…Accuses Senate of historical distortion, threatens boycott if clause is passed
The Middle Belt Forum has rejected a clause in the National Council for Traditional Rulers of Nigeria (Establishment) Bill, 2024, that seeks to permanently assign the Sultan of Sokoto and the Ooni of Ife as co-chairmen of the proposed national council.
The Forum described the proposal as a distortion of Nigeria’s historical heritage, a slight on indigenous dignity and a measure that could worsen ethnic divisions.
Sponsored by Senator Simon Bako Lalong, a son of the Middle Belt and Gwad-Goemai of the Goemai ethnic group, the bill has passed its second reading in the Senate and is currently under consideration by the Committee on Establishment and Public Service.
In a statement signed by Mr Luka Binniyat, National Publicity Secretary of the Forum, the group rejected what it called “the institutionalisation of the Sultan of Sokoto as permanent co-chairman” of the Council.
The Forum argued that the Sokoto Caliphate, being relatively young, cannot take precedence over older monarchies in the Middle Belt. It stressed that “the Kwararafa Confederacy, represented today by the Aku Uka of Wukari, predates the Caliphate by centuries,” maintaining that any framework that elevates the Sultan above such ancient institutions is “historically and morally flawed.”
It also pointed to other influential Middle Belt monarchs such as the Attah of Igala, Tor Tiv and Etsu Nupe, whose kingdoms either predated or resisted domination by the Sokoto Caliphate, insisting that none of them should be compelled to defer to the Sultan in any official arrangement.
According to the Forum, “the Sultan is widely recognised as a religious leader of Nigerian Muslims, not a secular monarch,” and therefore should not occupy a position of political or traditional dominance over culturally distinct and autonomous institutions.
The statement warned that if the Senate retains the clause and President Bola Tinubu signs the bill into law, the Forum will mobilise traditional institutions across the region to boycott the council. It stressed that “traditional rulers of the Middle Belt will neither recognise nor attend any council permanently skewed in favour of a non-indigenous, religiously aligned monarch.”
As an alternative, the Forum recommended that the chairmanship of the council rotate among geo-political zones or ethnic blocs, or be filled through democratic election by traditional rulers themselves.
“This is the only path to equity, dignity and genuine national unity,” the statement concluded.
