To
Nigerians, that the 14th Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, has
been dethroned is incontrovertibly established. However, the nuances and the
sociological imports of his dethronement should not be lost on society. To
start with, the allegations made against the deposed Emir were, up till now,
neither substantiated nor provided credible and sufficient reasons for his
removal. Yet, the man was summarily removed in a hurry by a government that
appears to be hiding something.
In
recent times, the pronouncements of the Emir have no doubt been acerbic and
critical of the Nigerian government. Sanusi did not take any prisoners! With
deviant profundity, he exposed the charade of the Northern government. He
talked about the abuse of women, the menace of the almajiris and the need to
abolish it. He lampooned the elite and warned them against the abuse of
children, especially, the girl child. He lamented the frightening number of the
out-of-school children in the North and linked it to the ever-rising number
of Boko Haram adherents, drugs addicts and the reservoir of
political thugs, which now defines the demography of the Northern part of the
country.
Emir
Sanusi may be gone! However, the seed of the destruction of the feudal system
in the Northern part of Nigeria has been sown. In other words, we have not
heard the last of Sanusi, the deposed 14th Emir of Kano. The
questions now are: what manner of man is Sanusi’s replacement, or the
newly-installed Emir? Will he tolerate the beating of women? Will
he promote the abuse of children and early marriage for the girl child? Will he
encourage almajiri to grow exponentially? Or will the new Emir embrace
the status quo?
Without
doubt, the behaviour of the government of Kano, in this instance, is devoid of
congenial diplomacy and calculated openness, which responsible governments
world over, are noted for. For instance, how expedient is the dethronement and
banishment of an Emir to the demands of sound Public
Administration and the provision of good governance to the people of Kano
State, which, to my mind, is the primary responsibility of the governor?
How compatible is the traditional legal and normative laws on dethronement
and banishment with the extant laws of the land? Put in clear terms, if the man
must be dethroned, at what stage, therefore, did the Kano State Government
begin to abuse its powers?
Let’s
for the sake of argument admit that he was dethroned traditionally which, then,
means that the man must be willing, without the compulsion of the state. Who
then decided his Nasarawa new home for him? If it was not Sanusi, that amounted
to abduction in the eye of the law; nothing but a clear case of kidnap, because
it was done against his will! After all, the man can’t go to London today, if
he so decides! If his eventual detention in Awe was as a result of ‘security
reports’, as we are now being told, who, again, decided that the antidote
to such reports could be found only in Loko, later, Awe, both in Nasarawa
State?
Let’s
talk about the throne itself, which has for long become a thorny issue, even,
among the academia. For a long time, it has been decided that, as long as you
keep the traditional stool, the stool in itself is antithetical to legal-rational order. With the Sanusi saga, it has become clear that the legal-rational order doesn’t understand Emirship or Obaship.
That’s why a governor in a state in the South-South could talk carelessly to a
beaded king in the full glare of the public; and all the casualty of that
mockable and unacceptable recklessness could do was to swallow it, without
missing a beat!
‘This
thing of being a hero …!’ Blame Sanusi for the misfortunes that have
eventually befallen him. He ought to have seen the handwriting on the wall and
thrown in the towel before it got to this level. But, again, blame not
the Emir, for he was only displaying the Africanness in
us: we don’t quit and we don’t resign! We don’t even retire! But, like water,
we are only answerable to the call of temperature: when it is cold, we freeze;
and when it is hot, we melt. In any case, pity the country that gives little in
return for its people's industry. Pity the enclave that sacrifices its best on
the altar of mere political exigencies. Pity a people who make of themselves
onlookers in the face of tyranny and oppression. Sanusi has done his bit! He
has trod where, even, angels dreaded. As a Banker, he reached the very peak of
his career. Right from childhood, his main ambition was to become the Emir
of Kano. And he's been there!
As
this dethronement brouhaha simmers, people will start forgetting who Sanusi
was. He becomes another number, or, statistics of dethroned Emirs, Obis
or Obas! And that is the sad reality about Nigeria’s political
firmament. With the situation of things, it bears repeating that Kano, and,
indeed, the entire North has lost a star, a brilliant man who fought a good
battle, even, if it appears as if all his efforts are wasted. By default, Nigeria
has also lost the service of a distinguished leader and social crusader. In the
case of the deposed Emir, he deserves pride of place in history.
On
insinuations that Sanusi’s removal might have been ordered from Abuja, while
there’s no concrete proof to support this assertion, the manner of installation
and the speed of the homage to Aso Rock by his replacement were in no small way
suggestive of invisible hands somewhere, somehow! But, and as I’ve argued
elsewhere, President Muhammadu Buhari has served Nigeria to the best of his
ability. As providence would also have it, he has also had his fill of his
country to the best that life can offer. So, all he needs, “going
forward, is the royal life. Let the president just be fine and okay with
himself.” The more reason those who still believe that Nigeria’s
future belongs to them must work, not only towards taking back their country
from the troublers of its Israel, they must also do all that is humanly
possible to move the country forward. As Tunde Bakare once said, “anyone
who fights for a people who are not prepared to fight for themselves is a
fool!”
May
the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, grant us peace in
Nigeria!
*KOMOLAFE
writes in from Ijebu-Jesa, Osun State, Nigeria (ijebujesa@yahoo.co.uk)
abiodun
KOMOLAFE, AMNIM
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