The Governor of Borno State, Kashim Shettima, has said that he remains emotionally indebted to his Kano State counterpart, Ibrahim Ganduje and the Emir, Muhammadu Sanusi.
He said this during a press briefing on Saturday amid growing concerns that he was taking sides with the governor, following his (Ganduje’s) decision to create four new emirates in Kano.
“We are dwelling on trivialities and issues that are of the past”, Shettima said.
He explained that the Northern Governors have been working behind the scenes to resolve the issues between both the governor and the Emir and that contrary to claims that he was taking sides with Ganduje, he was emotionally indebted to the two prominent leaders.
“I have ties in Kano. The governor of Kano has adopted 200 sons of Borno (orphans) and the Kano State Government is shouldering the burden of their education, welfare, up to university level so, I am emotionally indebted to him,” he said.
“I am equally emotionally indebted to Emir Muhammadu Sanusi because under his stewardship he brought the BDC to Borno. It was under his stewardship that he brought a lot of investments to my state and most importantly, he was our gateway to Aliko Dangote when he went and solved a huge humanitarian crisis in Borno, he was the one who mobilised the business community to render a helping hand.
“The governor is an elder statesman that I hold in the highest esteem and the emir is one of the intellectual torchbearers of Northern Nigeria”.
Earlier at a meeting on Wednesday, Shettima had taken a swipe at those faulting the decentralization of the Kano Emirate, noting that there were other more important issues to worry about.
But giving further clarifications on the matter on Saturday, he said he was quoted out of context by a section of the media.
He then went on to explain that there was an unwritten pact among the governors not to criticize each other in the public no matter what the issue may be.
According to him, rather than dwell on cultural and religious issues, people should champion things that could bring about rapid socio-economic development in the northern region and the country at large.
“Amongst us governors, there is an unwritten pact – we do not criticise one another in the public. If we have issues, we sort it out from behind.
“It is for us to build bridges, not to destroy bridges. We are working from behind the scenes to see that we normalise the relationship,” he said.
The Kano State House of Assembly had on May 8, passed the bill for the creation of the four additional first class Emirates.
This was after approval of the amendment of the Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs law by the lawmakers.
In a motion presented to the House by the Majority Leader Baffa Babba, the House unanimously agreed that creation of more Emirates will assist in job creation, dispute, and community conflict resolutions among others.
Upon the passage of the bill by the Kano Assembly, Governor Ganduje assented and went on to present letters of appointment to four new first-class Emirs in the state, a decision that has sparked criticism from many.
