Death of Isa Muhammed Bawa, King of Gobir: Matters arising
Story by Ayuba Ahmad
At long last, death, the most dreaded tragedy of mankind, visited Alhaji Isa Muhammed Bawa, the Sarkin Gobir. The sad news of his passage filtered out of the den of his captors on Wednesday 19th August 2024.
The cold-blooded murder of the seventy-four-year-old monarch followed thirty-six days of his abduction and incarceration, during which he was subjected to very grueling physical torture and harrowing psychological trauma.
Those who perpetrated the dastardly act, a horde of depraved, godforsaken dregs of humanity have done their worst. The satanic bloodhounds known as bandits have had their fill. The traducers of the martyred Sarkin Gobir have done the very worst men can do to fellow man.
True indeed, all that liveth shall, at the appointed time, taste death. But while reckoning with the reality of death as a natural, inevitable terminal to every human, the particular incident of the death of Alhaji Isa Bawa has left on its trail, several pertinent issues that should be appraised and addressed.
For instance, in the wake of the demise of their royal father, the youths of Isa poured into the streets, making bonfires and torching the homes of certain politicians in protest. Is this not a typical case of medicine after death?
Where were the youths all through the days of his travails in captivity? Why didn’t they pressure their political leaders or representatives to do all that was necessary to ginger up the state government to discharge its salient obligation of safeguarding the lives of citizens, which, in the circumstance, meant taking the appropriate steps to rescue the late monarch?
For close to a decade, the people of Sokoto East senatorial district have been grappling with the plague of banditry. Amazingly, the mass of the populace there has remained complacent, nonchalant, docile, and cowardly. Instead, they have continued to vote for bad representatives who have consistently demonstrated aloofness and insensitivity to their plights.
For refusing to hold their political leaders accountable and for failing to loudly, pragmatically express their grievances in the face of bad governance, the masses of the Gobir nation are not, as such, blameless. They are complicit because there is so much they could have done and can do in crushing banditry and related calamities in their domain.
In the circumstance that culminated in the death of the Sarkin Gobir, the entire present generation of the elite in the ancient and historic kingdom is to be squarely blamed. They failed their people in their hour of need. They turned their backs and took flight when they were critically needed to stand by the people.
READ ALSO:Isa Muhammad Bawa: Travails of a traditional ruler in the den of bandits
Comparatively, Sokoto East has a preponderance of elites more than any of the other two zones. Shame, they don’t seem to be of any use, as far as their larger society is concerned. Lecherous and parasitic, it is a shame on those who ride in the name and on the back of the people to positions of privilege, fame, and opulence.
Where were the members of the state and national legislatures? Where were the members in the league of former and serving ministers, federal and state Permanent Secretaries, the legions of serving and retired very senior military, police, customs, and immigration officers?
The point being made is: why couldn’t the horde of elites from Sokoto East, pull their weight at such a critical moment? Why couldn’t they prevail or, even jacked the state government from its unimaginable state of unpardonable inertia? Why did they not leverage their influence and connections to the powers at the national level when it was becoming obvious that the state government was not there for their people?
The state deputy governor, Idris Muhammad Gobir, aka Dan Chadi, stands out in the shameful and despicable performance of those who are supposed to be the leading lights of the Gobirawa nation and the rest in the Sokoto East senatorial district.
In an earlier publication on the subject, NEPTUNE PRIME had reported the account given by Princess Khadija, daughter of the late monarch on the interaction of the royal family with the deputy governor right from the initial stages to the tragic end of the Royal father. In her words:
“From the very beginning, we, the members of our father’s family, our friends, and several well-wishers, wanted to pull resources together to meet the demands of those holding him captive. As a matter of fact, we could have easily gathered all that his abductors were demanding as ransom.
“But the deputy governor, who we regard and trusted as one of us, repeatedly stopped us from communicating with the captors of our father. He told us on all the occasions that we met him, that the state government was on top of the situation with close and regular contacts with those holding him.
“The deputy governor asked us to be optimistic of an early resolution of the crisis. He also strongly gave us the assurance that His Royal Highness was properly cared for and that even the drugs he was using were supplied to him.”
Alas, the video of His Highness seen on Wednesday, 14th August, was that of a bloodied, fatigued, subdued, disheveled, and whimpering seventy-four man in leg chains and hands tied behind his back. He was a pathetic sight even though, despite his tribulation, a tinge of regality, nobility, and candor was still visible in his mien.
The attitude of the state deputy governor, as narrated by Princess Khadija is unbelievably perplexing. Why was the deputy governor, Idris Muhammad Gobir apparently mischievous by playing pranks on an issue as grave as the abduction of the revered traditional ruler? Was he consciously deceitful by telling the family of His Highness, lies on the fate of their patriarch?
In other words, why, just why, was he giving them the false hope that “the state government was on top of the situation” and that “officials of the government were in regular contact with the bandits”?
According to Princess Khadija, the deputy governor, who incidentally, has ‘Gobir’, as part of his name, had severally assured that the late monarch had been, “well taken care of, he was hale and was receiving all his usual medications” while a captive in the hellish dungeon of the bandits.
As it turned out, the Sarkin Gobir that was seen in that gory video six days before his death was far from someone who was ‘hale,’ ‘well taken care of,’ or one that was receiving a semblance of ‘medications.’
Most certainly, Idris Muhammad Gobir, now the sitting deputy governor of Sokoto state, has a lot of explanations to do. He surely has an intricate web of perplexing puzzles he must unravel, sooner or later. At least, before his constituent.
More than anyone else, it is crystal clear that the real albatross highlighting the guilt of the killing of Sarkin Gobir Isa Bawa hangs heavily on the neck of the Sokoto state government. Ahmed Aliyu’s administration has, no doubt, a great deal of penance or explanations to do to cleanse itself of the blemishes of culpability in the unfortunate saga.
Why the eerie silence all the while that the late royal father was in captivity? Was it true, as the deputy governor was reported to have claimed, that the government was all the way, in close contact with and was in negotiation with the bandits? Why, then, if that were so, did Sarki’s ordeal drag for as long as it did and yet result in his murder? The sum doesn’t seem to be adding up.
Why did it take the state government thirty-six days and global outcry before it decided to advance the 60 Million Naira and five brand new motorcycles, being the ransom demanded by the bandits? Was the government all that time sourcing for the money? We are here talking of a government that recently purchased cars worth billions of Naira for its Commissioners and legislators. In any case, by the time the ransom was finally given, it was a case of giving a life-saving “medicine after the death of the patient”. Sarkin Gobir Isa Bawa had been executed hours earlier.
Not a few will for a long time hence, be dogged by an agonising sense of guilt. Already, Ahmed Aliyu and his team have been thrown into a palpable state of dilemma. This is evident from the fact that not only has neither the governor nor any government officials paid a condolence visit to the bereaved family, not even as little as a statement has so far been issued by the government!
Surprisingly, the government is reported to have sent fifteen truckloads of security personnel on a mission to arrest youths suspected of having engineered the protest over the killing of their royal father. That is like adding insults to injury. Unless there is an intent to stoke dying embers of unrest, this action should be discarded for the rational strategy of fence mending and the healing of frayed nerves.
Besides the political expediency of avoiding antagonizing significant segments of the populace, the real task at hand is that of marshaling all necessary human and material resources towards ridding Sokoto state of the afflictions of insecurity in all ramifications.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in his condolence message, assured that the federal government will do everything it takes to bring the killers of Alhaji Isa Bawa to justice. He also said that his administration will scale up its war against the scourge of insecurity in the northwest and other parts of the country. President Tinubu will clearly, reap bountifully if, he walks his talk.
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