By Mustapha Usman, Kano
The fate of two female nominees for local government chairpersons, Hasiya Isma’il Mukhtar and Binta Fatima Yahaya is hanging in the balance as politicians and Islamic clerics move against their nomination.
The state governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, had planned to nominate at least five women as Interim Management Officers to fill the void left by the elected local government chairmen whose tenure expired recently, but the move faced stiff internal opposition.
Although the list was not released until Monday night, it nevertheless drew negative reactions from the politicians and the Islamic clerics as the news of nominating two females filtered.
Already the politicians have succeeded in removing Mrs Mukhtar’s name, while the male-only State House of Assembly insisted that no female nominee would be screened by the members.
DAILY NIGERIAN reliably gathered that the newly elected Speaker, Yusuf Ata, has vowed not to allow any female nominee scale the screening as “it is against Islamic teaching for woman to lead.”
A religious leader who spoke on the condition of anonymity said they (Ulamas) would “fight to finish” to stop the females from holding executive position.
“It is clearly against Islamic injunction. We are waiting the government to come openly to announce them, so that will also come openly to challenge them,” he said.
A former governor of the state, Rabiu Kwankwaso, had faced a similar challenge during his first tenure when he was forced by Ulamas to drop Hadiza Adado as chairperson of Fagge Local Government Council.
