Bala Mohammed, Bauchi State governor, has handed over 156 official vehicles to 14 newly appointed emirs and 114 district heads. The distribution, announced on Tuesday, follows the governor's October approval of 13 new emirates, one chiefdom and additional district units. The vehicles are meant to equip traditional rulers for grassroots governance and strengthen the state's customary institutions.
The governor's office said the cars would help the new appointees carry out administrative duties across their domains. Mohammed created the new emirates after consultations with traditional councils and community leaders, arguing that smaller domains would bring governance closer to rural residents. Critics say the move multiplies chieftaincy stools and raises the cost of maintaining monarchies in a state where many rural roads remain unpaved and primary health centres lack drugs.
Recipients received keys at a brief ceremony inside the Government House, Bauchi. No details were given on the vehicle brands, purchase cost or source of funding.
Bala Mohammed just bought 156 cars for monarchs while Bauchi's teachers still wait for salary arrears. The optics are brutal: traditional rulers who already live off community levies and government stipends now cruise in state-funded SUVs, yet rural classrooms lack chalk.
The governor's emirate-splitting spree is classic political gerrymandering dressed up as grassroots reform. Each new emir becomes a patronage node that can deliver votes, collect levies and mute opposition in remote wards. By swelling the council of kings, Mohammed guarantees himself a loyal bench of influence brokers who owe their thrones to his signature.
For Bauchi farmers, the cost is immediate. Every naira sunk into maintaining 156 extra vehicles is a naira not spent on fertiliser subsidies or repairing the Darazo-Jahun road that washes out every rainy season. The new district heads will now drive past broken boreholes to hold court in palaces built with village taxes.
This follows a national pattern: governors bloat traditional institutions before elections, then send the bill to depleted state treasuries. The cars will be replaced in four years; the debt lingers for twenty.
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