By Emeka Alex Duru
Baring interventions from influential quarters, the days of Sanusi Lamido Sanusi 11, as the Emir of Kano, may be numbered. Going by developments in the state in the last couple of days, his powers and influence in the Kano Emirate, have been drastically whittled, leaving him with mere control of 10 Local Government Areas, as against the 44 councils, he had earlier had under his authority. That is not the bigger case. It is rather, the likelihood of his dethronement, if the State governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, forges ahead with the obvious agenda of undoing him.
Sins of Sanusi
The assault on the Emir began to take shape in 2017 but was halted midway following the intervention of prominent personalities, including business mogul, Aliko Dangote and the Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’ad Abubakar II, last year. Then and now, the emirate which he heads, had been confronted with an allegation of financial misconduct by the State’s anti-graft agency. Sanusi is also accused of making unguarded comments on the state government’s development policy, which officials of the Ganduje administration claim to have brought the governor to disrepute.
They particularly accuse him of involvement in partisan politics by openly supporting a political party in the just-concluded gubernatorial election in the state. This is what analysts consider the major grouse the governor holds against the traditional ruler. The Speaker of the State Assembly, Kabiru Alhassan Rurum, had alluded to this in explaining why the authorities in the state were no more comfortable with the Emir. He had on an occasion, accused the Emir of “getting involved in political issues, the misappropriation of the Emirate Council’s funds and making statements against President Muhammadu Buhari.”
In a system where comments seen as not favourable to the President of Governor, are interpreted as heretic, Sanusi is bound to carry the can. The background to his enthronement, makes the suspicion thick. Five years ago when he was crowned the 14th Emir of the City, he was in the same camp with Ganduje, who was deputy to the then Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso. Ganduje succeeded Kwankwaso in 2015. But on account of political differences between Kwankwaso and the All Progressives Congress (APC), the former governor, later returned to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Ganduje however remained with APC where his differences with his erstwhile boss widened by the day.
In the last governorship election in the state, the crisis took more pronounced shape when the governor almost lost to the PDP candidate but for a controversial supplementary election in some councils that eventually gave him slim victory. Suspicions in Kano Government House were that Sanusi was in alignment with Kwankwaso and his PDP colleagues against Ganduje. The governor is said to be highly crossed against him over this charge, hence the resurrection of the misapplication of the emirate’s funds that had been dropped last year.
Besides, there had been insinuations among the conservative political elite on some actions of the Emir which they consider too radical and against established norms of the land. When, for instance, Sanusi detailed his daughter, Shahida, to represent him at a ChibokGirls Lecture in Abuja last year, conservative elements in the state frowned at the exercise, arguing that there were qualified officials of the emirate council that he could have sent to the occasion. They particularly frowned at the Emir’s daughter, not wearing a hijab to the occasion.
He had within the same period, taken a swipe at people who indulge in child marriage and, against the practice, advised against polygamy if there is no money to support such. The Emir had also threatened religious and traditional leaders in his domain to stop beating their wives, failing which they would lose their titles. These outings and admonitions by Sanusi, it was learnt, did not go down well with those leaders who felt that he was beginning to interfere in their private affairs.
Thus, to cut down his enormous influence, Kano State government, has split the Emirate into five. To give effect to the exercise, the governor, on Wednesday, signed into law a newly passed bill on the appointment and deposition of emirs. The law creates four new traditional institutions and emirate councils each with a substantive first class title of emir. They are Gaya, Karaye, Rano and Bichi. The emirate council is further expanded with new districts and domains under which the five independent traditional institutions will operate. Observers see the move at drastic reduction of Sanusi’s influence and probably, a prelude to his dethronement. If this eventually happens, Sanusi, former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, would have toed the same path with some of his predecessors in Kano and other parts of the North.
Like Sanusi, like his predecessors
The last time an Emir of Kano came close to what Sanusi is experiencing, was on July 9, 1981, when the Second Republic civilian governor, Abubakar Rimi, issued a query to the then Emir, His eminence, Alhaji Ado Bayero. The riots which followed the query, forced the government to withdraw the query. Bayero, reigned till he died in 2014.
Sanusi’s grandfather, Emir Muhammdu Sanusi 1, who had faced similar fate earlier, was not that lucky. Power tussle between him and erstwhile Premier of the Northern Region, Ahmadu Bello, Sardauna of Sokoto, saw the Emir holding the wrong end of the stick. The Emir was accused of tampering with funds belonging to the Kano Emirate and a panel was set up by the Sardauna, to probe the allegation. At the end of the exercise, the Northern Regional Government accepted to implement the recommendation of the panel, that Sanusi should be removed from office.
He was eventually deposed in 1963 and exiled to Azare, a location in the current Bauchi State. He was eventually pardoned by the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) – led government of Kano in 1980, by which time, he had effectively lost the crown and glory. Would this be the same fate for Sanusi 11, many ask.
Two scenarios appear likely. It is either that that the unfolding developments end in his being shown the way out of the hallowed seat, or he is further reduced in stature and status to that of a lame duck, lacking in power and prestige.
Whichever way it turns out, informed commentators, add the travail of the Emir to litany of incidences that add to the waning influence of the traditional institution in the North. In his classic essay on the Fall of the North, Senior Lecturer in the Department of History, Lagos State University, Dapo Thomas, listed the recurrent assault on the traditional institution among the factors working against harmony and cohesion in the North. Citing instances of the query on Bayero, the dissolution of the Muri emirate, headed by Umaru Abba Tukur, by the then Military governor of the defunct Gongola State, Col. Yohanna Madaki in July, 1986 and the dethronement of the Sultan of Sokoto, His Eminence, Ibrahim Dasuki by former Head of State, General Sanni Abacha on April 20, 1996, he argued that they were portentous actions signposting the decline of the oneness of the North.
“The moment Sanni Abacha demystified the mystique of the Sultanate, the entire North became stripped of the myth of inviolability surrounding it. It was clear that the violation of the Caliphate, which for the North was a symbol of spiritual and political authorities, rubbished the personality-cult of the Caliphate and the emirates”, he stated.
He added, “The caliphate and the emirates have declined. Their spiritual fountain is drained. Their political influence has withered. Their command structure is stunted. The foundation of “One North, One People” has crumbled. The Abubakar Saddiq III legacy has been imperiled. All his 50-year efforts to have one formidable north are going down the drains. The House of Sardauna has cracked… The picture is real and the message is clear: the North has fallen”.
Against this backdrop, the current trials of Sanusi, may not appear abnormal. And if he goes down, the system continues.