Sanusi & His Circle Of Friends – By Ballason Gloria Mabeiam Esq.

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It’s a wonder what a day can do in any human life. A week
ago, precisely on Monday, March 9, 2020, Kano state government announced the
dethronement of Emir Sanusi II in a press statement signed by the secretary to
the state government, Usman Alhaji. Predictably, the announcement was preceded
by a brawl at the state House of Assembly over the planned removal.

Less than 24 hours after, a new emir was announced to
replace Sanusi II ,Aminu Ado Bayero who before then was the Emir of Bichi- one
of four new emirates Governor Abdullahi Ganduje created in 2019 while the plot
thickened for Sanusi to be removed. The State Government cited Section 11 (1)
of the Kano State Emirate Council Law, 2019 which empowers the governor to
appoint anybody recommended by the kingmakers. But the Secretary of the State
Government had earlier cited ‘alleged total disrespect to lawful instructions
from the office of the governor and other lawful authorities including his
alleged  persistent refusal to attend
official meetings and programs organised by the government without any
justification- claiming the disposition amounted to total insubordination. The
SSG speaking on behalf of the government the SSG went on to declare that
removal was done to ‘safeguard the sanctity, culture, tradition and prestige of
the Kano emirate built over a thousand years.’ 
How the state government can argue a case of culture preservation having
balkanized about a century monarchy beats the imagination. Again, the conflicts
of Law is seen by  how a latter day  democracy w designs and enforce Laws on over
a century old  monarchy and of cultures
that have mutated over that period.

Not a few saw the dethronement coming. Sanusi Lamido Sanusi,
the 14th Fulani Emir and  the Sarkin Kano
had been in a cold war with Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano state who had
demonstrated time and again that he could not withstand Sanusi’s vehement
disapproval of subterfuge of the People’s will which caused him to ride on a
stolen mandate into power. Sanusi II also often rode rough shod against northern
conservative elites who believed Sanusi was too sanguine for the conservative
Kano stool and  often spared nothing in
heralding and projecting laid back practices his urbane self found repugnant.
With that set, the perfect storm was created.

Perhaps no one predicted with as near exactitude what
Sanusi’s  monarchical end would be
like  the serial column writer and
commentator, Farooq Kperogi. Of the end, Kperogi wrote in April 2017: ”
Sanusi’s cryptic but devastating critique of Kano state Governor Ganduje’s
government in Kaduna which is  pissing
off federal government and state government and an entire region’s conservative
cultural elites with bitter , uncomfortable truth-telling was a lethally
combustible mix. It is capable of getting him dethroned.” And although
Farouq admitted he had no oracular powers, his prediction that like his
grandfather, Emir Sanusi II  would be
dethroned, came true as  the 14th Emir  of Kano and perhaps the most cerebral
intellectual to ascend the Kano throne was, without recourse to a judicial
order  dethroned and banished first to
Loko then Awe in Nassarawa State. Although his wish to die on the throne was
not met, his lifetime ambition of being emir was fulfilled –  even if facilitated by  the political Kwankwasiya manoeuvering that
saw Sanusi  ascension to the stool of his
fathers away from the Jonathanian flood that may have overwhelmed him for
releasing in 2014 controversial figures of alleged stolen monies from the NNPC.

A FRIEND IN NEED.

While Ganduje has been the recurrent name as  the primary person responsible for Sanusi’s
dethronement, it has become evident that he was only a tool in the grand scheme
of things. The retinue of security agents comprising of the military, State
Secret service and police that were deployed to the palace prior to the
dethronement, reveal the kind of security might that exceed Ganduje’s powers.

Nonetheless, it is interesting to see how his friends have
stood up for him. Founder of Stanbic IBTC Holdings PLC, Atedo Peterside,  who was billed to be a panelist  at a Central Bank of Nigeria roundtable  session slated for Thursday March 12,2020
declined to participate in the event in protest over the dethronement of Sanusi
and the manner he was banished. In a letter addressed to the CBN Governor,
Godwin Emefiele, Peterside noted that the theme of the event which was ‘Going
for Growth’  needed to be a wholistic
concept that embraces the sum total of actions and activities needed to boost
investor confidence including respect of individual freedoms and the rule of
law. He believes the dethronement ‘turned back the clock at a time when our
economy is at a precipice and when we need to tell ourselves some home truths
and speak truth to power in a constructive manner’.

Fair enough Peterside! Who wouldn’t agree that the Buhari
government is totalitarian,  barely able
to tolerate alternative views nor is it feeling of the insecurity and  economic meltdown the people languish under?

But the more interesting show came from the Kaduna state
Governor, Nasir Ahmad Elrufai. His twitter handle was agog on every move.
First, he put up a picture of him meeting the deposed Emir then  another picture of the Emir’s mother praying
for them  as they set to leave Awe for
Abuja. There were other pictures for each move. It was a paparazzi of some
sorts, the type that could compete favourably with Nollywood. The appointment
rain by the Kaduna state Governor on the deposed emir was even more
flabbergasting. Within hours of his removal as Emir, the Kaduna state Governor
announced Sanusi’s appointment as Vice Chairman of the Kaduna Investment
Promotion Agency. He was in that capacity to be led by the Deputy Governor of
the State. Skip the details on whether Sanusi had the presence of mind to accept
the appointment to the next 24 hours where perhaps after social media reactions
to the KADIPA appointment which many thought was beneath Sanusi’s status,
Elrufai again shot a second appointment- this time around appointing Sanusi as
Chancellor of the Kaduna State University and ousting  Mallam Tagwai Sambo, the Chief of Moro’a in
Southern Kaduna who was before then the substantive Chancellor of the State
University.

