The Emir of Suleja, Alhaji Awal Ibrahim is no doubt one of the most respected Emirs in Niger State. The fact that he commands respect does not come as a surprise for those who have been following the trend of events in the state.
Awal is one of the few royal fathers who had stint in politics and gracefully turned to a statesman, then a royal father. He was the first executive governor of Niger State, thus he is not a stranger to governance.
The Emir is vast in both religious and western education, in fact he was a lecturer in the 70s when education and those in the sector commanded a lot of respect.
However, his reputation has faced a lot of challenges following incessant bomb blasts within his domain. The last bomb blast at St. Theresa Catholic Church, Madalla brought the Emir to be a man in the news for allegedly not showing enough sympathy for the victims of Christmas day bombing.
The traditional ruler of Suleja, a suburb of Abuja became the first victim of circumstance of the Madalla as the Niger state government episode sets to get to the root of the series of bomb blasts that rocked his emirate in the last eight months.
No fewer than four bomb blasts took place in the emirate within the period, the latest being the Madalla blast on Christmas day which left over 43 people dead, 80 injured,36 houses and the church destroyed in addition to the destruction of several vehicles.
Coming on the heels of this on New Year’s day, the Niger state government issued the Emir of Suleja a query over his alleged lack of show of sympathy for the victims of the bomb blast which occurred in his area one week before.
According to the Commissioner for Justice, Abdullahi Bawa Wuse who stood in for the Commissioner for Local Government, Alhaji Garba Tagwai while briefing journalists after the state executive council meeting, the government had found out that despite the retinue of people that visited the victims and the bomb blast site from across the country to show sympathy with the victims, the traditional ruler neither sent words to them nor visited the area.
As a result , the commissioner said the government felt the action of the monarch was unbecoming of a person of high standing in the society and therefore issued him a query to explain within 24 hours why actions should not be taken against him for such behaviour.
“Government in the state has discovered lapses on the part of the Emir of Suleja and has therefore issued him with a query”, he told journalists.
He, however, said then that the traditional ruler replied the query within the stipulated period and “the government is looking into it”.
The Niger state governor, Dr. Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu also disclosed that when he was about about to visit the site of the bomb blast, all Emirs were adequately informed and the Emir of Minna as well as that of Lapai joined him to commensurate with the victims but the Emir of Suleja stayed away.
Aliyu disclosed further that when President Goodluck Jonathan was to visit Madalla, he waited in the town for over four hours before the arrival of the president, but the Emir of Suleja for the second time failed to show up.
The governor said that he was taken aback with the comment of the president when he alluded to the fact that, bomb blasts could not be taking place continuously in the same Suleja without the knowledge of the community leaders.
He said this comment gave him the impression that the Emir any church, hence he? be ordered that the queried. He, however, added that after the query the Emir became remorseful.
In his reaction to allegation levelled against him, the Emir apologised while stating that the first day the incident happened he was to visit the area but the security report advised otherwise.
The embattled monarch started this? when he accompanied the commissioner of local government, Alhaji Tagwai to Madalla to distribute materials and money to the victims.
While saying that he has sympathy for the victims and their families, Awal said that he was not happy that the bomb blasts took place in his domain.
“We believe in the will of God, nothing is hidden from God, the visit on us by this tragedy is more than what I can understand; I pray to God for protection against evil and evil people,” he said.
According to him, “God is just, it is not my own choice to say what I want or not, I pray that God should forgive me if it is out of my sins that this tragedy is happening in my area, I will stand by God Almighty to account on your behalf, I fear the day of reckoning”.