Another crisis is brewing in the Minna Emirate Council, the seat of one of the first class traditional rulers in Niger State with a group demanding that the current structure of the emirate be balkanized.
A group of stakeholders, made up of princes from the Emirate have request through a petition letter to the state House of Assembly for the balkanisation of the emirate into five autonomous emirates.
The petition dated 17th March 2020 and signed by 13 of the stakeholders some of them district heads is titled: “Request for the creation of additional emirates in Minna Emirate of Niger state,” saying that the current structure of the emirate comprising five local government areas with Minna as the Emirate headquarters is no longer acceptable.
“It is, therefore, against the above background that we passionately request Mr Governor to as a matter of urgency approve the immediate creation of Kuta Emirate, Paiko Emirate, Galadimankogo Emirate, Bosso/Minna Emirate and Kafinkoro Emirate and a new emir of Bosso/Minna extraction be appointed as Emir of Minna.”
The petition which is already before the House committee on public petitions if it sails through, Minna will become the second in the North in the last one year after that will witnessed the balkanization of its emirate.
The petitioners also hinged their demand on “the failure of the Minna Emirate Council not to “concede to the government directive which has dragged for too long and has caused a lot of concerns to the generality of the people of the emirate.
“Consequently, if Minna Emirate cannot sustain the marriage of convenience between five component districts, then separation becomes inevitable,” the petition further submits.
While commending the governor for what they described as “his foresight, fairness and the need to maintain the history of the emirate without any distortion,” the petitioners said the efforts made by some of the elders to resolve the impasse “appear not to be good enough.”
This is the second time within two years that the emirate will be facing an uprising from princes and major stakeholders in the state.
It would be recalled that in 2018, the stakeholders vehemently raised objection to the creation and appointments of about 250 district and village heads by the incumbent traditional ruler, Dr Umar Farouq Bahago, on the grounds that the exercise was undemocratic and skewed in his favour to the detriment of other princes, ruling houses and stakeholders.
Governor Abubakar Sani Bello had to intervene by canceling the turbaning of the district and the village heads, and setting up a committee to look into the dispute before getting out of hand.
However, despite the fact that the government committee had submitted its report and a white paper issued, the governor has not constituted a “White Paper Implementation Committee.”
This and other reasons may have forced the group to request for the balkanisation of the emirate into five autonomous emirates according to a petition submitted to the Niger State House of Assembly, a copy which was also sent to the governor.
There has been no reaction to the petition from the emirate council secretariat.
Sunnews