There were strong voices of opposition in Kano, northern Nigeria over state creation, state police and rotational presidency during Saturday’s public hearing on Constitution Review.
Opinion leaders in the commercial city known for its political consciousness said the three issues are not in the interest of the North.
Participants who spoke to Pointblanknews.com with at designated centres for the exercise, said they were totally against state creation, rotational presidency and state police as they were not part of the issues promoting conflict in the country.
They frowned that some of the issues they were expected by the National Assembly to deliberate upon were not in the interest of the North and therefore would not be supported.
According to them, there are more pressing and disturbing issues the National Assembly should address rather than bordering itself with some obvious trivialities.
Ahmad Tijjani, one of the participants said, “State police would only add salt to the injury that we are faced with, in terms of security. We are therefore not in support of the idea. And Nigeria is not ripe for such or similar arrangements.”
Mustapha Sheriff believed that, rotational presidency was undemocratic and did not give the needed right for the electorates to make their choice.
Their political choices were misguided and would not achieve anything, so long as presidency would continue to be shared among the zones.
In Nassarawa local government, where Honourable Nasiru Ali Ahmed of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), people belonging to different political parties were seen putting heads together before passing their opinion on almost all the issues raised in the documents presented to them by the National Assembly.
Honourable Ahmed cautioned all the participants to be very serious and curios in determining an answer to each of the questions raised by the document.
“Today we are all one. Our party differences should please be closed for now. And I am promising you that I am not going to give something different from what you decided upon,” he noted.
Hon. Farouq Lawan’s Bagwai/Shanono federal constituency was heavily fortified with armed mobile police men.
There was, however, a turn of event in Lawan’s constituency following the overwhelming reception accorded him by his people on arrival at the centre, this was against the expectation prior to his visit that he would be booed by his people following the bribe scandal that has dented his political reputation.
Earlier the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero called on the members of the National Assembly to always keep their eyes on what they were doing and what they going to do. Telling them that time is ripe for them to understand that the interest of their electorates should come first before any other thing. He said that when they paid him a courtesy call a day before the public hearing, in his palace.
A sad drama also allegedly took place in Gwale Federal Constituency where angry mob descended on their representative, Hon. Bashir Hussaini Galandanci of the Peoples Democratic Party, for undisclosed reasons.
It was learnt that Hon. Galadanci arrived to the hostile reception of the crowd which chanted slogans suggesting he was in some kind of trouble with his people.
Some of the slogans also demonstrated their opposition to the Constitutional Review project.
Eyewitness account hinted that Hon. Galadanci was physically molested by his attackers to the point of coma and was saved by the timely intervention of security agents.