Between the crown and power

The deposition of Muhammadu Sanusi II, the 14th Emir of Kano, now to be addressed as former Emir of Kano, is another indication that those who wield political power make no bones about their absolute power over tradition. The Governor of Kano STate, Dr. Umar Ganduje, has welded the big stick. Heaven is not about to fall. 

The emir has been moved out of the palace and his reign is over. The governor has put a stamp of finality on his power over the throne. The former emir has been banished to Nasarawa State, against his will to be taken to Lagos. Now, lawyers have said the banishment is illegal, and have threatened to go to court to challenge the illegal act.

The act of dethroning Sanusi was politically motivated. A lot of people have not forgotten that Sanusi became Emir of Kano under the watch of former Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso, barely four months after Sanusi was suspended as governor of the Central Bank in 2014. At that time, Ganduje was deputy governor of Kano State, and was in the good books of his former boss, who helped to make him governor. But both men have fallen apart politically, such that Kwankwaso  propped up another candidate who was on the verge of truncating Ganduje’s second term. It was a rerun election that saved the incumbent governor. It may amount to fishing in the past to relate Sanusi’s current travails to that past incident, but it may well be that Ganduje was not in agreement with his former boss on the choice of Sanusi as emir.

Sanusi became the 14th Emir of Kano on June 8, 2014.  His grandfather was emir, though he was also deposed in 1963, barely two years after the new deposed 14th Emir of Kano was born. Although his lawyers say they would challenge his deposition and exile in court, Sanusi has accepted his fate. In a widely circulated video clip, Sanusi said thus: “Power is transient … Before my ascension to the throne, someone was emir, so what happened to me should not disturb anybody. I thank almighty Allah that brought my reign as emir to a peaceful end devoid of crisis. We call on the public to remain peaceful, whoever is made the emir, they should respect him.”

In the video, Sanusi spoke in Hausa and insisted that anything that had a beginning must have an end. But a groundswell of opposition has greeted his banishment. My little investigation showed that there might be something cultural about the banishment. It is said that the emir cannot stay in the same town under another emir. Sanusi seems to have understood the foregoing, which was why he opted to live in Lagos, but the authorities of Kano State forced him to Nasarawa. A horde of lawyers says the banishment is unlawful, and must be challenged in court.

Some people had been deposed in the past, a clear show that political power is stronger that cultural power. It tends to reduce the revered institution of old, which subsisted before colonial powers came. Some royal stools in the past had the combination of cultural and political power, the colonial masters sought to, and successfully reduced the political power of royal fathers. Such kings as the Oba of Benin were dethroned and sent on exile. That incident marked the superiority of political power over cultural power, but it has not completely emasculated it.

Politicians today have continued to prove that political power can subdue cultural power. In northern Nigeria, an emir still commands reverence and respect. In the case of Sanusi, he gave more vim to the office by speaking truth to power. He has continued to tell the powers that be in the North that failure to invest massively in education is a time bomb waiting to explode. He told them to reduce the poverty index in the region, which stands at 80 per cent. He insisted that there was nowhere in the Koran where men were permitted to have children and throw them to the streets to fend for themselves. He applauded the ban on street begging in Kaduna, and encouraged other states to toe the same line. Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State knows that Sanusi has a lot to offer, which is why he has appointed the immediate past emir to the Kaduna Investment Board. In a statement the state government said: “Kaduna State hopes to benefit from the profile, experience, intellect and network of His Highness Muhhammdu Sanusi, who before becoming emir had built a solid reputation in global financial circles.” Kano’s loss would now be Kaduna’s gain. It is a pity that a man with such pedigree would be rubbished on the altar of political power.

Other royal fathers have a lesson to learn because they could also be rubbished. I have heard people ask such questions as , “Can the Oba of Benin, Ooni of Ife, Obi of Onitsha, Obong of Calabar, Amanyanabo of Opobo  and such kings be so treated?”

My answer is that they can be sacked and disgraced out of office, because those who hold political power have repeatedly shown that royal fathers are in office by the power of those who hold political power. A Kaduna-based Islamic cleric, Sheikh Abubakar Gumi, says monarchies seem to have outlived their usefulness, insisting that they should now be scrapped. He says they have no use in modern society, monarchy is un-Islamic: “The best way out,” according to him “is to abolish it completely.”

The  words of  Tolu Ogunlesi, President Muhammadu Buhari’s special assistant on new media, is true, “A sitting governor can dethrone anybody; they have the power. That is the way the system is set up. Nobody is above being dethroned.”

The crown is subject to political power. That is what the colonial masters have bequeathed to us, we must live with it. A delicate balance must be found between the crown and power.