NUMERICAL DISTORTION OF THE AKURMI NATION by Usho Y. Adawa (GUEST COLUMNIST)

Abstract

This paper is set out to highlight the systematic obliteration of the numerical strength of the Akurmi race and to redress certain generalization about its population.

The paper x-ray some of the misrepresentations the Akurmi are subjected to from Nigeria’s pre-political independence to the last population census statistics. Settlement patterns of the Akurmi are used as ground for the claims of misrepresentation of the actual population indices of the Akurmi race. The paper concludes by questioning the hegemonic and political low placement of the population of the Akurmi.

Introduction

It is no gain saying that the Akurmi people had been repeatedly misrepresented in the historical placement of northern Nigeria. The claims of its origin by certain quotas and its subsequent attribution to the middle east (Yemen), as well as its migration pattern through Maiduguri, Kano and to its present settlement in the hills and plains of Kudaru mountains-formation is calculated at linking, aligning and subsuming its origin under the officious origin of the Hausa’s. By no linguistic tracing is Tikurmi affiliated with Arabic as in the case of Yemen, Kanuri as in the case of Maiduguri, or Hausa in the case of Kano. While Hausa is classified under the Chadic: West sub-branch A, Kanuri is placed under the Nilo-Sahara language tree and the Akurmi is clearly classified under Benue-Congo (Eastern-Kainji) language (Crozier and Blench 1992).

The historical distortions of relating Akurmi with any of the aforementioned is not only an aberration but a conscientious effort to undermine genealogical fact about the root of the Tikurmi as a language and Akurmi as a race. Such attempt is also targeted at twisting history in favor of certain interests. Evidence abound there was contact between Akurmi people and the Hausa people, need not mention historical relics at Tudun Wada Dankadai, Kantin Kwari area, Doguwa and some parts of present day Kano state. Little is needed to state here that while on the hills and plains of Kudaru, there was and still is, contact between the Akurmi and the people of Zazzau emirate, as well as Ningi kingdom of present day Bauchi state. All these are inerasable facts that do not consist of linguistic affiliation.

It is worth reiterating here that this paper is primarily concern with construing historical aberrations. The extent to which this is here achieved will determine the onus of futuristic references to be extracted by posterity hence this paper will have to assume a pragmatic approach in its projection. The Akurmi nation has suffered ages of misrepresentation at different quotas starting from the pre-colonial emirate hegemony, sociological straight-jacking, linguistic underestimation and inaccurate census statistics. While some of the enumerated aspect could be excused as genuine flaws, a large number of this misrepresentation cannot however be exonerated.

As a matter of emphasis, Zazzau emirate has been unfair to the Akurmi as a people. Having conceded to the Peace Accord between the Zazzau emirate and the Akurmi people at the heat of the jihad under the rulership of Mallam Yunusa (1821-34), the power that be as of that time violated the accord and worked assiduously towards stripping the Akurmi of their dignity and their right to choose what interest to pursue. The subsequent counter reaction by B’gwamma Maigamo the Akurmi ruler of Lahadin-Maigamo and his mighty army (Nengel: 2012), was only an assertion of the potency of violence to beget itself.

Furthermore, the Akurmi people as of then (1800-1900s) had already evolved a distinct administrative structure. The Haru-Kura (Heads of Households), Haru-Ungwa (Village Heads), Agwama (Chiefs) that is B’gwan Akurmi and B’gwam Uchimtu who where socio-political and religious leaders respectively. However, on creation of an office (Iyan Kurama) that ought to have given the Akurmi people a status of recognition by the colonial authority, the Zazzau emirate thwarted it and a Hausa/Falani was appointed to administer a people whom he knew nothing about their social structure or religious beliefs (Ndochi: 2008). From the aforementioned, we can begin to trace the roots of the numerical distortion of the Akurmi people from the Hausa/Fulani emirate of Zazzau.

By the colonial record (Zazzau Gazetter: 1911), the population of Moro’a was 539, Kagoro 2,130, Jaba 4,686, Chawai 6,200 while the population of the Akurmi (Kurama) was put at 10,491. From these indices, it was obvious that the Akurmi was the single largest ethnic group in the whole of Southern Zaria area. Hypothetically, even if the population of the Akurmi was growing at a snail pace of 10% per census duration, after a period of hundred years (1911-2011) this same population should be running in hundreds of thousands. Erroneously however, the Akurmi population was estimated by the northern regional administration at 11,300 speakers as of 1049 (www.joshuaproject.net/people-profile).

