By Achadu Gabriel, Kaduna
The recent ruling by the Federal High Court (FHC) in Kano has not resolved the Kano Emirates Crisis but has instead caused confusion among the aggrieved parties, leading to suspicion, assumptions, and speculative interpretations.
This view was expressed by Barrister Shafi’u Balarabe Yakubu of S.B Yakubu & Partners, a legal practitioner, arbitrator, and consultant. Barr. Yakubu, associated with Premier Bar and an expert in conflict management, detailed his concerns in a statement titled, “Post–mortem Dissection of the FHC Ruling on Kano Emirate Council (Repeal) Law 2024: Interpretation, Reflection, and Implications.”
In the statement released last Wednesday in Kaduna, Barr. Yakubu described the FHC ruling as a double-edged pronouncement. He argued that judicial pronouncements, including orders, rulings, and judgments, are intended to clear doubts and ambiguities. However, he stated that the FHC ruling had become ambitious, ambivalent, and ambulatory, lacking the fundamental principles of “Ratio Decidendi” and “Stare Decisis.”
“The FHC ruling failed to distinguish between ‘status quo ante’ and ‘restitutio in integrum’ concerning the validity of the Kano State Emirate Council (Repeal) Law, 2024,” Barr. Yakubu noted. “Where a pronouncement is ambiguous, literal or golden interpretations should be applied to demystify the ambiguity.”
According to Yakubu, the ruling validated only the title and citation of the Kano State Emirate Council (Repeal) Law, 2024, while annulling the contents and provisions, including how an Emir was dethroned and re-instated or appointed under the law.
“This means only the Kano State Emirate Council (Repeal) Law, 2024 was validated, but its contents and provisions were annulled and set aside by the FHC ruling on June 20, 2024,” he explained. “The Kano State Emirate Council remains intact as it was prior to the enactment of the Repeal Law.”
Yakubu further emphasized that no Emir was dethroned, nor was anyone reinstated or appointed under the Kano State Emirate Council (Repeal) Law, 2024. He stated that the FHC ruling rendered the law blank in contents and provisions, with its validity limited only to the title and citation.
“We are not slaves to words but their masters. We interpret them in their ordinary and natural meaning in the context in which we find them,” Yakubu concluded, quoting Lord Alfred Thompson Denning, M.R.
The implications of this ruling, according to Yakubu, are significant, leaving the Kano State Emirate Council’s status quo unchanged and casting uncertainty over the future actions concerning the council.
