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Kenny Ashaka
Professor Munzali Jubril is former Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission, NUC and former Deputy Vice Chancellor, Bayero University and Emeritus Professor of English.
He was a guest yesterday on a programme “The Morning Show” by the Arise Television crew. In the programme monitored by Daily Sun, he spoke extensively on the deposition of the former Emir of Kano, Alhaji Muhammadu Sanusi 11 and concluded that there will be a legal proceeding in court to judicially contest the validity, legality of the deposition of the Emir from regal power in order to determine and enforce his legal rights, contrary to a statement released by the former Emir after his dethronement.
Prof. what is the mood in Kano State or rather let’s say in Kano. How are the people of Kano taking this latest development? Are they on the side of the governor or on the side of Emir Sanusi the second or the people are indifferent? You, being an indigene of Kano we believe will have an idea of what is going on within the community.
It’s very difficult to say. I am in Abuja; obviously when this event took place I was in Abuja. I haven’t been to Kano for at least two months. But I spoke to people who said the city was calm and that there was no trouble anywhere. Our people are very disciplined and restrained. When something big and shocking happens, they don’t necessarily react the way people from other parts of the country might react. But it doesn’t mean that they have no feeling or attitude. I can tell you that most of the elite in Kano were not happy with what was going on because they saw this coming and various efforts were made quietly to reach out to the two principal protagonists and several truces were actually achieved between the two of them with an understanding that the status quo should be maintained; but somehow, the crisis reached a climax yesterday (Monday). So, we will have to wait and see.
What do you know about the new Emir of Kano, Aminu Ado Bayero other than the fact that he is the son of the late Emir? It’s also been announced that his brother, Nasiru Ado Bayero has been appointed the new Emir of Bichi which suggests that the four new Emirates that have been created in controversial circumstances are here to stay. What is your response to that?
Well, to your first question; Alhaji Aminu Ado Bayero is a graduate of Mass Communication of Bayero University, Kano and I was privileged to be one of his teachers at the time he was a student. He was a District Head for more than 20 years; so he is quite an experienced traditional administrator. His brother, Nasiru Ado Bayero was also a District Head for about the same period. So, they are both quite experienced and they are both sons of the late Emir Ado Bayero. We believe that both of them are well prepared for the office that they have just been appointed to. The question as to whether the four Emirates have come to stay, I think the Jury is still out on that. You may not know that there are actually several court cases that are still being litigated upon on the creation of the four new Emirates and so it is too early to say whether these Emirates have come to stay. But one thing is clear: our democracy doesn’t seem to be working because in a democracy, the people are supposed to be consulted to get their opinion on such matters of importance as the creation of new Emirates. You may recall that the law that created the four new Emirates was passed in a matter of hours at a time when the Assembly was actually on recess and based on the submissions of people who are not members of the Assembly and so the Kingmakers and other stakeholders took the government to court to test the validity of that law. A Kano State High Court gave a ruling that the law was improperly passed. But instead of the state government appealing the judgement, they simply took the same law and arranged for it to be properly proposed by members of the Assembly and again within hours, it was passed without public hearing and stakeholders being consulted. So, there has been a lot of unease in Kano on account of the speed with which the law was passed, discussed and the second law and also the desperation to use the traditional institution as a political toy.
We’ll like to look at the options available to Emir Sanusi. He has come out with a statement where he said “The Almighty Allah that gave me this leadership has taken it…”. What is your take on the way forward for Emir Sanusi Lamido Sanusi? This is a man who has played a very prominent role in Nigeria in the economy and has been a very progressive speaker for social changes in the society, particularly in the North. What would you like to see from him now?
Well, my own personal view is that he is going to be on sabbatical for between one and three years. I believe that he or other stakeholders will go to court because even his deposition did not follow the provisions of that law that the government itself assented to. The Chieftaincy Law of Kano State of 2019 provides for the deposition of an Emir on the recommendations of the kingmakers after establishing misconduct. Now, the kingmakers in Kano are four and two of them found themselves in two of the four new Emirates and, of course, refused to pay allegiance to their new Emirs; so they were still functioning as Kano kingmakers. But they themselves as a group, the four of them had instituted a court case against the government based on the new law, complaining about the bastardisation of history in the creation of the new Emirates. So, you could say they were not on speaking terms with the state government. And so they have not met and they have not established… because, actually about two, three days ago there was an order from the government to the former Emir to post the Kingmakers to appropriate Districts within his new domain which he did not do. I think this was preparatory to their being summoned to call a meeting to find him guilty of misconduct. So, the Emir did not do that; therefore, they did not meet. And so the basis on which the Executive Council of the state went ahead to depose the Emir is legally shaky. But this is for the lawyers and the courts to say. But my own personal belief is that there will be litigation; the validity and legality of the deposition will be tested and given the slow speed of our legal system; it may take up to three years. But in the end, the courts will find that the government did not follow its own law because misconduct has to be established and if you say it has to be on the recommendation of the Kingmakers, then it has to be on the recommendation of the Kingmakers. If there is no such recommendation, you cannot jump the process. You see, politicians are so desperate, so intoxicated by power that they actually forget to follow these little steps which the courts find unacceptable in order to defend the integrity of the legal system when the normal process of the law has not been followed.
