Desmond Mgboh, Kano
Kano Integrity Forum on the Creation of New Emirates has disagreed with the Bashir Tofa-led 12 elders of the state on the creation of new emirates by Governor Abdullah Umar Ganduje.
The Forum, while briefing the media at the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Kano, said all available evidence indicates that the advantages of the new initiative outweighed its disadvantages.
Led by Prof. Abdul Salihi, former commissioner in the state, the Forum said the policy on the emirate councils was in line with efforts to make Kano a modern state in the eye of Nigerians and the world.
Prof. Salihi said they were delighted that “due process has now been followed in enacting the enabling law for the creation of the new Emirates.”
He recalled that since independence, the state has been faced with numerous challenges such as the inability to split into more states and to have additional emirates.
He insisted that the exercise would lead to job creation, balanced development, quality education, security, improved health care delivery and agricultural development service centres among others.
“The preesent government in Kano is fully committed to the reconstruction of the emirates considering the glaring example from our sister states of Jigawa, Yobe, Oyo and Bauchi states.”
The forum called on the emirates to support the chairman of the Kano State Council and appealed to opponents of the creation who believed in history but would not live with history, to recognise the need for change.
He reminded the opponent that there were young men and women in the state who could not realise their potentials largely because the society was conservative and centralised.