By Zainab Abbas Gwangwazo
The Sun newspaper of Saturday, July 12, 2014, carried an interesting piece on the controversy that dogged the selection of Malam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi as Emir of Kano. The article, written by a retired banker, Alhaji Mustapha B. Chiranchi, was replicated on social media sites, thereby generating robust debates. I was drawn to the debate mainly due to my area of study in the UK, but more so because of its overriding echo on the issues of justice, fair play and morality in our polity especially at this time when we make our turtuousjourney towards the 2015 general elections. I shall revisit Cviranchi’s major points and arrive at my own conclusions.
There is no gainsaying the fact that the death of Alhaji (Dr.) Ado Bayero on Friday, June 6, 2014 was a monumental epoch in the history of Kano Emirate. It shocked and shook not only the people residing in Kano State but also a wide spectrum of Nigerians. The reason was indeed in the sheer size and prowess of the emirate as well as the status the late emir occupied amongst Nigerians, nay African traditional rulers. Bayero ruled for 51 years with great aplomb, grace and majesty, promoting peace and unity in his domain and making the emirate system revelant in the scheme of things in the Nigerian system. May his soul rest in peace, amen.
Many had truly expected one of the late monarch’s sons to inherit the throne as it has become the tradition in contemporary emirate system. That was more so since many of the sons are capable of holding the reins of this important emirate council. In fact, many had been actively involved in the day to day running of the council, occupying top positions in the system and were well attuned to all that it takes.
It came as a rude shock, therefore, when the contest became embroiled in controversy especially when a grandson of another late emir of Kano threw his hat in the ring and was eventually selected to succeeed Alhaji Ado Bayero. The new emir is Malam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, a former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), who a few days later changed his name to Alhaji Muhammadu Sanusi II after his grandfather of the same name. There have been debates since that June 8 appointment made by Kano State Governor, Engineer Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso, whose decision was greeted with some rioting and teeth-gritting by some Kano people who felt short-changed and angry that the Bayero bloodline had been betrayed.
So much has been said about the selection of the new emir. But subsequent discoveries need to be stressed, now that the controversial decision looks settled. We must put some issues on the record in order to learn lessons therefrom and educate ourselves on the kind of moral reasoning guiding Nigerian policymaking today.
The first issue to put to question is the claim by the Kano State chief executive that Sanusi’s appointment was made purely on merit and nothing else. I would not say that the man did not prepare himself for the throne, for it is common knowledge that he had been coveting it all his life. But there were more mundane considerations that came into play, the first being the revenge mission Kwankwaso had embarked upon since his second coming as governor. We all knew about his battle against Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, the man he succeeded as governor. Many of the things Kwankwaso does are geared towards humiliating Shekarau. We also know about the other battlefront he opened against President Goodluck Jonathan especially immediately before and after his defection from the Peoples Democratic Party. We also knew about Shekarau’s defection to the PDP and his being embraced by Jonathan, which looked like forging a common front against Kwankwaso. As fate would have it, Sanusi was at that material time also being investigated by the Jonathan Administration over some aleged finanfial irregularities under his watch at the CBN. In order to extract his pound of flesh from Jonathan for embracing Shekarau, Kwankwaso felt that giving the emirship reins to Sanusi (a perceived victim of Jonathan) would be the sweetest revenge. Arguably, even if Sanusi was not competent for emir he would get the throne.
We also knew about Kwankwaso’s opposition to Ado Bayero, which manifested itself more glaringly during the latter’s appointment of a new Wazirin Kano. Kwankwaso must have carried this opposition forward to the decision moment of appointing a new emir after Bayero’s demise. To give the stool to a son of Bayero would, therefore, look like honouring the dead, which the governor was apparently not keen on doing. Again, Sanusi benefited from this sentiment.
There were also talks about chunks of money exchanging hands over the selection of the new emir. It was widely discussed in the heat of the selection that some opposition (APC) politicians had boasted that they were spending heavily in order to get the stool for Sanusi. They saw the the appointment of a new emir for Kano as simply a PDP-versus-APC contest rather than fulfilling a reverred tradition that predated colonial times. This allegation of buying the emirship, raised in Chiranchi’s piece, should be investigated by the relevant authorities please!
After examining these issues in the main piece by Alhaji Mustapha, one can boldly assert that both Malam Sanusi and Governor Kwankwaso have had their dreams fulfilled during the “night of the long knives” in our dear Kano. But to insist that the whole saga was concluded on a high moral pedestal rather than some underhand tactics is far from the truth.
Ms Gwangwazo, an indigene of Kano, is a student at the Robert Gordon University (RGU), Aberdeen, Scotland
