From Amos Tauna, Kaduna
The Middle Belt Forum, Kaduna state chapter, has called on President Bola Tinubu and Governor Uba Sani to reverse what it called “former governor El-Rufai’s Southern Kaduna traditional structures” that undermine their cultural identity and political autonomy.
According to the forum, “The administration of former Governor Nasir El-Rufai (2015–2023) left a legacy of division and distrust in Kaduna State through reckless restructuring of traditional institutions. These changes, widely perceived as ethnoreligious gerrymandering, targeted Southern Kaduna communities and other minorities, undermining their cultural identity and political autonomy.
“Today, we urge Governor Uba Sani and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to heed the calls of justice-loving Nigerians by reversing these ill-conceived policies, which have deepened fractures in our pluralistic society.”
Under the guise of “inclusivity,” the forum in a statement issued by Daniel Ejembi, the forum’s state Chairman, said that El-Rufai’s government executed a calculated erosion of Southern Kaduna’s traditional structures of 13 chiefdoms and emirates were renamed, stripping them of ethnic identities.
He explained that the Adara Chiefdom was controversially rebranded as “Kajuru Chiefdom”, erasing the Adara people’s historical presence, the traditional title of “Sir Gbagyi” (associated with the Gbagyi people in Chikun LGA) was replaced with “Etsu Chikun”, a strange nomenclature, further alienating indigenous communities.
According to the statement, “Such renamings occurred across Southern Kaduna, where non-Muslim majority chiefdoms were systematically stripped of their heritage.”
Ejembi stated that Chiefdoms in Christian-majority areas, such as Kauru, were unilaterally upgraded to emirates, with traditional rulers pressured to adopt the title of “Emir” a move seen as Islamization, saying that it violated the cultural and religious sensibilities of communities, despite El-Rufai’s claims that chiefs “applied” for the changes.
The forum also said that the administration unilaterally altered local government boundaries without following constitutional procedures, stressing that “Ladduga District” (Ikulu Chiefdom, Zangon Kataf LGA) was transferred to Kachia LGA to expand grazing reserves, dispossessing indigenous communities of ancestral lands.
He added that Section 8 of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution mandates that boundary adjustments must follow a rigorous process with a request by the Local Government Council; followed by an approval by a two-thirds majority of the State House of Assembly, ratification by the National Assembly and
involvement of the National Boundary Commission (NBC).
He said, “El-Rufai’s administration bypassed these steps, acting without federal approval, community consultation, or NBC oversight. These illegal adjustments were not only arbitrary but also unconstitutional.”
The chairman explained that chiefdoms like Koro, Jere, Piriga, and Kurama were forcibly merged under Hausa-Fulani emirates, diluting their autonomy, pointing out that Chiefs who resisted, such as “Jonathan Zamuna” of Piriga, were deposed, while Zamuna was later reinstated by court order, the damage to intercommunity trust persists.
According to him, “El-Rufai’s leaked video confession, where he openly admitted plans to relegate Christians and deceive them to empower Muslims, confirms what Southern Kaduna communities long suspected. These reforms were not about governance but subjugation. Such brazen ethno-religious engineering has no place in a democracy.”
He called on President Tinubu’s intervention to reverse “illegal boundary adjustments”, the unconstitutional redrawing of LGA boundaries, which falls under federal jurisdiction, should be revoked and called for investigation to halt the expansion of grazing reserves on unlawfully acquired lands and return disputed territories to indigenous communities.
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