...also published in Daily Trust
When the dots are connected between
last Tuesdays’ closed-door meeting between President Buhari and Governor
Ganduje of Kano state, and the latter’s subsequent reassurance that there were
talks to end the face-off between him and the Sarkin Kano Muhammadu Sunusi ll,
and also the court order, issued on the same day, for the suspension of the
corruption probe against the Sarki, it’s reasonable to conclude that President
Buhari has finally saved the Sarki from imminent suspension and possible
deposition by the Governor, at least for now. Aliko Dangote and Governor Kayode
Fayemi of Ekiti State had tried unsuccessfully in this regard.
However, though, Governor Ganduje
was, by all indications determined to depose the Sarki, he had apparently
realized that he would face overwhelming lobbying and tremendous pressure to
abandon the plan; that’s why he decided to inflict an irreparable vengeance on
the Sarki by orchestrating accelerated formulation of laws creating four
equally first-class emirates from the Kano State Emirate, thereby reducing the
domain size under the Sarki to less than one-quarter of what it used to be.
Unsurprisingly, the creation of the
new emirates has generated intense controversy in the state and beyond, with
many welcoming it while many others rejecting it. Though not necessarily the
majority, those who reject it dominate the media, both mainstream and social
media. They are largely urban elites and other urban dwellers who passionately
warn that creating new emirates in the state would have serious implications on
the age-old prestige of Kano state and the supposed sanctity of its emirate.
They also accuse Governor Ganduje of
a politically-motivated witch-hunt against the Sarki dismissing Governor
Ganduje’s allegations against him that he was indeed involved in partisan
politics.
Anyway, notwithstanding who is right
or wrong in this face-off, I believe the assumption that the emirate as an
institution is inherently apolitical and should remain immune from the
intrigues of politics is grossly simplistic and indeed misleading. Because
since the British invasion and abolishment of Shehu Usmanu Danfodio’s Sokoto Caliphate
in 1903, the appointment and deposition of emirs have always been politically
motivated.
Upon conquering any emirate, the
British would only appoint a prince that would be passionately subservient to
them, as emir who would be remote-controlled. Consequently, the resident
colonial officials conducted their indirect rule over the defunct Sokoto
Caliphate from the comfort of their reserved enclaves in the suburbs of major
cities in the region e.g. Kano. The emirs, in turn, perpetrated all sorts of inhumanity
and oppression against their respective people to forestall any potential
resurgence against their British masters.
Equally, since their departure
following Nigeria’s attainment of independence in 1960, political interests of
the successive military regimes and civilian administrations have always
influenced the process of appointing or deposing emirs in the region.
Interestingly, the emergence of
Muhammadu Sunusi ll as Sarkin Kano was particularly made possible for political
considerations. When the Kano throne became vacant following the demise of Ado
Bayero, the then Kano State Governor Rabi’u Kwankwaso, who was at political
loggerheads with the then President Goodluck Jonathan, settled for Sunusi
Lamido Sunusi, as he was known then, despite the longstanding grudges between
them, to settle political scores with Jonathan who favoured another candidate
having fallen out with Lamido, and had indeed removed him from the governorship
of the Central Bank of Nigeria.
It’s, therefore, a gross
misrepresentation to exaggerate the purported negative implications of
involving politics in the affairs of the Kano Emirate and indeed the emirate as
an institution in northern Nigeria. The Sarki-Ganduje face-off in Kano should be
understood in the context of its underlying political dynamics. It’s actually a
typical elite struggle between a governor living with the nightmare of the
possibility of losing his controversial election victory being currently
challenged in courts, and an elitist, neoliberal and admiration-craving emir
apparently obsessed with carving out enduring fame for himself in the history
of Kano Emirate.
Kano is, therefore, too great to be
affected by their face-off; after all, it has survived similar and indeed more
serious elite face-off e.g. the Sardauna-Sarki Sunusi-face-off and Rimi-Ado
Bayero face-off. It’s, in the first place, a gross underestimation of
Kano for anyone to link its wellbeing to the survival of its emirate.
By the way, many Kanawa are under the
illusion that Kano Emirate is the most prestigious traditional institution in
northern Nigeria; in fact, some of them believe it’s so not only in Nigeria but
in West Africa or even Africa as a whole, for that matter.
Whereas, in reality, if not for the
age-old business attractiveness of Kano and its reputation as a center of
Islamic scholarship, which have over the centuries attracted migrants from
across Africa and as far as Asia who contributed to its transformation into one
of the most important business hubs and Islamic learning centres in Sub-Saharan
Africa, Kano Emirate wouldn’t have been different from any rural emirate. It’s
the Kano Emirate that owes its prestige to Kano, not the other way round.
Now, as I have always suggested,
instead of involving himself in unnecessary troubles that he is too constrained
to handle, the reformist Sarki of Kano should focus on what he can actually
accomplish. For instance, he should abolish the greeting protocols whereby a
person literally prostrates before him, and also eradicate the practice of
concubine-keeping and indeed all unIslamic and uncivilized traditional
practices and palace protocols.
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