Members of
opposition party, All Nigerian Peoples Party, in Nassarawa state have
condemned the installation of the 15th traditional ruler in the state,
claiming that the small state now has the highest number of traditional
rulers in the state. They claim that this will drain the funds of the
local government councils which are responsible for the welfare of
traditional rulers. The governor of Nasarawa State, Aliyu Akwe Doma,
over the weekend installed the 15th first-class chief in the state.
This is coming on the heels of the administration’s approval for the
upgrading of the chieftaincy institution of Abaga Toni from a
second-class status to first class in 2010.
The opposition has
complained that politicians in various offices are freezing the
accounts of the local government councils since the welfare of the
rulers will be funded by five percent of the council’s financial
allocations.
A member of the
State House of Assembly, Adamu Sule representing Lafia-Central with the
ANPP had criticized the state governor for increasing the number of
first-class chiefs across the state above other states with larger
populations, He added that the increase of traditional rulers was to
make the chiefs the governor’s main political constituency. The
upgrading of the Abaga Toni chiefdom as first class now increases the
number of first-class stools in the state to 15. The communities with
first-class stools include Lafia, Awe, Doma, Azara, Nasarawa-Eggon,
Nasarawa, Keffi, Karshi, Umasha and Karu. Others are Nyankpa, Wamba,
Keana, Mada and now Abaga Toni which is the second first-class stool
for the Gwandara ethnic group, after Karshi.
The upgrade and installation of the Abaga Toni stool to a
first-class grade has brought the number of installations by the
governor in the last few weeks to five. Nasarawa state, with a
population of 1.8 million people, ranks as the state with the highest
number of first-class chiefs in the federation.