Simple rational thinking should dictate that a normal population should in thirty years grow by just a mere figure of eight hundred, as this instance was claiming. Similar  error was made by the Federal Office of Statistics (FOC) quoted by Adegbiti Adebusanyo in a doctorial thesis (2008) where the population of the Akurmi speakers was put at 40,300 (www.unilorin.edu.ng) the question still suffice, how can a population of 10,491 as of 1911 only grow by just 29,809 in about a hundred years of none war, none famine? All of these were calculatedly done to underestimate the numerical status of the Akurmi for the benefit of certain interests.

The settlement spread of the Akurmi people stretched from Kubau, Kauru, and Lere in Kaduna state, to Doguwa in Kano state, Bassa in Plateau state and parts of Bauchi state. By settlement concentration in Kubau LGA that can go for nothing less than three ungranted districts (P.M Bonnet: 2010). SIMILAR CONCENTRATION CAN BE FOUND IN Doguwa LGA in Kano state and a reasonable concentration around Tidere area of Bassa LGA I Plateau state. To ensure that the Akurmi population is made invincible, instead of merging all the settlements under one single umbrella – the Akurmi kingdom, the population is Balkanized into small districts spread across many chiefdoms. For instance, Karku is a district under Kumana chiefdom, Tidere is under Pingina chiefdom in Plateau state, Garun Kurama, Luwuna and Gurza districts are under Piriga chiefdom, and Abadawa district under Saminaka (Hausa/Fulani) chiefdom. Only the remaining districts: Bissallah, Ukissa, Wuroko, Kakun Kurama, Goron Dutse, Kudaru and Maigamo are under the Kurama chiefdom.

The political development of the post independence era especially from the second republic clearly indicate the numeric advantage of the Akurmi in the political sphere of the then Saminaka Local Government, and Kaduna state at large. The emergence of a Gure man as the speaker of Kaduna State House of Assembly was not by chance, it was due to the grass root support of the Akurmi and subsequently the emergence of a Hausa/Fulani from Lere as the Governor of Kaduna state under I.B.B administration further attest to the support the Akurmi people had over the years accorded their neighbors not to mention the politics at the Local government level. If the Akurmi were to be self-centered in their out look to politics none of the aforementioned figure could have even scale through the elementary elections to clench the ticket to represent whatever political party they contested under.

Similarly, the political injustice of under delineating wards and polling units in particularly the Akurmi dominated areas of Maigamo district, Kudaru district, Bissallah district, down to Ukissa district into one ward, is a conspicuous attempt of undermining the numerical detail of the Akurmi population.

The most unfortunate is the erroneous postulation of some scholars that ought to be the custodians of facts based on verifiable evidence, who for laxity in conducting their research end up giving wrong information to especially the uninformed and particularly detractors. A typical case in focus is the research work of Dr. Adegbite Adebusayo which placed the total population of the Akurmi as of 2008 at 40, 300 speakers only (www.unilorin.edu.ng), so also the Joshua Project which gave a misleading statistics of Akurmi speakers at about 10,000 people only (www.joshuaproject.net/people-profile). How can a language that has been in existence for over 3000 years and has a wide population spread across three states and five local governments with over one hundred settlements be reduced to a mere speaking population of 40,300 speakers? This is a gross misrepresentation of the Akurmi’s population.

This fact twisting enterprise if not checkmated will continue to pull back the socio-political development of the Akurmi nation as a whole. Paul M. Bonnet in his book Chiefdoms, Emirates in Southern Kaduna show that the Akurmi’s non-formal institution existed for more than 1350AD (P.M. Bonnet). The CNN iReport on the archeological findings in the Kudaru mountain dated the Akurmi artifact (Upanga Akurmi) to about 700 years old (www.cnnnews.vivasoft.hu/the-news: 29/2/2012) also Dr. Uwe Seibert in his treatise: Nigeria languages Ordered by size (www.uniowa.edu//langsize.htm) asserted that way back as 1949 the available record of Akurmi speakers available was 11,300.

These evidences are proving that a population as large as that of the Akurmi had been detrimentally underestimated. At this point one is forced to ask the possibility of this snail pace growth in many years? Until this fundamental question is addressed, the long decades of numerical misrepresentation will continuously be used to under-estimate the potentials of the Akurmi nation as a whole.