By:Rasheed Ojikutu

THE Emir of Katsina, Alhaji Abdulmumini Kabir Usman, has stirred political debate during the outgoing week, with his reported open criticism of All Progressives Congress (APC) delegates visiting his palace to seek support for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s re-election campaign ahead of Nigeria’s 2027 general election.. One thought that a more acceptable approach would have been a refusal to receive the delegates in his palace.

This is not to say that he doesnt have the right to criticise politicians. No, it is his constitutional right, moreso, that he is a recred leader but the question is “ Does he possess the credentials to criticise President Bola Tinubu’s administration judging by his antecedent on the same subject in the past?”. This is the crux of the matter.

The first question is “What did the Emir say about insecurity when Muhammadu Buhari was President?” In a report published by The Sun on 7 August 2016, this same Emir addressed an audience at the launch of a book titled Limamin Kano Muhammadu Zaharaddeen Dynasty. According to The Sun, the Emir urged Northerners to stop criticising Buhari’s administration on the grounds that the damage allegedly caused by 16 years of previous governments could not be repaired overnight.

He was quoted to have said:“President Muhammadu Buhari is trying his best to rectify the situation and we must support and encourage him.”. He went further to say “During this trying period, we as northerners are expected to support and encourage President Buhari and his team instead of joining others to criticize them.”.

The significance of these words to his present position cannot be ignored because of the suspected bias. Today, when the Emir challenges politicians over insecurity and unfulfilled promises, Nigerians are entitled to recall that, in2016, he urged Northerners to support Buhari rather than join others in criticising him.

The issue is not that the Emir must never change his position. It is whether the principles guiding his interventions have remained consistent.
Although, The NEWS on May 7, 2019 reported that , the Emir made a subtle appeal to President Buhari when the Minister of Agriculture, Audu Ogbeh, and the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, visited his palace ahead of an agricultural programme when he was quoted to have said “Hon Minister, tell the president that we have to take very good care of our people, security first. All these programmes, as good as they are, cannot be without security. Security is first and fundamental.” However, his subsequent reaction to the controversy involving Professor Sani Abubakar Lugga betrayed this genuine patriotic intention.
In February 2022, while Buhari was still President, Professor Sani Abubakar Lugga, the then Waziri of Katsina, became embroiled in a controversy over his public comments on insecurity.

Lugga participated in a strategic management retreat organised by the Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution in Ilorin, Kwara State, on 14 and 15 February 2022. A report published by The Sun on 25 February 2022 said Lugga had spoken about deteriorating security and the relocation of village heads from vulnerable communities to safer areas.
According to Lugga’s own published account, the Katsina Emirate Council subsequently issued him a written query dated 21 February 2022. Note that he has been Waziri for 22 years.
Lugga maintained that he had spoken as an academic at a professional forum, rather than as an official spokesperson for the emirate. His account also challenged the procedure through which the query was issued. These are claims made by Lugga in his published explanation and should be understood in that context.

The dispute culminated in his resignation.
On 2 March 2022, The PUNCH reported that the Katsina Emirate Council had accepted Lugga’s resignation as Waziri. The resignation took effect on 28 February 2022, according to a letter signed by the council’s secretary.The report stated that the resignation followed a query issued over Lugga’s comments on insecurity at the Ilorin seminar. This sequence of events should be examined along the position of the Emir on the October 22, 2026 delegates of the APC to his palace.. Another comment by the Emir during the October 22, 2026 visit of the APC delegation is “If you go to Kaduna, where is the Peugeot Automobile company? They have all collapsed. Why? And yet we remain silent. Where are the elders? We have to speak up.”

Speak up over what and at what time? . The fortune of the company started dwindling during the time of General Ibrahim Babangida (1985–1993). Peugeot’s difficulties intensified during a period of economic restructuring and mounting pressures on Nigerian manufacturing. This continued during the tenure of President Olusegun Obasanjo (1999–2007) and finally collapsed during the tenure of President Muhammadu Buhari (2015–2023): Buhari inherited an automobile industry that had already experienced decades of decline. Where was the Emir of Katsina during these periods?

The Emir’s question raises an important economic issue, but the historical timeline matters. Peugeot’s decline began long before Bola Tinubu became President in 2023.
Consequently, if the Emir’s reference was to the original decline of Peugeot Automobile Nigeria, it would be historically inaccurate to attribute the beginning of that decline solely to President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
These questions provide more basis for critical examination of the Emir’s intention because Nigeria’s traditional institutions occupy a distinctive place in public life.This is because moral authority is strengthened by consistency.
It is also historically incorrect to completely blame the farmers’ problems in Katsina on Buhari or Tinubu. These two administrations inherited an existing security crisis.

According to the European Union Agency for Asylum’s October 2021 assessment, violence in Katsina was associated with cattle rustling, competition over land and resources, and attacks by armed groups. The assessment noted that insecurity spread from 2015 and that kidnapping and hostage-taking became particularly serious from July 2018 and that formed the basis of the message the Emir sent through Minister Audu Ogbe to Buhari in 2019.

Consequently, if the Emir is asking the present Federal Government to account for insecurity, that is a legitimate public concern. But an assessment of the problem should consider the record of successive governments rather than attributing the entire crisis to one administration.he most defensible historical answer is that Katsina’s farmers faced longstanding land and resource disputes, while the modern banditry crisis began emerging around 2010, became particularly deadly by 2013–2014, and escalated again from July 2018.

The crisis, therefore, began before Buhari’s presidency but became a major national security problem during his administration.
Judging by the above, the Emir of Katsina has not done well to have in Yoruba words “ Fa ori apa kan da apa kan si” literaly means “ he should be consistent in his aportioning blame”.
• Rasheed Ojikutu is a Professor of Statistics (rtd), University of Lagos.