Thread by @amasonic

What's happening in Billiri is the fruit of seeds planted since British colonial rule with regards to traditional rulerships in the North:
Creating emirates in Christian-majority areas (e.g Uba in Borno, Jema'a in KD) or where there is no clear religious majority (e.g Mubi)

In some places, traditional emirates were expanded to include areas they didn't before (e.g Biu to cover Buraland & Teraland). In places like Billiri, the first Mai until the one before the recently deceased were Muslim despite the area being predominantly Christian

TheJema'a emirate used to cover all of Southern Kaduna until the 1991 Zangon-Kataf crisis that chiefdoms were created for the many ethnic groups in the area as this was a remote cause of the crisis, with decades of resentment built up over a Fulani Muslim emir ruling over them.

Even at that, there are still calls by many in the region to have the emirate scrapped: when the last emir died in 1998, there were protests against the turbaning of a new one. It was not until the next year for the current emir to be turbaned.

This mishandling of traditional rulerships since pre-independence has played out differently in different areas. My Bura people, for example, don't complain about the emir-ship but kudos to occupants of the office for doing their best to be all-inclusive.

But in other places like Billiri & Southern Kaduna before it, a lot of ethnic and/or religious resentment exists. When the last Emir of Uba died some years ago, there were calls by many to have the office changed to Chief of Uba. There is still resentment from decades ago.

It is not until a conflict is violent that it has taken place. The Billiri conflict has actually been happening for decades before it turned violent. Same happened in Zangon-Kataf. Same is happening in some other areas.

At least, small credit to the Brits for resisting the pressure to create an emirate in Jos. Instead, the Gbong Gwom Jos was created. Yet, there are still under-g moves for that emirate to come to be & it continues to be a source of tension in the city.

Another example to put in this thread: the Fika vs Potiskum emirates in Yobe State. Two old emirates with different ethnicities in charge. The British merged it in 1912, it was un-merged in 2000. Both have headquarters in Potiskum town. They still squabble over land & authority.

This last example popped in my head, esp as some mischief makers are bent on misunderstanding my thread as a Christian vs Muslim one rather than imposition of authority on local populations that are not accepted by them, which creates conflicts.

Sorry, separated in 2010, not 2000