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CALABAR - Ibrahim Muhammad, Zamfara Commissioner for Information, has called on the government to ban traditional rulers from holding political meetings with politicians.
Muhammad made the call in a memorandum he presented to the 42nd Meeting of the National Council on Information and Communication, which began in Calabar on Oct. 26.
He said that traditional rulers’ involvement in partisan politics posed a threat to their position as guides to “how we communally live, intermingle, interact and prosper together, as a people”.
Muhammad said that traditional institutions were the only lasting legacy that the rest of the world could identify to be “originally what belongs to us”.
“Their arbitrary function in moments of dispute between families or communities is grossly undermined by their active participation in politics.”
The commissioner said that those empowered by circumstance, try to bring the paramount rulers to convey to their lieutenants, down to the people “all sorts of campaign instruments and stop at nothing to win elections”.
“In this manner, they are being recruited by mainstream politicians, cowed and misdirected to outrun the bounds of inheritance and unwittingly overstep the ancestry limits which unfortunately compromise their position in history.”
He noted that traditional rulers who joined the ruling party that failed to win re-election were subjected to all manner of threat and intimidation, while their colleagues who were neutral are demoted or deposed by the winning party.
Muhammad said that this had become part of “our democratisation process and the outcome, include loss of lives and property, as well as permanent memories to live with”.
He also drew the council’s attention to the involvement of civil servants in partisan politics, especially at the beginning of every electioneering campaign, in the bid to enhance their prospect of promotion or posting, when elections are won or lost.
“The council may have to take a look at the adverse effects of the involvement of career civil servants in partisan politics on the civil service system.
“It may also wish to look into ways of exempting traditional rulers and civil servants from active participation in politics,” he said.
Muhammad called for sustainable mass media campaign to enlighten the traditional rulers, civil servants and all stakeholders on the need to ban traditional rulers and career civil servants from participating in anyway in politics.
The commissioner was represented by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Hajiya Dije Gusau.
The 3-day conference is being attended by state commissioners for information, permanents secretaries in the state ministries of information and their counterpart at the federal level.
It is expected to be officially declared open on Oct. 27 by the Minster of Information Labaran Maku.
