History of Potiskum: the true position

The True Founders of Potiskum

By Mansur Abubakar Sadiq

 

On 22nd November 2017, I was browsing through the Internet when an article captioned THE HISTORY OF POTISKUM captured my attention. The piece was written by one Ahmad S. Gimba and carried by an online paper which goes under the name Neptune Prime The Chief Executive Officer and Editor in Chief of the paper is one Hassan Gimba Ahmed. In view of the Gimba Ahmed family’s marital relationship with the Fika Palace, it is obvious that we have started witnessing an era of alliance to intensify the distortion of the history of Potiskum which has been going on for a very long time without success. As usual, caution and decorum have been thrown to the wind all in an effort to defend the indefensible. The paper has abandoned its vision of becoming the most authoritative source of information about the North East, its people, culture etc. A response would not have been necessary but for the fact that some youth who are not conversant with the history of Potiskum seem to be carried away and regard the concoctions as genuine historical facts. Time and space will not allow response to all the issues raised. For that reason, only the most serious distortions and errors will be addressed in this response.

BRITISH POLICY OF RELOCATION OF HEADQUARTERS

In the opening lines of the write-up, the author commits an error of fact. He states that Potiskum doubles as the headquarters of Fika Emirate for over a century and later on tries to show that the British policy of relocation of headquarters was important and many Emirs such as Bade, Katagum etc were affected by it. The date being quoted even by Fika sources for the relocation of the Emir of Fika from Fika to Potiskum is 1924. Going by this, Potiskum has been the headquarters of Emir of Fika for less than a century. It is mere speculation to apply the so called British effective communication or administrative convenience policy to Potiskum as there is no evidence that the Emir of Fika relocated to Potiskum on the orders of the British. As a matter of fact the Emir of Fika’s 10th anniversary souvenir publication p.6 clearly indicates that at the time of accession of Alhaji Muhammadu Ibn Idrisa, the administrative centre of the emirate was Fika but in 1924 the Emir voluntarily moved his court to Potiskum. The claim that the Emirs of Bade and Katagum were affected by such policy is false.

In Bade, the change of headquarters from Gorgoram to Gashua took place before the imposition of colonial rule. Evidence is provided in the account of Heinrich Barth who passed through parts of present day Yobe State during his expedition to North and Central Africa. On 8th December 1852 Barth wrote that he reached the town of Geshiya (Gashua) and described it as being surrounded by extensive swamp or swampy water course affording to the inhabitants a safe retreat in case of attack. He noted that all the towns of the Bedde were situated in a similar position. From his description therefore, the main factor which influence choice of Bade settlements was defence. It is evident that by 1852 the relocation of Bade headquarters had been effected and Gashua had been in existence as the new headquarters for years. The relocation happened long before the arrival of the British and had nothing to do with the phantom British relocation policy as the author wants us to believe. Similarly, both Katagum and Azare as headquarters of the Emir of Katagum were founded by the family of Malam Ibrahim Zaki. The movement from Katagum to Azare therefore, did not involve an alien ruling family relocating to a settlement it had no role in founding. So it is a totally different scenario from what obtains in Potiskum where an alien ruling family without legitimacy decided to abandon its traditional and ancestral headquarters at Fika for another group’s ancestral land and expects that its action will go unchallenged.

FOUNDATION OF POTISKUM AND CENTRALIZATION ISSUE

In view of the circumstances which brought the Emir of Fika to Potiskum and his lack of legitimacy, the survival tactics of the Fika Palace has been one of divide and rule. It is therefore not surprising that the author has reproduced a part of the oral tradition which is used mischievously to promote conflicting claims of ownership of Potiskum town. However, the oral sources are clear except to mischief makers that the Ngizim and Kare Kare lived together peacefully and intermarried. They lived under the authority of the DUGUM AU as the initial level of centralization and later the KACHALLAS/MAIS. The claim that the inhabitants of Potiskum area had no central authority and so paid homage to the Emir of Fika is false. The author deliberately jumbled up chronology. Prior to the imposition of colonial rule, each of the two chiefdom was independent of the other. M.M.Aliyu who is a trained historian of Bolewa extraction has this to say;