Now, as a professor of English, you know that a single story does not tell the entire story. There are usually sub texts. What is the main sub text in the Kano crisis over the stool of the Emirate of Kano? Is this about Hausa/Fulani nationalism? Is it about Tijjaniya and quadriya sect or it is just simply a question of ego conflict between the governor and the Emir and perhaps, maybe it’s an injury that is self inflicted as analysed earlier on this programme?
I think the most sub text is the political undertone. When Sanusi Lamido Sanusi was appointed Emir of Kano, the present governor, Ganduje, was deputy to Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso and it was that government that was favourably disposed to Lamido Sanusi, sufficiently, to appoint him as Emir. So, up to the end of Kwankwaso regime, there was no problem. Then came a political split between the godfather and the godson. That is to say between Kwankwaso and Ganduje before the mid-term of Ganduje’s first term. That split is probably the remote cause of the conflict between the Emir and the governor because the governor perceived the Emir as supporting his former principal against him and especially when it came to the last election in 2019, the governor perceived the Emir as lending his weight to the PDP which is the new party of Kwankwaso. I think this is the most important sub text to answer your question directly.
Thank you for that perspective because other people are pointing to the personality of Emir Muhammadu Sanusi, the second that he was talking truth to power regarding the Almajiri system and its limitations, talking about having less children and that they really rankled. But let’s talk about his character as a traditionalist and a modernist and how he tried to establish both with limited success. What role did his personality play in this current situation that happened?
Yes. I suppose a different Emir would have survived this conflict. The late Emir, Ado Bayero faced greater challenges during his half a century reign but managed to navigate through all of them because he was a more taciturn person and more tactful. Yes, it is true that Emir Sanusi was an ebullient character with a very active intellect and a very gifted person. I should also say that Kano has not had an Emir that was so vast in Islamic knowledge as Lamido Sanusi. So, yes, his personality might have played a role but I believe that a lot of people talk to him and I believe that within the period of six years of his reign he did change, somewhat because in the last one year or two, he was only talking about social issues; but earlier on, he would take on the economy and by implication, be critical of the government of the day and its economic policies. I think there may have been one or two occasions when he even criticised some policies or proposed policies of the government of Kano State. But I think people talk to him a lot and I think he did change. So, I don’t think in the last one year or so that could have been cited as a reason. I believe that it is the political undertone and his perceived role in the last election that may have led to his downfall.
Now, the role of traditional leaders, definitely, cannot be overtaken anywhere especially if we are talking of the Emir of Kano in this particular case. Now, looking at Northern Nigeria and how regular it is in extreme poverty, looking at the policies that the government has such as President Muhammadu Buhari’s one hundred million people out of poverty in 10 years, being 10 million people every year for the last four years of his tenure and looking at the role of traditional leaders, what kind of leadership can we say we need to start seeing as well in order for us to overcome this social and developmental issues that is really and truly keeping us down?
Well, we need visionary leaders who have a clear vision of what they want to achieve and the capacity to drive the people to achieve that vision. We also need leaders who have integrity. But I should say our democracy is not really working because power is concentrated in the hands of governors and other executive leaders and there is very little accountability. For example, in this particular case of Kano, if we had accountability in the sense of members of the State House of Assembly being accountable to their constituents, this wouldn’t have happened because…well, this is not peculiar to Kano, probably it is the same story in all the states. The Assemblies tend to be in the pockets of the governors. The framers of the constitution wisely separated powers between the executive, the legislature and judiciary. The assumption is that the legislature will oversee and supervise and hold to account the executive. But this is not happening because corruption and greed have made the legislators to end up in the pockets of the governors and so there is no accountability, no debate and no dissent. This is what is happening. Even if we have visionary leaders with high integrity, unless the system itself is reformed to be accountable, we will not be able to make much progress; I am afraid.
Do think there is power play within Emir Sanusi’s family?
Well, you know the ambition of every Prince is to ascend the throne of his ancestors. When the new Emirates were established, the governor had some problems persuading some Princes to accept the new positions because they saw it as an assault on their collective patrimony. But at least one, that is Emir Aminu Ado Bayero accepted to be the Emir of Bichi. But to get back to your question, yes, indeed, there is now a civil war in the Kano ruling house. As you said, it is one family but with many branches and so the Sanusi family which went to decline with the deposition of Emir Sanusi in 1963 bounced back with the appointment of Emir Lamido Sanusi in 2014 and the Ado Bayero branch which thrived for more than 50 years went into decline temporarily for the six years of the Sanusi ascendancy and so there is civil war now between the royal family in Kano and so that also has played a role in this conflict.
