The judgement delivered by Justice Abdullahi Muhammad Liman of the Federal High Court on the Emirship Tussle in Kano, on Thursday, 20th June, 2024, has raised more questions than provided a final solution to the issues in contention between the two ‘deposed’ Emirs: Aminu Ado Bayero and Sanusi Lamido Sanusi. However, my aim here is to highlight some apparent missing gaps in most of the commentaries so far made on the ongoing debate, in search of a legitimate Emir for Kano.
Certainly, some of the commentators based their opinions on their understanding of the facts or pieces of evidence as presented in the public domain, largely through court pronouncements or on social media platforms. As professionals, in historical or legal studies, their commentaries attracted considerable public attention on what should be anticipated as fair judgement in resolving the impasse. As a public relations and communications practitioner, I may not be in a position to successfully contest the grounds on which historians and lawyers arrived at their conclusions, even if biased, on the matter.
Having said this, I still consider it appropriate to discuss what I perceive as important missing gaps in the views of such professionals. In doing so, I will restrict my contribution to only four areas, namely: the creation of five emirates out of the old Kano Emirate by the Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje administration in 2019; the celebrated but misleading antiquity of Kano Emirate; the passing of the Kano Emirate Council (Repeal) Bill by the State Assembly to which Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf assented on 23rd May, 2024; the notion of an exclusive and unrestricted right of any serving governor to appoint or remove any emir or chief within his state with or without following the due process of the law.
When Channels Television hosted a professor of history from Bayero University, Kano, Tijjani Muhammad Naniya, who is also an elder brother to me, he discussed what he saw as the genesis of the problem and related matters. According to him, the situation was created by Ganduje in 2019, when he used his power as governor to dethrone Sanusi and enthrone Aminu in his place, as Emir of Kano, arbitrarily. He also enacted a law that balkanized the old Kano Emirate into five emirates.
With due respect, it is surprising that Naniya created, probably intentional, missing link, ab initio and spoke more like a mere palace propagandist than a trained historian. For the avoidance of doubt, it should be known that Aminu was not appointed as Emir of Kano to replace Sanusi. It seems many people have forgotten that Ganduje assented to the law, which created the new Emirates of Bichi, Gaya, Kano, Karaye, and Rano out of the old Kano Emirate on 5th December, 2019 and Sanusi remained as the Emir of Kano, and Chairman of the newly established State’s Council of Chiefs, up to 9th March, 2020. Aminu and Sanusi coexisted as Emirs of Bichi and Kano, respectively.
The new Emirate law, formulated by the Kano State House of Assembly in 2019, did not take retroactive effect. This is civility. This is fair-mindedness. This is equity. When Sanusi was justifiably deposed, the then Emir of Bichi, Aminu Ado Bayero, became the 15th Emir of Kano, by the special grace of Allah. Thus, to talk of reinstating Sanusi by the deposition of Aminu is to display what some academics may call profound ignorance of the facts involved or to be deliberately mischievous.
Do the supporters of Sanusi need to be reminded that, his deposition strictly followed due process of the law? He was found wanting by a competent panel of inquiry, which investigated the embezzlement of public funds entrusted under the custody of Kano Emirate Council with him as the Emir. Sanusi was not deposed by the creation of new Emirates in Kano, in 2020. He was deposed on sundry allegations of abuse of office and corruption. In fact, that was not the first time he was indicted for malfeasance by his employers. For instance, in 2014, he had a similar experience leading to his suspension and subsequent removal as Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), under President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.
One of the popular fairy-tales being dished out by Sanusi and his supporters, in order to mislead people was that, the creation of additional emirates out of the old Kano Emirate was a slap on the face of the ancient city and a disrespect to its over one-thousand-year history of stable monarchical tradition. For instance, Naniya argued that the Sarauta institution has been around for over one thousand years in Kano and there were instances at which the community witnessed unjustifiable depositions and corrective reinstatements of emirs, such as in 1570, 1619−1621, and a rebellion against the subversion of due process in the appointment of an emir in 1893, a development that led to a civil war in Kano.
Sanusi himself has also alluded many times to the myth of a monolithic and stable monarchical institution that survived for over a thousand years in Kano. For instance, in his interview with the Daily Trust newspaper, on 15th June, 2024, he explained that, “Something called a Kano Emirate with eight local governments. That emirate…had not existed in our one thousand years of history. The same thing with the Bichi Emirate, Rano Emirate, Gaya Emirate. None of them existed in one thousand years of history.” Frankly speaking, none of the original Emirates that emerged with flag-bearers, in the evolution of the Sokoto Caliphate, or even after, lasted for more than two hundred and twenty (220) years, to date.
