Tag: Emir

The Emir of Kano, Alhaji Muhammadu Sanusi II, has confirmed the appointment of Alhaji Nasiru Ado Bayero as the new Ciroman Kano and District Head of Gwale.

This followed the removal of Alhaji Sanusi Ado Bayero, the eldest son of the late Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero, from the position.

Sanusi Ado Bayero was said to have had a running battle with the current emir.

A statement yesterday in Kano by the Galadiman Kano, Alhaji Abbas Sanusi, said Sanusi Ado Bayero was stripped of the title because of his alleged refusal to pay homage to the emir, as stipulated by Sharia.

Ciroman Kano is the title of a prominent member of the Kano Emirate Council, who is traditionally close to the emir.

The statement reads: “It was the provision of the Sharia law and custom that had compelled every member of the Kano Emirate Council to be loyal to the new king, following the demise of the former monarch… God, in His infinite wisdom, gives power to whom He wishes and takes it away from anyone He so wishes.”

The statement noted that paying homage to a king was an obligation that every traditional title holder had complied with for centuries.

It said the tradition was mandatory for any disloyal traditional title holder to either abdicate his title or allow the emir to appoint a loyal person of his choice.

The statement said: “As you are all aware, since the demise of the late emir and the appointment of his successor on June 8, 2014, all traditional title holders, including District Heads and others, had cringed to pay their respects and homage to Alhaji Muhammadu Sanusi II as the new emir, with the exception of the sacked Ciroman Kano.

“It is in view of this development that His Royal Highness, the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Muhammadu Sanusi II, took the decision to confirm the appointment of Alhaji Nasiru Ado Bayero as the new Ciroman Kano.”

The Emir of Ilorin, Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari, has described attacks against dignitaries by suspected miscreants at the Iloring prayer ground as an offence against God.

He spoke yesterday in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, when he paid Eid-El Kabir visit to Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed at the Government House.

Sulu-Gambari noted that the efforts of the miscreants to defile the sanctity of the place of worship and deny Muslims their right of worship were condemnable.

The act, he added, was a possible invitation of the wrath of Allah whose abode the miscreants invaded.

He condemned the development as despicable and unfortunate.

The Emir urged parents to train their children not to taint the good image of Ilorin Emirate and Kwara State as a peace loving and united entities.

Ahmed said despite the fact that the September federal allocation was pending, his administration had paid civil servants and facilitated loan for local government councils to offset salaries of their workers.

The governor promised that his administration remained committed to completing all projects while new ones would be embarked upon as soon as earnings improve.

He reiterated the resolve of his administration to boost internally generated revenue would not inflict additional burdens on the people of the state.

THE lives a fabled life and a cautionary tale; a prince of irreducible splendour that yet bears testimony to the commonality of humaneness. Sanusi Lamido Sanusi actualises his heartfelt dreams, this moment. On this day and at this hour, the grandson of the late Emir of Kano and Islamic scholar, Mohammadu Sanusi, commands the stuff fairy tales are made of. He becomes the Emir of Kano; and by his appointment, Sanusi, a former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor and unarguably one of Nigeria’s foremost figures, becomes of the most influential and reverred monarchs in the Muslim North.

The personal history of Sanusi before the crown is, of course, a rich anecdote on the long, daunting march to greatness. Initially, his appointment generated tension and discomfort with the President Goodluck Jonathan-led presidency. President Jonathan, who removed him in February 2014 as governor of the CBN, after he spoke out against corruption in high places, allegedly balked at the idea of seeing Sanusi mount the throne of the Emir of Kano, given their strained relationship and the latter’s inclination to speak upsetting truths to power.

When Kano’s respected former emir, HRH Ado Abdullahi Bayero, died on June 6, 2014, not a few people expected his son, Sanusi Lamido Ado Bayero, to succeed him. A commission of kingmakers and powerbrokers usually presents a list of candidates for the position, but Kano’s state governor, Rabiu Kwankwanso, a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) party, took the final and binding decision. He chose Sanusi.

Supporters of the late emir’s son were predictably miffed and they protested angrily. With tempers flaring within the late emir’s son’s camp and intriguing plotting against Sanusi’s mounting of the throne from the presidency, the local police in Kano had to protect the royal palace and the possibility of Sanusi’s ascendance.

With Sanusi’s ascendance to the throne, a vocal critic of the government has emerged in the emirate royalty. Unlike his predecessor, who diplomatically avoided the intrigues of politics, Sanusi has a history of speaking out against government, corruption and perceived presidential ineptitude.

As emir, will Sanusi be less controversial? No sooner did he ascend the throne than he stated that he nurtures no dreams of active participation in national politics but he intends to lend his voice and his weight to social causes that will foster the good of the citizenry rather than sectional groups or political parties.

