The request for the creation of Bula local government area from Tafawa Balewa Local Government of Bauchi State has sparked reactions and counter-reactions among warring communities of the area over relocation of the headquarters of the local council to Zwall town.
North East Trust recalled that in 2012 Bauchi State government relocated the headquarters of Tafawa Balewa Council to Bununu due to protracted communal crisis that bedevilled the area.
Fourteen ethnic groups from Tafawa Balewa LGA led by Senator Adamu Gumba and the chairman of the council, Daniel Mazadu Danjuma, as well as 31 prominent personalities from the area approached the zonal sitting of the House of Representatives Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution held in Bauchi and requested for the creation of Bula LGA with headquarters at Bununu out of Tafawa Balewa LGA.
They also demanded for the relocation of the headquarters of Tafawa Balewa LGA from Bununu to Zwall town.
However, a community in the area, the Sayawa Community, under the aegis of Zaar Development Association (ZDA), in their submission to the house committee signed by Adamu Bagudu, are insisting that the headquarters should return to Tafawa Balewa.
They said the relocation was unconstitutional as the constitution still recognizes Tafawa Balewa as the headquarters of the LGA. It appealed that the unconstitutional error be corrected without further delay.
Bagudu, who later addressed newsmen, said there was no rationale for the relocation of the headquarters in the first place, adding that it was politically motivated.
“If it is not motivated politically, government should take the bold step of returning to the status quo because it is only the National Assembly that has the power to amend the constitution not State Assembly as was the case in Bauchi State.”
On its part, the Gumba-led submission told the committee that Tafawa Balewa has been the headquarters since 1976, however, due to crisis that has been plaguing the local government since 1991 peace has eluded the local government headquarters.
“This necessitates the transfer of the district headquarters to Zwall and local government headquarters to Bununu in 2012. With the transfer of the LGA headquarters and district headquarters out of Tafawa Balewa, peace has relatively returned to the area. This informed our decision to recommend the new headquarters of Tafawa Balewa LGA to be sited in Zwall town.
“In our view, Zwall town is more centrally located and is accessible to all ethnic groups in the LGA. In addition to that it does not belong to any major tribal group that may claim contentious ownership of the local government headquarters.
“If the above request is accepted, it is our firm belief that a lasting solution would have been found to the crisis bedeviling the local government area,” Gumba said.
On the agitation for the creation of Bula LGA out of Tafawa Balewa LGA, ZDA said it had no objection but was not comfortable with the submission of Sen Adamu Gumba that if Bula LGA is created, Bununu should remain the headquarters while the headquarters of Tafawa Balewa LGA should be taken elsewhere other than Tafawa Balewa town where it was rightly sited.
The association said: “The reason for the relocation was basically for lack of peace in the LGA, but Tafawa Balewa has been peaceful for sometime now and its inhabitants are living in peace with each other.”
