The True Founders of Potiskum
By Mansur Abubakar Sadiq
image by weather-forecast.com
On 22nd November 2017, I was browsing through the Internet when an article captioned THE HISTORY OF POTISKUM captured my attention. The piece was written by one Ahmad S. Gimba and carried by an online paper which goes under the name
Neptune Prime. The Chief Executive Officer and Editor in Chief of the paper is
one Hassan Gimba Ahmed. In view of the Gimba Ahmed family’s marital relationship with the Fika Palace, it is obvious that we have started witnessing an era of
alliance to intensify the distortion of the history of Potiskum which has been going on for a very long time without success. As usual, caution and decorum have been thrown to the wind all in an effort to defend the indefensible. The paper has abandoned its vision of becoming the most authoritative source of information about the North East, its people, culture
etc. A response would not have been necessary but for the fact that some youth who are not conversant with the history of Potiskum seem to be carried away and regard the concoctions as genuine historical facts. Time and space will not allow response to all the issues raised. For that reason, only the most serious distortions and errors will be addressed in this response.
BRITISH POLICY OF RELOCATION OF HEADQUARTERS
In the opening lines of the write-up, the author commits an error of fact. He states that Potiskum doubles as the headquarters of Fika Emirate for over a century and later on tries to show that the British policy of relocation of headquarters was important and many Emirs such as Bade, Katagum
etc were affected by it. The date being quoted even by Fika sources for the relocation of the Emir of Fika from Fika to Potiskum is 1924. Going by this, Potiskum has been the headquarters of the Emir of Fika for less than a century. It is mere speculation to apply the so-called British effective communication or administrative convenience policy to Potiskum as there is no evidence that the Emir of Fika relocated to Potiskum on the orders of the British. As a matter of
fact the Emir of Fika’s
10th anniversary souvenir publication p.6 clearly indicates that at the time of
accession of Alhaji Muhammadu Ibn Idrisa, the administrative
centre of the emirate was Fika but in 1924 the Emir voluntarily moved his court to Potiskum. The claim that the Emirs of Bade and Katagum were affected by such policy is false.
In Bade, the change of headquarters from Gorgoram to Gashua took place before the imposition of colonial rule. Evidence is provided in the account of Heinrich Barth who passed through parts of
present day Yobe State during his expedition to North and Central Africa. On 8th December
1852 Barth wrote that he reached the town of Geshiya (Gashua) and described it as being surrounded by
extensive swamp or swampy
water course affording to the inhabitants a safe retreat in case of attack. He noted that all the towns of the Bedde were situated in a similar position. From his description
therefore, the main factor which influenced the choice of Bade settlements was
defence. It is evident that by 1852 the relocation of Bade headquarters had been effected and Gashua had been in existence as the new headquarters for years. The relocation happened long before the arrival of the British and had nothing to do with the phantom British relocation policy as the author wants us to believe. Similarly, both Katagum and Azare as headquarters of the Emir of Katagum were founded by the family of Malam Ibrahim Zaki. The movement from Katagum to Azare
therefore, did not involve an alien ruling family relocating to a settlement it had no role in founding. So it is a totally different scenario from what obtains in Potiskum where an alien ruling family without legitimacy decided to abandon its traditional and ancestral headquarters at Fika for another group’s ancestral land and expects that its action will go unchallenged.