"By the end of the eighteenth century, the area of our study consisted of two chiefdoms-Fika and Potiskum-whose administrations were headed by the Moi and Mai respectively…..the Moi of Fika exercised his sovereignty over most part of the Gongola Valley whereas the Mai of Potiskum’s political influence extended over the part of Komadugu valley" (BOLDU 2:184)

The article was extracted from his thesis presented to the prestigious Ahmadu Bello University for the award of Masters degree in History. Unlike the author, his assertions and claims are based on extensive research and evidence. Aliyu may presumably be more Bolewa than the author yet he called a spade a spade. The author is correct to identify the Ngizim and Kare Kare as farmers attracted by good farming land. Up to the present day, they constitute the largest percentage of the population of small and large scale farmers as well as traders in agricultural produce. To attempt to ascribe the arrival of Bolewa to Potiskum to administrative reasons is to deny or cover up their parasitic nature. In the colonial days, the Fika palace and by extension the Bolewa used their position as junior colonial partners to harass, coerce and exploit. The average Baboli in Potiskum is highly unproductive and because he cannot eat his administrative skills, he moves around with his polythene sack begging or hoping to be given grains for the day’s meal. In all trades in Potiskum, one cannot find any notable Bolewa man. It is the same farmers that also dominate those trades including transportation for which Potiskum is famous. Well, the author is advised to admonish his Bolewa people to continue eating your administrative skills which you claim transformed Potiskum but are surprisingly not good enough to change Fika, your ancestral land out of its hyena den status. What a pity.

MOI SULE AND THE SO CALLED FIKA ARCHITECTURE

The author claims that Moi Sule was known to have established the first mud house where he stayed when touring his territory. The building of mud houses therefore, began the process of the spread of what he calls Fika architecture. The question which readily comes to mind is which territory was Moi Sule touring? According to C.K.Meek (1971:34-35) people in the drier regions of the north prefer the all grass hut due to the friable nature of the soil which renders the work of building mud house difficult. This explains why huts made of a framework of guinea corn sticks and covered over with matting as dwelling houses are still prevalent especially in the rural areas today. A look at the colonial reports in the 1950’s clearly showed that although bricks were easily obtainable, nobody was building with them except the Native Authority. Olive Macleod (1912:269) who spent four weeks in Fika described the houses in Fika in the following words:

“The houses are regular rabbit-warrens leading from room to court With so many entrances into each that once I had reached the Interior it was impossible to find my way out again."

I am not sure this was the kind of architecture that Fika exported because as Macleod observed, such mode of construction was for defensive purposes. So where is the so called Fika architecture? Is it the architecture of the rock dwellers which Fikans were?

Let us also take a look at Moi Sule who is credited by the author with establishing the first mud house in an unspecified part of his territory. According to Fika ruling list, Moi Sule is the 39th Moi of Fika who ruled between 1885-1902. He was a contemporary of Mai Gabau (1893-1902) and later Mai Bundi (1902-1909) of Potiskum. Each of the chiefdoms was independent and exercised sovereign rights. This position is clearly reinforced by the action of the British colonialists when they visited the two areas. According to J.E.Lavers (NNSS:IX) late in 1902 when a British patrol visited western Bornu, it recommended that Moi Sule who was the reigning Moi of Fika at that time be appointed a third class chief while Mai Bundi of Potiskum was to be a second class chief. By British assessment on which the recommendation was made, Potiskum chiefdom was ahead of Fika chiefdom, thus the recommendation for 2nd class and 3rd class chiefs respectively.

