the recurrent crisis in both Tafawa Balewa and Bogoro Local Government Areas, in accordance with the recommendations of the Hon. Justice Babalakin’s Commission and Prof. Awalu Yadudu’s Committee respectively.”
But the Secretary of the TABTODA said in so far as the Sayawa would not like to remain under Bauchi Emirate Council, no other tribe in Lere District would like to be under the Sayawa Chiefdom. “This recommendation is hinged on the fact that the Sayawa, as indicated by the Babalakin Commission and confirmed by the current writers, ‘are a race of people who are always determined to use unorthodox means in solving their problems (such as in 1991, 1995, 2001 and 2011) which attacks are ‘nothing short of savagery and pre-meditated act of cold-blooded murder of (their) harmless neighbours”
Yunusa said “Lere District comprises four Village Areas, Lere, Kardam, Wai and Tapshin, none of which is headed by a Sayawa man and to cede the District to the Sayawa as part of their Chiefdom or Tafawa Balewa as its headquarters would amount to greatest injustice; we are united and we will not accept it”
The Spokesman of the community stated that since Government has acceded to the General Sabo’s Committee’s recommendations to create chiefdom for the Sayawas, “it naturally follows that the other recommendations by the committee should be implemented, these include punishment of the perpetrators of the crises of 1991, 1995, 2001 and 2011; payment of compensation to the victims of the crises; re-building of all places of worship and the Palace of the District Head of Lere destroyed by the Sayawas at Tafawa Balewa, so that government will be fair to all not only Sayawa community”
Governor Isa Yuguda had while assenting to the bill urged that “ if anybody that is not satisfied with the creation of the Chiefdom or citing its headquarters in Bogoro should go to court,” while noting that “the paramount ruler is not only for the Sayawa communities but for all ethnic tribes in his domain like Fulani, Jarawa,kanuri Yoruba,Ngas, Igbo and so on.”
He warned that “government will dealt with anybody that challenged its authority violently; enough is enough we have created the chiefdom and we will soon set up a committee for its actualization” .
The Bauchi State Police Commissioner Mr Ikechukwu Ayo Aduba told Weekly Trust that “since government had created the chiefdom we will work together and see if the creation of the chiefdom will bring lasting peace in the area”. Aduba said “already the Federal Government has deployed soldiers and we have our mobile Policemen on the ground to maintain orderliness and even the Special Anti Robbery Squad we established some of them will be stationed there, we want everybody to stop the killings and destroying of lives and properties, people should embrace dialogue and learn to live together in harmony”. Whether people will head the advice, only time will tell.
