The lawmaker representing Kaduna Central at the Senate, Shehu Sani has revealed why traditional rulers are often been victimized by their state governors.
Mr. Sani, an outgoing lawmaker, said the absence of clearly defined roles of the monarchs in the Nigerian Constitution made them preys in the hands of their state governors.
He stated this while reacting to the current travails of Lamido Sanusi, the embattled emir of Kano, who watched helplessly while his domain was balkanized in a bid to whittle down his influence in the state.
Abdullahi Ganduje, Kano State governor signed a bill aimed at balkanizing the emirate on Wednesday. He is also said to be probing the financial earnings of the monarch, a move political analysts suggested will finally see Sanusi being booted out of office.
For the Kaduna lawmaker, traditional rulers whose duty are mainly in areas of security, ought to be protected by the constitution.
“Absence of clearly defined roles in the constitution makes traditional rulers vulnerable to the abuse of power, victims of blackmail and pawns and punching bags in the political chess game of their respective states,” Sani said in a Facebook post early Friday.
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“During elections, they are forced to campaign for the Governors of their states and the ruling parties in their respective states or risk being dethroned.
“Traditional rulers are expected to play major roles in security matters with no security votes other than handouts thrown at them by the Governors of their states.
“A Traditional ruler who wants to survive must be stupidly loyal, dumb and humiliatingly subservient and one that must always distance himself from the political adversaries of the Governor in office.
“Traditional rulers doing a Governor’s bidding can hardly be accused of aiding kidnappers or inciting inter-ethnic violence even if its true. State Governors habitually creates political emirates and chiefdoms to settle scores or to reward loyalty or to reinforce their power base or for the purpose of divide and rule.
“The Traditional rulers are also not free of blame when most of them have bastardized and commercialized the institution by dispensing Traditional titles to people in Government and those that can pay. They create and sell funny titles with no historical basis, roots and antecedent, and to people majorly undeserving.
*Almost All Governors parade one or multiple fake Traditional titles were given to them while in office. Traditional institutions have been largely desecrated by political interference, partisanship, erosion of cultural and moral values, materialism and outright violations and meddling, inimical and corrosive to the very ethical and moral component that the institution claims to possess.
“Without constitutional protection, Traditional rulers will continue to be forced by their Governors to behave like party Excos or political appointees or be ejected,” he added.
