THE FOUR RULING GROUP OF ZAZZAU.

HADEJIA A YAU!

Four ruling groups of Zazzau Emirate. 

The Province of Zaria was formed in 1902, and during this year Kwassau was deposed for intriguing with the Emir of Kano, who was at that time still hostile to the British. Aliu dan Sidi, of the original Mallawa dynasty, was appointed Emir in 1903. He reigned for twenty years. Victor N. Low. 

In 1902 the three Emirates of Keffi, Nasarawa, and Jemaa, which had previously been tributary to Zaria, were removed from the suzerainty of the Emir of Zaria and made independent.

This was a humiliation for the murder of Captain Moloney at Keffi by the Magajin Keffi, an accredited agent of the Emir Kwassau, who was sheltered first by the Emir of Zaria and then by the Emirs of Kano and Sokoto. They all had bitter cause to regret it.

The Zaria ruling group consisted of four lineages..The Barebari, the Katsinawa, the Mallawa and the Sullubawa, around which local power struggles within the N.A. revolved. These royal lineages were also the only source of candidature for the oflice of emirship, and thus they and their supporters controlled the N.A. in 1950, but the Emir's lineage was always the dominant group.

In 1950 the Emir of Zaria was Malam Ja'afaru, who remained in office until his death in 1959; he belonged to the Barebari lineage. Before his appointment as Emir in 1937, he had served as district head of Zangon Katab for 22 years. In his earlier years as Emir he was said to be more advanced in his outlook than the majority of his contemporaries.

But with the advance of years he found it difticult to adjust to the political changes in the country in the 1950s. Politically, he remained deeply committed to the maintenance of the status quo based on the principles of indirect rule.

Accordingly he did not subscribe to opinion in the Region critical of an N.A. system based on indirect rule. He openly expressed his alarm at the rate of political change in the Region and feared this could undermine the existing administrative framework. In Emir Ja'afaru's view the N.A., as then organized, had done a great deal for the welfare of the people and had protected the common man from the exploitation of 'dishonest officials'. 

In 1959 Ja'afaru was succceded by Muhammadu Aminu, who was a member of the Katsinawa lineage and had served the N.A. first as head of the health departnent, and later was appointed the lya with resporsibility for the Sabon Gari district. 

In this office he had a reputation for openmindedness which enabled him to maintain order in this most cosmopolitan and urbanised sector of the Emirate. Unlike Ja'afaru, Aminu was a contemporary of the leaders of the Northern Peoples Congress, his close personal friendship with the Regional Premier, Alhaji Ahmadu Bello, Sardauna of Sokoto, was believed by many to have been the reason for the Premier giving him the Emirship. 

When Aminu took office in 1959 the N.A. was dominated by the Barebari and thus, during the first 2 years of his appointment he found difficulty in establishing his control.

Reference….. 

The native authority system in northern Nigeria, 1950-70: A study in political relations with particular reference to the Zaria native authority by Yahaya, A. D. Publication date 1980. 

Muhammadan Emirates In Northern Nigeria by Victor N. Low.