By Yusuf Abubakar & Sani Mainage
Call it verbal diarrhoea, and you are not wrong. The incessant, unrestrained, no-holds-barred public commentaries that are becoming some sort of trademark for Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, are nothing short of ill affliction. However, unlike in illnesses where a physician is required to cure one, in this affliction it is self-cure that is needed.
The series of open attacks and public rebuke that the emir chooses to throw at every opportunity is by all good intents condemnable. The needless feather ruffling has risen from comments on Federal Government’s economic policies, urging women to return slaps on their husbands’ cheeks to now going public to flay his governor.
A lot of us welcomed the appointment of Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, as he then was, into the exalted throne of his forefathers. We saw it as something that would be a big plus for Kano State, a modern emir versed in both Western and Islamic learning; well-connected technocrat that can use his connections to attract development to Kano. Alas, all we got from the controversial ex-banker is showmanship at public events, both locally and internationally, denigrating and belittling the throne, queer fatwas, being forward, etc. All of which, have not added any value whatsoever to the people of Kano State or even the centuries old highly respected emirate council which he leads.
What started as some trendy bent of radical progressive tendencies; an emir of a powerful town as Kano lending his weighty views on social issues bedevilling his people, soon transcended to full blown economic epistles that have now become overly political treatise, totally unbecoming of a royal father.
A lot of sentimental observers, made up largely of young impressionistic minds, have formed an army of support for the emir’s ‘unroyal’ conduct. To their idealistic minds, the emir is a reformer, a progressive in aristocratic garb and one standing out of the pack to tell truth to power. They cheer him on, as he goes about firing from all cylinders condemning everything and everyone other than what he himself thought was the right thing to do. To the applause of his cheerleaders, he is behaving like the market place dan tauri, doing what no one else would want to, playing with the sword around his stomach to attract crowd.
When an emir abandons his basic duties for theatre performance, who then is he aspiring to become? The palace jester, wawan sarki? Time will surely tell.
The emir’s foot soldiers forget, or rather choose to ignore that not all of us can be everything at the same. There is a purpose for social order and when one attempts to muddle up things in an attempt to please people as an all-rounder, ensuing confusion may end up consuming the Jack. Muhammadu Sanusi II wants to be Jack-of-all-trades, from an emir, to an economist to an Islamic scholar, an administrator, and even a public commentator, but unfortunately he is becoming master of none.
In controversy after the other, Emir Sanusi is throwing his royal gown complete with caution to the wind of spectators to make pronouncement that in all objective reading go contrary to the royal codes of etiquettes.
In the known tradition of traditional authority, at least in Northern Nigeria, dignified silence occupies frontline position. When the emir has an opinion but rather chose to keep quiet, when he could have disparaged an action of the government or a group of individuals publicly or even react to some affront thrown at him but instead keep calm and get it addressed by other means, there is inestimable respect that comes with that.
From attacking the Federal Government, Emir Sanusi has now taken on the Kano State Government by taking one of its major projects to cleaners. I am talking about his comments at the recently concluded Kaduna Economic and Investment Summit where he rubbished the proposed construction of Kano Light Rail Project directly attacking Governor Umar Ganduje on something which he could have easily reached out to the governor and offer his advice as to the best way of handling the project instead of ridiculing him on a platform like that of Kaduna Investment Summit.
Personally, I feel there must be something unbeknown to us in this public criticism of a cardinal government project. Beyond that he used the same podium to tickle an away fight by censuring the chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum, Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara State. If Kano is concerned to Mallam Sanusi, what relationship has he got with Zamfara or Yari?
In Islam, there is a direct prophetic saying for one to shun that which does not concern one. And this injunction aims at protecting one from backlash of venturing into what does not concern one for if the mouth knows what it utters it would surely not know what reply it will get. Imagine if tomorrow media handlers of the Zamfara governor decide to go dirty in tackling the emir’s verbal assault on their principal.
Now, as an emir, Sanusi has direct access to the people he routinely takes on in public. This would make one wonder, why then go public with such criticisms, even if supposedly well intentioned. The reason is not farfetched, the man is used to playing to the gallery in order to impress.
Away from his attacks on leaders, the emir holds his people in high contempt. I have never heard any Oba, Obi, Ooni, Lamido, Atta, Gbon Gwom, etc washed the dirty linens of his people in public. Through his over two-year reign, the man has never said anything good about the well-behaved, industrious people of Kano. The part reserved for us is always rebuke. As one who has himself risen a polygamous family over the years, the emir now stands on his own ‘crimes’ to see that of others by always attacking the polygamous nature of the Kano family.
Our expectations on the choice of Sanusi Lamido Sanusi as Emir of Kano are fast weaning. What we get, instead of prosperity we thought we were in for, is endlessly needless controversies and attendant negative press. Unlike the Ooni of Ife, who has within a short period of time been identified as a promoter of youth entrepreneurship globally, Emir Sanusi with his abundant contacts within the financial sector, should have by now generated economic opportunities for the people of Kano State but we have none of that other than attacks and censures.
Whether anyone likes it or not, as an emir, Sanusi is an employee of the government and therefore bound by the public service rules. He has already provided the government with enough rope to hang him and had it been the man who appointed him is still the one at the Government House, the story would have been different by now. That same man who appointed the emir had to query him before leaving office in 2015.
The Emir should be mindful of history repeating itself in Kano. And when that happens those who cheer him on now cannot do anything other than to mumble words of sympathy. A stitch in time they say, saves nine.
•Abubakar and Mainage live in Kano city.