Tag: MAN

In Kanuri culture, the word shettima signifies learning and leadership. Although nowadays it can just be a name parents give to their children but in the past it was a title conferred on scholars or leaders. It has the same meaning with the Arab sheikh or Sai’d or Syed. Among the Mandinka speaking people, the word Sekou, like in Sekou Toure connotes the same meaning. During the first republic there were five politicians that dominated the politics of Borno. The numero uno among them was Shettima Kashim Ibrahim (Sir Kashim Ibrahim), the first central minister of education in the early 1950s who later became governor of Northern Nigeria after independence. He was the first indigenous education officer in the north of Nigeria and it was him who largely recruited the other Kanuri leaders and ensured they went to school at the expense of the local government. The four other Kanuri leaders were Waziri Ibrahim who served as minister of economic development under Sir Abubakar and later leader of the Great Nigeria Peoples Party during the 2nd Republic who was noted for championing the idea of “politics without bitterness”. He later married the first daughter of Sir Kashim Ibrahim. Then there was Zanar Bukar  Dipcharima,  a flamboyant politician who was also in Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa’s independence cabinet. Then there was Ibrahim Imam who was leader of the Borno Youth Movement who later allied with the Action Group of Chief Obafemi Awolowo in the politics of the First Republic and finally, Shettima Ali from the village of Monguno not far from the shores of Lake Chad where Kanuri culture was at its purest. All these people dominated the politics of Borno for years  and stabilized the place to the extent that it was one of the most peaceful divisions in the North of Nigeria. Although in the 1950s when there were problems in Borno, Sir Kashim Ibrahim left his ministerial post in Lagos to become the Waziri of Borno and rooted out all signs of dissidence and disaffection. Borno was the first place to be islamised in Nigeria and it was from there the rest of Muslim Nigeria got its light. The Kanuri are justifiably proud of their contribution to ancient and modern history of Nigeria. It is therefore a sad thing for many people to see Borno descend to this abysmal level of terrorism of the Boko haram insurgency.

Alhaji Shettima Ali Monguno epitomized all that was good about Borno culture and civilization. Like any young man in the 1960s the name of Shettima Ali meant only one thing to me, this was that he was a member of the Northern People’s Congress which was antithetical and opposed to the Action Group of which my own brother was one of its leaders. Several years later, his name came up when I was a Senior Lecturer at the University of Lagos. This was in 1976 when the awards and ceremonial committee of the university came up with names of people to be awarded honorary doctorates of the university during our convocation ceremonies. I was an elected member of Senate. In those days, we normally supported whatever our vice chancellor the late Professor J. F. Ade Ajayi brought to Senate. Professor Ajayi was not only my teacher, he also held the key to my future progress and promotion in his hands. So it was suicidal to frontally confront the vice chancellor. I do not remember what happened to me but I put up my hand to say Senate should reject the nomination. I had nothing against him but against the regime of General Yakubu Gowon which had humiliated university teachers by evicting us from our flats for declaring industrial action against the government because of poor remuneration. Secondly it was our perception that none of the people in that government particularly a man who for years was minister of mines and power which supervised the petroleum in industry could be awarded a honorary doctorate for honesty as the citation stated. We said how could anybody pronounce another honest when he had no access to intelligence report. I was supported by my fellow elected members of Senate and surprisingly by Professor Lallage  Bown, a British professor who was very close to our vice chancellor  who argued that she was always surprised that Nigerian universities did not find any of their fellow academics  suitable and deserving  of award for honorary degrees. Professor Ajayi, tongue in cheek then asked me to make a nomination and I said “Mustapha Adeoye”. And he said who was that and I said “The leader of the Agbe Koya “ a group  of farmers in western Nigeria rebelling against taxes and neglect. That led to much laughter and the nomination was withdrawn.

I now regret this for many reasons after I had had opportunity to know Shettima Ali. First of all, I can say that politicians of the First Republic were largely clean and honest. After writing biographies of Chief S. L  Akintola, Chief F.S Okotie-Eboh and Sir Kashim Ibrahim, it is quite clear to me that the leaders of the First Republic were not correctly portrayed in existing literature which simply parroted the  unproven allegation  of the military that overthrew the civilian administration of the First Republic. Ahmadu Bello, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and Sir Kashim Ibrahim had no houses in 1966 and the Prime Minister and the Premier of the North who were killed could not have been guilty of corruption.

I got to know Shettima Ali intimately from 1978. He was then the pro-chancellor and chairman of council of the University of Calabar and I was Director of the Nigerian Universities Commission office first in Ottawa and later Washington DC. Most of the then new universities came abroad to recruit staff. Shettima Ali was also a member of one committee or the other in the United Nations. He was therefore a regular visitor to New York and Washington DC. I remember welcoming him sometimes at the airport and as he comes out of immigration he would be carrying his brief case and I would ask him where his box was and he would smile that he never travelled with suitcases. He would explain that he always travelled with his trademark dark long kaftan, under wears, and toilet bag in his brief-case while wearing another dark kaftan. He told me whenever and wherever he arrived, he would send to laundry what he was wearing and change to the clean kaftan in his brief case. He jokingly said no one would know how many clothes he brought abroad and that he did not come out for fashion parade. I found this extremely humble and ennobling from a man who had occupied many positions in our country including being president of OPEC at one time or the other. He never threw his weight around and if he waited to be brought to the office and the driver was late he would show up in a taxi. Everything about the man was different from the way lesser Nigerians behave while in public office. One day I raised the issue of corruption by public servants and he agreed that the level must be brought down. He then told me that the only property he had outside his simple house in Maiduguri was a house in Lagos. He told me he was sold the land as a member of the cabinet during the Gowon regime and he kind of forgot about it until a friend asked him whether he had built on it. He said he told his friend he had no money. This was the minister of petroleum! He said he was then told he could give the land to a contractor who would then build on it, use it and after about 20 years transfer it to him. He said for that advice he would not have owned any property in the then federal capital after almost two decades of service in government.