Worried about the prolonged misunderstanding between Kano State Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje and Emir of Kano Muhammad Sanusi, the Northern Elders Forum has initiated a peace effort to end the leadership crisis in Kano State.
The Forum will lead eminent personalities from the North to meet with elders, leaders and other stakeholders, with a view to finding a lasting solution to the lingering crisis.
According to reports, reaching the Forum had already sent invitations to eminent personalities in the region for the planned meeting, scheduled to hold today at Tahir Guest Palace, Kano.
It was gathered that dignitaries have started arriving Kano for the scheduled meeting.
In one of the letters addressed to one of the members invited for the meeting, the Forum indicated that its members would also interact with Governor Ganduje and Emir Sanusi.
The letter, signed by the Forum’s chairman, Professor Ango Abdullahi and made available to journalists reads, “The crisis, we are afraid, is pregnant with unforeseen circumstances that ultimately threaten the integrity of the entire Kano traditional institution, overall peace and security of the state, and by extension, the cohesion of the northern region.
“It is our hope that this intervention would finally get to the root of the matter and find a lasting solution with mutual understanding and respect so that the state can move on,” the letter concluded.
The letter did not give names of the eminent northern personalities on the entourage.
Meanwhile, the Chief Press Secretary to Governor Ganduje, Abba Anwar, told newsmen that the Kano State Government was not aware of any meeting with any group regarding the issue of creation of new emirates in the state.
“We didn’t receive any letter from anybody, not to talk of what will be the subject of discussion. We don’t know what they are up to. “All we know is that we have our law establishing our newly created first class emirates of Bichi, Karaye, Rano and Gaya. And we have since started implementing the law. It is as simple as ABC.
“Our new emirates have come to stay. Anybody that is thinking of influencing us to go back to the drawing board on this law is only doing that for the fun of it. We repeat, our first class emirs have come to stay,” Anwar said.
