At last, former Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, has succeeded Abdullahi Ado Bayero, who died penultimate Friday after 51 years on the throne, as the new Emir of Kano.
Alhaji Sanusi Lamido Sanusi
Before his appointment, 52-year-old Sanusi was Dan Maje Kano.
History has it that the Kano Emirate has been in existence for about 1,000 years.
Sanusi, whose grandfather, Muhammadu Sanusi, reigned between 1954 and 1963 before he was deposed, was picked from a list of three princes submitted by the kingmakers.
The others were Lamido Sanusi Ado Bayero (first son of the immediate past emir) and Yaleyo Inuwa Abbas (son of the late Emir Muhamadu Inuwa Muhammadu, who spent six months on the throne and was succeeded by Ado Bayero).
Despite the controversy over his emergence, Kano State Governor, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, on Monday at the Kano Government House, gave Sanusi letter of appointment as the new emir.
Sanusi’s appointment has continued to spawn protests in the ancient city of Kano, as the palace has been placed under tight security.
The violence, going by reports, has continued to gain momentum, causing the new emir to be receiving visitors at Kano Government House rather than the palace.
There was even a news report that before Sanusi received the letter of appointment, there was a face-off between his supporters and that of the eldest son of the late emir where not less than three people reportedly died.
Kwankwaso has defended his action, insisting that all due procedures were followed in the selection of the new emir and that people should know that the appointment of a new emir remains the sole responsibility of a governor.
The governor said the appointment of an emir was not a political matter and, therefore, advised people not to see anything politics in the new appointment.
“The selection procedure of an emir is not like that of an election in our today’s political arrangement where you put ballot boxes at the polling units,” Kwankwaso had noted.
He debunked rumours making the rounds that the new emir’s name was not among those forwarded to him for final approval.
His words: “The name of our new emir was among the list. In fact, he was the first on the list.”
Emerging developments point to lots of intrigues and political undercurrents trailing the emergence of Sanusi and this, perhaps, is understandable.
Since his suspension and eventual sack as the CBN governor by President Goodluck Jonathan, Sanusi had been walking the tight rope.
Also his romance with the leadership of opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) is believed to have been seen by Aso Rock as an affront.
The fear is that with Sanusi as the Emir of Kano, a strategic city given its population, and with Kwankwaso now in APC, the chances of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will, perhaps, be too slim, if not at point zero, in terms of election victory.
National president, Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF), Yerima Shettima, expressed sadness over the development in Kano, just as he called for caution, warning that Kano may explode if justice was not seen to be done on the issue.
Shettima blamed the governor for playing politics with the issue.
He told TheNiche: “As I speak with you, I am in Kano and you can feel the pulse of the people that what happened did not take proper procedure. The governor, Kwankwaso, seems to have politicised an entirely traditional issue, and I do not see the new emir succeeding under this situation.
“The governor should not impose his candidate on the people. Of course, he should know that Kano people will resist any sort of imposition. Our leaders in the North must speak out against injustice, rather than allowing non-Northerners to be deciding Northern issues, including our tradition.
He dissociated the federal government from the problem. “Leave FG alone here. The question is: was due procedure followed? The answer is no. The other family may want to go to court. Anything can happen in Kano now and that is dangerous. Such an exalted royal position as the Emir of Kano must not be politicised.”
But the APC has accused the PDP of inciting the violence that followed the announcement of Sanusi as the new Emir of Kano on Sunday.
The party said it was an apparent attempt to destabilise the state, and urged the Kano State Attorney-General to prosecute all PDP officials involved in what it described as act of destabilisation.
In a statement issued in Lagos by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, and made available to TheNiche, APC said the statement issued by PDP’s National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, congratulating one of the contenders long before the Kano State government announced the new emir was premeditated and calibrated to incite violence.
It wondered why a ruling party, which has access to Kano or any state government, would rush to the media to congratulate a contender who had not been selected, without even contacting the selecting authority to ensure the veracity of whatever news it may have heard.
“What is so urgent about congratulating the new emir that could not have waited for a few hours for the appropriate authority to make an official announcement?” APC wondered.
The party said when the announcement was eventually made, and the contender who had already been congratulated lost out, it is only natural that his supporters would feel shortchanged.
“It is, therefore, obvious that the PDP, through its National Publicity Secretary, went out of its way to stoke the fire of violence in Kano,” APC added.
A source that pleaded anonymity told TheNiche that the Presidency would do anything within its power to frustrate Sanusi’s ambition of being an emir.
This, according to the source, is because Sanusi is perceived as not only being stubborn and arrogant but has capacity to overrun the presidency in any of their political gameplan in the state.
“Since Sanusi Lamido Sanusi fell out of favour with the Presidency, there is no way the federal government will not want to frustrate his appointment. All that you are seeing are incitements by the powers-that-be. If care is not taken, the Presidency may move in, using the protests as excuse, to remove him. The Presidency has its candidate who the party (PDP) even congratulated before the selection was made, the reason Kwankwaso acted fast to outsmart them,” the source revealed.
Some political commentators agree that Sanusi would have a turbulent reign, especially if Jonathan gets a second term.
The postulation is that with the aggressive posture of the new emir, there is the tendency that the federal government will corner him to irrelevance by not recognising him as it should.
And if he survives the present intrigue, chances are that government may decide to be using other royal fathers from the North, thereby making his reign unpopular.
Former Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister and chieftain of APC, Nasir el-Rufai, has accused the federal government of undue interference in the selection and appointment of the new emir.
Unconfirmed report has it that the Presidency, the Galadima, Tijjani Hashim, a highly connected personality who is yet to pay homage to the new emir, alongside his acolytes, are hell-bent on creating crisis in Kano, to the extent that a state of emergency would be in place and Kwankwaso will be replaced with a military administrator. Consequently, the military administrator will depose Sanusi and announce Sanusi Ado Bayero as Emir of Kano.
But for most political watchers, if Sanusi finally surmounts all the plots and succeeds as the new Kano emir, his reign would be dotted with great controversy.
