The Bauchi State high-powered committee on the creation of additional emirates, chiefdoms and districts has proposed the creation of two new chiefdoms and 13 emirate councils.

Hamza Akuyam, chairman of the committee, said this during the formal presentation of its report to Gov. Bala Mohammed on Friday in Bauchi.

He said the committee applied community and stakeholders’ engagement methods in its recommendations, which also proposed the creation of additional 111 districts across the state.

According to Mr Akuyam, one of the terms of reference of the committee is to receive, address and evaluate memoranda from communities seeking the creation of emirates, chiefdoms and districts based on publicly advertised criteria, and to make recommendations that promote justice, social cohesion and inclusion of all groups.

He said the committee received 196 memoranda from various communities, including 17 for the creation of emirates, 13 for the creation of chiefdoms and 166 for the creation of new districts.

“After studying and analysing them, we came up with the recommendation for the creation of 13 emirates to be spread all over the state, as the existing ones are six, making it 19.

“As for the chiefdom, we came up with two, and we came up with 111 districts,” he said.

Responding, Mr Mohammed expressed happiness about the outcome of the report, adding that the modus operandi, methodology, template and techniques employed by the committee were satisfactory.

He said the move was in fulfilment of his campaign promises of the “Bauchi Project,” to unbundle the state, make it more viable and governable, to remove all ungoverned spaces.

“It is also to catch up with our other contemporaries or counterparts as states at the sub-national level.

“We have to agitate for it; if we remain static, nobody will remember us. Having just 20 local government areas is unfair to the state with a population close to 10 million,” he said.

According to Mr Mohammed, the creation of more emirates, chiefdoms and districts will make the state grow and also increase the money coming from the federation account.

He said the report would be transmitted to the state assembly for appropriate legislation, adding the legislators would look at it holistically to come up with something within the ambit of the law in a short time.

(NAN)