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El-Rufai Sacks 4, 766 Traditional Rulers
The Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir El-rufai has sacked about 4, 766 traditional rulers in the state.
The sack was necessitated as a result of the state’s readiness to implement the recommendations of the committee it set up to review the number of district and village heads in the state.
The state government said it would now recognize only the 77 districts and 1,429 villages that existed before to 2001 while about 4, 766 district and village heads will be dropped. The number of districts increased to 390 with the 313 created while village units increased to 5,882.
The state Commissioner for Local Governments, Alhaji Jafaru Sani, who disclosed this at a press conference, stated that the restructuring was to reduce the burden that a bloated payroll imposed on local government councils. The government claimed to have consulted the state Council of Chiefs which had approved the restructuring of districts.
The commissioner said the creation of more districts from 2001 increased the number of district heads along with increased personnel in the district offices which added more than 2,700 employees to the payroll of the local government councils. He also said that the 32 emirs and chiefs in the state will not be affected.
Prior to 2001, Kaduna State had only 77 districts and 1,429 village units. The six oldest first class emirates and chiefdoms had 37 districts, which increased to 152 districts after 2001.
Jafaru said, “It is the duty of the state government to pay the salaries and allowances of all the 32 chiefs. And the state government shall continue to be responsible for all our graded chiefs”. He added that “while the state government had been discharging its obligations to the 32 chiefs, the local government councils were not able to do the same for their district heads”.
Meanwhile, some residents of the state have claimed that the restructuring would significantly affect people of Southern Kaduna which has been the epicentre of violence in recent time.
