How we achieved peace in Zazzau — Emir

The Emir of Zazzau, Ambassador Ahmed Bamalli, in this interview with Northern Bureau Chief, MUHAMMAD SABIU, speaks on sundry issues, including rivalry among ruling houses and peacebuilding in the emirate. Excerpts:

What is your take on the increment of salaries of all traditional rulers in the state?

It’s true. Even though we have not gotten any alerts yet, I believe that by the time the salary of the current month comes, we’ll see the increment. His Excellency, the Governor, Senator Uba Sani, told me about the increment. The commissioner too, and this has been in the pipeline for maybe seven months. They’ve worked on it, and we’re looking forward to the actualisation. If you go by the salaries, even allowances of traditional rulers in the state, there’s nothing to write home about compared to other emirates, we are lagging behind.

To what extent do you think it will affect positively the effective coordination of all the emirates?

Well, certainly it will impact on all the traditional rulers because no matter how small it is, at least you’ll have something left. And in these hard times, when the value of money is nothing to write home about, the effect will be cushioned by the increment. We don’t know the statistics of how much or what amount is coming to us after tax or whatever. But certainly, whatever it is, we’re grateful and we’ll look forward to it. Because if you look at other emirates, what we hear from them, when we’re getting over the years, certainly we’re nowhere close to some of the emirates.

How do you describe the relationship between the traditional institution and the state government? 

Oh, absolutely. I can speak for myself and not others. Since my coming here as Emir on the 7th of October, insh Allah, next month, I’ll be six years on this exalted position. And so I never had any issues with the state government. We always partner together. We discuss issues. Name it governance, from time to time, the government comes here to consult on state matters and seek advice. I am not a politician. I don’t involve myself in political matters. But if there’s anything that has to do with the state, for the benefit of our people and programmes. Yesterday alone I attended about seven meetings with different agencies. Some from the U.S, some NGOs, National Orientation Agency and all working into the vision of the government on how to address issues.  Secondly, the issue of alternative dispute resolution, this is what we do at the emirate.

In the last two years, we’re proud to say that since we changed our strategy of ADR, we’ve been able to remove over 2,000 cases from the conventional courts and decided them here in the palace. And all the parties left very happy. To the extent that the Chief Judge came last year, he called about 10 other judges to acknowledge what we do here.

We have witnessed relative peace in your domain, ho were you able to achieve?

Well, if you had come here the day before yesterday, you would have seen a very large number of Christian leaders that came to say thank to us for what we have been doing in the Emirate since we came. Specifically, they are happy for the peaceful coexistence existing among different tribes in the Emirate. According to them, they have been living in peace with their neighbours. So they came here to acknowledge the progress and development in the Emirate.  It’s all about the approach of the leader, on how you handle your people.

For example, since my coming, we have tried to bring everybody on board here. First, from within the royal family, my approach is, it shouldn’t be winner-takes-all. And I wanted a clear departure from the tradition. Obviously, if you ascend the throne, you eliminate everybody from the other rival ruling dynasties. But my approach is totally different from that.

How you were able to unite the ruling houses that were never united before your reign?

Yes, members of our own ruling house were affected negatively in the years past; my family was relegated to the background. First, when my grandfather was dethroned by the British, it took us many years to be recognised by other members of the ruling houses. So, there were periods when no member of our family was in the scheme of things. For about 18 and half years nobody, not even a village head, was appointed from my family. But we endured. And there are times only two title holders came from our family. We all went through those periods, and heaven did not fall.

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So, this time around, I said, well, you know what happened to our parents and some of our grandparents? Why don’t we have a paradigm shift? Let it be an all-inclusive reign. Let us change the scenario. So, hence the reason why I gave, all stakeholders in the palace the opportunity to participate, even when it comes to issue of their marriage. And as a result of that approach, we have sustainable peace. Of course, some people, especially those that contested with me, those grievances will always be there.

Can you tell us how you have been running the Emirate in the last six years since you ascended the throne of your forefathers?

Remember, I swore by the Quran to be fair and just and God did not say, we are to be fair to all the Muslim brothers, not to humanity, but to everybody in  Zazzau Emirate. I have the largest Emirate, I think, in northern Nigeria, in terms of landmass, this Emirate is greater than Kano, Kano is like three times in human population.

So, what do you do? You have multiple ethnic groups. You have different religions, backgrounds, Muslims, Christians, Atheists and even people who don’t even recognise the existence of God, we have them in different locations. So I have an open-door policy. And whoever comes here, yes, I attend to him, provided I’m around, regardless of who he is. We listen to you. And then we now take action on what we feel is okay with our system and with your issue on a regular basis. So, we were able to build trust and confidence with people living with us.

If you don’t have that space in your heart and empathy also to accommodate others, there’s no way you can have peace, even in your own home, among your children and your wives. If you try to please one wife and leave others for those who are polygamous, certainly there will be trouble. Even among the children, you prefer this child than this one, there will be no peace.So, we’re trying our best to see that we close those gaps. And then let it be a merit-based administration.

Recently, I was in Warri for the 5th year coronation anniversary of the Olu of Warri. I felt very much at home as if I were in Lagos. Because some of the people there are my friends, some who we’ve worked together, I was in Lagos for 10 years when I started my career, and before coming back to the North. So, my friends were like, I met them when I was in Lagos. So, like, on Sunday I have to be in Lagos. They’re giving me a fellowship at the University of Lagos.

Also, the chairman or president of the CAN here in Zaria, is always updating me if there’s any issue pertaining  the Christian community. In Sabon Gari or in Wusasa here. And in Wusasa, the church leaders also, from time to time, if somebody is appointed, they come to me here and inform me. If somebody is leaving, they come to say bye-bye. And if there are issues, yes, I get to know. When, at the peak of this banditry around Wusasa, I ensured that we station an APC. And I was able to get some good Samaritans also, to donate vehicles. They were patrolling the entire city of Zaria. So, as a result of that, we were able to have peace here. No infiltration of all these funny characters.

So, you see, this is the advantage of mixing with people from different places. And you have this idea of how to manage everybody without feeling that you are an outsider. And thanks to my stay in Lagos, I have all sorts of, you know, friends. Also, education has helped me , I was at the University of NewYork, I did studied Conflict, Resolution in 2009.But you see, God has his own ways of preparing you for something that you don’t even know.

So, what I did in 2009 is what I am practicalising today, every day. So, can see how God works. And equally, when I was retired.They retired me from the Mint. I was the MD of the Mint then, Emir of Kano, Sanusi was the Central Bank Governor. So, we were all retired, and I was only 48, I said it was too early for me to join the League of Retirees. So, I went back to school, I went back to Oxford and I did postgraduate diploma in organisational leadership.

So, you can see how God was putting me in places that I never envisaged. And this is in addition to my law degree and master’s here in diplomacy. And equally, you know, I ventured into other schools.

I did my GMP, general management program, at Harvard Business School also.

So, with all these pedigrees, if we don’t change the situation in our emirate locally here. You know, people will challenge you. And in His grace, God Almighty also took me out of this country as a diplomat to Thailand and Myanmar. Yes, another third-world country. But we learned so many new things and exposed me to so many things that we don’t even have in our environment.So, these are some of the things that I believe that molded my character and also my approach to things, which I believe differ from other people.