Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje of Kano State has taken a seeming radical action against the Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi 11, by breaking up the legendary emirate into five. He gave a legal muscle to his politically inspired action on Wednesday by signing into law a bill for the creation of four new emirates for Gaya, Rano, Karaye and Bichi, all of which used to be districts under the Kano Emirate Council.
The hitherto Kano Emirate was a religious state in Northern Nigeria. It was formed in 1805 during the Fulani jihad, when the old Hausa Sultanate of Kano became subject to the Sokoto Caliphate.
The development by the All Progressives Congress (APC) governor who was recently locked in a dollar kick-back scandal, is said to be aimed Sanusi II, over his stance on the last governorship election in the state.
Governor Ganduje believes Sanusi II worked for Abba Kabir Yusuf of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and former governor of the state, Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, a source told Daily Trust.
‘’We will soon provide the new emirs with their letters of appointment’’, the governor said shortly after assenting to the bill. He also said a date will soon be fixed for the coronation of the emirs, while kingmakers will be appointment immediately.
‘’By signing this law, we are bringing more developments closer to the people of Kano in our efforts to take the state to the next level. All emirate councils will be independent of each other under Kano State government. We thank the state assembly for passing the bill into law and the people of Kano who have been yearning for this kind of development. I urged the new emirates to continue to render services to their subjects in the area of education, health, agriculture and socio-economy’’, the governor said.
According to Daily Trust, prior to the governor’s signing of the bill, the state House of Assembly had passed into law a bill for the creation of four new emirates of Gaya, Bichi, Karaye and Rano. The law was tagged Kano State Emirs (Appointment and Deposition) (Amendment) Law 2019.
Speaker of the House, Kabiru Alhassan Rurum, who presided over the plenary, said the House, after a critical deliberation, agreed to pass the bill. The Abuja newspaper however, observed that it took the House about four hours to finalise on the matter at its closed-door meeting.
With the new law, Kano now has five emirates of Kano, Bichi, Rano, Karaye and Gaya.
Kano emirate, which used to control all the 44 local governments in the state, now has only 10 under its jurisdiction. They are: Kano Municipal, Tarauni, Dala, Nassarawa, Fagge, Gwale, Kumbotso, Ungoggo, Dawakin Kudu and Minjibir.
Rano, Bunkure, Kibiya, Takai, Sumaila, Kura, Doguwa, Tudun Wada, Kiru and Bebeji LGs are now part of Rano emirate,. While Gaya emirate comprised Gaya, Ajingi, Albasu, Wudil, Garko, Warawa, Gezawa and Gabasawa LGs.
Karaye, Rogo, Gwarzo, Kabo, Rimin Gado, Madobi and Garun-Malam LGs fall under Karaye emirate, while Bichi, Bagwai, Shanono, Tsanyawa, Kunchi, Makoda, Dambatta, Dawakin Tofa and Tofa LGs form Bichi emirate.
However, Bichi emirate, according to the new law, is to be supervised by Gidan Malam Dabo, the dynasty of the late Emir Ado Bayero. This means any member of Gidan Dabo who is interested in the seat of emir in the Kano emirate can also apply whenever the need arises.
According to the new law, Kano State Emirate Council shall be formed and consist of Emir of Kano, Emir of Rano, Emir of Gaya, Emir of Karaye and Emir of Bichi. Other members include Secretary to the State Government (SSG), commissioner for Local Government, all LG chairmen and at least two kingmakers from each of the five emirates and five other members to be appointed by the governor.
The law also spelt out that the chairmanship of the council shall be on rotational basis, among the emirs. And before now, the 44 local governments, by the provision of the law, were giving a sum of over N180 million to the old Kano State Emirate Council every month from their federal grant.
The newspaper also quoted a source at the state’s Local Government Ministry as saying, ‘’to be honest with you, the emirate is not getting this amount monthly due to scarcity of fund. It is getting not less than N100 million monthly from the 44 councils. According to law each of the 44 LGs is supposed to give the emirate 3 per cent of its federal grant, but honestly it is not getting this amount from the local governments.’’
With the new law, Emir Sanusi will now collect 3 per cent each from the 10 LGs under his jurisdiction.
Meanwhile, Hajiya Binta Rabi’u Spikin, spokeperson of the Kwankwasiyya Movement, said the creation of new emirates was a wrong move. She said, “It is wrong because the move was not initiated by the people from the affected areas. The lawyers who brought the issue are not known to the people of the new emirates. “The lawmakers only acted on the opinion of a fraction of people of Kano, without taking into consideration the opinion of the majority. “So, it is not the right thing to do. In this kind of situation, the agitation should have come from the people of the four districts,” She said.
Some residents of Kano expressed divergent view over the creation of the new emirates. Ma’ruf Isma’il said it was a welcome development. According to him, the new emirates will bring development closer to the people.
“Some people will now get jobs through the emirates. Others will get appointment as district heads, village and ward heads,” he said.
Isa Abubakar said the new emirates would only further divide the people politically and culturally. He said, “The whole issue was politically motivated. In the actual sense the people of the affected areas did not agitate for these emirates.” Mustapha Auwal also condemned the creation of the new emirates, saying that it was aimed at disgracing the Kano emir.
