DEPRESSION AND SANUSI’S COMEUPPANCE

When the news of celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain broke that he had died in an apparent suicide on account of depression in 2018, I was miffed and sad. I just could not bear to bring myself as to why the man that has brought me and countless others joy in his “The Journey Is Part of the Experience” will act foolishly.

Also, I have a friend in the UK when she tells me “Emmie, pray for me I am depressed,” there is this sort of, “what is this one talking about?” She has everything ‘going for her,’ I will always ponder under my breath – intelligent, great degrees, well-paid job and a prince charming – so why the depression fuss?. But over the past few weeks, I have found myself without the Zen of sunshine. A sort of valley experience that has drawn the positive energy from me despite looking upbeat and ‘blooming.’ I have come to the stark realization that it is not the lack of having, but something profound that defies explanation at times. Am I mending? Of course, I am.  Having an anchor, call it faith, in something greater and deeper, is helpful and beneficial.

Well, I needed to clear what has ailed me and how I am on the way to recovery to offer my perspective on the dethroned Amir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II. Since the events of the last 24 hours, there are people that have situated the deposed Amir as a hero, a revolutionary, a progressive reformer and a voice of change in the North albeit Nigeria.

Perhaps, these adulations are a product of our collective haze or amnesia or simply an attempt to partially suppress the facts of history. Let it be said, and clearly, Sanusi is an anti-hero. He is not a revolutionary in any progressive fount. He is an intellectual who sought out to play one against the other, a master of false development equivalence. He is the archetypal Janus versed in the duality of purpose.

When Sanusi speaks, it is not to spur the north to any meaningful action to speed up development to catch up with the south, rather to entrench angst and bitter rivalry of the south having eaten more than the north. At no time has he put leaders of his region, past and present, on the guillotine for their serial failure to do what is right by their people.

In my article, ‘Sanusi: A Different Kind of Governor,’ published in 2014 (https://promptnewsonline.com/sanusi-a-different-kind-of-governor-by-emmanuel-ogbeche/) I referenced his July 2011 flawed essay, ‘The Igbos, The Yoruba and History. In it, Sanusi pummelled two of Nigeria’s main ethnic stock – Igbo and Yoruba. Instead of concentrating then as the Governor of the country’s apex bank on how to strengthen the country’s monetary policy, Sanusi was more at home in creating divisions and opening up otherwise healing wounds.

In that disingenuous piece, he writes of the Igbo: “The Igbo people were responsible for the first military coup in this country; They were responsible for the first attempt at ethnic cleansing; They were responsible for the first violation of constitutionally laid down succession procedures; they were responsible for the destruction of the federation and the creation of the unitary system of which they are now victims (since the initial objective was for the Igbos to dominate the other groups); they were responsible for Nigeria’s first civil war.”

He went further to accuse the Yoruba of displaying “…two consistent streaks that have consistently kept them in opposition and cost them opportunities for coming to power. The first is vanity – a dangerous state of self-delusion borne of imagined intellectual and academic superiority over opponents and rivals alike. Thus, Yoruba politicians have consistently underestimated their northern opponents who thrive on wily intrigues and far-sighted manipulation of the political process.

“They have also assumed to their peril that other southern tribes would naturally acquiesce to their leadership and be lured into a southern alliance whose objective is to help secure supremacy and power for the southwest.”

More than that, due to his intellectual legerdemain, Sanusi and because of the less perspicacious citizenry, the former Amir has become an apostle of women’s rights. How incredulous! Can anyone remind me of how many wives and concubines are in his harem? I bet most of you don’t know! If a man does not live the conviction of his words, to what value are those?

As CBN Governor, Sanusi donated a princely N150 billion to universities under the corporate social responsibility of the bank. Of this humungous amount, a miserly N100million was what went to the University of Benin, the only donation to the south.

Lagos lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana, (SAN) was compelled at that time to pick a quarrel with Sanusi over the apparent imbalance in the CBN’s CSR largess.

In a statement, Falana said: “As there is equality before the law, each of the public universities is entitled to equal treatment by the Federal Government and all its agencies, including CBN.

“Since the CBN claims that it is discharging its corporate duty or social responsibility, it cannot operate on the basis of discrimination or favouritism. Having donated N10 billion to the Othman Dan Fodio University, the CBN should, as a matter of urgency, provide an intervention fund of the same amount to each of the other public universities without delay.”

He further said: “neither the President nor any other public officer is empowered to disburse funds without appropriation, the CBN governor (Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi) should be restrained from further engaging in impunity.”

And today some people are wont to make us see the disgraced Amir as freshly baked bread?

Before I conclude I am somewhat piqued that those who have resorted to atavistic inclination have conveniently ignored the corruption issues leveled against Sanusi. Instead of defending himself, he ran to the courts to stop the probe of his expenditure as Royal Father. Who does that if there is nothing amiss?

Let me make the point that the narrative that the Amir will bounce back to something bigger and grand is mere conjecture. There is no history to support that. No sane and active political party will touch him or offer him any pedestal to the fairytale supposition of his imminent incarnation to vie for the presidency. His lifelong ambition was to be Amir and that he achieved only that it became his hubris because he lacked the temperament to be measured, patient, show diplomatese and be apolitical.

For the rest of us, Sanusi is not a national issue and should not be. No matter how cerebral and influential he was, he was the Amir of Kano and not Nigeria. He should carry the burden of his ambition, while we worry about the hopelessness of our economy and porous security. Enough is enough!