Whatever is happening in Kano today vis-à-vis the struggle for supremacy in the Kano Emirate is not new.
This writer should have been a prayer warrior, a successful one at that. Ibrahim Dasuki (1923-2016) was a prominent member of our group at the Constituent Assembly.
At a point, the rumour mill was awash with the speculation that Dasuki was preparing himself to become the next president of Nigeria after Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida. This hit the headlines of many newspapers and magazines of the time.
At our meeting, Dasuki dismissed the rumour. Instead, he informed us that his brother, Abubakar Siddique, the incumbent Sultan of Sokoto at the time was seriously ill and that he was interested in succeeding him when he died, if that was the will of the Almighty God. He asked for our prayers in this direction.
I was the one appointed to lead the prayers. I was on top of my elements on that particular day. The prayers came out well and they worked.
A few days after, the Sultan died; Dasuki rushed home, and he was crowned the new Sultan.
I was one of the eight (8) members dispatched to Sokoto to pay the new Sultan a solidarity/congratulatory visit. On our arrival in Sokoto, the Sultan was all over this prayer warrior for leading the prayer that worked wonders.
The triumph here was, however, very transient. Three (3) years after assuming power in 1993, as Head of State of Nigeria, Strongman Abacha in one of his first assignments deposed Dasuki as the Sultan of Sokoto in 1996. Dasuki was subsequently flown to Yola and then taken to Jalingo, where he was placed in exile.
Kano is in the news again. What is happening there today is a total re-enactment of the Second Republic theatricals. Royalty has always fallen victim to naked political struggles.
There was the bitter political rivalry between the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) and the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) of that era.
At the peak of hostilities, the Kano Emirate was caught up in the entire imbroglio. In 1981, the Governor Abubakar Rimi-led administration in the state dissolved the Kano Emirate; balkanized it into five (5) small pieces; and suspended Alhaji Ado Bayero as the Emir of Kano.
In 1983, there was a change of guards in Kano State. Alhaji Sabo Bakin Zuwo (NPN) became the governor. The red ink on his inauguration papers had hardly dried before he reversed all the steps taken by the Rimi-led administration. That was how Alhaji Ado Bayero successfully got back to the Emir’s throne.
Again, the 2019 power-play in Kano is still fresh in our memories. As soon as Governor Abdullahi Ganduje came to power in Kano, he wasted no time in dissolving the Kano Emirate Council, consequently sacking Emir Lamido Sanusi Lamido and sending him on exile to Nasarawa town in Kano State.
Barely four (4) years later, the Governor Abba Yusuf (NNPP)-led administration has just reversed all the steps taken by the Ganduje administration.
By law, the five (5) small Emirates created by the Ganduje administration stand dissolved and Emir Sanusi Lamido Sanusi II is on his way back as the fifteenth Emir of the reconsolidated Kano Emirate – he was the fourteenth and now the fifteenth and he is now returning in an apparent self-succession. When that cycle is complete, his status shall have changed – twice a commoner and twice a king.
Far into the second year in the life of the current administration, the Kano Emirate has known no peace. The ugly war rages on between people with close degree on consanguinity- brothers or cousins they claim to be, yet their fight is seemingly unabating.
This episode is becoming pall and uninteresting. Time was when the Traditional Institution was held in the highest esteem, but today, that institution has become totally emasculated and debased. Today, Nigerian politicians are using the institution as a football in their struggle for naked power.
We soon played into the waiting hands of the Judiciary, as happened in our electoral process where the Judiciary moved in and expropriated to itself the only right constitutionally given to the electorate- the right to choose who governs them at periodic elections. Today, no politician can rejoice over an election victory until the supreme court pronounces.
Similarly, no Traditional Ruler is sure of his position until the court pronounces. The role originally in the hands of king makers is completely obviated.
See how Kano of all places, has become a Tale of Two Emirs in a single Emirate. For how long are we going to be engaged in this macabre dance that leads to nowhere? We simply continue to progress in error.
Soon after the 2023 General Elections, Kano broke into two broad parts. Two Emirs emerged- Emir Sanusi II and Emir Ado Bayero.
The palace is large enough to accommodate two Emirs- with each Emir clinging tenaciously to his wing. They soon created the type of parallelism that we once thought was only possible in the text books of Elementary Geometry. Each Emir adopted a court, and each court reeled out rulings that were favourable to its adoptors.
Essentially, the way forward is this case no longer resides in the courts. In the beginning, we saw the work of the Judge as not too different from that of the spray painter.
Once the car gets to the spray painter, he brings down the catalogue that locates the colour of the car to be sprayed. That is how the Judge looks at the catalogue of past cases to find which of the cases decided in the past is nearest to the present one.
But today, the issue of precedence is gone. The Federal High Court that in 2020 hastened the departure of Emir Sanusi from the palace when it was approached is the same one that is today protecting Emir Bayero and helping to perpetuate his stay in that palace!
We live in a dynamic world and to move forward, we must be prepared to change with the world. We cannot continue to think that Traditional Rulers are apolitical when politicians are dragging them in the political mud all over.
Let us stop pretending. Our current approach is akin to tying the hands of the traditional rulers, particularly in the case of Kano to the back, while we allow politicians slap them with both hands-even while you accompany each slap with “Your Royal Highness”.
Sadly, we are quick in the abstraction to maintain that the traditional rulers are the custodians of the peoples’ custom and tradition.
That explains why we put them on the frontline each time we are confronted with major problems. After helping to solve our problems, we simply dump them like wet rags until the occurrence of another major disaster.
Enough of this misguided thought that Tradition Rulers are apolitical, after all they are human. Let them go political full-hog. Clearly, it is better to now include them on the ballot so that a Traditional Ruler who wins at the poll will enjoy a full tenure instead of a skeletal path thereof!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Josef Omorotionmwan, a public affairs analyst, lives in Canada
