KANO State Governor, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje has consented to the marriage proposal between his daughter Fatima Umar Ganduje and Idris Ajimobi, the son of Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo state.
The marriage proposal was contracted on Friday at the palace of the Emir of Kano Muhammadu Sanusi II who gave the father’s consent to the proposed union.
No fewer than 12 serving governors attended the event including governor Akinwumi Ambode of Lagos state, Rauf Aregbesola of Osun state, Rotimi Akeredolu Ondo state as well as Adulfatah Ahmad of Kwara state.
Others are Bello Masari of Katsina state, Mohammed Abubakar Badaru Jigawa, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal Sokoko, Abdal’aziz Abubakar Yari of Zamfara state as well as the governor of Borno state Kashim Shettima among others.
The Emir of Kano who consented to the proposal on behalf of Governor Ganduje described the union as a way to cementing relationships as well as destroying stereotypes between south and northern Nigeria.
Citing from the Quran and Hadith, the Emir stated that tribalism and ethnicity that have being dividing factors in the country have no place in Islam.
He commended Governors Ganduje and Ajomobi for leading a good example for the people to follow for peaceful co-existence in the country.
‘’I am pleased that two leaders of this country at a time when this country is most at need of example, at a time when this country is most in need of reminders that we are all Nigerians, we are part of one common humanity descended from one man and one woman, made from the same earth decided to apply this teaching to show an example to all of us.
‘’The prophet of Allah said there is no supremacy for the Arab over the non Arab, or the non Arab over the Arab. No superiority for the light skinned over the black skinned or black skinned over the white skinned all of you are from Adam and Adam is from the earth.
The reason I quote this Hadith is to remind all of us that tribalism, racism and all these ‘’isms’’ that are based on ethnicity have no place in Islam.
‘’Marriages are unions especially when they come from prominent families. They are not just unions between boy and girl or man and woman, they are unions of people, they cement relationships, they improve understanding, they breed love and respect, they destroy stereotypes’’ Emir Sanusi emphasized.
Speaking on behalf of Ajimobi family governor Rauf Aregbesola thanked the Emir of Kano and Governor Ganduje for approving the proposal assuring that the union would be taken beyond mere union between two families.
‘’We expressed our sincere gratitude for the magnanimity, consideration and huge leadership you have displayed today in first admonishing us about the essence of this particular gathering that is beyond mere gathering between two families. This is a pointer to the need for our nation to struggle and retrieve that which we had carelessly lost over the years.
‘’The assurance I want to give on behalf of my brother from Ibadan is that we will take this beyond mere union between two families. We appreciate the need for us to work very hard for the unity, for the harmony between our peoples’’ he concluded.
