Yimirpiba

INDIRECT RULE IN KIBAKU LAND AND THE MAKING OF YIMIRPIBA (ASKIRA)

Kibaku (Chibok) is a local language spoken in Askira/Uba, Chibok and Damboa local government areas in northeastern Borno State of Nigeria. The language was said to be originated from Chibok Local Government area (formerly Damboa Local Government) area of Borno State. Askira/Uba has the following languages spoken; Kubaku (Chibok), Marghi, Kilba, Fulani, Hausa and other languages from ethnic minorities.

Following the conquest of Kibaku hill by the British between November 1906 and late 1907, in which Chibok hill was conquered, some hunters from the Chibok hill had their hunting camps in an area that was later to be known today as Askira. One of such a hunter according Ndimbitah 2000, was Wakai Mintsuwa and that this hunter was Kwapil by clan. The first attack on the Chibok hill by the British took place in 1906, Wakai Mintsuwa and his family together with few of relatives moved to their hunting camp which rich in games and fertile for agriculture. Wakai Mintsuwa was later to name the new place (settlement) ‘Yimirpiba’. After Chibok hill was finally conquered by the British in late February, 1907. Other Kibaku clans and sub-clans came to join him and his group at Yimirpiba. After the settlement of Kibaku at Yimirpiba, the British pursued them and in order to escape the British, they moved to Gatamarwa another Kibaku settlement. At Gatamarwa too, they were pursued and they ran to hide, in yet another Kibaku settlement called Yimimigza. After sometime when tension subsided, they in the long run moved back to their former location – Yimirpiba. When Wakai Mintsawa and his family and relatives found and settled at Yimirpiba, other village units that came into existence around the When Wakai Mintsawa and some families and relatives camped and settled in nearby settlement (villages) to be known later as Leho, Chanchanbulguma, Yimirali Bulama Wovi and Njoma. These village units were headed by Wakai Mintsawa. During this period, the village units were not under Borno province but in Adamawa province and they were under Musa District. These village units paid homage to Musa and all their taxes according to Ndirmbitah 2000, were collected by Wakai Mintsawa and sent to Musa District from where the taxes were sent to Adamawa province into the treasury. Hunting was the major occupation of Wakai Mintsawa. Kibaku people practiced agriculture and rearing of livestock as well. All transactions between Yimirpiba and its village units were forwarded to the District head of Musa. The District head of Musa then was Ewan. Ngulde later on sprang up. Earlier Ngulde was said to be founded by Kibaku and Pabir/Bura respectively. Those Kibaku who settled at Ngulde were said to be Warga clan who moved away fro British influence (hegemony) when Chibok hill was conquered. When Kibaku people were finally defeated in 1907, Maimaina Na Jega and Mai Jatau Ngwaksa were given leadership. Consequently, Maimaina Na Jega became the first District Head of Dambo’a from 1907 to 1918, while Mai Jatau Ngwaksa became District Head of Chibok in 1907. Maimaina continued to rule Dambo’a independent of Chibok up to 19188. It was in the same year that Maimaina was removed from office as district head of Dambo'a for being stubborn to Shehu Garbai’s authority. Consequently, he was exiled to Fika in Potiskum. In that same year (1918) Abba Abdalla was appointed as the District Head (Ajia) of Marghi District and Chibok was merged to that of Marghi District. This merger made the Mai of Chibok to become subordinate of Marghi District Chief. Maimaina was called back by the British and offered the lawanate of Chibok but he refused the offer o the ground that Kibaku people were lawless and difficult to govern. It was against this background that the British resident offered him an area in Yimirpiba which Maimaina said in appreciation to British kindness ‘Askurullah” meaning ‘thanks, I have agreed and appreciated the offer” which was later modified to mean askira in 1922.Maimaina ruled Askira (Yimirpiba) from 1918 to 1964 when died. Adolf Overweg and Dr. Helrich Barth were famous travelers, explorers and missionaries based in Kukawa. They arrived Kukawa in April and May 1851. Adolf Oveweg died near lake Chad in October 1852 leaving Dr. Heinrich Barth. Before Adolf Overweg’s death, he had two freed African slaves as boys, one of them being Abega, whom he (Barth) to took to European 1855. Abbega was 18 years old and was Marghi by tribe, hailed from Mulgwai, (in what came to be called Marghi Dambo’a District from1907). Mulgwai as a tribe and people claimed origin from Kanuri that they were at one time Kanuri before they migrated to their present location. The purpose of taking Abbega and Dorugu was to christainze them and send them back to Africa to propagate the gospel of Jesus Christ. Consequently, Abbega and Dorugu were baptized at the Mission house at Chathan in May 1857. Dorugu was given the Christian name s Henry, after Rev. Powell Buxton, after Rev. Schon and