Sarki Muhammadu Sanusi II has talked his way into dethronement. He has no one but himself to blame. He has let down the people who needed his progressive ideas the most, the people whose lives would have been transformed the most had he been more tactful and less loquacious. Sarki Sanusi didn’t just talk, he lambasted his Pay Masters, much like a King who earnestly wished to be dethroned. He goaded his Employer, an Employer who had always wanted to sack him.
- Ex Emir Sanusi*
Being the grandson of an Emir who was dethroned, Sarki Sanusi should have learned from a painful event that was part of his immediate family history.
As the most influential traditional Ruler in the North (not counting the Sultan of Sokoto), Sarki Sanusi had direct and unfettered access to all the powers that be in the North, he had access to the Presidency too. He could have directed his messages privately to these authorities, and worked with them behind the scenes to push and promote his progressive ideas on girl-child education, drug abuse, regulation of marriage and divorce, street begging, etc. Instead he chose to play to the gallery, and acted as though he alone was concerned and had all the answers.
- James Bagudu*
As cosmopolitan as Kano is, it is still very much a conservative society. So when the Emir publicly says that wives are free to retaliate if their husbands beat them, or sends his daughter to represent him at a public function and she does so without wearing a veil (and I don’t mean hijab), and she brazenly tells the gathering that her father doesn’t care if he is dethroned, when that same Emir uses every available platform to ridicule his region with truthful but embarrassing statistics he ends up alienating himself not just from the region’s leaders but from his subjects.
Sarki Sanusi’s last outburst in Kaduna on the 29th of February, where he implied that the North was dragging the rest of the country back angered many of his ardent supporters, but more importantly there was a deep sense of betrayal in the streets, among the very demography whose plight the Emir was passionate about.
My reading of the situation is that Sarki Sanusi lost many ordinary folk after that event. He effectively lost his stool on that day.
Let me be very clear, today ( Monday, 9th March, 2020) is a sad day for me, the “martaba” (glory) of the Kano Emirate has been diminished greatly, the promise of a progressive emirate has been buried.
Sarki Sanusi did not choose his battles wisely, he did not consider the greater good and glory of throne of his fore fathers .He played into the hands of an inglorious character called Ganduje. Such a shame.
Still, as a loyal Kano Son I say, “Long Live Sarki Aminu Ado Bayero.