Gombe seeks to reform traditional councils

The Gombe State government has sent an executive bill to the state House of Assembly seeking to reform the laws creating the traditional institution in the state.

Speaking on Tuesday at a public hearing on the bill, Speaker Abubakar Sadiq Ibrahim, said the bill aimed to provide a legal framework for traditional institutions.

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He said the bill tagged ‘A bill to harmonize the provision of all chieftaincy legislations, to repeal and replace those legislations and to make further provisions for Chieftaincy 2020’, was presented to the assembly by Governor Muhammad Inuwa Yahaya.

“The governor seeks to reform the existing laws because traditional institutions constituted crucial resources that have the potentials to promote grassroots governance and to facilitate access of rural communities to public services,” he said.

The speaker added that despite the effect of colonialism and the 1979 local government reforms, which reduced the powers of the traditional institutions, the emirs and chiefs are still respected thus there is need to integrate the institution into the country’s contemporary governance system to provide an institutional safety-valve for inadequate state bureaucracies.

The speaker assured of speedy passage of the bill into law after taking input from the traditional rulers and members of the public.