Muslim Groups Reject Tafawa Balewa Town As Sayawa Chiefdom Headquarters

A Coalition of Muslim Organisations in Bauchi State has described Governor Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed’s recent policy pronouncement to create a Sayawa Chiefdom with headquarters in Tafawa Balewa town as a desecration of history.

“This hasty policy statement, in our estimation and critical examination of facts and figures, logic and reasoning on good governance for common public good, amounts to disregard for historical facts, lack of diligence in due process, evasive tapestry for equity and fairness, in addition to administration policy somersaults and egocentrism”, the organisations said.

It could be recalled that Governor Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed had on Tuesday, December 9th, 2024 made a public pronouncement for the creation of Sayawa Chiefdom by his administration which resolved to site headquarters of the proposed Sayawa chiefdom in Tafawa Balewa village under Bauchi emirate.

The Coalition of Muslim Organisations under the auspices of Bauchi State Muslims Parliament (BSMP) said in a press conference in Bauchi yesterday that all the four well-balanced committees of inquiries in the Tafawa Balewa crisis from 1991 to 2022 established two fundamental recommendations.

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“All the well-balanced committees with representation from across wide spectrum of imminent personalities, stakeholders and interest groups, from late Justice Bolarinwa Babalakin Commission of Inquiry in 1991, through to the Ambassador Jibrin Dada Chinade Committee on Review and Implementation of Reports in 2022, established two fundamental recommendations”.

The Muslims parliament press conference, led by its chairman, Mallam Yusuf Abdullahi, gave the recommendations of the past committees on the creation of the proposed chiefdom: to create the Sayawa chiefdom with headquarters in Bogoro, not Tafawa Balewa, and the justification for Tafawa Balewa as belonging to the Fulani extraction.

Mallam Yusuf Abdullahi explained that the coalition of Muslim organisations in Bauchi State remained staunchly in support of setting the proposed headquarters of the said Chiefdom anywhere other than Tafawa Balewa, where its original inhabitants were displaced and dispossessed of their lives and properties.

“As concerned Muslim community desirous of equity and justice for the unjustly treated Muslim Community of Tafawa Balewa, we call for equity and fairness, not only in the eyes of an individual wielding power and authority, but equally in the eyes of the general society.

“Nowhere in a democratic culture, the world over, is found that injustice and lawlessness by certain groups is rewarded with unfairness and denial of right to the other groups, even in the face of overwhelming historical facts and relics”.

The parliament recalled, “In spite of the attempts by past administrations in Bauchi state to resolve this issue in favor of creation of the Sayawa Chiefdom with headquarters recommended by various special committees, and the enabling bill passed by the Bauchi State House of Assembly, the agitators rejected and went to a High Court of Appeal in Jos”.

Abdullahi added, “To the best of our ability that case is still pending in the Court of Law in Nigeria. It is perplexing, therefore, that the His Excellency, the Governor of Bauchi should jump into conclusion on the matter, without due recourse to the laws of the nation, and in violation of principles of fairness, equity and justice to all the parties directly involved in the matter.”