By Osy Agbo
When on February 7, 2015 Sanusi Lamido Sanusi was crowned the 14th Emir of the ancient city of Kano, no one could have predicted that a little known talakawa would someday become his nemesis. But that talakawa later became governor and with it came enormous power and overbearing influence. It was however, unprecedented that the former CBN governor would be so foolhardy to ignore the rich lessons of history. Not especially when he took on the regnal name, Muhammad Sanusi ll.
How could he claim to be unaware of the fate that befell his once powerful grandfather and the 11th Emir,Muhammadu Sanusi I.
He has been around long enough to realize that ours is a society trapped in primitive civilization. The rulers of our country run a shameless authoritarian regime that makes no pretension about the hatred for contrary views. Your choice is to either queue behind a long line of yesmen or face isolation and total annihilation.
The older Sanusi was the first to learn this lesson the hard way. When he fell out with the late Saduana of Sokoto, the political colossus of his time, the later was not afraid to show who wore the pants. The result was the dethronement of his royal highness in 1963 and subsequent confinement in Azare. It didn’t even matter that both the Emir and Ahmadu Bello belonged to the same ruling house of the Sullubawa clan and that they were in fact cousins.
Anyone who had paid a close attention to Kano politics probably saw this coming. There has been no love lost between the royal father and Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, the state Governor. A battle for the soul of Kano was at the epicenter of this crisis.
The fight was squarely between Gov. Ganduje on one hand and his former boss and political heavy weight, former Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso. In this war, you can either be for or against. Even the second most powerful Islamic leader in Nigeria got sucked in. Problem was SLS is not the type to sit on the fence and not share his thought. And his thoughts often ruffle feathers.
Gov.Ganduje was seriously rattled during his recent campaign for re-election. Even when he was finally declared the winner, his victory was challenged all the way to the Supreme Court by his main rival and Kwankwaso’s son-in-law, Abba Kabir Yusuf. But as you would expect, no weapon fashioned against the anointed shall prosper.
Together with Gov. Yahaya Bello of Kogi state, the duo belong in the exclusive club of Baba’s anointed sons. They operate under a different set of rules or no rules at all and like Ceasers’s wife are above board. In the end he still made it even with all the irregularities reported in that election. It is now his turn to show all who the real boss is.
On March 9, Emir Sanusi woke up like every normal day in his private residence of Gidan Rumfa. With no papers served,he would later hear the news of his summary dismissal like everyone else. Before long however, a contingent of police, military, and other security operatives dressed in full combat gears stormed the palace and whisked him away. As would be expected, Nigerians were evenly divided in their opinion of what happened. To his teeming supporters, he is a hero. A rare blue blood determined to use his privileged position to better his society, our society.
There were also peddlers of the theory that he is being groomed for the presidency after Buhari and that his current travail is just a small script in that grand design.
In other words, they suggested he was willing to relinquish his coveted position in pursuit of what would be at best a wild political gamble. How arsinine! But this is the level that ethno-tribal and religious distrust in Nigeria has degenerated to. It’s almost impossible not to view every action or event through the prism of conspiracy.
There was also a sizeable group of people who were fiercely critical of his actions. To them he should have been wise enough to keep his mouth shut and continued to enjoy the spoils of his highly priveledged status.
A friend once told me that Africans especially Nigeria are incapable of replicating the Arab spring.
He argued that whereas in African we are not afraid to risk our lives in pursuit of personal goals and success, we as a people are most unwilling to comit to any form of personal sacrifice for the common good.
Our people are least likely to take to the street to protest bad government than any other group in the world. The argument appears to be ,why loose the day’s earning or risk facing the wrath of law enforcement for the sake of everybody? Someone else gotta do it instead! But that’s a topic for another day.
This was not the first time Sanusi got in trouble for breaking with tradition or not keeping quiet. He was so hated by the powers that be (and later booted out of CBN) when he blew the whistle on the $20B alleged NNPC scandal during Jonathan same way as when he criticized Buhari’s foreign exchange policy and anti-corruption war. He has also used every opportunity to demand and reiterate that northern leaders invest in education and training of northern youths, reminding them on one occasion that quota system will one day have a sunset clause. I remember listening to a Tedx lecture where he talked about how Nigeria’s progress was daily being sacrificed in the alter of vested interests. Throughout his reign, he was not afraid of speaking truth to powers and often cautioned against misplacing priorities.
These are not the kind of things that earn you a national honor in a country like Nigeria. Truth is, even if you do not agree with some of his actions, fact remains that SLS has remained one of the most relentless voices of reason and a great proponent of futuristic institutional reform in Nigeria. It was Emerson that once said:
“What it takes for the evil men to come into the society and poison it is for the good ones to sit back and watch”.
SLS may not be a saint or your hero but we ought to salute his consistent display of uncommon courage. The courage to speak up time and time again even at a great personal risk. Africa doesn’t need those of us who sit in the confines of our homes and murmur without end our displeasure with the system.
Osmund Agbo MD, FCCP writes from Houston, Texas3/17/20