By Oguwike Nwachuku
It is no longer news that the emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II will soon preside over just 10 local government areas instead of the usual 44, going by a new bill that has been passed by the Kano State House of Assembly and assented into law by the governor.
During the week, the Kano State House of Assembly passed a bill for the creation of four new emirates, namely, Gaya, Bichi, Karaye and Rano.
No sooner was the bill considered than Governor Abdullahi Ganduje, who has been having issues with Sanusi on matters that are more politically-oriented than on the welfare of Kano people and good governance of the state, assented to it, and by so doing, fueled deep suspicion that he wants to whittle the status of the emir by all means.
Going by the provisions of the bill, Kano emirate is now made up of Kano Municipal, Tarauni, Dala, Nassarawa, Gwale, Kumbotso, Ungogo, Dawakin Kudu, Minijibir and Fagge local government areas.
Apart from creating new emirates, the emirate council was further enhanced as new districts and domains to make the five independent traditional institutions to be on good stead to exercise authority.
In Karaye emirate are Karaye, Rogo, Gwarzo, Kabo, RiminGado, Madobi and Garun Malam local government areas.
Bichi emirate comprises Bichi, Bagwai, Shanono, Tsanyawa, Kunchi, Makoda, Danbatta, Dawakin Tofa and Tofa councils.
Rano emirate includes Rano, Bunkure, Kibiya, Takai, Sumaila, Kura, Doguwa,Tudun Wada, Kiru and Bebeji councils.
Gaya emirate has Gaya, Ajingi, Albasu, Wudil, Garko, Warawa, Gezawa and Gabasawa councils.
That is not all. On Friday despite the order of the court stopping Ganduje from appointing emirs into the newly created emirates, the governor went ahead to name four new emirs who will be given their staffs of office tomorrow.
The first glaring implication over creation of additional emirates and appointment of new emirs is that the powers of the current emir of Kano had been circumscribed.
The second implication is that the four newly created emirates, currently headed by district heads now have emirs as heads, and the occupants of the thrones will either be ranked equally with Sanusi or be warehoused as Ganduje’s irascible politico-traditional allies to checkmate him.
“I’ll assent emirates bill once presented to me,” Ganduje had said. And he did with such masterful speed unprecedented in the history of Kano in recent time with regard to passage of bills into law.
Needless to say that the creation of the new emirates stirred uproar in Kano and elsewhere and has made Sanusi vulnerable based on uncomplimentary comments many have made on him either as former CBN governor or emir of five years now.
Regardless, many have also accused Ganduje of pursuing vendetta against Sanusi because of the emir’s relationship with Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, a former governor of Kano and Ganduje’s former principal, but who Ganduje now sees as his political foe.
While reacting to insinuations of vendetta on Friday, Ganduje said: “It is not vendetta. I am not against him. In fact he is supposed to be reporting to the local government chairman according to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“It is the local government chairman that is supposed to discuss issues with him not the governor. So this is celebrated by the people of Kano and we will make sure that the new emirate councils are effective in terms of developing Kano State.”
Barely five years ago, precisely June 2014, yours sincerely wrote in this column: “All hail Emir Sanusi”.
It was more or less pieces of advice to Sanusi if he wanted his reign as emir to be long.
The intervention then was necessary considering the circumstances surrounding Sanusi’s appointment as successor to the throne of emir of Kano, Ado Bayero, who had just died.
….As soon as news broke on Ado Bayero’s passage on June 6, the scramble began for his coveted stool, the Kano emirate, though the plot on who succeeded him had long been hatched.
Kano State Governor, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, is part of the cabal that had long isolated Lamido Sanusi as Bayero’s successor.
Even when Kwankwaso was in faraway Port Harcourt on the day Bayero died, attending the Governor Rotimi Amaechi-led Nigeria Governors’ Forum retreat, he knew the implication of not rushing back home after receiving news of the transition of Bayero and the danger in not effecting the plan to make Sanusi his successor.
Did Kwankwaso not anticipate the protest that greeted Sanusi’s appointment? He did. Would he have preferred another person to Sanusi? I doubt it.
Therefore, it was no surprise that Sanusi, former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), was chosen. In fact, discerning watchers of the succession to the Kano emirate would have been surprised to hear that Sanusi was not the anointed successor after all the efforts he made.
The struggle for the real occupant of the palace of the emir of Kano is not new. Bayero’s appointment as the 13th emir in 1963 faced resistance.
After the dethronement of Sanusi’s father, Muhammadu (Bayero’s half-brother), in 1963 and the coming to power of Muhammadu Inuwa – whose reign was short-lived – and the eventual selection of Bayero to succeed him, protest rent the ancient city. Residents stayed away from the streets for days until normalcy returned.
The issue is not whether the protesters will melt away in a few days, but the character of Sanusi as Emir. That is why some Kano indigenes and others are praying that the protest should not escalate into killings.
Kwankwaso, while presenting the letter of appointment to Sanusi, said he was under pressure over the pick. Why would he be under pressure if there was no initial understanding to have Sanusi in the palace ab initio? Once a deal is struck, the rest, as they say, is history. Kwankwazo had a deal with Sanusi and it was incumbent on him to implement it.
“It was a difficult decision, all the contestants are friends of the government. There is no one among them that is an enemy of the government. If it was possible to divide the position of the emir into six and share it among all the contestants, I would have done that but it was not possible.
“There are people, even in my government, that inherited the position but we have to choose one. As a governor, I must perform my responsibility and take a decision, if not, things will go bad,” Kwankwaso explained.
But beyond his explanation is the fact that Sanusi is the man he can trust now, given the political dynamics of cosmopolitan Kano, where only birds of the same feather flock together amid diverse and contending political interests.
