- Sultan urged to challenge action
By Ibrahim Shuaibu in Kano
Kano State Governor, Alhaji Abdullahi Ganduje, yesterday started presentation of staff of office to emirs of the four new emirates created out of the old Kano Emirate.
The four new emirs are Alhaji Aminu Ado-Bayero, Bichi; Alhaji Tafida Ila, Rano; Alhaji Ibrahim Abdulkadir, Gaya; and Alhaji Ibrahim Abubakar ll, Karaye.
The governor had on Saturday presented appointment letters to the new emirs, saying he was unaware of any court order stopping him from breaking the former Kano Emirate.
Ganduje has already presented staff of office to the new emirs of Bichi and Karaye.
The Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr. Abba Anwar, told THISDAY: “The governor had already presented the staff-of-office to emir of Bichi, Aminu Ado Bayero, amid jubilation.
“We are now on our way to Karaye for presentation of the staff of office to the emir.”
He also said if time permits, the governor would proceed to either Gaya or Rano today to complete the presentation.
The controversy over the breaking of old emirate, however, persisted yesterday as a historian and former lecturer, Dr. Umar Ardo, called on the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III, and Muslims to resist the action.
He said the move, which a court had restrained the governor from implementing, would destroy the caliphate even as he accused the Kano royal house of aiding and abetting the governor.
In an interview published by The Interview at the weekend, Ardo said: “The Sultan, all members of the caliphate, the Muslim Ummah and the Fulbe people should not only condemn it but should stand up against it.
“The emirates have already been created from the time of Shehu Uthman dan Fodio. And if you now start balkanizing them, you are just reducing the prestige and effectiveness of the emirate system. It is the caliphate establishment that is the loser.”
He said the governor was exploiting the divisions in the royal house between Muhammad Sanusi II, the Emir of Kano, and his cousins to undermine the emirate and its heritage.
Ardo said: “Some of the members of the caliphate establishment are themselves instigators of the problem because they are not on good terms with their cousins who are on the throne.
“They are forgetting that they are destroying the system of which they hope to one day benefit from. They are in fact benefitting from it because you do not have to be an emir to benefit from the emirate establishment.”
He said though this was not the first time the caliphate would come under attack, silence would embolden the “bulkanisers.”
Ardo said Sanusi had done nothing wrong but was only being victimised for his outspokenness.
