23/02/2023
As Borno Marks 14 Years Without Shehu Mustafa Ibn Umar El-kenemi.
Late Shehu Mustafa Ibn Umar El-Kanemi (son of Shehu Umar Ibn Muhammad of Borno) was born in 1924, fourth son of the 17th Shehu of Borno, Sir Umar ibn Mohammed El-Kanemi, and was brought up in Dikwa, Borno State of Nigeria 🇳🇬 .
He became secretary to the Wali of Borno in 1945, and subsequently worked in different departments of the Native Authority as the representative of the Shehu.
He commenced his public service career as an administrator in 1945 when he became the secretary of the Wali of Borno. He was subsequently transferred to various departments of the then Native Authority, including the police, Central Administration and Veterinary Department as a representative (Yalema) of the then Shehu.
Armed with these experiences, he was elected into the Northern Nigeria House of Assembly in 1956 on the platform of the Northern Peoples Congress (NPC) representing the Damaturu/Bursari constituency, and re-elected in 1959. He was also appointed as Parliamentary Secretary or junior minister in the ministry of lands and survey, Northern Region, Kaduna in 1961.
After his political experience, he returned to Maiduguri in 1966 to the Central Office. In 1968, he became the District Head of Mafa and subsequently to Nganzai District in 1970, a position he held until he became the Shehu of Borno in 1974.
Receiving his Staff of Office during his formal installation on February 1, 1975 as the 19th Shehu, he pledged to work for the unity and peace of all.
His words: “I shall make every effort to be honest in dealing with my people and uphold justice, rule of law and fair play. I shall always work for the peace and progress of my people, irrespective of ethnic origin, religion or place of birth. I will do my best to bring about improvement in the standard of living of the entire people of our emirate.”
Little wonder that most settlers and indigenes of the state saw him as a bridge builder, generous and accessible. It was said that many would not want him to travel out of the state when sectarian crisis broke out in some Northern States so as to nip possible crisis in the bud.
Like his father, family sources claimed Shehu Mustapha died without a personal house, property or known asset. Resources that came to him were said to be distributed to coteries of people who usually besiege his palace every day for assistance.
El-Kanemi was elected to the Northern Region House of Assembly in 1956, representing the Damaturu/Busari Constituency, and was re-elected in 1959. He was parliamentary secretary in the Northern Region during the Nigerian First Republic. He was also vice president of the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs.
Umar El-Kanemi, a first generation and first class traditional ruler of Nigeria’s oldest empire was, long before his death adjudged as the most generous, accessible, destabilized and open-minded natural ruler of his ilk.
While his contemporaries and peers preferred to cocoon themselves under the shadows of their robes, the late Shehu of Borno, felt no qualms in opening up to all and sundry with arms and doors wide open to all manner of people. To begin with, he was on the throne when Maiduguri attained the height of being the fastest growing city in Africa; he also was in charge right from the native authority days up to the time of his death – a period of Borno’s economic prosperity, unprecedented peace attainment, infrastructure development and a melting pot of sort for scholarship, commerce and entrepreneurship which attracted both skilled and unskilled manpower from across the African continent.
Everyone, regardless of his biases felt at home more in Borno than anywhere elsewhere. This is very instructive now that peace has become such a rare commodity.
His peaceful disposition was legendary.
While other peer cities would altercate in social upheavals, the late Shehu of Borno was there like one big umbrella, capable of quickly drowning potential dissent or reining in any manner of anti-social behaviour from all quarters. Where one came from had never bothered him; to him the content of one’s character, or even the lack of it sometimes made him to embrace people and genuinely felt for them to warrant making sure all had been well in the whole of Borno state.
If he had chosen to act like the feudal elements of our time, he will have been about the richest traditional ruler while he lived. He had all the openings to make it rich but the ever selfless and generous Mustapha Umar will rather give out to the needy than hold on to it for himself and his family.
Simplicity of Shehu Mustafa Ibn Umar El-Kanemi:
It is very hard or difficult to find somebody of his power and status to be as simple as he was.
You may never understand the point I am trying to make here until you read the underneat given story-history that happened between him and the then Col. Ozodunobi the Governor of Borno state-Nigeria.;
Colonel Victor Afamefula Ozodinobi was appointed military governor of Borno State on 22 August 1996 during the military regime of General Sani Abacha.
This man came as a young man to serve the state, but somehow something might have pushed him to show how powerful the office of a Governor is to the elders of Borno state, so that no one can question him for any of his future administrative actions to be taking in the future.
To prove this he went straight to the Palace of Shehu Mustafa in December,1996 to warn him on several irrelevant issues that does not even relate to the affairs of running the Emirate council for example he directed that the Shehu must be in his office by 7: 00 am prompt since he pays his salary, contrary to the cultural practices of traditional rulers who resumes their daily schedules after 9:00am or be in their Palace office at any time or when due including night, he also told him that he should be ready to participate in a sanitation exercises (cleaning of surrounding environment and gutters) together with his subjects when it’s time to do that in addition to participating in other relevant communal development labour issues that he was even yet to introduce in the state under his administration. In fact he wanted the Shehu to come out of his Palace and behave like an ordinary citizens among his subjects.