his godfather, Thomas Fowell Buxtan, an ardent abolitionist known as ‘the friends of Africa race’. After Abbega’s baptism and his education, he left England later in 1857 for Africa. After returning to Southern Nigeria by Sea, he made no serious attempt to reach his native Marghi, in Borno, which lay far to the North – East, hard by the western slopes of the Mandara hills. Instead he attached himself to the Yoruba – sierra Leone Missionary, Bishop Samuel Crowther, in his evangelical mission advanced up to Niger. This was fully in accordance, with Barth’s and Rev. Schon’s wishes as evidenced by Rev. Schon’s proud testimony: Abbega has returned to Africa with the Gospels in his hand, has given evidence of his zeal for the conversion of others, and has hitherto maintained his Christian character’ Despite Rev. Schon’s praise to abbega not withstanding, Abbega later reconverted to Islam, finding Christianity ’full of drawbacks. Abbega served for a time as a native catechist at Rabba the then capital of Nupeland, after which he returned to Lokoja. The Mission Centre situated at the confluence of the Niger and Benue. There he (Abbega) became interpreter to the Scholar Consul Dr, Williams Balfour Baikie, the founder and driving force behind the settlement At this time Abbega was conversant with five (5) African languages as well as with Arabic and English. When Dr. William Balfour Baikie left Lokoja in 1864, his successor, Lyon McLeod, enlisted a select body of personal messengers in lieu of an official company of consular guards denied him by the Foreign Office in London. Among these was Abbega, who used to accompany the consul on visit to Masaba at Bida. Abbega was employed as Personal Courier to the agent general of the Compagnie Francaise de l’Afrique Equatoriale, who doubled as French Consul in the delta area. In his diary, this Consul, Commandant Mattei, provides an amusing comment on Abbega’s style as an interpreter “In his capacity as an interpreter, this good fellow imagines that it would be derogatory for him not to know the answer to every question put to him, and that he is therefore bound to produce some sort of reply to whatever is asked him about the manners and customs of the country” Abbega seems to have been recognized as an unofficial go-between with the Etsu (Emir) Nupe at Bida, with whom he conducted a number of diplomatic- commercial negotiations, including the agreement for the settlement of the Catholic Fathers of Lyon at Lokoja in December 1884. It is not surprising, therefore, that agents of the Royal Niger Company entrusted with the Company’s expansion on the Niger and Lower Benue during the last fifteen years of the 19th century should find the presence of this polyglot, literate and versatile man a valued asset to their (European) administration in Lokoja. Consequently, Abbega was appointed as Chief of Lokoja in 1896. He was deposed in 1897, and reinstated in 1898, and was deposed finally in 1904. In 1873, Abbega’s daughter by name Salamatu married Yerima Abdu from Jega in Sokoto, who was the grandson of Abdulasam, a scion of the royal family of Gwandu. A son was born to them in 1874, and named Muhammadu. Yerima Abdu (Muhammadu’s father from Jega)died later in 1874 and Muhammadu’s mother, Salamatu left Jega for Lokoja and stayed with her father where Muhammadu later grew up. This was the boy whom Northern Nigeria would come to know and remember as Maimaina, ‘the King-Prince’. This nickname, which was coined for him by the Kanuri, developed into something like a personal title when he retained it after his elevation to the chieftaincy in 1913. Because of contact with Royal Niger personnel through his grandfather Abbega, Maimaina soon learned to speak English Literacy, he liked to tell his old age, he acquired later from the talented Sierra Leonean Clerk attached to Biu Division in the early 1920s, J. Adolphus Palmer. Such was Maimaina/s linguistic prowess that among the Kanuri of Borno, he was referred to as Maina Turjiman, ‘the prince of interpreters’ a profession he had inherited from his grandfather. Maimaina Na Jega (as he was known) was employed in the Northern Nigeria government service, chiefly as an interpreter and political agent, in which capacity he served a number of army officers and the Resident himself in Borno over the years 1902 – 1913. Later, he (Maimaina ) was appointed the chief of Askira, a Kibaku (Chibok)area of Southern Borno for forty (40) years. Maimaina’s appointment as chief of Yimirpiba (now Askira) where he ruled for over forty years was therefore a 20th century British creation foist on the Kibakus (the indigenous people). Abbega, his grandfather was by origin from Mulgwai. Not only that he, Maimaina was from Jega, present day Kebbi state. Therefore Ndirmbitah posit that, by Nigerian customs and traditions, he had no legality to become chief of Askira. However, it was expected that on the passing away of Maimaina, the chieftaincy would have been handed to the indigenes (the Kibakus) whom Maimaina came and met, but was not the case/