The Middle Belt Forum (MBF) has expressed opposition to the clause in the National Council for Traditional Rulers of Nigeria (Establishment) Bill, 2024, which makes the Sultan of Sokoto a permanent co-chairman.
According to the group, the piece of legislation, currently before the National Assembly, was sponsored by Senator Simon Bako Lalong (Plateau South), and a respected son of the Middle Belt and the Gwad-Goemai of the Goemai ethnic nation, has passed its second reading as of March 2025, and is now under consideration by the Senate Committee on Establishment and Public Service.
In a statement yesterday, issued by the National Spokesman of MBF, Luka Binniyat, the group noted: “At the heart of the controversy lies a deeply troubling clause in the Bill which proposes that the Sultan of Sokoto and the Ooni of Ife be made permanent co-chairmen of the proposed National Council for Traditional Rulers,” adding: “While we leave our esteemed partners from the Southern region, to determine their position on the inclusion of the Ooni of Ife, the Middle Belt Forum unequivocally rejects, abhors, and condemns the institutionalisation of the Sultan of Sokoto as a permanent co-chairman of this proposed council.”
Binniyat explained that “this rejection is anchored on strong historical, cultural, constitutional, and moral grounds, which we now outline in clear terms, because the Sokoto Sultanate is historically junior to Middle Belt monarchies.”
He said: “Historically, the Sokoto Caliphate is a relatively young institution compared to ancient kingdoms and confederacies in the Middle Belt. For instance, the Kwararafa Confederacy, which flourished for centuries, predates the Caliphate. It is a historically documented fact that the confederate state of Kwarafa existed right back to circa 800s-1700s A.D.”
