Umar Ardo, cousin to former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, has urged the Sultan of Sokoto, and Muslims in Kano State to resist the creation of four new emirates by Governor Abdullahi Ganduje.
Recall that the governor signed the bill which broke the Kano emirate into five, last week.
Ardo, a renowned historian and scholar, warned that the move would destroy the caliphate, if allowed to stand.
Speaking with The Interview, a political magazine, he accused the royal house of aiding and abetting the governor.
He said Sanusi had done nothing wrong but was only being victimised for his outspokenness.
‘’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 balkanising 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 scholar said Ganduje was exploiting divisions in the royal house between Muhammadu Sanusi II, the emir of Kano, and his cousins, to undermine the emirate and its heritage.
“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 benefiting from it because you do not have to be an emir to benefit from the emirate establishment,” he added.
He said although this was not the first time the caliphate would come under attack, silence would embolden the “bulkanisers.”
Meanwhile, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has urged Ganduje to use his good offices and position to “publicly reject life pensions and brand-new vehicles for lawmakers bill passed by the state House of Assembly.
