The Reign of Muhammadu Buhari Sambo
In the year 1848, Sultan Aliyu of Sokoto
sanctioned the selection and installation of
Muhammadu Buhari as the 4th Emir of Hadejia.
This approval by the Sultan though important
was not in fact essential: Buhari would have
installed himself even had the Sultan vetoed the
idea. As it were, Buhari was turbaned at Hadejia
by the Sultan’s envoy and second-in-command,
the Waziri of Sokoto. And thus began the reign of
the most controversial figure the Emirate, if not
the Caliphate, had ever produced.
Buhari was and still remains a different thing to
different people. He is one of those figures about
whom it is impossible to be neutral: one either
detests them, or adores them. To his detractors,
Buhari was ruthless, a rebel and an infidel to
boot; while to his supporters he was a great
administrator, a superb general and a
progressive leader who numbered among his
closest advisers persons of servile origin.
Succession Whatever else may be said about the
man, it has to be admitted that on the issue of
succession, Buhari had a valid claim to the
throne. Just what was the reason which made
Sambo attempt to by-pass Buhari and oft for the
junior brother, Ahmadu, as the Emir designate
will never be known. But going by past
precedents, the attempted change in the normal
though unwritten rule of succession was quite
unfair to the elder son.
When Sambo, Buhari’s father, came to the throne
in 1808, he appointed his eldest son, Garko, as
chiroman Hadejia and thus by tradition heir
apparent. In 1845 Sambo, already a
septuagenarian, abdicated his throne and
appointed Garko Emir. He then offered the post
of Chiroma to his second son, Abdulkadir. A few
years later Garko died. So it was a
straightforward issue, and in keeping with
traditional rules, for Sambo, still very much alive,
to crown Abdulkadir Emir, and to appoint his
third son, Buhari, as Chiroma and thus the Emir-
in-waiting.
As it happened the waiting was to be very brief
indeed, for Abdulkadir too died only after a few
months. Fate itself seemed to be making
Buhari’s ascension to the Hadejia throne quite
smooth and easy. But Sambo decided to go
against fate, and now the troubles began.
Quite inexplicably, and against all established
rules of succession, Sambo decided that
Ahmadu, Buhari’s junior brother, was to be the
new Emir. To this effect he sent a message from
his Camp David-styled retreat, at Mairakumi,
summoning Ahmadu to come and receive some
charms, which will ensure that he prevailed as
Emir over his rival, Buhari.
Unfortunately for the designs of the aged king-
maker, one of the Jakadiyas privy to the
summons was sympathetic to the cause of
Buhari and took no time in passing on the vital
intelligence to the necessary quarters. Always a
man of action, Buhari took the initiative.
Buhari now latched on to the privileged
information to hatch his own counter deceptive
plan. In the ensuing saga which unfolded, and in
subsequent years, he would show not the
slightest hesitation in employing deceit whenever
necessary, to achieve his goals. “The fact is,”
wrote Nicolo Machiavelli, “a man who wants to
act virtuously in every way comes to grief among
so many who are not virtuous.” Like a true
Machiavellian Prince, Buhari was on occasions
definitely not virtuous.
So when he learnt of Sambo’s plan the crown
Prince arrived just ahead of the hour set for
Ahmadu’s visit. Since Sambo was by then
virtually blind, all Buhari had to do was to add to
his other accomplishments the art, or rather act,
of voice mimicry. And this he did so successfully
as to convince Sambo that it was Ahmadu
speaking. Thus Buhari was able to secure the
important formula, which supposedly confirmed
him as the Emir of Hadejia.
Buhari’s Rule Having established his rule, Buhari
set about expanding his realm. It is true that his
approach to this was less than tactful, but then
expansionism was not a business for the
diplomatically inclined.
His first targets were the towns in the Hadejia-
Machina frontier which, with the aid of Sarkin
Misau, he subdued. Then he turned southwards
and invaded the wealthy region of Miga with the
armed support of Shehu Umar of Bornu. Miga,
incidentally, was the town where Buhari as a
child learnt the recital of the holy Qu’ran………….
At Miga a counter-expeditionary force said to
have included some 10,000 horses, was
marshalled against Buhari, but were all put to
flight by him. This emboldened him to carry out
his attacks deeper and deeper into the east Kano
Emirate until at one point, according to the
German traveller Heinrich Barth, he marched as
far as the Kano town walls.
Much closer home, Buhari stationed two of his
ranking officers, the Mabudi and Jarma of
Hadejia, at Kafin Hausa and Dakayyawa,
respectively. Their orders were to carry out
regular offensive raids along the Miga-Jahun
countryside. Such constant harassment of course
had the effect of seriously curtailing both farming
and grazing in the affected areas: it is a very
rare farmer indeed (or animal) that will stay put
while some characters are constantly throwing
nasty missiles all around. As a result, famine
ensued in the Miga-Jahun complex.