Surprisingly this visit and the discussion was intentionally televised in order to put fears in to the Hearts of other ordinary citizens or residents of the state. Could you believe that throughout this discussion Shehu Mustafa Ibn Umar El-Kanemi did not say a word to Col. Ozodunobi or even squeeze his face for this humiliation? Under this scenario what Col. Ozodunobi didn’t know was he was playing with a fire for five good reasons:
i) He never knew that he was talking to a king or ruler of a Kingdom that has a thousand years of history.
ii) He never knew that he was talking to the in-law of late Alhaji Mai Deribe.
iii) He didn’t know that he was talking to the father of a military General.
iv) He didn’t know that he was talking to the father of a Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces.
v) He didn’t know that he was talking to the father of the Head of State and General Sani Abacha for that matter and who even made him the so called Governor in the first place.
Despite all this opportunities and powers at his disposal and which is just some10 seconds of phone call away.
Did you know that Shehu Mustafa Ibn Umar El-Kanemi refused to use all this opportunities to deal with this Governor. However the issue was resolved when his in-law Alhaji Mai Deribe returned from London United Kingdom 🇬🇧 the following week , people disturbed by this action informed him about it then he put a protest letter to General Sani Abacha who automatically not only dismissed Colonel Victor Afamefula Ozodinobi from the office of the Governor of Borno state,but from the entire Nigerian Army after him and his wife collectively Maryam Abacha insulted him in the A*o Rock Villa more than even the way he insulted Shehu Mustafa that mad him to cry beyond tears for insulting & abusing their father.
So what is the lesson with this story? This incident tells us the kind of pressure Shehu Mustafa can withstand; a presuure that cannot be withstand by even General Abacha,Maryam Abacha and Mai Deribe combined together.
When he died, some people were embarrassed that he had only N 1000 000 (One Million) in his account and a single 4 bedroom apartment that would not pass for boy’s quarters of today’s local district heads and 50 children.
He lived a life of caution, never given to primitive accumulation of wealth, always dashing out all he had and generally leading by example. This Spartan lifestyle, though somewhat inconveniencing and unattractive to personal comfort could be seen as the reason people were willing to defer to him.
I also I benefited from such his extraordinary gesture, bc when I was serving or doing my NYSC program in Imo state - Nigeria he was the Chancellor of the University of Port Harcourt in the neighboring Rivers state. So one day me and my friend paid visit to Port Harcourt and coincidentally visited him when we heard that in Rivers state attending the convocation ceremony of the University of Port Harcourt, we greeted him and introduced ourselves and then he asked us to meet him in the University Guest House after the convocation program which we did.
To our surprise was when we met with him he was so simple,free and very friendly of course as such that we interacted/ discussed for almost 45 minutes asking us questions about how we live there , what we studied in our Universities and hopes of gaining employment after our return back home to Maiduguri, our discussion was cut short with the arrival of the Police commissioner of the then Rivers state who also came to see him .
At our leave he gave us the transport fares back to our bases in Imo state and another transport fare that took us back to Maiduguri after the completion of our program.
In fact even after returning back to Maiduguri we still had the remaining change from the transport fare he gave us.
The great leader died on Friday 20th February 2009 in Cairo Egypt 🇪🇬 and during his burial more than 2 million people turn out to welcome his body arriving from Egypt 🇪🇬 at the Maiduguri International Airport. The crowd was so much that even the 4 wheels of the Ambulance vehicle conveying his body keep leaving ground to Air due to the growing pressure of the crowd leading to squeezing of the vehicle while some other people 4rom the crowd are trying to at least touch the Ambulance with their finger tips .
His People loves 💘 him, like him, cherished him and so much believe in him as such that even the two Egyptian pilots that brought his Corps back to Maiduguri joined the crowd crying. For you to understand the magnitude of this crowd even the Federal and the state governments have to use the social media inform people that his burial would not take place on that same day his body arrived and until the following morning so as to help reduce the excess crowd, which lead to accessed the burial Space that he was burried.
The Christian community in Borno state including other non-indigents of the state such as the Igbo community and others in Maiduguri also collectively requested for permission to use the Ramat Square (Fillin Sukuwa) to pray for him in their own way for given them the freedom,support and for caring for them to do their businesses in the state during his life time despite the fact that the Shehu was not only a Muslim himself but a Muslim Leader as well.
Due to the extra ordinary love expressed by his subjects/people to him made the late Emir of Kano Alhaji Ado Bayero, the Sultan of Sokoto Sultan Abubakar and the Emir of Yola to asked question that what was this individual keep doing during his life time that gave him this physical reward from his people?
This article is from the archive of Ali Alhaji.
May his soul continue resting in peace
