Former Governor of Jigawa State and one-time National Secretary of the defunct Social Democratic Party, Sule Lamido, has revealed that he once threatened then-Lagos State Governor and now President Bola Ahmed Tinubu with a state of emergency during a crisis that targeted Northerners in Lagos in the year 2000.
In his recently released autobiography, Being True to Myself, Lamido recounted the aftermath of a violent episode in Lagos, during which, according to him, hundreds of Northerners were killed and their properties destroyed in what he described as a deliberate and economically motivated attack.
Lamido, who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs under President Olusegun Obasanjo at the time, said a committee of five cabinet ministers was dispatched to Lagos by the President to assess the crisis.
The team was led by the then Minister of Environment, Hassan Adamu (Wakilin Adamawa), and included Colonel Bello Kaliel (Minister of Water Resources), Ibrahim Bunu (Minister of the FCT), Lamido himself, and others.
“We toured the affected areas from Mile 12 to Ajegunle and witnessed the scale of destruction. We saw hundreds of burnt trailers and tankers and displaced residents. In Ajegunle, houses were marked by tribe – Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo. Only Hausa houses were burnt,” Lamido wrote.
He described the crisis as “economic violence” deliberately targeted at Hausa residents and the Northern economy, noting that the sight of the destruction left him enraged.
The delegation met with Tinubu after their tour. According to Lamido, Tinubu accused them of attempting to use the crisis as a pretext to impose a state of emergency in Lagos.
“Tinubu said, ‘You’re coming here to intimidate me… to declare a state of emergency. We will not accept it.’ I was furious. I told him, ‘If this happens again, I swear by Allah, we will declare a state of emergency.
“You will be picked up in the night and locked up in Bama or Gashua, and the emergency will be declared the next day,’” Lamido stated.
He stated that the visit was not politically motivated but was a response to a humanitarian and security crisis that had cost many lives and livelihoods.
