Sasa is in the outskirt of Ibadan in the precinct of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) a multinational Institute.
The land where Sasa village was original is where IITA is located now and the Sasa village was relocated elsewhere in the same area.
Hausa/Fulani people have a substantial population in the place and they have a Serikin.
The place being originally a Yoruba village and settlement, it has a Yoruba Traditional Ruler called Baalẹ that is answerable to the Olubadan of Ibadanland.
Originally, the Serkin Hausawa should be subservient under the Baalẹ of Sasa. But as the time evolved over time and Hausa/Fulani population was significantly increasing, the influence of the Serkin Hausawa and his people were increasing.
It got to a stage when Seriki Hausawa power unwittingly started to overshadow that of the Yoruba Baalẹ due to the usual… complacency and liberalism of Yoruba people.
Mallam Katsina Maiyacin was the Seriki Hausawa in Sasa.
He wielded a big influence.
That time the Military was in power and were Northerners.
Matters reached crescendo in 1995 when Maiyacin being a friend of Head of State then-General Sani Abacha wanted to overreach himself.
Maiyacin was provided State protection- DSS details were attached to him.
He was going about like a 1st class Traditional Ruler.
Pronto, the idea of Maiyacin transmutation to Emir of Ibadanland was muted and consummated and before one knew it, all arrangements were completed with delegation from Sokoto to come and Turban him as the EMIR OF IBADANLAND.
The Olubadan-in-Council would have none of that, a daring affront in and on Ibadanland.
What the Fulani couldn’t achieve in war in the 17th Century was about to be done on a platter in the 21st Century: To conquer and dominate Yorùbáland, this time to start from Ibadanland.
The Military Governor of Oyo State then was an appointee of his Military Head of State and had no say…also being a non-indigene.
Maiyacin was summoned to Olubadan-in-Council to answer questions. He was told in plain language that he was chasing a shadow and that no two monarchs would rule in Ibadan and anywhere in Yorubaland.
He was admonished to go and become the Emir in his Native Katsina or to go and be installed as Sultan of Sokoto…not in Ibadan.
They ordered him to revert to the status of Serkin of Sasa. He was already moving like a 1st class Monarch with retinue of security Personnel, therefore, he was placed under the Baalẹ of Sasa as it used to be.
Being the Friend of the Head of State, he said since he would not be an Emir of Ibadan people but of his Hausa/Fulani stock in Ibadan, there shouldn’t be an issue regarding that.
Olubadan-in-Council put their feet on the ground and announced on the media the ban on all chieftaincy ceremonies and turbanning anywhere on the soil of Ibadan until further notice.
Despite that, a date was fixed for the turbanning.
Tension and fear were palpable in the air of Ibadan.
Turbanning ceremonies activities for the new Emir of Ibadanland were at the peak.
Olubadan-in-Council, Afenifere, NADECO and other Yoruba pressure and socio-cultural Yoruba groups and organizations all over Yorubaland were posing for heavy showdown.
On the eve of the set date that the Sultan of Sokoto turbanning delegation would be coming, the Gani Adams-led OPC group were in full mobilization all around the Sasa environment covering from Agbowo UI to Ọọjọ up to Oyo town road.
On the D-Day, all roads from Oyo town and others that the delegation could be coming from were sealed up and completely blocked.
The Sasa settlement itself was heavily surrounded and besieged by the OPC members wielding brand new AK-47 rifles and other weapons.
Nigeria’s second Civil War would have ensued.
June 12 election annulment was still hot with the detention of MKO Abiola, the winner of the 1993 Presidential election adjudged the fairest and the freest election in Nigeria.
The OPC militants formed groups –one blocking all roads to the place where the turbanning was scheduled to take place.
Others laid siege on Sasa, and another large group was patrolling from Oyo town road to Agbowo UI and Samanda precinct.
Police detachment was quietly following them with assurance of no hostility but to maintain the peace.
Throughout that day and the following, no Jupiter answering Sultan delegation from Sokoto showed up and no ceremony took place till today. It was cancelled.
Mallam Katshina Maiyacin died as Serki of Sasa under the Baalẹ of Sasa.
Did the matter die there? Not at all.
Maiyacin was taught a lesson of what Yoruba were made of.
The next week to the cancelled and failed turbanning date, Maiyacin was coming from Agodi side with his security on outing.
He was ambushed around Bódìjà Roundabout.
Heavy gunfire ensued.
His DSS details were at their best elements that day.
They gallantly put up a resistance and escaped with the man…though wounded.
He escaped death by the whiskers.
The thoroughly shaken Maiyacin was shown the warriors the Yoruba were.
That idea of an Emir of Ibadanland died and remains stone dead till today.
Another incident occurred in 2021.
The Fulani/Hausa Community tried the resolve of the Yorùbás again in the same Sasa.
The succeeding Serkin Hausawa was overstepping his boundary again by usurping the powers of the Baalẹ.
Violence ensued, the Military and police came on the side of the Northerners, but not until they had been thoroughly pounded and decimated.
It was after the military support that they now started putting fire on Yoruba houses.
However, they were later overpowered.
That incident led to the mass exodus of the Northerners from that Sasa that year.
They were moving out en masse on foot with their loads on their heads like a displaced people and were evacuated to the North.
Three Northern governors rushed down to Ibadan fuming.
But to no avail.
Peace was eventually subscribed to with the Olubadan and Ibadan people, and normalcy returned.
Thereafter, the Serkin Hausawa there (Maiyacin died shortly before that Yoruba/Hausa Sasa crisis of 2021 ) was ordered to be answerable to and be completely subservient under the Sasa Yoruba Baalẹ; and the Baalẹ till today is the effective and the recognized traditional head of Sasa people both Hausa/Fulani and everybody living in Sasa.
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