Sajoh leads agitation for creation of Amana State from Adamawa

Group canvasses rotational governorship

Former Commissioner for Information and strategy in Adamawa State, Ahmad Sajoh, led over 200 indigenes of Mubi Local Council, yesterday, to demand the creation of Amana State from Adamawa, at the public hearing on the review of the 1999 Constitution.

Sajoh and his people demanded the upgrade of Mubi to a state to be known as Amana, citing deprivation, neglect and undue undermining of Mubi indigenes.

On the rostrum, Sajoh lamented that they voluntarily joined Nigeria in February 1961 with promise by the former Premier of the defunct Northern Region, Sir Ahmadu Bello, that they would be treated as an independent entity.

He said they were cajoled into the Nigerian entity by Bello, who foresaw their peril should they go away like the southern and northern Cameroon did.

“We tarried with Nigeria who reduced us from the same status we had alongside Lagos to a mere local council,” he bemoaned.

Sajoh said his people pulled out of southern Cameroon to be part of Nigeria.

“We are dearly paying for the avoidable mistake of the old,” he lamented.

He also said that Mubi, with a 4,088km landmass, is bigger than Lagos and other states of the country.
IN the same vein, the Benue Rebirth Movement (BRM) has called for a constitutional amendment to provide for the rotation of the governorship position among senatorial districts in a state.

This, according to the group, was to ensure balanced and equitable sharing of political power that will give every component of every state a sense of belonging as well as reduce political tension, rivalry and conflict.

BRM’s presentation, delivered by its National Coordinator, Monday Morgan, during the North Central zonal public hearing on the review of the 1999 Constitution, on Wednesday, May 26, in Jos, Plateau State.

Morgan stated: “BRM, in the light of its call for equal opportunity, national integration and inclusiveness in governance, strongly recommends an amendment to the constitution to make the governorship position rotational among the three senatorial districts of a state after a two-term reign in any particular District.”

The non-political and non-confrontational organisation established to promote ethnic minority integration and inclusiveness in governance, according to Morgan, does not subscribe to the call for Sovereign National Conference or Referendum but welcomes restructuring to remove or reduce all the vestiges of exclusion.