’Tunji Ajibade

I chose not to discuss Nigeria’s last general elections as of the time they took place for personal reasons. I still don’t have any intention to discuss it. But it was partly on this subject matter that another Nigerian, one who moved with the high and the mighty, made his thoughts known to me recently. So, the title of this piece is the copyright of the Wakilin Shehun Borno, or, Representative of the Shehu of Borno, Chief B.M. Auta. I borrowed it from him for the purpose of highlighting some of the points he raised in a chat I had with him.

It was really a chat that I happened to have had recorded. As a matter of fact, I had barely taken my seat in his abode, and without having asked him any question, when he flowed into saying a few things to me about Nigeria like one would an old friend. I was keener to hear what he had to say about current issues in Kaduna State where he resided, but he spoke more about Nigeria, a fact that made me decide to feature him in this piece.

“These last elections were a revolution; we were just lucky to have it as a peaceful election. The All Progressives Congress was lucky to almost pick up that revolution because it mentioned change,” Auta, one of whose recent outings had been to accompany the Shehu of Borno, in the company of other top traditional rulers from the North to visit the president-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, said. “If you look at it carefully, Nigerians and all over the world, people do not want the kind of things that are happening now. There’s struggle everywhere, there’s violence, but we were lucky to get ours democratically done,” he added.

He noted that what happened was that when a majority of Nigerians decided that they had had enough of the party that had been in power for the last 16 years, they simply went for the alternative. “Instead of carrying guns to go out and cause violence, people fought through the ballot box,” he said, comparing Nigeria’s case to the violent change of government in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt.” Nevertheless, for Auta, the change that had taken place should be handled with care because, as he pointed it, change is a dancing coin. “My only fear, and advice at the same time, is that change is a dancing coin. When a coin dances, you don’t know on which side it will fall. If Buhari is able to hold the steering strong enough to shake off some of the challenges that come from even his party people and outsiders, he will take Nigeria to where we never expect. If you look at it carefully, those who went for change in Tunisia were not the ones who eventually ruled. Those who went for change in Egypt are currently not the ones in government. In Nigeria, the expectations are too high. If you don’t do something about it quickly, people will start to look for another change. So, we are praying that God gives him (Buhari) strength, wisdom to shake off those who will drag him down.”

Apart from being the representative of the Shehu, Auta who has been residing in Kaduna since 1986, also coordinates the affairs of the people from the North-East who live in Kaduna State. So, I asked him what it was like to live away from his village near Biu in Borno State. “As I told you, I came here as a worker, I didn’t come with the intention of even staying. Initially, some of my friends asked me to buy a house in Kaduna and I said I am a Borno man. I am here to work.”

Yet, some of Auta’s friends, among whom are still the more prominent men in the city, persuaded him. “Why were you reluctant to live in Kaduna initially?” I had asked. “At first, I believed home is home, I believed I should just work and go back to my place,” he said. “Has your impression changed now?” was my next question. “Naturally, it has to change because my business and children are here. It’s Kaduna that’s their home.” As for how much contact he maintains with his home state, he said, “I have good houses at home, much better than the ones here. I go home, but not so regularly because of the recent happenings at home. Besides recent happening, I go very regularly.”

But I was more interested in how this nation could forge unity from its ethnic and religious differences, and how major cities such as Lagos, Ibadan, Port Harcourt, Abuja, Jos, Kano and Kaduna could become such melting pots that Nigerians born and raised in them would no longer place emphasis on ethnicity, rather they would see themselves as Nigerians, as citizens of wherever they chose. I was more interested in how we could breed Nigerians whose loyalty would break the bounds of states and where their parents came from. I informed Auta that such a new configuration would assist in getting Nigerians more united instead of the situation whereby talk about indigene-settler tended to divide. I am convinced that this nation needs to move away from the fault lines that have given room to internal contradictions, rendering it so weak internally that it lacks the capacity to propel a dynamic foreign policy necessary to make it a force to reckon with on the global stage. That’s how much the strength this nation projects to the world matters to me.

Auta had listened to my point of view, and although he had a cross-ethnic marriage, his response made him come across to me as one of the older generations of Nigerians who had strong loyalty to where they considered to be their root, rather than citizens of the state where they resided. I am not stating here that this isn’t good; I only insist that the world is moving on, and if Nigeria stays on the same spot, the negative consequences will be there for all to see. I had therefore asked Auta if people who were born and had been living in Kaduna for over 40 years should not accept to become citizens if given the opportunity as the incoming administration in the state had promised. Auta was unconvinced, stating that no one should live in another state without being in regular touch with where he came from.

“I will not even subscribe to the idea that somebody is here in Kaduna for 40 years and he doesn’t go to his or her place. The person has forgotten about his people, his culture; that kind of person should even be thrown out of Kaduna.”

I didn’t let go the matter though, informing Auta that people have the right to belong to wherever they wish as it’s the case in other parts of the world. To this, he had said, “These things you are saying, I don’t want you to forget that we are still in the developing world especially in our country. We haven’t reached there yet, but with time we will.”

There’s a significant number of Christians in especially southern parts of Borno State where he comes from, so I had asked Auta: “How come as a Christian, you are the Wakili of Shehu of Borno?” His response was, “That shows to you that the Shehu of Borno is an open-minded person. He wants peace, he wants things to move well. If there’s anything happening anywhere, I represent him. I represent him even in mosque, and if there is anything in church and he has anything to say he will tell me, and I will tell them. If they have anything to say, they tell me and I tell the Shehu,” Auta said, explaining further that the immediate past Shehu appointed him, and the current Shehu inherited him. “Who recommended you to the late Shehu?” I asked him.

“So many people. When he said I should come and collect the title, Wakili, it took me over two years to agree to collect it,” Auta said.

-Punch