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Ta'aziyyar Sarkin katsina- Innalillah wa Inna Ilaihi Rajiun

Started by EMTL, March 10, 2008, 11:33:44 AM

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HUSNAA

Quote from: King on March 13, 2008, 04:09:54 PM
Question:......Can any of these aspiring rulers remotely be like the late Emir of United Arab Emirates? The man who transformed UAE from a desert crap-hole hamlet to a modern all around first World society that that nation is today? Can any of them remotely have vision like that late ruler?
I ask because if I am correct, UAE begin this breathtaking progress just 30-40 years ago, and from the scratch if I may add. These ruling houses have been ruling way longer than that, and they have resources at their disposal. They've consistently talked about northern interest, etc, and that makes it even easier seeing that their area of focus is limited to a specific geographic area. Still, what is there to show for considering all the donkey years of their imperial rulership and their significant influence nationally?
No they cant aspire to be anything like the late Emir of the UAE. You know why? Cos they dont control the resources their states. They have been emasculated and reduced to mere figure heads in the Nigerian situation. So even if they wanted to do something really positive, they will be  handicapped by lack of real power which comes with having vast resources at yr disposal.. which is one big and insurmountable difference between our emirs and the UAE amirs. What you should also realize is that over there its an all encompassing monarchy that rules the whole state and has a say in all policy decisions that affect every aspect of the lives of the citizens. Its not the same here. So instead of trying to be scornful, remember one thing, that all the chiefs and ezes and the obas of the south are in the same boat as the emirs of the north. They are also effectively emasculated and cant contribute much to infrastructural and man power developments in their little kingdoms.
Ghafurallahi lana wa lakum

King

Well, in all honesty, your overly offensive reaction is totally unnecessary. Yep, maybe this particular situation is not exactly the same as what obtains in UAE, i.e the Nigerian monarchs do not control vast resources as the Emirs in UAE, Quatar, and other successful middle east nations do. However, aside from resources, UAE Emirs had very clear cut and ambitious vision for their communities and for their people.

To say our Emirs lack significant resources, power, and influence to effect visible change in community and public life is simply a falsehood. But assume they had the same resources at their disposal, would they exercise the same kind of stewardship like the Emirs in UAE? The truth is, they do have formidable influence nationally.  If I recall, somebody posted an article about northern leadership on a different thread and practically outlined the failures which according to him borders around selfish personal interest. Most respondents to that article agreed totally to the submissions of the author and I didn't see your objection or rebuttal.

You seem to be jumping the gun here and miscontruing my commentary as a "scornful" attack against the Emirs. I find that rather ridiculous because going by that logic, no opinion or criticism can be levied on anything north by a non northerner. True, other monarchs in the country are quite ineffective at this point in nation building or meaningful development but it does not mean they ought to lack developmental initiatives as leaders of their different ethnic group. The focal issue here is not about other monarchs however. The Obas, the Obis and Ezes are not seeking the Emirship, so let's keep the dialogue in its proper perspective.

They do not all weild the same regional or national influence, and they've not all been reduced to puppet figure heads as you suggest.
Is the Emir or the Sultan a mere puppet in the north or even in our national life? When they weigh in on issues, do their opinions not count?  Ok, if they are so irrelevant and have been reduced to just puppets, would you agree that nationally we ought to do away with traditional rulers because they serve no meaningful purpose? Besides, discarding them totally would save the tax payers money....afterall, if they are "figureheads" as you opined.

Oh, ps, just read my views without attaching all your motives to it. Can you do that?