The Sokoto Jihad, which was the precursor to the establishment of the Caliphate, commenced with the flight of the Muslim community, led by Shehu Usman Danfodio, from Degel to Gudu, on 21st February 1804. This was the point at which Shehu’s followers proclaimed him as Amir al-Mu’minin (Commander of the Faithful) and paid homage to him accordingly. The first battle between the Muslims and the Gobirawa forces was fought at Tabkin Kwotto, in June 1804. The victory of the Muslims was compared with the celebrated battle of Badr in which the followers of the Holy Prophet Muhammad, Peace and Blessing of Allah Be Upon Him, decisively defeated the Meccan forces.
Truly, for about a thousand or more years, there were documented accounts of continuous political developments in which numerous factors, both internal and external, made it possible for successive generations of Kanawa to witness the emergence, development, and collapse of differing political institutions, ruling houses, and dynasties, including the emirate as occasioned by circumstances, in the polity. However, there was nothing, whatsoever, like a thousand-year history of sarauta in Kano, or in any other emirate in Northern Nigeria!
I challenge any supporter of Sanusi to prove me wrong! The recurring theme, which characterised and sustained this transformational phenomenon over time, was the permanence of change over stagnation. For any person, therefore, to claim that we have had a stable sarauta or emirate system that lasted for a millennium in Kano, is to stand history on its head for denying the obvious. It is simply a historical bunkum and a fallacious distortion of facts, which could not stand objective scrutiny.
The history of the transformation of political authority and community in Kano, as indicated by the current Chief Imam of Kano, who is also a former Vice Chancellor of Bayero University and an uncle to Sanusi, Prof. Muhammad Sani Zahradeen, in his paper on “The Place of Mosques in the History of Kano,” can be broadly divided into five successive periods: the founding of the city and the rule established by Bagauda (c. 999−1062/3) up to around 1500 A. D.; the Rumfa dynasty starting with the rule of Muhammadu Rumfa, 1463−1499, and terminating with the rule of Muhammadu Na-Zaki (1618−1623); the Kutumbawa era, beginning with Alwali, the great (1781−1805) to 1806; Kano as an Emirate under Sokoto, from the reign of Sulaiman in 1807 to the colonial conquest of the Caliphate in 1903; the last is the 20th century, from the era of colonial domination to the present.
These periods represent different epochs in the political history of Kano. The size of Kano, the status and powers of its rulers since the pre-Islamic era, when the King was regarded as a deity, to the transformation of Kano as an Emirate answerable to Sokoto, to the subjugation of Kano as part of the British colony of the Northern Protectorate, when the Shari’a was overthrown and the Caliphate was disbanded, have demonstrated that there was nothing like a one-thousand-year-old sarauta system that survived in the history of Kano. To support my argument, the title of the doctoral thesis produced by Yusufu Bala Usman on the political history of Katsina, which has also been published, is “The Transformation of Katsina: (1400−1883), The Emergence and Overthrow of the Sarauta System and the Establishment of the Emirate.”
How come the sarauta system was not overthrown with the establishment of the Emirate in Kano? In fact, the notion of such an impossibility only exists in the hallucination of its proponents. It seems that most commentators, especially lawyers, are missing the relevant points when discussing the status of the Emirate (Repeal) Bill 2024 passed by the State Assembly and assented to by Governor Yusuf. Nobody doubts the constitutionality of the Assembly to make laws; that is their mandate. What people find strange is the circumstances surrounding the formulation of this particular law, the spirit behind its enactment, and its hurried application for selfish ends.
Laws are made for people not the reverse!For instance, in a recently released audio-tape in Hausa, which many listeners in Kano believed to be of Sanusi’s voice, one could clearly hear an outburst of anger and anxiety, threatening to deal with Governor Yusuf, for not fulfilling his part of the agreement to reinstate him as Emir, after he has made huge financial investments for the electoral success of the latter, is all over the country on social media platforms. The faint attempt to discredit the authenticity of the recorded tape, by Sanusi’s camp, did not convince majority of people he was not the person speaking.
It is indeed disgraceful and unfortunate for the Kwankwasiyya government to throw up the stool of the Emir of Kano for sale, by the crude determination of black-market forces. Even though the purchaser is an economist, who rose to become the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria. The belief in the absolute power of a governor, to arbitrarily appoint or remove an emir or chief in his state, must be resisted and rejected by people of goodwill whenever the exercise of such constitutional mandate is tainted with endemic corruption and gross abuse of office.
