Inside Sokoto community of scholars
The seat of the Waziri has also changed with time. And as you know, all the Waziris were educated. The current Waziri is computer literate; he uses mobile phones. He doesn’t have problem with that. People have changed, people also change to catch up with modern trends
Arabic and some Nigerian languages - Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba, a situation where we can develop an operation system that can work, operate with these five languages. This will be on computer.
“With regard to the phone, we started work, a project related to my family. When I look at the historical equipment we have there in the house, in the Wazirin Junaidu history and culture bureau, some of them have been misplaced. So, I want to see a situation where we can transform them into a soft copy. I have designed a website you can browse through the website, search anything you wish to search with regard to the family.”
History bureau
Sokoto’s History and Culture Bureau is named after Wazirin Junaidu, an illustrious descendant of Wazirin Gidado. He learnt Fulfulde while in his 40s and committed to memory, all the works of the Fodios. In his lifetime he was regarded as the greatest living authority on the Sokoto Caliphate.
One source writes, “In spite of the fact that he lost his sight during his latter years, he could verify the etymology and reliability of a text by merely hearing it recited to him.’
Caliphal system whittled down
The position of the Waziri has changed over the years. M.I Junaid said, “The whole caliphal system has been whittled down by colonialism, new system of government introduced by the colonial masters. Although they relied heavily on the structures of the caliphal system, at the same time they gradually withdrew all the powers, the mandate from the caliphal system to the new system.
“Yes, the office of the Waziri has, of course, been whittled down, in terms of power, mandate and so on. But he is still there as the chief adviser of the Sultan. In those days, even under colonial times, the office of the Waziri was equivalent to an emir, the status was equivalent to a first class emir.
“The seat of the Waziri has also changed with time. And as you know, all the Waziris were educated. The current Waziri is computer literate; he uses mobile phones. He doesn’t have problem with that. People have changed, people also change to catch up with modern trends.
The Waziri of today is quite different from Waziris of 50 years ago, in terms of how they do things, what they use for writing and communication.”
Waziri like Prime Minister
Shedding light on the position of the Waziri, Prof Abdullahi Yahaya said, “We need to take into cognisance the fact that the role of the Waziri has significantly changed after the British conquest of the caliphate. Before now, the Waziri was like a prime minister, he was a very powerful person. Sometimes the Waziri would go to some of these emirates to install new sultans.”
Yan Taru
Nana Asmau established a group known as Yan Taru. Prof Abdullahi Yahaya elaborated on this, saying, “She established a system we call Yan Taru, a university system where she trained females that were always disadvantaged in terms of knowledge. They come from all the nooks and crannies of the caliphate. She trained them on Islamic knowledge, with the hope that they would go back to their respective places and disseminate the information. This had really helped in enlightening the people.”
Dr Usman Abdulqadir of the Department of Sociology, UDUS, also spoke on Yan Taru, saying, ‘They usually come to Sokoto to learn from Nana Asmau and so on, go back to Gwandu, Shagari, Bauchi, Adamawa etc. From Nana Asmau down to the 20th century, there are female scholars that continued from where Nana stopped.”
Rise of Gidadawa
Descendants of Wazirin Gidado have risen highly, not only in Sokoto but also nationally.
On this, Prof Abdulkadir Junaidu said, “I can boldly say that there’s hardly any house where you won’t find a graduate in Gidadawa, and in different fields. There is no field that you cannot find somebody from that community specialising in. We have lots of academicians - professors, PhD holders, and some technocrats.
“The current secretary to the government of Sokoto State is from Gidadawa, the current Head of Service is also from that
community. We have three to four permanent secretaries from the community. Initially, three of us were commissioners, now we are two. We have former federal permanent secretaries, former ministers, permanent secretaries in the state service. This can be attributed to hard work and dedication and scholarship.”
Growing up
Many Gidadawa have exciting memories of growing up in the famous community. Dr Usman Abdulqadir, one of such people said, “In Gidadawa, hardly will you find somebody who will sit you down and counsel you on education. Right from the beginning you will see what we call anticipatory socialisation. Right from when you are growing up, your father, your senior brothers, all are in that line. It is inbuilt in you, so you don’t have anything apart from this pursuit of the
intellectual, whether traditional, Islamic or western.
“Up till now, the beautiful thing is that we still maintain that culture of learning and scholarship; and the environment has helped a lot. If you go to college of education or polytecnic you find Gidadawa. Even in the administrative unit, Gidadawa people are coming up”’
Hussaini Malami of the Department of Economics, UDUS, also made a point about the community, saying, “Gidadawa has a long standing tradition in Islamic education. One of the main traditions there is that as soon as a child can walk outside the family house, the first thing they do is to introduce him to Quranic school.
On early days in Gidadawa, Professor Junaidu said, “The moment you open your eyes, it is book. That’s why at the age of two or three you are taken to an Islamic
school. It can remodel and keep you prepared for the future. Once you have that background and you are going to the Islamic school, and you are attending the modern school concurrently. You are being educated both ways, and that will widen your mind into knowing so many things at a tender age and facing the challenges.”
Khadijah Junaidu’s parents hail from Gidadawa and both are professors. She is a poet and expresses themes and ideas which Nana Asmau - herself a famous poet - would have been proud of. Some of the younger generations in Gidadawa have expressed interest in IT, as well as becoming pilots. Others have manifested a stunning brilliance in a diversity of fields, even at a very young age. There is so much knowledge, promise and multidimensional talent in the quiet part of Sokoto, named Gidadawa.