This resulting famine might not be altogether
fortuitous. It may well be that Buhari had
calculated that he could achieve his goal of
bringing Kano Emirate to the negotiating table
through a deliberate policy of starving her
subjects – the sort of policy which the late
Awolowo advocated against the Biafrans over a
century later. If that was indeed his plan, Buhari
succeeded admirably. For barely five years of
intimidation later, in about 1857, Buhari and
Sarkin Kano Abdullahi reached an agreement that
ceded to Hadejia a number of towns on their
common boundary.
Now Buhari began to incur the displeasure of
Sultan Aliyu Babba. To be sure, there had never
been any love lost between the duo: after all, the
Sultan would rather have had any of the other
two rivals of Buhari, namely Ahmadu and Nalara,
as the Emir of Hadejia. In fact, it was the
execution of Sarkin Auyo Nalara by Buhari on
charges of disloyalty to the crown, which finally
persuaded the Sultan to take a decisive step to
punish the erring Emir. In view of the eventual
dismal failure of the intended penalty, he should
not have bothered.
To be fair to the Sultan, before resorting to the
use of force he did try to peacefully mediate
between Buhari and Nalara, even to the extent of
summoning both to his presence at Sokoto. The
rivalry was inevitably because of Nalara’s
increasingly assertive claim to the crown. His
claim was by virtue of the fact that he was the
first son of Yusufu, the junior brother of Sambo.
But as any impartial observer will adjudicate,
Buhari had a far stronger claim. So the Sultan
made what he thought was a permanent
conciliation between the rivals, and was
infuriated to learn later that it was nothing of the
sort. But by then, of course, it was rather too
late……………
The man to whom fell the unenviable task of
bringing the supposedly recalcitrant Emir to
order was the very man who, ironically, had been
the major supporter of Buhari’s succession
within the Sultan’s inner circles – the Waziri of
Sokoto. However, the Waziri of Sokoto was not
the type of man to be worried by ironical twists.
Once he had his orders from “the commander of
the faithful” the Waziri would just as easily slay
a man as turban him. Just what exactly were the
precise orders the Waziri received as regards
Buhari is still a matter of speculation. But he
went about carrying them out with the
seriousness of a loyal and devoted general.
Waziri Abdulkadir first landed in kano and picked
up a force of Kanawa military. Under ordinary
circumstances a Sultan’s delegation would go
straight from Kano to Hadejia. But this was an
extraordinary mission, and so the Waziri headed
for Katagum instead. It was to this alleged
neutral ground that the Waziri now, rather
disingenuously, invited Buhari to join him for
“consultations”.
Any reader of present day thrillers can easily see
the net of intrigue about to be woven here. But
possibly because Buhari did not read thrillers, or
more likely because he felt confident enough to
handle any eventualities that might arise, he
accepted the invitation. As an insurance he
arrived outside the gates of Katagum with a
large column, which included all his central
government officials and many loyal sarakuna.
From there he sent word to Waziri within, that he
was ready to negotiate.
But the Waziri insisted on meeting inside
Katagum, claiming that he had a message from
the Sultan. Buhari reluctantly agreed, and got
ready to enter through one of the city gates. Had
he succeeded in doing so, he probably would not
have emerged alive. As it happened, a timely
intervention by one of Buhari’s praise-singers,
Dan Fatima, probably saved his life. “Garba, in
ka shiga,” he exhorted, “ka gaida min Nalara da
Sarkin Dutse Bello.” This rather poignant warning
was enough to make Buhari turn back and, with
his army, head back for his capital.
At this point a section of Katagumawa came into
the act in a somewhat chaotic manner. Infuriated
by the fact that Buhari had refused to “confer”
with the Waziri, the mob followed Buhari as he
moved down the road, shouting “coward”,
“pagan” and other insulting names at him, and
even killing a few of the rearguard. Acts of
hooliganism, it would seem, are not the
monopoly of British soccer fans alone.
Buhari may have departed, but he left behind a
seething Waziri who was yet to accomplish his
mission. Almost immediately he rallied a mixed
army of Kano and Katagum troops and advanced
on Hadejia, forcing Buhari and his nearest
followers to flee northwards to Machina.
Subsequently, the Waziri installed Ahmadu as the
new Emir of Hadejia. Now mission completed, the
Waziri returned to Kano.
Even at this point Buhari did not despair of
peace with the Sultan, for he still sent peace
offers to the Waziri in Kano. However, all his
overtures were summarily rejected. Alhaji Sa’id, a
well-known chronicler and a contemporary of
Buhari, ventured that the Waziri was bribed by
Kano sarakuna to fight Buhari rather than accept
his peace overtures.
Meanwhile Buhari had moved out of Machina
towards Hadejia, with a much larger following.
He encamped near the capital and showed a
curious reluctance to enter it. He would, at will,
attack all surrounding areas but leave Hadejia
town itself alone.
