Potiskum is not Fika

Oral and Documented Testimony of the Ngizim Community 

By F. Leku
Residents Researcher and Writer
The Typewriter Network

The Nigerian Human Rights Commission held a session in Abuja on 4th November 2020 relating to the colonial era. Members of the Potiskum Emirate Council have long been fighting over suppression within Potiskum and are seeking custodianship of the towns old prison established in 1912. This was built by the colonial regime using their grandparents as the workforces. While still, the community income was extracted in surcharged taxes and incomes sometimes taken in silver from the markets and local products from farmlands the community produced.

Potiskum Old Prison: Establised in 1912

The current Governor of Yobe State has in lieu sought The National Commission for Museum and Monument to look into the case in regards to the Potiskum community appealing for indefinite custody of the old prison and site against Fika Emirate. Due to this factor we therefore, look closely at some of the impacts of colonialism meted to the people of Potiskum (Pataskum) in the turn of 1915 and why the Potiskum Emirate is appealing for this community monument as an access point to educate people, about the importance of learning and looking after their heritage. 

For the sake of clarity, as things stand today, Potiskum town is divided into almost two equal halves- Pataskum Emirate occupying the eastern half and Fika Emirate occupying the western half in which the old prison facility and two other cultural Ngizim are located. Fika still uses Potiskum as a headquarters imposed by repression during the colonial regime; a classic bicultural interplay of the colonialists to use alien communities into another to achieve their aims. The settlement of Fika Headquarter position in Potiskum was however reversed, thereby Fika council location within Potiskum is temporary. Given both towns' geolocation by travelling distance from Potiskum to Fika is approximately 50min drive via google map.

Pataskum was what the town was called before the British colonialists decided to change it to “Potiskum” (as they do in places around the world to obliterate a name and a heritage). This was the strategy of the British colonial administration regime when they were met with resistance as was in Pataskum. 

Pataskum is an important ancestral land of the Ngizim, intermarrying Bade and Beri-Beri communities in which the Maidom was handed down from Mai Bundi to Mai Agudum in 1909 on the request of the colonial administrator W. P Hewby who thought the acting Mai Bundi was too old to engage. However, due to some resistance by the people of Potiskum against the administrator. In 1913 the colonials exerted their prerogative to have total control which meant castration of Mai Agudum from ruling in order to change the structure of the community and statute.

“Pataskum was what the town was called before the British colonialists decided to change it to “Potiskum” ”.

It is important to state this historical note since this led to an uprising in Pataskum. An act of resistance in 1915 within the Ngizim community led by Mai Agudum. After holding the town for many days in resistance as they gradually fell to the fire power of the administrator. The leaders of the community were sentenced to death. It was reported that around 66 community leaders or more were innocently executed. This mass murder was nothing short of genocide attempt to subdue the community. Younger families, and women however did suffer in their silence, but the suppression in later years led to the education of their families becoming difficult including finding peace within Pataskum.

Fika and its Members

More unfair treatments had not ceased since the colonialists brought in a different tribal body from Fika into Pataskum. This is purely to “keep the watch” for tax collection purposes. But the aforementioned had other intentions which consequently led to the current situation in Pataskum town. This meagre change in the rulings of Pataskum continued up to 1957: as the heralds of Nigerian Independence was emerging in years towards handing over administration in 1960 - a strategic renaming of the Potiskum town which had been rumoured became finally known, that is, Pataskum town was to be renamed Fika.

Not too surprising as it was well known by then that some Fika elements were already serving in the regional colonial administration in Kaduna and had affected the situation in Pataskum. This suggestion however became alarming to the indigenous communities which includes Ngizim, Bade, and Beri-Beri whose heritage built and developed the areas and surrounding towns towards Gashua. The attraction of Pataskum is by far its location and the popular towns market sitting between Borno and Kano city routes.

Therefore the renaming of the town by Fika elements may have just been in theory but it continues to have profound consequences on developments, one of which also infringe on leadership and community concerns of keeping the peace. Most people across Nigeria who do not know the historical background of Potiskum and its location may be easily tricked into thinking Potiksum and Fika are just a few miles apart.

“Most people ....who do not know the historical background of Potiskum and its location may be easily tricked into thinking Potiksum and Fika are just a few miles apart”.

Since Pataskum is not Fika because of heritage and geographical location. For the sake of understanding some sinister events posed by members of one council acting on behalf of the other, Fika had for some years enjoyed a lot of advantages and for many years took credits provided to the Local Government while delegating on accounts of local developments with both the State and Federal Government of Nigeria. No wonder then, these circumstances halted development in Potiskum for many years, unlike the progressive attainment in neighbouring states such as Gombe and in closer comparison, Damaturu.

While patients of the Ngizim community seem uncritical of the Nigerian Government for its slow response because it lacks regional historical records before the colonial institution sets in. The local communities who are concerned and who still know of their heritage are far from abandoning it and must therefore be involved in consultations as stakeholders.

What had made this matters difficult, given the positions of some Fika group members holding civil service jobs within the colonial office and thereafter were automatically acting within the Federal Government at later years. Some of the members have involved masking local heritage by distorting Pataskum history in the local schools and further damaging the towns local narratives from within their civil service positions. Their actions continue to have profound consequences to the local people of Pataskum as well as the town’s developments. Such syndicates need to be brought up to question and such persons need to be challenged and further investigated.