HUSNAA

You sounded scornful that is why. Maybe I am being on the defensive but that is a reaction to someone who set a precedence of finding nothing good about northerners and their value systems. So if yr comments were genuinely without an ulterior motive, accept my apologies.
Ok that done, yes, our Emirs do wield influence over the ppl but not over the government as a whole. The Emirs of nowadays are not as powerful as the governors of their respective states and they dont have access to the state coffers. Even at localized administrative levels, it s the local government officials like chairmen who get fiscal budgetary control, not the emirs. 
I doubt that many of our governors will like to see chiefs ezes obis and emirs meddling in the business of policy making. This is simply because many of the governors are not in government house with the honest express purpose of  serving the populace.
Men like the current Sultan of Sokoto are really dynamic leaders, who could make a great difference given the opportunity, but they are not being given the necessary backing by the state or Federal Government. It seems that there is a particular role assigned to these emirs by the government, which is more or less to act as mentors to their subjects and nothing else after that. The tiers of government wouldnt welcome anything more from them. A good example of this was the dethroning of the  former emir of Gwandu, a highly cultured very educated individual, who had the interests and the welbeing of his subjects at heart. I really have very scanty information on why he was dethroned, but it was apparent that he had a tiff with the then incumbent governor of Kebbi State Aliero or something of that nature. I believe the whole incident had political undertones. The bottom line was that a much more capable man than the governor of the state was sidelined into oblivion and effectively that part of the state lost the invaluable services of one of its most highly trained human resources.
As for that article about northern leadership and the outlined failures, I havent read it. But I do agree that there are some leaders who are really selfish and maybe the selfish ones outnumber the selfless ones. I hate the way emirs are roped in to exercise their influence over ppl considered as errant subjects when all these errant subjects are trying to do is demand their basic civic rights.
We shouldnt get rid of our emirs because they do serve a purpose. They keep the fabric of the northern society together, its cultures alive and act as father figures.
Doing away with the emirs will not save taxpayers any money since the vast majority of nigerians do not pay any taxes so it seems that its not the tax payers money that pays for these emirs and obas and ezes and obis. If its an issue of wasting money... I think read the latest on how Nigeria's trillions have been wasted during the OBJ regime.. that hypocrite...   >:(
Ghafurallahi lana wa lakum

King

And I appreciate your taking time to present a broader picture of this issue. Very interesting write up. I supose there was a time when Nigerian monarchs weilded some measure of influence and I am not sure how well they utilized that power when they had it. Now, they've been clamped and reduced as you pointed out to mainly cultural and symbolic figures. Despite this diminished role, most contending families still actively 'fight' for the opportunity to ascend the throne...meaning there is still something in it worth fighting for.

I think in reference to the UAE progress, what is most frustrating in comparison to the Nigerian situation is that most UAE citizens actually experienced this affluent transformation within their life time. In our own case, we have lost generations already. Our generation is not at all likely to witness any such progress as is the case in UAE, Qatar, etc. Interestingly, we all have one main resource, oil.

HUSNAA

I know what you mean about the frustrations experienced when one looks at cities like Dubai. I feel exactly the same way. I can really get hysteric about it when I sit to think on it. When we discuss these issues of development with ppl I give the example of Dubai and the fact that we all had access to this petrol around the same time. I size up Nigeria and its populations and think that on a scale of one  to ten, given that Nigeria's population is maybe three times that of Dubai, I dont know the statistics, but lets say five times even or more. Anyway, given that we started out the same time as them,  in terms of petro dollar development, if our governments had judiciously used the money which accrued to Nigeria, on a scale of 1 to ten, taking Dubai as the standard 10, Nigeria would be at number 5 or 6 by now.
Look at the impossibly rapid pace that China is growing. Could u believe whole villages are being erazed and rebuilt as towns? Well granted that the farmers do lose out because their lands are parcelled out and sold by estate developers for thirty times the amount each farmer was compensated for, so maybe that is not so good, but hey that's capitalism...(at its worst obviously). Anyway my point is that the towns are taken to the ppl so that the ppl dont have to come to town and burden the infrastructural facilities. Also the Chinese govt is anxious to see that as many of its citizens as is possible benefit from the economic boom that it is experiencing. The government realizes the potential dangers of marginalization.
Also look at Hong Kong. Twenty five yrs ago, most of its infrastuctural facilities like the highly efficient railway system and its cross harbour tunnels which are tunnels built under the sea to  link Hong Kong Island to the hinterland were none existent.
The only way Nigeria can move forward is for the country to heavily invest in educating its population. That is the only way that any real development will manifest in the future. The reason for this is because with the quality of education that our kids are getting, we would have half baked illiterate adults who will likely carry on in the same way as todays leaders are doing because they wont have the vision to look ahead or the analytical skills to plan ahead. We would only be breeding the likes of Samuel Doe the leaders of MEND and those self styled talibans who were responsible for the murder of some of our Sheikhs in Maiduguri, Kano and Sokoto.
Ghafurallahi lana wa lakum

Hafsy_Lady

Hello you two up there!!!!!!!!!! We suppose to be doing the Ta'aziya thing!

Allah ya jikanshi. May his gentle soul rest in peace Amin summa Amin

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