There’s no question that whatever happens in Kano often has implications for the way Nigeria’s unending game of thrones play out. Five years ago when then Governor Abdullahi Ganduje dethroned Sanusi Lamido Sanusi as Emir, he thought he had consigned him to history’s dustbin.
He probably expected the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to retain power in the state and sustain his legacy. Instead, the reverse happened. The New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP) led by his one-time leader, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, seized power and the new governor Abba Yusuf immediately took a sledgehammer – literally and figuratively – to everything his predecessor held dear.
He tore down multi-billion naira properties – public and privately owned – for the flimsiest of the reasons, only to have the courts slam billion naira penalties on the state for his recklessness. But monuments that became rubble were nothing; the real prize was scrapping five emirates that had been created at Sanusi’s dethronement.
To rub salt on injury, the ogre that Ganduje thought he had banished into some anonymous corner of Nasarawa State would soon be strutting with all his peacock glory within the precincts of the Kano palace. While Sanusi accepted his removal fatalistically, his replacement, Aminu Bayero, has put up a legal fight that has created the surreal situation of one city with two kings vying for supremacy.
In restoring the former Central Bank of Nigeria Governor to his role as monarch, the state government blithely ignored an existing court injunction. Much was made of whether the ruling was given by a judge on vacation, who supposedly gave an order from outside the country. That matter is still tied up at some stage of a serpentine judicial process.
The state government has protested vehemently that it had power under the constitution to appoint traditional rulers. Not many dispute that. However, from day one there had been suspicion that agents of the Federal Government or powerful Kano politicians now opening out of Abuja were invested in frustrating whatever the Yusuf administration was trying to accomplish.
Hours after his unceremonious ouster, Bayero came back to Kano aboard an aircraft allegedly provided by National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu. He was said to have been led to an annex palace by an escort of troops. The claims soon had a furious Ribadu threatening legal action against those who made them.
Despite the ferocity of his denials, elements of Kwakwanso’s NNPP and the state government swear that the Presidency and especially Ganduje are determined not to see Sanusi restored as emir. Not much proof is provided beyond the usual peculiar interpretation of judicial rulings and interventions by security agencies.
Shortly before last week’s Eid-el-Fitr celebrations, the state police command imposed a ban on Durbars and other processions ostensibly because of security threats. Such religious holidays are occasion for the emir to parade through the streets in all his finery. But now there were two monarchs laying claim to the throne, with the very real prospect of the competing marches turning into a test of strength and popularity.
While Bayero has largely stayed out of sight, Sanusi has carried on business as usual. On his way home after the Eid prayers at the popular Kofar Mata Eid prayer ground in Kano on Sunday; violence broke out within his entourage. By the time the dust settled, one Surajo Rabiu, a vigilante had been stabbed to death, while another sustained injuries.
The police invited a senior title holder, Wada Isyaku, the Shamakin Kano, for questioning over defiance of the ban on durbar-related activities. What would make headline news was when a similar invitation was extended to Emir Sanusi requiring him to come for questioning in Abuja.
A vortex of criticism was automatically unleashed with many opposition figures accusing the police of being misused to oppress the monarch because of political loyalty. It was clear the criticism hit a raw nerve because shortly before the emir was to keep the Tuesday appointment, the invitation was withdrawn. The Police issued a defensive statement explaining their action was devoid of any political undertone.
What many critics found objectionable was having the traditional ruler travel to Abuja when his account about the violence could very easily have been obtained by the state command. For others, such an invitation should never have been issued given his eminence.
The fact is the police and other security agencies out of overzealousness blunder from time to time. The Sanusi summons is a reminiscence of the Kogi State government and police command banning all rallies simply because Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan announced she was visiting her hometown. But by intervening the way they did, they opened the door for her defiance, reinforced her image as a victim and thoroughly embarrassed themselves when her full house rally held without a hitch.
The Police in Abuja may have deescalated tensions, but they emerged from this episode not looking good. They look like they can be very easily pushed around or buckle very easily in the face of a little heat.
But that said, the impression must never be created that certain persons cannot be held to account when crimes have been committed because of their lofty positions in society. Let’s not forget that someone died during a procession that the police had banned.
There’s no evidence anyone went to court to challenge their right to hold such events. Having seemingly acquiesced to not holding them, whoever authorised it surely has questions to answer. Even if there had been no death or violence, questions should be asked as to why one party obeyed and the other defied the order.
But it isn’t only the police who have emerged from this not smelling of roses. Some political leaders in their desperate need to criticise something have gone overboard. Take former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el-Rufai, for example.
It is common knowledge that Sanusi and El-Rufai are very close pals. When the emir was languishing in his internal exile home in Nasarawa, it was the former Kaduna governor who travelled there by road to ferry him home. So, it is only natural that he would take more than passing interest in what looked like fresh trouble for his friend.
That perhaps explains why on April 6, 2025 he posted on his X handle an article purportedly written by one “Chuks Emeka” which trashed what the author referred to as the “Yoruba-led federal government’s” complicity in the police’s actions against Sanusi.
Questions have been asked as to whether “Chuks Emeka” exists anywhere other than in the imagination of the former governor – the suggestion being that this was just a convenient pen name to be blamed for unwholesome opinions. By referring to the “Yoruba-led federal government”, the supposed writer was engaging in the most despicable form of ethnic baiting. By ventilating his toxic views on his handle, El-Rufai was identifying with the same condemnable hate.
Another quote from the supposed “Emeka” piece reads suspiciously like something the 2025 vintage of the former Kaduna governor could have said or written. “And it is being carried out under a Yoruba presidency, one that many of us across the country supported out of hope for national healing, restructuring, and competence.”
It is amazing what bitterness can do to a man who would love to be seen as enlightened. It is especially sad that a politician who clearly aspires to one day lead a nation cannot see how he’s diminished by launching low attacks against an important ethnic group within the whole.
Perhaps El-Rufai and the “author” whose piece he admired so much that he had to reproduce it on his handle need to be reminded that even in the Southwest, Bola Tinubu didn’t win 100% of votes in his home region. Out of a total of 4, 350,987 votes cast at the presidential election in the zone, he received 2, 542, 979 – about 58.4%.
In the Northwest where a total 6, 468, 492 votes were cast, he received 2, 652, 235 – about 41%. This was better than Abubakar Atiku’s 33.9%. The president actually got 30 percent of his total votes from this zone.
He became president by after meeting constitutional requirements and picking up a pan-Nigerian mandate. Referring to his administration as the “Yoruba-led presidency” would be as fair as calling Muhammadu Buhari’s regime the “Fulani presidency.” No amount of bile should make one descend that low.
