The new sultan is the younger brother of Maccido who died last week in a plane crash.

SOKOTO, Nigeria — Mohammed Sada Abubakar, a 53-year-old army colonel, was appointed on Thursday, November 2, as the 20th sultan of Sokoto and the spiritual leader of Nigeria's Muslims.

"I thank Almighty Allah for making it possible," Abubakar told national television NTA.

"I will continue with the laudable programs of my predecessor in office," he pledged.

Abubakar, whose army career has included postings to the Middle East as military attaché, was among three people whose names were submitted to the state government by a 10-member council of kingmakers.

He succeeds his late brother Mohammadu Maccido, who was killed in a plane crash on Sunday, October 29, as the 20th sultan of Sokoto, in the far north of Nigerian on the arid Niger border.

The largely ceremonial role of the Sokoto Sultan includes declaring the timing of Muslim holidays, such Ramadan and 'Eid.

He also acts as the foremost traditional ruler in northern Nigeria.

Nigeria’s recent census shows that Muslims make up 55 percent of the country’s 133 million population, Christians 40 percent and animists five percent.

Welcome

Abubakar's appointment has immediately welcomed by Nigerian Muslims.

"I want to congratulate the state government for choosing a consensus Sultan," Muhammadu Bello, a trader, told Reuters.

"May he continue where the late Sultan stopped."

Thousands of Nigerian Muslims have gathered around the palace of the Sultan to celebrate.

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo also welcomed the appointment.

"Obasanjo has received with delight the news of the emergence of Alhaji Mohammadu Abubakar as the new Sultan of Sokoto," the government said in a statement.

"On behalf of the government and people of Nigeria, the president congratulates the new sultan and wishes him a successful reign."

In 2004, Nigerian Muslims marked the 200th anniversary of the creation of Sokoto Caliphate, which had unified Muslim-populated areas in the north under a central Islamic authority in 1804.

Sokoto occupies a unique place in the history of Nigeria.

Legendary Islamic scholar Uthman Dan Fodio began his efforts to renew Islamic thoughts and unify Hausa-speaking areas in the north under a central authority seated in Sokoto in 1804.

Fodio sought to establish a political system based on the principles of universal justice in the Caliphate, which flourished until the British conquered it in 1903.

His "Sokoto Jihad" project established in the area new legal, administrative and educational institutions based on Muslim concepts, ideas and values.

The north became a religio-political community of its own and Islam became the framework with which the people conducted their day-to-day activities.

With the conquest and collapse of the Sokoto Caliphate by the British in 1902, the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria was created and fourteen provinces were carved out of the defunct caliphate.

The Federal Republic of Nigeria consists of thirty states at present.

In recent years, the twelve northern states in Nigeria have decided to adopt Shari`ah though the national constitution declares Nigeria as a secular state.