If it appears that the Islamic polities of northern Nigeria had been monarchical right from the pre-jihad era, we should not lose sight of the codifications of norms that governed public civic culture. A striking illustration of this – the fact that governance was taken seriously and guided by some publicly declared rules – is that at least two treatises were written and circulated in the Central Sudan. During the reign of Sarkin Kano Muhammad Rumfa (d.1499), the celebrated Muslim cleric Muhammad b. Abd al-Karim al-Maghili al-Tlemsani (better known as Al-Maghili) authored a treatise, Risalat al-Muluk (The Obligations of Princes), which spelt out Islamic standards of good governance for the guidance of Rumfa, who was a notable Muslim in his own right. Two other examples from the early nineteenth-century history of the Sokoto Caliphate further illustrate the historical depth of the idea of a governance template.
First, the leader of the Sokoto jihad, Uthman dan Fodio, authored the Kitab al-Farq (A Book of Distinction), in which he distinguished the practices of non-Islamic polities from those of the envisaged Islamic State. It is interesting that when the ulama al-sui, who were embedded in the power structure or siyasa (politics) of the day criticised him for preaching without separating women from the men, he countered that it was a minor and forgivable infraction compared to the greater fitna of keeping women in ignorance. From this we could see that Dan Fodio himself had struck an early blow in favour of girl-child or women education even in a conservative Islamic setting. Small wonder that the cleric’s own daughter, Nana Asma’u, was a poetess and celebrated author in her own right. Not only did Dan Fodio promote women literacy, he practised what he preached in his own household, unlike most modern leaders today.
Second, in c.1807, in the early years of the jihad, Uthman dan Fodio’s brother, Abdullahi, a poet and lawyer, was so disgusted with the manifestation of worldliness among the jihaddists that he abandoned the struggle for a pilgrimage to the East. However, on getting to Kano, the local reformists prevailed on him to abandon his eastward journey. During his sojourn in Kano, where he also observed some deviations, he composed at his hosts’ request a treatise on how to run the government according to the tenets of Islam. Abdullahi dan Fodio’s Diyâ’ al-Hukkâm (The Light of the Rulers or The Principles of Government) was a sort of governance template for the emergent Kano emirate. It is a moot point whether any ruler in that part of the country is guided by that document or any other on good governance.
Other examples can be cited from local settings across Nigeria. What is worth stressing is that our traditional values and practices should be re-visited to harness those that can help us to re-invent the culture of civility and developmental governance. How a society treats its women and what it does about peaceful co-existence or the treatment of so-called strangers tell much about its level of development. This is true of Nigerian communities even in pre-colonial times.
The role of women in various societies is a case in point. In practically all Nigerian societies, even in the matrilineal ones, women have played second fiddle to men, even their own sons and younger brothers. Yet, women have also exercised soft power, which often affected the directions of state policy. The point is that many Nigerian communities recognise and accord women certain roles that men did not play. For example, till date, women are preferred as regents in some kingdoms; in some others they held titles and took part in direct decision making in the highest councils, though always as a minority. In practically all societies, women entrepreneurship was the norm, even when cultural practices limited their mobility. Where they suffered no such restrictions, they accumulated wealth, owned property and played overt politics. The mythical Queen Amina, the historical Madame Tinubu of Lagos and Abeokuta, Efunsetan Aniwura of Ibadan and Omu Okwei of Ossomari, or the more modern examples – Alimotu Pelewura of Lagos, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti of Abeokuta, Margaret Ekpo of Calabar, Gambo Sawaba, the stormy petrel of Northern Nigeria, Humaini Alaga of Ibadan and Abibatu Mogaji of Lagos – literally rocked the cradle and the crown, often tempestously.
The treatment of settlers, now a bone of contention in modern Nigeria, is a key issue in the evolution of a developmental public culture. Plateau State has been a theatre of war and various Nigerian communities (Umuleri/Aguleri; Onitsha/Obosi; Warri (Urhobo and Izon versus Itsekiri) and Ile-Ife/Modakeke) have at various times demonstrated our abandonment of the cardinal principle of good neighbourliness and concern for strangers, so-called. It is instructive in this regard, and this is documented by Adamu Fika (1978: 158, n.82), that Yoruba-speaking peoples had settled in Iyagi and Yakasai quarters of Kano since the 17th century. There was no report that they were molested, massacred or expelled at any time during the pre-colonial era. Hausa and Nupe communities have been in Yorubaland for centuries, inter-marrying with host communities. In spite of the conflict that accompanied the rise of the Sokoto Caliphate, trade continued across the ecological divide between northern and southern Nigeria. While not painting an unrealistic picture of unbroken harmony, this writer suggests that indigenous peoples were probably better informed than their modern-day descendants about the benefits of enlightened self-interest, which dictated that one should not see inter-group relations as a zero-sum game.
We can also extract building blocks from our core values, sage philosophy and aphorisms. Hence, the Yoruba “omoluabi” model, which rested on civic education right from the cradle, the Igbo concept of “igwebuike,” which encapsulated the virtue of cooperation, and societal opprobrium against anti-social behaviour, such as greed (which the Yoruba express as “anikanjopon,” “wobia,” “jegudujera,” “kenimani,” “ere ajepajude,” “eni kan kii je ki ilu fe”), injustice and oppression, should be woven into the tapestry of our public culture. But the foregoing cannot be done in the absence of leadership, a critical element in the new developmental culture we are proposing. However, that leadership culture also cannot operate in isolation. It is a siamese twin of the developmental state. One such example is the immediate past ruler of Qatar.
