The incoming Kano state government of Abba Kabir Yusuf, who won the governorship election on the platform of the New Nigerian People’s Party (NNPP), has planned to revisit the dethronement of Muhammad Sanusi II as emir of Kano. Former governor of Kano State, Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso, who dropped the hint in a viral video, said “the dethronement and balkanisation of the emirate would be reviewed by the NNPP government of Abba Yusuf -the governor-elect.”
Sanusi, who became Emir in the final term of Kwankwaso as governor, was dethroned by outgoing Governor Abdullahi Ganduje, who was deputy governor at the time the monarch was installed. Sanusi, the 14th Emir of Kano, was removed on March 9, 2020, banished from Kano and sent to Loko, a remote community in Nasarawa State. The expenses of the Kano emirate under him were probed. Aminu Ado Bayero, the son of Sanusi’s predecessor who ruled Kano for more than half a century until his death in 2014, succeeded Sanusi.
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Ganduje had earlier split the emirate into five and appointed Emirs of the same first class status, with the Emir of Kano serving as the chairman of the emirate council. Sanusi, the 14th emir of Kano, despite little constitutional powers, was able to exert significant influence besides being the custodian of both religion and tradition in Kano. Sanusi, an ex-central bank governor, was deposed for alleged “insubordination” to the Ganduje administration. He had a frosty relationship with Ganduje at the time he was removed. His fans believe he was sacked for opposing Ganduje’s re-election in 2019.
Ganduje had said he removed Sanusi “in order to safeguard the sanctity, culture, tradition, religion and prestige of the Kano emirate”, accusing the sacked emir of “total disrespect” of institutions and the governor’s office. The Kano governor-elect has also said in several fora his intention to revisit Sanusi’s dethronement if he could win the governorship. Speaking on the issue in the viral video, Kwankwaso said: “We have campaigned and as you know we are popular in Nigeria especially in Kano state, we are now back and God willing we will continue with the good works our administration left. This incoming governor and his team will take them up.
“As elders, we will continue to advise them to do the right thing. We tried not to intervene in the issue of bringing or removing any Emir, but now, an opportunity has come. Those who were given this opportunity will sit down and see to the issues. They will look at what they are expected to do. Beside the Emir, even the emirate has been divided into five places. All these need to be studied. Usually a leader inherits the good, bad and issues that are hard to reconcile.”