Date Published: 03/17/11

Tribute to: Late lamido Adamawa,Dr Aliyu Mustapha

An open letter to late lamido Adamawa Dr Aliyu Mustapha

BY:  Mallam  Muhammadu Baba Yola –babayolamuhammadu@yahoo.com

No, 06 Lamido Sanda Road,Yola Town

Dear lamido Adamawa, Dr Aliyu Mustapha-of blessed memory,

Your highness, I write to you not only to  disturb you oftentimes in the Land of the dead by my letters in which I informs you of the state of our dear emirate and nation as if such news is of any value to you when you are faced with a new set of problems. Those problems that each of us will face when we shall account to Allah for our works here on earth, but also to commiserate with the people of Adamawa on your one year remembrance, how time flies!

In facts, your demise is still fresh in our memory and has created a vacuum which could be easily filled in the sand of time, hence I write to intimate you on the rapid developments been recorded in your absentia.

Your highness, while you reign for more than 50 years, there were no  restrictions and reservations of coronations turban of titles, as even people with questionable background could be  turbaned while title from local head were stripped. I can vividly recall that within a year you have turbaned no fewer than dozens.

I read about the stripping of your brother in a northern axis newspaper and like other lovers, I wanted to blame Journalists for all the woes your family faces and no wonder while you depart us, this newspaper was said to have been dragged to court for defamation in a one billion naira suit.

As it appeared on page four, New Nigerian newspaper published on Thursday, February 3,2011,the paper was accused of publishing a malicious and libelous advertorial against your successor. Though, the appellant was given right of reply, the newspaper in question in their usual character refused to apologise.

After you left us, the recurrence court cases we used to hear between you and your subjects and biological brothers are no more heard!

As it is now official that you plundered the emirate and tricked people to believe that your aim was to serve our great emirate to greater heights, I note that in death your capacity for trickery is not extinguished. Look at how you have made a fool of your most ardent and vociferous admirers making them lost in their own sense of being.

Oga Lamido, Magajin Baba has destroyed your father’s name and you know that in our country the values associated to a family name is more precious than Silver, diamond or Gold.

Allah Renne,if not because I do not want to continued disturbing your grave peace, aside from how tarnished your memory and the family name has become, I could have  deliberate on four areas your dictatorial rule affect and how these areas directly impact on all of us, I may find another time.

Oga lamido Hajiya Indo one of your wives is collecting NCWS pension payments and gratuities due to you from the Nigerian State. If your benefits are paid to your widow, Hajiya Indo, then that amounts to effrontery and robbing your colleagues of the money she does not need and is dire to their existence.

The payment and collection of these pecuniary benefits may result in an unfavourable reaction to Hajiya Indo.

My dear beloved late lamido, when next you appear to your lieutenants, please instruct them to ask Hajiya Indo to return the benefits paid to your widow and family by remaining in her royal house wife statue.

As one  Mr Okey Ndibe  said, that with the death on March 13 of your highness, the 11th Lamido of Adamawa, Nigeria strike him as a slightly dimmer space. This is because we are touched in a deeply personal way. In a nutshell, we will ever treasure the colossus that was Alhaji Aliyu Musdafa who died a month to his 88th birthday. His legacy is rare, and will endure.

Therefore on behalf of other concern subjects of yours, everybody owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to this unusual traditional and religious leader. For us, his memory will remain a richly treasured and profoundly admirable one.

Allah Jikan Baba lamido, until our time come as each of us will one day face death.

Mallam  Muhammadu Baba Yola –babayolamuhammadu@yahoo.com

No, 06 Lamido Sanda Road,Yola Town,Yola South LGA,Adamawa state.