The Emir of Kano, Mallam Muhammadu Lamido Sanusi II, is a very interesting person. There are both negative and positive attributes that can make an individual interesting. In the case of the Kano monarch, he seems to possess both attributes in equal measure. He probably has as many admirers as haters. Fortunately for him, he doesn’t care about either; in fact, he seems to draw his inspiration and energy from being contentious.
When he became the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria CBN) in 2009, he announced to the world that all he ever wanted to achieve again in life was to become the emir of Kano. In 2014, his wish was granted by a combination of so many factors, all of them coming together to work in his favour as if he designed the sequence himself. First, he chose the best moment to pick a fight with the Presidency under then President Goodluck Jonathan by announcing to us that some 20-40 billion United States dollars revenue were never remitted to the federal government account. Jonathan immediately sent him on suspension. Although they are the strangest of bedfellows, Sanusi craftily found shelter under the protective canopy of the main opposition leader at the time, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari. The immediate consequence of that was to earn for the embattled CBN governor a goodwill he would otherwise never have had, no thanks to his brusque personality. While he went to court to challenge his suspension, Jonathan’s own political troubles mounted while those of Sanusi’s new mentor and protector, Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC), kept rising exponentially.
Meanwhile in Kano, which traditional throne Sanusi was eyeing, a political development that would consolidate Sanusi’s good fortune was unfolding. The Kano State Governor at the time, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, was set to challenge Buhari for the ticket of the APC presidential candidacy. For Sanusi, the choice was a simple one: Because neither Buhari nor Kwankwaso was his buddy, his best bet was to position himself as the conscience of the people, to continue to antagonise Jonathan and subtly align himself with the aspiration of the Kano State governor, Kwankwaso; because as it is in the constitution, at crunch time, it is the governor of Kano State, and not Buhari or Jonathan, that would appoint the emir of Kano if it became vacant.
Then after more than 50 years on the throne, God chose a most auspicious moment (for Sanusi) to make the coveted throne of Kano emirate vacant. The then emir, Alhaji Ado Bayero, died on 06/06/2014, about seven months to the general elections that would remove Mr. Jonathan, Sanusi’s mortal enemy, from office
Let us skip what happened between Sanusi and the Kano kingmakers. But at the political level where the ultimate decision would be made by the governor on who would become the emir of Kano, Governor Kwankwaso came under intense pressure from Sanusi’s associates in the APC, who were lobbying for their friend to be appointed the emir of Kano. Kwankwaso eventually and inevitably buckled under that pressure amid speculation that he traded off the position in return for the considerable support of Sanusi’s friends in the APC; and finally two days after the death of emir Ado Bayero, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi became emir of Kano on 08/06/2014, and assumed the title of Mal. Muhammadu Lamido Sanusi II. This abridged narrative of Emir Sanusi’s journey to the Kano throne is revisited to shade light on the probable political slant of the emir’s strange conduct.
So, with the ultimate trophy in the bag, one would expect that Emir Muhammadu Sanusi’s ‘A Luta’ is over, and he can then settle down to the soft life of a wealthy monarch (he made plenty of money as a banker and as head of the CBN); while the people of Kano look forward to a progressive young monarch, as he tries to reinvent the ancient glamour of the throne to meet modern challenges. For example, since Emir Sanusi is the only emir in Kano and by virtue of which he receives a percentage (2.5 per cent used to be the minimum in some states) of the monthly allocation of each of the 44 local councils in Kano State, which is the largest in the country, his emirate could afford to launch a programme that would take, at least, 100 of the millions of school age children off the streets of Kano every month; and get them into schools to prepare them to become more useful members of the society. Or he could just keep his peace unless where he feels strongly about any particular matter, he could then prepare a position paper (which he has demonstrated great ability to do) and submit same to the governor of Kano State for onward transmission to the federal government, or present it for discussion at the forum where traditional rulers meet, and thereafter make a presentation to the authorities concerned.
But if he is engaged in these worthy and stately endeavours, it is not yet public knowledge, apparently. What he indulges in publicly instead, is to create the impression that if given the choice, he wouldn’t mind going back to his former job, as governor of the CBN, or better still, be allowed to keep both his present and former job. That is the impression his conduct creates. His most recent public pronouncement on the economic policies of the federal government, especially as they affect the exchange rate of the naira is most baffling. Among several mediums that reported the emir’s critical position, the caption by THISDAY newspaper of 09/02/2015 sums it up neatly. The paper reported: “Again, Sanusi Criticises FG’s Naira Policy”.
The word “AGAIN” needs no interpretation and the emir needs to reflect honestly on his public utterances, especially as they affect a central government dealing with the biggest economic challenge confronting the nation in its entire history as a nation. It is remarkable that while the emir concentrates his attention on the activities of the federal government, he has been curiously silent on the horrible revelation of cases of sodomy and child abuse in an elite school right there in Kano where he is both a cultural-cum-spiritual leader and a custodian of values. As of this moment, parents of the abused children are left to run around on their own to seek for justice.
Besides, his own prognosis is really not even original. He is merely echoing the prescription of Western economic theorists that every developing country’s economic problem can be cured by devaluing the national currency. He was quoted in the media reports cited earlier as saying that: “These policies have been tried in different parts of the world and in this country before and they have just never worked. No matter what the stated intention behind them, they are wrong.” The emir is also wrong, because the prescription he is recommending, which is the devaluation of the naira have also been tried around the world and those countries that have tried them never got the result they envisaged. The bottomline truth is that neither the emir’s preferred option nor the government’s own strategy is a magic solution to a problem that was caused by factors completely outside the control of the government.
Therefore this is not to say that emir Sanusi is wrong to indicate preference for one or the other of options; but he is wrong to condemn, willy-nilly as he has done, the option the government has decided to pursue without giving it a chance, especially in the face of the persuasive argument advanced by the CBN and the government that whereas devaluing the naira will kill it with certainty, allowing it to compete for space in its own turf will give the naira at least a fighting chance.
from The Sun News http://ift.tt/1V7CUCv
via IFTTT
0 comments:
Post a Comment