Posted by By KENNY ASHAKA, Kaduna on
There is religious tension in Kaduna as Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) stakeholders from the southern part of the state are at war with the former governor, Senator Ahmed Mohammed Makarfi, over ministerial slot.
There is religious tension in Kaduna as Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) stakeholders from the southern part of the state are at war with the former governor, Senator Ahmed Mohammed Makarfi, over ministerial slot.
The former governor is being accused of piling pressure on the presidency to jettison the list of nominees submitted to by the incumbent, Architect Mohammed Namadi Sambo.
Makarfi was said to have submitted the name of one Dr. Adamu Ahmed Janfalam, General Manager of the Upper Niger River Basin Development Authority, who hails from Zaria in the northern part of the state as a substitution for Senator Isaiah Balat, former Minister of State for Works, Felix Hassan Hyet, current Secretary to the State Government and Suleiman Othman Hunkuyi who headed the Makarfi campaign Organisation in 1999.
In separate news conferences in Kaduna yesterday, the people who addressed the press under the aegis of Kaduna Forum and Kaduna State Concerned Citizens at the NUJ press center, warned that the peace which returned to the state after eight years of 'ethnic and religious conflagration could be disturbed if urgent steps were not taken to nip the imminent crisis in the bud."
The two bodies spoke just as the Southern Kaduna PDP stakeholders, led by Hon. Musa Nikaf, the zonal chairman of the PDP in Kaduna State said the choice of a member from the northern senatorial zone as minister was unacceptable to the people of southern Kaduna zone.
Nikaf warned that their demand for a ministerial nominee of southern Kaduna extraction was not negotiable adding that undue pressure being mounted on the presidency by a chieftain of the party can only beget 'accidental discharge".
While the Kaduna Forum accused Makarfi of being the brain behind the scheming to continue the domination of southern Christians in the state, the southern Kaduna Youth Forum, led by Jerry Adams, and the Kaduna State Concerned Citizens asked Governor Sambo to prove that he is non-committal to Makarfi's cause by ensuring that a southern Kaduna man was given the slot.
According to Isa Chiroma, spokesman of the KSCC, the non-nomination of a southern Kaduna man or woman for ministerial job was already causing suspicion, distrust and intolerance among the populace.
'At the centre of the problem is the immediate past governor of the state, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, Kaduna State as Mr. President is aware is composed of predominantly Muslims in the north and predominantly Christians ethnic nationalities in the south.
'It is an unwritten rule in the politics and delicate balance of the state that in the event of the state governor coming from the north, the ministerial appointment usually comes from the southern part of the state," the KSCC argued.
The KSCC explained that the political arrangement produced the former governor, Ahmed Makarfi in 1999 and 2003 from the north, Senator Isaiah Balat, Chief Garba Madaki Ali and Mrs Nenadi Usman as ministers respectively.
At a crowded news conference, the third within one week in the state capital, the PDP stakeholders said whereas Governor Sambo submitted three names as ministerial nominees from the state 'along the line, undue pressure is being exerted on the presidency to alter this arrangement for a nominee to come from outside the zone with promises of alternate appointment."
Yet at another forum, Jerry Adams, leader of the Southern Kaduna Youths sounded a note of caution to Governor Sambo to do the right thing if he is interested in a second term.
'Namadi should remember that Makarfi is only trying to block his chances for a second term. Why did Makarfi not pick a nominee from the northern zone as minister during his time?
Jerry asked Senator Makarfi to stop interfering in the governance of the state and face his legislative duties, adding, 'while he was governor, nobody dictated to him."