By the way, Sanusi’s lawyers AB Mahmud SAN & Co became
beneficiaries of what a functional judiciary should look like. They filed an
application for the enforcement of Sanusi’s fundamental rights and had it
assigned to a judge within 24 hours. The Court heard the application and
granted interim orders on the same day while the enrolled order was served
purportedly early enough to have had Sanusi out from banishment- all of that in
less than two days. Oh that this privilege be available to every citizen!
Except that in Sanusi’s case, there was an exception that was exceptional. It
is the kind of exception that in fairer climes would be made available to all
whose rights are infringed upon and are in dire straits.

ACTIONS & IMPLICATIONS.

The enduring law of Science states that for every action
there is a corresponding reaction. The new expression around town is: ‘May you
have a friend like Elrufai in your day of trouble’. Before anyone is quick to
say amen, the facts need to be examined more closely: If the friend in need
becomes that friend who makes public every move of  solidarity, then the motive require
questioning.  The appointments which came
in torrents and less than 48 hours of Sanusi’s ordeal make a case to argue for
or against desperation and/ or a design to score cheap political points. That
an existing Chancellor would be abruptly ousted without the finesse of first
demonstrating that his years of service meant something is a tad morally
unsettling. Add that to the fact that under Elrufai’s government, the Southern
Kaduna people who have over 45% population have been relegated almost  to obscurity. The ouster of Mallam Tagwai
Sambo as Chancellor is one  appointment
less that increases the gapping vacuum of inequality and injustice meted on the
Southern Kaduna people by the Elrufai government. While Sanusi would be adding
to his retinue of Chancellor appointments including being Chancellor of Borno
State University, Skyline University and University of Benin, the only first
class chief to be Chancellor from Southern Kaduna extraction was relieved and
the state government did not deem it worthy to get a replacement from that
area.

Yet that is not as significant as the more germane points of
Law. Sanusi’s dethronement throws up a conversation on the need for government
to obey the Laws guiding traditional institutions – something Elrufai, the
friend to the rescue is grossly guilty of. In 2017, Elrufai, against court
orders,  sacked 313 district heads and
4,453 village heads thereby returning the state to pre-2001 era where the then
Governor Ahmad Makarfi, in response to the religious crisis that bedevilled the
state, gave autonomy to communities 
which were then subservient to traditions and religions foreign to them
and which became the source of tension.

Elrufai was quick to head to Nassarawa but did not find it
worthy to attend the burial ceremony of the Agom Adara and paramount ruler of
the Adara nation, the late Dr. Galadima Maiwada who was buried on 10 November,
2018  neither did he send any
representative at all – not his deputy nor a commissioner to stand in
solidarity with the people in their hour of excruciating pain. The deceased Dr.
Maiwada, a first class chief,  was
abducted in curious circumstances along with his wife. He lost four of his
aides during the attack and perhaps did not know that at the time of his
gruesome murder, was no king because Elrufai’s government scrapped his
Christian dominated kingdom and replaced it with an emirate hence forcing on
the people traditional rule  that could
only be led by Muslim rulers.

Of this incident, Sahara Reporters, a leading online newspaper,
did an exclusive on 6 May,2019 titled: “How Kajuru Monarch Galadima was
Killed for Refusing to Give Up His Stool’. In that  media expose, a source was quoted to have
told Sahara Reporters that the kidnappers told the monarch before he was killed
that despite the ransom paid, they would still kill him because it was the
order they had. The news is out there in public domain for anyone who seeks to
cross check the facts.

By the way, since Sanusi is a self-professed crusader
against poverty and Elrufai has been described by his media aides as ‘a long
time friend, ideological soulmate and confidante’ of the former emir, perhaps
Kaduna could make use of some empathy and respect for rule of Law which both
Sanusi and by extension, Elrufai have 
benefited from the quick dispensation of justice in the banishment of
the emir. What is known is that Elrufai’s Kaduna is a bleeding city from state
induced poverty and  imbalance. The
Kasuwan Barci market has been demolished despite court orders. Durbar Hotel
which was a matter before the Supreme Court, was demolished by Elrufai’s
government in flagrant disregard and disrespect of Court. Thousands of
residents have lost businesses as the government continues to  demolish houses and business premises thereby
shipping out people from   their means of
survival. For a state struggling with unprecedented incidences of extreme
insecurity,adding to the number of unemployed is an absolute no-no.

So, let us be grateful for friends who show up no matter how
the highway bends and who ensure our souls are not  orphaned in 
days of adversity but Lord forbid if such a  friend, like Judas, stays in the circle for
what he can get and not for the truth he believes.