However, a thaw later emerged in the relationship between the President and Emir Sanusi. The Emir visited the President in Aso Villa, while the latter returned the visit to the Emir in Kano, thus ending months of a testy relationship.

The scholar, Sanusi

Born on July 31, 1961, his father was a permanent secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the 1960s and he started his western education at St. Anne Primary School, Kakuri, Kaduna (1967  1972). Sanusi had his West African School Certificate at the prestigious King’s College, Lagos, from where he proceeded to Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Kaduna State, where he earned a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Economics in 1981 and his Master’s of Science degree in Economics with distinction in Monetary Policy in 1983. He did his National Youth Service in former Gongola State (now Adamawa and Taraba State). Sanusi later travelled overseas to study Sharia Law at the International University of Africa, Khartoum in Sudan where he bagged a first class degree in 1997.

A career in banking

Sanusi started his career working as an academic at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, where he lectured Economics in 1985 before he moved to the banking sector in 1985. Then, he joined Icon Limited (Merchant Bankers), a subsidiary of now Guaranty Trust Bank of New York, and Baring Brothers of London. He later joined United Bank of Africa Plc (UBA) in 1997 where he worked in the Credit and Risk Management Division and rose to the position of General Manager. In September 2005, he became the chairman of Kakawa Discount House and later joined the Board of First Bank of Nigeria as an Executive Director in charge of Risk and Management Control and was in later appointed Group Managing Director (CEO) in January 2009.

Sterling records to treasure

While most African economists and governments rhapsodized and swooned over the continent’s romance with China, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, as CBN governor, remained sober enough to identify and point out the unevenness of the relations. Audacious and gifted with dazzling oratory, Sanusi was ever willing to advance his convictions on issues of public policy not only in his native Nigeria but also in the global financial system. He stunned the financial world by his critique of the global financial crisis lampooning the world’s financial regulators for jettisoning their raison d’être, even as he condemned bankers for poor risk management and recklessness.

At home, the Sanusi-led CBN gunned for the fat cats that ran local banks aground through unrestrained insider-dealings, by cutting their political leverage and throwing the book at them. In the wake of his measures, eight bank chiefs were booted out of office and their banks were “rehabilitated” through the instrumentality of a massive capital injection. And to forestall the resurgence of overbearing CEOs that ran the banks like personal fiefdoms, the CBN limited bank CEOs’ tenure to 10 years and set strict corporate governance guidelines.

Sanusi fostered and duly applied the stick and carrot approach to problem solving and people management. He provided proof that judicious bailout coupled with appropriate sanctions could help rebuild the world’s wobbly banks and arrest the wave of crass opportunism and crime in the international financial system. His several merit awards include the 2011 Global African Central Bank Governor; 2011 African Leadership Person of the Year and a listing on the Time Magazine 100 most Influential People of 2011.

Glimpses of grandeur

Thus, you can understand why the average Kano native would take more than a passing interest in the coronation of HRH Sanusi Lamido Sanusio today, an event that will be attended by the crème of Nigeria and international high society.

If Kano were a ship, she would list. As you read, the ancient emirate city unfurls to pageantry and history as her natives host the world to the coronation of their most prized royal figure and spiritual leader, Emir of Kano, His Royal Highness, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi. The inexorable buildup of spectators along the ceremonial route, at first a straggle of spectacle-activated diehards gradually condenses into the shape of a mammoth crowd and finally hordes, all intent on squeezing into the same small corner of a sprawling city to catch a glimpse of dignitaries journeying to pay homage to Kano emirate’s most powerful traditional authority figure.

But HRH Sanusi’s coronation today could hardly pass as a spectacle of interest only to audiences with tangible links to his majesty; the new Emir of Kano is that breed of mankind that excites the splendid tribute of a cheer in the wake of his most glorious feats as he does when the chips come falling on him. Sanusi strikingly commands the relentless tribute of cheers that reverberates as deafening applause for the extraordinariness of the man who taught Nigeria and Kano emirate, in particular, to trust in the soul and entrepreneurial depth of man that they might get to crown him.

If Sanusi does not fulfill the ubiquitous stereotype of the conventional reticent Emir, however, it’s because he never purported to play by the conventional and his story was never scripted to satisfy such typecast. The outlines of the story are, however, familiar: it is gripping enough to stun local folks and a global audience, reaching places not represented at the ceremony and without historical ties to Kano Emirate. The world loves a success story, and Nigerians are thirsty for narratives of hope and triumph in difficult times.

The more interesting the character involved  like Sanusi CBN governor turned HRH Sanusi Lamido Sanusi  the greater the press of spectators wielding admiration and their curiosity like periscopes. Hence, at this moment and at this hour, what matters to the mammoth crowd thronging the ancient yet metropolitan Kano Emirate surpasses witnessing the grandeur of HRH Sanusi’s coronation but living it.