“These circumstances halted development in Potiskum for many years, unlike the progressive attainment in ....Gombe and in closer comparison, Damaturu”.

From within the indigenous Pataskum communities today are 3rd - 5th generations of families within Potiskum that were affected by the 1915 executions of their direct families. Some of whom had to migrate to seek refuge in other parts of Nigeria due to the institutional tribalism they faced in Potiskum. Both during and after the colonial administration ended in 1960.

Many families moved to other parts of Nigeria in order to find better jobs and educate their families. A very example being the current Emir of Potiskum, Mai Alhaji Umaru Bubaram Ibn Wuriwa Bauya, who on taking kind advice from his primary school teacher-trainer (a tribal man from a different region) was able to excel through the educational establishment; his teacher at the elementary school had realised the aggressive tribalism in schools from within the system and approached the young Mai Bubaram to adopt a new name for the benefit of the registry, that could conceal his identity. The young Mai went home and related this to his guardian who opted his birth name Alambazam Ibn Wuriwa Bauya to Umaru Bubaram.

Umaru Bubaram, a resemblance name for Hausa-Fulani identity kept the young Mai to continue through Primary school and then Secondary level and onwards. 

Potiskum is not a merger with Fika

For the sake of clarity again, Potiskum is not a merger with Fika. Travellers, tourists, and settlers today in Potiskum and across Nigeria do question why Fika Emir settles in Potiskum as they are concerned about the peace.

There are many factors to look at in which cultural heritage, history, geography and States established district locality (LGA) and regional communities set Potiskum apart from Fika:

Districts and Local Government Areas (LGA): 

In regards to districts or Local Government Areas (LGA) of Potiskum and Fika are different. Governor Bukar Abba Ibrahim of Yobe State did his best to correct this through his adminstration by realising some negligent factors and wrongdoings and by acknowledging the existence of the Pataskum Maidom.  

The Maidom of the Potiskum Emirate was commemorated again in 1993 to redress important principles. A re-establishment recognising Potiskum as a separate district to Fika. Therefore Potiskum is a Local Government with separate districts and villages from that of Fika Local Government areas. However, the Yobe Government intervening on many factors and malpractice headed in by the Fika members, still needs to paced-up effort to do justice to the Ngizim communities. 

It is evident the ruling seat of Fika is still empty within its ancestral land. The ruling seat of Fika has yet to relocate to its ancestral base in Fika; this was part of the resolution by Yobe State Government while restoring Pataskum Emirate and it is yet to be implemented to ensure a sustainable long term peaceful resolution.

Historical: 

Tribal rules and historical notes from Kanem Borno and Arabian travel communities across the Sahel during the striving Sub-Saharan trades by in large - have confirmed and witnessed the existence of the Pataskum community. Before the British Colonist moved out of India to move inland into places in Africa under the guises of exploration/expeditions - Pataskum was by then independent of its surrounding territories such as Zaria, Kano, Hadejia to the West and Bauchi, Gombe to the South. The leaders of the Ngizim Maidom were also pushing against the Fulani combatants like Buba Yero. 

Pataskum was also building good relations with other areas on trades - Sub-Saharan trades gateway from Kanem Borno, Gashua route can reach well into the Sahara across Niger towards Fez or across Chad into Sudan and Egypt. The reality from many findings tells us Potiskum is not Fika. 

“The reality from many findings tells us Potiskum is not Fika”.

Geo Location:

Travel distance is around 57 km from Potiskum to Fika. Nearly 50 min to 1hr drive by car.
Potiskum (11°43′N 11°04′E)
Fika (11°17′00’N 11°18′29’E)

The harsh realities of the above inability or rather failure to implement a good decision by governments for many years had resulted in continual disruption of the peace within Potiskum. Causing disharmony amongst other groups who are witnesses to the attempts made to distort history will one day have their say to relate their experiences, as people they say are eye witness to history. 

The factors enacted to rename Potiskum town as Fika simply did not add up or makes sense even to the non-indigene settlers currently in Potiskum, thereby neither will it make sense to anyone in other parts of the country who are looking in and trying to figure out a simple question: Why is the Fika Emir not settling within Fika district?.... A simple question indeed.

The Potiskum Emirate believes it is high time in civil society the Nigerian Federal and State Government reassert to relocate Fika Emirate into her rightful indigenous location within the Fika region. This decision will go a long way in bringing sustainable peace and the protection of cultural heritage among the diverse settlers of Pataskum. 

UNESCO states in its current Sustainable Development Goals to involve local stakeholders: 

“The 2030 Agenda adopted by the UN General Assembly integrates, for the first time, the role of culture, through cultural heritage and creativity, as an enabler of sustainable development across the Sustainable Development Goal”.

 We believe heritage as part of sustainable development. It remains crucial and important for society's potential to contribute to social, economic and environmental goals.

It is within the capacity of the Potiskum Emirate to ensure peace in Potiskum town and its surrounding local government areas. They are appealing to the Federal Government of Nigeria to pay heed to this issue and in doing so will lead to better reconciliation given the peaceful nature of their community.