Adamawa Emirate member condemns law creating new districts, emirates

A member of the Adamawa Emirate Council, Alhaji Musa-Halilu Chiroma, has frowned at the recent passage of a bill on the creation of additional districts, emirates, and chiefdoms by the State House of Assembly.

In a statement titled “The changing dynamics in Adamawa State: A need for caution” issued on Saturday, Chiroma expressed concerns over the law’s implications.

The legislation has since generated debates within and outside the state.

The kingmaker said intense pressure from within and outside the country following the passage of the bill, compelled him to speak.

Chiroma said: “Since the passage of the Bill for the creation of additional Districts, Emirates, and Chiefdoms by the State House of Assembly, there was intense pressure on me from people within and outside the country over the contentious Bill and the position of the Traditional Institution.

“Therefore, as a stakeholder and member of the Adamawa Emirate Council, it is incumbent upon me to ventilate my opinion on the issue to put records straight.

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“My first reaction has to do with the speed with which these laws were passed. In both cases, i.e., the creation of district law and the chiefdom law, the legislative process was shunted, and the requirements for public input were jettisoned. That could not have been an error—it was deliberate, intended to foist an agenda that would not survive proper democratic scrutiny.”

He criticised the committee tasked with reviewing the bills and described their work as pedestrian.

He also warned of dire consequences if the laws are implemented.

“A very lopsided committee that represents only one shade of opinion could not do much other than editorial work of crossing the ‘t’s and dotting the ‘i’s. In a system bedevilled by ignorance and self-interest, no legislative committee would produce such recommendations.

“From territorial delineation to the appointment of supposed rulers, from administrative bottlenecks to economic difficulties, these new structures will soon become sources of conflicts of monumental proportions for Adamawa State,” he added.

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