For the first time since 1893, the Ruling House of Dabo is split down the middle over who rules the Emirate of Kano. After the sack of the Habe rulers of the Hausa City State of Kano in 1805 by Fulani jihadists, Ibrahim Dabo, the leader of the Fulani Sullubawa Clan of Kano will reign as the second Emir of Kano from 1819 to 1846 and all emirs of Kano since then have been his descendants. But despite being an eponymous ruling dynasty of bloodline royals, the House of Dabo is not always one that enjoys the unity and peace of one big family. And a major source of conflict has been succession to the throne of Ibrahim Dabo, their patriarch.
Upon the death of Emir Muhammadu Bello of Kano in 1893, Sultan Abdurrahman of the Sokoto Caliphate under whose suzerainty the emirate of Kano was, appointed Mohammed Tukur as successor to his father. In what many historians agree was an unpopular choice, the emergence of Tukur as Emir of Kano triggered a civil war [Yakin Basasa] following the rebellion of the Yusufawa branch of the ruling Dabo dynasty against the new ruler of Kano. With rival claimants of the throne of Kano standing their ground, the civil war dragged on with devastating consequences including the enslavement of more than half of the population of Kano by crisis merchants on all sides of the warring divides. Kano civil war eventually came to an end in 1894 when Aliyu Mai Sango [the gun user] the leader of the rebel Yusufawa group conquered Kano and replaced Mohammed Tukur as Emir of Kano.
One hundred and thirty one years later, the House of Dabo appears to be revolting against its own self once again. This time, Emir Aminu Bayero is leading a revolt against the reinstatement of Muhammadu Sanusi II as Emir of Kano in his stead by the Kano state government, under whose authority the Kano Emirate is currently or so it seems. As it was in 1893 so it is in 2024 that members of the ruling Dabo dynasty are at war over who sits on the seat of their ancestor. The difference between 1893 and 2024 is that while Aliyu Mai Sango and Mohammed Tukur battled with swords, bows, arrows and guns, Sanusi and Aminu are currently fighting for the throne of Kano through partisan politics. While Sanusi is backed the governing New Nigerian Peoples Party in Kano state, Aminu is supported by the ruling All Progressives Congress federal government. And in this on-going war in Kano emirate, the executive, legislature and judiciary have become entangled in a manner that has created an administrative stalemate that has left Kano with two Emirs.
However, what has been described as the politicization of the affairs of Kano Emirate including the appointment, deposition, splitting, reconstituting and reappointment of emirs and the emirate didn’t start today. This level of desecration of an otherwise exalted, esteemed and revered centuries old traditional institution of religious and cultural importance by meddlesome partisanship has its root in the 2014 politicization of the succession to the throne upon the death of the magnificent Ado Bayero after half a century reign as Emir of Kano.
In 2014, Muhammadu Sanusi, who was Nigeria’s former Central Bank Governor was fired by President Goodluck Jonathan for what many perceived to be a punishment for Sanusi’s penchant for ‘’trumpet blowing’’ on matters bothering on missing or unaccounted oil revenues by the Nigeria’s national oil company under the supervision of the all-powerful oil minister Allison Diezani Madueke. By this time, the clouds of opposition were gathering under the atmosphere of the APC and the Jonathan administration, which was serially accused of corruption, saw the trumpet blowing of Sanusi as an insider confirmation of humongous corrupt practices under its watch that was aimed at giving an official stamp of legitimacy to the claim of the opposition. The fact that the wave of opposition was strongest in Sanusi’s native region of northern Nigeria and his state governor of Kano, Musa Rabiu Kwankwaso was a leading anti-Jonathan figure marked the former central Bank Governor guilty until proven innocent in the eyes of the Jonathan administration especially when his claims were subjected to administrative and legislative scrutiny and failed the accuracy test.
It was during the interregnum between when Sanusi was fired as CBN governor and was been hounded by security agencies in a manner that came across as persecutory that the throne of Kano Emirate became vacant. Sanusi whose lifelong ambition was to become the Emir of Kano was found suitable for the role given the importance of Kano state as Nigeria’s largest democratic demography. Whereas, the preferred choice of both the people and Kingmakers of the Kano Emirate was Sanusi Lamido Bayero, the first son of late Emir Ado Bayero who was also the Chiroman Kano [heir presumptive]. But rather than go with the choice of the people then Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso acting like Sultan Abdurrahman of old picked Muhammadu Sanusi as Emir of Kano to spite Goodluck Jonathan and score political points for then opposition APC. In fact there were protests against the announcement of Sanusi as Emir is some parts of Kano.
Six years down the line in 2020, having had enough of the dose Sanusi had given Jonathan as CBN governor, Governor Umar Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano can no longer take that which made him politically desirable for the position of Emir when the APC was in opposition but unsuitable form them in power. An emir is expected to be seen and not heard. But Emir Sanusi, a restless intellectual wanted to be seen and heard even ahead of the political leadership of Kano state hence he had to go but not before Governor Ganduje splintered the Kano Emirate into five emirates of Kano, Gaya, Karaye, Rano and Bichi. In his place, Aminu Ado Bayero, was appointed as Emir of Kano.
Politics brought Emir Sanusi to the throne, took him out and has made attempt to return him through the scrapping of the five splintered emirates along with its Emirs by the administration of Governor Abba Yusuf of Kano state, who said his action is in fulfilment of a ‘’campaign promise’’ he made to that effect. The only problem is that a higher level of politics appears to have thrown a spanner in the works of governor Abba Yusuf as his powers to see through his project ‘’return of Emir Sanusi’’ appears to have been curtailed by the APC led federal government that is bent on asserting itself in Nigeria’s most valued piece of prime democratic estate. Until the current entanglement is disentangled, Kano will remain one emirate with two emirs as the political war between Ganduje’s APC and Kwankwaso’s NNPP rages.