Essentially, the law created four new traditional
institutions and emirate councils each with a substantive first class title of
emir. They are Gaya, Karaye, Rano and Bichi. The emirate council is further
expanded with new districts and domains under which the five independent
traditional institutions will operate.
By the new arrangement, the Kano emirate will now cover 10
local government areas, Rano emirate (10 local government areas), Gaya emirate
(eight local government areas), Karaye emirate (six local government areas) and
Bichi emirate will cover nine local councils.
It was gathered that membership of the Kano State emirate
council will now include the emirs of Kano, Gaya, Bichi, Rano and Karaye;
secretary to the state government; commissioner for local Government; chairmen
of the local government; two kingmakers each from the five emirates and not
more than five other members appointed by the governor.
Shortly after signing the bill into law at a ceremony
attended by the principal officers of the House of Assembly led by the Speaker,
Alhassan Kabiru Rirum, Governor Ganduje said the new arrangement would make the
traditional institutions closer to their subjects.
Ganduje, who acknowledged the role of the traditional
institutions in maintaining law and order, said the expansion of the Kano
emirate would enrich the traditional heritage of Kano.
“We will now have development close to the people. The
traditional institutions are indeed partners in progress, especially in the
area of security, health, education, environment and social development. With
this new arrangement, all hands will be on deck to take Kano to the next
level.”
Justifying the passage of the bill, the Speaker of the House
of Assembly, Rirum, said it enjoyed popular support and interest to develop the
rural communities that, according to him, had been neglected for years. He also
said the passage of the bill was in compliance with the yearnings and agitation
of Kano.
The agitation that led to the creation of the additional
four emirate councils started on Monday, with a petition filed by a group of
lawyers under Malam Ibrahim Salisu Chambers.
The petitioners demanded the creation of additional emirates
in Kano to facilitate government’s presence across the hinterland that they
claimed had suffered untold neglect.
The group decried the concentration of powers and
development in the Kano metropolis to the detriment of older settlements due to
the dominance of the Kano emirate council.
The lawmakers who suddenly suspended their ongoing recess,
devoted unusual attention to the petition and treated it as an urgent matter.
The lawmakers on Monday this week set up a joint committee
on judiciary and chieftaincy matters to examine the veracity of the claims in
the petition and submit its report in less than 24 hours.
The drama continued the next day (Tuesday) when the lawmakers
adopted the report of the joint committee which made the bill to pass the first
reading the same day.
Expectedly, the report scaled through the second and third
readings at the plenary yesterday (Wednesday) and it was finally passed and
transmitted to the governor the same day.
Some observers are of the view that the new law was
orchestrated to reduce the power of the Emir of Kano, Sanusi, who has allegedly
been at loggerheads with the state government. Besides, Emir Sanusi is also
facing an allegation of financial misconduct levelled against the emirate by
the Kano State’s anti-graft agency.
The allegation of misappropriation of public funds levelled
against the emir in 2018, but later suspended, was recently resuscitated.
A top member of the emirate invited for interrogation
regarding the allegation is billed to appear before the anti-graft commission
today.
Emir Sanusi found himself in the trouble following his
series of public comments against the state government’s development policy,
thereby allegedly bringing the Ganduje’s administration to disrepute.
Sanusi, a former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria
(CBN), was also accused of getting enmeshed in partisan politics by openly
supporting a political party in the just-concluded gubernatorial election in
the state.
It took the intervention of prominent personalities,
including business mogul, Alhaji Aliko Dangote and the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji
Sa’ad Abubakar II, to stop a move by the state government to dethrone Sanusi in
2018. However, the move never deterred the Kano ruler from speaking to power.
Efforts to get the reaction of the emirate council to the
development failed as the Chief of Staff to Sanusi, Alhaji Munir Sanusi, did
not respond to calls and text messages put across to him.
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