Fayemi is our adopted son, says Sultan of Sokoto
By Bakare Abiodun
The Governor of Ekiti State Dr Kayode Fayemi has been described as the “adopted son” of the late Northern leader, Sarduana of Sokoto, Ahmadu Bello.
The Sultan of Sokoto Mohammadu Sa’adu Abubakar said this at the
fifth Anniversary of the Centre for Historical Documentation and Research (Arewa House) held today in Kaduna.
The Sultan said of Fayemi “He’s a son we are proud of in the North. He’s of course the adopted son of our leader and father, Sir Ahmadu Bello. He is going to be given all due love of a son of the soil because he is the adopted son of our father.”
Fayemi who spoke on the topic Unfinished Greatness said the institution was to immortalise the legacies of the great political leader and former Premier of the defunct Northern Nigeria, Sir Ahmadu Bello and to serve as bastion of the collective memory of the people of Northern Nigeria in particular and Nigeria at large.”
He said the History of Northern Nigeria Committee was inaugurated to, among other things, document the history of the “North” adding that a major recommendation of the committee was the establishment of a Centre for Historical Documentation and Research’
Fayemi said “I salute the memory of the great Sir Ahmadu Bello, whose central political philosophy like that of the great American founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson, was that every Nigerian and indeed all human beings re created equal and that they are all endowed by God with rights among which are life, liberty, equal opportunity, blessings and the legitimate pursuit of happiness”
He said throughout the life and career, the late Sarduana of Sokoto he espoused high morality and intellectual virtues in the public sphere- virtues that we would all do well to revisit and pay more attention to these days”
He said his choice of a motto for the North is “Work and Worship$ and in his Christmas message to citizens in 1959 he underscored his deep belief in “unity in diversity_ when he stated that “here in Northern Nigeria we have people of many different races, tribes and religions who are knit together by a common history, common interests and common ideas, the things that unite us are strong er than the things that divide us”
In his speech the Governor of Kaduna State Mallam El Rufai said “Inviting Dr. Fayemi (as the Guest Speaker) is not a coincidence. We never do anything in the north by accident. There is a reason (for inviting Dr. Fayemi) and the reason will be unfolded as the time goes on.”
On restructuring Fayemi said the “in our quest towards a more perfect union therefore, the main challenge is one of recreating the union and the basis of its fundamental national association”
He said “caught in our politics of difference and
otherness, devolution, decentralisation, restructuring and such other concepts have come to mean different things to different people depending on the ethnic and regional toga they wear”