BRITISH COLONIAL ADMINISTRATIVE RE-ORGANIZATIONS

It was the British colonial administrative re-organization started in 1909 that is the reason for the current situation in Potiskum-an alien Emir from another pre colonial chiefdom fighting tooth and nail to continue sharing headquarters with the Emir of Potiskum in total neglect of his traditional and ancestral headquarters. The author gives all credit for the depositions and appointments made to the Emir of Fika forgetting that he was a junior partner in the colonial arrangement and therefore, subject to its laws, whims and caprices of its officials. Contrary to what the author wants us to believe, Moi Disa (1902-1909) did not appoint Mai Bundi as sub district head in Potiskum:

In September 1909,the Resident of Bornu Province sent proposals to the colonial administration in Zungeru accusing Mai Bundi of being incapable of administrative action. He recommended Mai Bundi’s deposition and division of his land into two parts - the western part containing the Karai Karais to be placed under Fika and the eastern part including Potiskum containing Ngizims to be handed over to Agudum. So Mai Bundi was outrightly deposed and therefore incorrect for the author to say that he was appointed by Moi Disa as sub district head in Potiskum. The issue of deposition was not peculiar to Potiskum. Moi Sule of Fika was also deposed based on reasons which were similar to those in Potiskum. In his report No.5 of May 31st,1903 Captain G.C.R. Mundy the Acting Resident of Bornu had indicated that Moi Sule had given the British considerable trouble between March to May,1903. He refused to pay taxes, sent messengers away and was interfering with the construction of cart road between Ngara and Mutwe. However, by the time the British assembled troops at Nafada and set out for Fika in 1903, it was the treacherous betrayal by some Fika princes led by the Maina Kura (Disa), Maina Gana and some elders (Tunja Mama and Malam Alhaji) of Fika town that led Moi Sule to walk straight into a trap set by Captain Mundy. He was arrested and taken to Gujba under escort and his son, Disa was appointed the next Moi of Fika by the British (Kirk Greene and Newman 1971).

 On the deposition of Mai Agudum, the author either out of ignorance or mischief cites the wrong colonial documents. The relevant colonial document is NAK SNP 362p 1913 in which the Resident Bornu Province W.P. Hewby requested to carry out further progressive administrative measures. Mai Agudum was said to have proved himself impossible as a ruler. The claim by the author that Agudum was deposed due to inefficiency and drunkenness is a figment of his imagination and not what was actually recorded as the real reasons in colonial documents. If the author set out to smear the image of Mai Agudum, he should be reminded that some modern day traditional rulers in the area are also drunkards. This indication has also been given by a Hausa singer Al Kanawy in one of his songs. We advise the author not to open a can of worms. The saying goes that those who live in glass houses should not throw stones because of the Hausa saying “kaikayi koma kan mashekiya”. You may be forced to eat your words.

Another blatant lie by the author is the claim that sequel to Mai Agudum’s fierce resistance, Potiskum was recaptured by Fikan army. When Mai Agudum attacked, captured Potiskum and drove away Lawan Sulyman killing 15 of his men and capturing 104 others where was the so called Fikan army? Lawan Sulyman himself narrowly escaped by the grace and assistance of some Ngizim leaders notably Mai Jaji and Ciroma Mahdi who saved him and took him to Fika through Mamudo area otherwise he would not have survived to tell the story. After Agudum held on to Potiskum for almost twenty days, the District Officer in charge of Gujba division Mr J.H.C. Elder (popularly known as Mr Yalla) accompanied by the District Officer Gombe Mr Carlyle (locally called Mr Kalaye) leading a team of 35 police escort arrived Potiskum from Nafada. At the end of the battle with Agudum, superior firepower of the British carried the day and not the imaginary Fika army. See NAK SNP 10 245p 1915 for details.

 Finally, if the in-laws of Fika palace must defend it, let them do it with decorum, fairness and some sense of responsibility to the general public. Anything short of these will only ridicule, embarrass and cast the institution in bad light. If the author is serious on adding value to the history of the area, we recommend he looks at Bolewa aspect of history which shows they are Jukun and bring out findings on his research. For those who decided to take sides on the basis of reading that concoction and distortion called history provided to them, it is hoped that they will be fair enough to spare time to do their research on this, and consider this piece, so to be in a better position to make informed judgements.

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