And typical of other things that happen in our country without the citizens asking critical questions, which governor would have received the support Kwankwaso got from Sanusi as CBN boss in form of huge monetary aid to cushion the effects of the natural disaster in the state a few years ago without looking for the time to pay back?
I hope Nigerians have not forgotten in a hurry, as usual, the flaks that trailed the N100 million Sanusi dolled out to the Kano State government and how he defended his action with almost his blood. Part of what the Goodluck Jonathan administration holds against Sanusi, and for which he was suspended, is his alleged financial recklessness, particularly donations authorised and defended despite the existence of the CBN board.
One person who did not see anything wrong, and who will not see anything wrong, in Sanusi and his actions while in office is Kwankwaso.
While he was CBN Governor, Sanusi paraded the nooks and crannies of CBN and government offices in the full regalia of a traditional ruler, conveying the message, “I am the emir in the waiting.”
He said during the week: “My selection is an act of Allah and our family is united.”
His selection did not take place on June 8. It had long been done by Kwankwaso, who was only waiting for Bayero to die.
Is Sanusi qualified for the office? Yes. He fits into the mould nationally and internationally because of his good education and international exposure. However, the sore point is his penchant for controversy. His reign, which started with protests, normal or not, will be in the interest of his appointees more than in the overall interest of the people of Kano.
As Kwankwaso’s appointee, I do not see Sanusi deferring too much to the likes of Ibrahim Shekarau, former Governor of Kano, and other personalities in the state who do not share the same political family with Kwankwaso. Already, Sanusi has reportedly started functioning from Kano State Government House, allegedly betraying his interest less than a week of his appointment.
Those who have Sanusi’s ears should tell him that the office of emir, which he craves so much, is quite different from the office of CBN governor; and that part of what people will use to judge the success or failure of his reign is his ability to mend fences among warring subjects, galvanise peace and unity between the state and federal government, and be advisory, not advocatory, in national and international affairs.
If Sanusi fails to do so, he will be currying dethronement. It would be sad to hear that he, like his father, is dethroned – in his own case, due to avoidable controversy.
I have reproduced the above excerpt because most of the earlier predictions have come to pass.
But more significantly, to bring to the fore the danger in the desperation of the authorities in Kano and elsewhere to willingly undermine the Kano traditional institution, one that has helped to stand the people out amid other cultures and traditions both nationally and internationally, in the name of politics.
Those who say everything that is wrong with Nigeria is caused by politicians need no reprimand.
No doubt, Sanusi has his limitations like any other mortal, but it hurts when one remembers that the face-off between Ganduje and Kwankwaso is never about the people of Kano, their welfare and how to improve on the standard of governance of the state, but on the ego trip that is cause by the indwelling veins in the inner chambers of their anatomy.
As is expected, politics has now taken centre-stage as far as the circumscription of the powers of Sanusi by Ganduje is concerned.
Of course that was the reason Ganduje spurned the order of the court and proceeded to announce the names of four new emirs on Friday.
That he even intends to hand them their staffs of office on Saturday, May 11, as a way of stamping his authority on the matter makes the desperation more nauseating and questions our so-called sense of commitment to the rule of law as the hallmark of democracy.
For benefit of those who do not know, a Kano State High Court presided over by Justice Nasiru Saminu on Friday restrained Ganduje from appointing new emirs and also directed the state government to suspend any move aimed at demarcating the Kano emirate pending the determination of the case now before it. In a democracy that is fair enough to try the actions and inactions of those midwifing the process.
But as it is said, the jury is still out, and pronto, the new Ganduje (political) emirs – Aminu Ado Bayero (Bichi), Ibrahim Abdulkadir (Gaya), Tafida Abubakar (Rano) and Ibrahim Abubakar (Karaye) have been contemptuously unveiled.
Following the creation of the new emirates, the matter took a political dimension as the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) members in the Kano House of Assembly said they were not properly created, and accused their colleagues in the All Progressives Congress (APC) of disregarding extant parliamentary procedures.
Minority leader, Rabi’u Gwarzo, and minority whip, Babangida Sulaiman, particularly challenged the procedures.
The PDP lawmakers said the House was officially on recess and was not properly convened before the law was hurriedly passed on Wednesday.
Gwarzo said: “We challenged the creation of the new emirates in court because the procedures followed by the House were illegal. The days and times and entire processes did not conform to ethics of the House, hence our decision to challenge it in court.
“We have secured a court order in that respect and it will soon be made public. We won’t allow this matter to die just like that. Due process must be followed in all undertakings of the House.
“We have rules and regulations governing the conduct of any activity by the House and we will not allow anybody to deviate from the rules of the House.”
But did Ganduje obey the court order? The answer is no. Is he the only politician in this dispensation who casts aspersion on court orders? Again, the answer is no. And that can only happen in our own society where anything is possible in and with politics.
Today, Ganduje sees Kwankwaso and Sanusi as enemies, but five years ago he as deputy governor of Kano was part of the “mistake” that was made in high places to produce Sanusi as emir. Therefore, let the Kano people where the new emirates have been carved out and who are rejoicing that their turn has come do so with circumspection because what I see playing out is more of political gimmick than love for the people and their needs.
Kano people are yearning for qualitative education, functional health care system, assessable road infrastructure, portable water, constant electricity and jobs for the army of youth that are either unemployed or underemployed. Kano people are tired of the ravaging poverty and devastating insecurity occasioned by cattle rustling, brigandage and other criminal tendencies that limit the state and the people from achieving their God-given potentials.
Methinks Ganduje, Kwankwaso, Sanusi and their retinue of praise-singers should rather attend to these daunting challenges confronting their state instead of creating more problems for their people using the traditional stool.