Sanusi has publicly declared that his mother is related to Abba’s, and Abba’s father was related to his. This is open nepotism! This is conflict of interest! For those arguing that, during the campaign of the NNPP, it had promised to reinstate Sanusi on winning election, and his attempted reinstatement was in fulfilment of that promise, I have a few questions to ask them. If Sanusi was not deposed on the basis of the new Emirate law of 2019, why should he be reinstated based on its liquidation? What is the offence of Aminu Ado Bayero to warrant his deposition? If all the emirs who were appointed through the new law in 2019 stand dissolved, why should Sanusi’s former position as the 14th Emir of Kano be restored since he was also a beneficiary of that same law before his subsequent indictment for alleged corruption, which led to his dethronement?
To express his disgust for the creation of additional emirates in Kano, Prof. Naniya explained as follows: “You cannot rewrite history… to attempt to create a history where there is none, and there is no basis for creating one, something must be wrong.” Restructuring the Kano Emirate into five emirates wouldn’t have amounted to creating a history where there is no basis for that. It would have been a mere restoration of some worthy antecedents in the political history of Kano Emirate. This is because, the administration of Abubakar Rimi was the first to create five new emirates of Dutse, Gaya, Kano, Karaye, and Rano out of the old Kano Emirate, in the second republic.
Their dissolution by Sabo Bakin Zuwo was unjustifiable. It was based on bad politics, vendetta, and other reasons best known to the powers-that-be, then. Prior to the creation of Jigawa state, out of the old Kano state in 1991, there were four emirates in Kano state, namely: Gumel, Hadejia, Kano, and Kazaure. After the creation of Jigawa State, three of the four emirates, Gumel, Hadejia and Kazaure fell on that side, while Kano Emirate became synonymous with Kano State. It was in recognition of this imbalance and the patriotic determination to remove it, which motivated the visionary governor of the old Kano state, Muhammadu Abubakar Rimi, to decentralise Kano Emirate into five autonomous emirates, during his tenure (1979−1983).
Similarly, the first military administrator of Jigawa state, Colonel Olayinka Sule, saw reason as to why the state was too big to comprise of only three emirates. He created two additional emirates, Dutse and Ringim, to make them five. The Emirs of Hadejia and Kazaure are of First-Class status. The Emir of Gumel is of Second-Class status. The Emirs of Dutse and Ringim are of Third-Class status. Interestingly, Dutse Emirate had, finally, come to stay, regardless of not having a flag from Sokoto, which was the flimsy excuse for its dissolution by Sabo Bakin Zuwo. Every phenomenon in history has a starting point. For instance, the predecessors of Shehu Usman Danfodio were not rulers at all, as his successors are, today.
According to the population figures, published by the National Bureau of Statistics, in its Demographic Statistics Bulletin, 2020; based on the 2006 census and the 2019 projected population for states, Jigawa’s population is 6,979,080 against Kano’s 16,253,549. In addition, Jigawa has 27 local government areas; 30 members in the State House of Assembly; and 11 members of the House of Representatives. On the other hand, Kano has 44 local government areas; 40 members of State House of Assembly; and 24 members of the House of Representatives. Jigawa state has five Emirates and Kano tate has only a single Emirate.
Is this not a criminal neglect of people’s aspirations and disrespect for their identity? Should the fate of Kano state be subjugated to the lustful desires of a few charlatans and comedians pretending to be Kano Emirate defenders in and out of the palace? Should not the existence and operations of the Kano Emirate be subordinated to the greater good of Kano state? Should the good people of Kano and their well-wishers continue to dance around Sanusi in order to massage his ego at the expense of Kano and the sarauta institution, in the long run? Permit me to say that, without any fear of contradiction, those who insist on keeping Kano state under a single Emirate are enemies of Kano people and opposing the progress of the state. They are also fighting a lost battle.
If historical circumstances could necessitate the transformation of the Sokoto Caliphate, which at the peak of its development had extended its authority to faraway places in present day Burkina Faso, Cameroun, and Chad; to be reduced to a single emirate with the Sultan of Sokoto as its Emir, what is so sacrosanct about the institution of the Kano Emirate, which Sanusi Lamido, with his exaggerated notion of self-importance, aspires to dominate and control at all cost, fair or foul?
Anwar, ex-Chief Press Secretary to the former Governor of Kano State, Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, writes via [email protected]
