By Isah Aliyu Chiroma
“The man we fell in love with is called Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, and what’s made him the darling of the progressives is his characteristic public intellection. You can never take that away from him. There’s always a price to pay for refusing to play by the book of the Establishment”.
_Gimba Kakanda
Everything that has a beginning must have an end, and as the time may have it, the nightmare of history will be awoken. The 14th Emir has returned to Kano, just as how Sarki Kukuna Dan Alhaji (1651-1652), who ruled for 1 year and was deposed. He was reinstated after 3 months and ruled for 8 years and 7 month.
This came after the Kano State House of Assembly has passed Kano emirates council law (repeal bill) 2024. The law has abrogated establishment of 5 new Emirates in the state. All offices established under the repealed law have been set aside.
From the other hand, one might ask, is it possible for a bill to be repealed within the short time frame? When a bill is passed, it must go through first, second and third reading. There is no stated time on when those reading should take place. It is possible to do the readings just as how it is been done by the state assembly. This gave the Kano state Governor the right to sign the repeal bill, which he did.
Going down the history lane, the late Abubakar Rimi humiliated the emirs of Kano and Hadejia in the 1980s by establishing five new emirates (four in Kano and one in Hadejia) in the former Kano State. He accused both emirs of being supporters of the then-ruling National Party of Nigeria (NPN) without providing any proof. What took place? Shortly afterward, Sabo Bakin Zuwo annulled all of the “emirates” at his inauguration ceremony, and Rimi was voted out of government.
For the kwankwasiya, this is a dream coming to reality, bringing back the Emir dethroned by the opposition party. It is also a big slap on the face of the former Governor. But for HH Sanusi II, it is a time to correct a narration written on his history. As he once said, “In a sense, there is a lot of good in this; only that people are thinking about today and not how history will record it. For those of us who come from families with a history, we are more interested in how future generations will see us than in the petty tribulations that fate inflicts upon us”.
For us that believed in fate, anything can happen at any time. And when the time comes, it is bound to happen. But I am afraid of one thing; Kano’s monarch system has already been destabilized, any new Governor can repeal the bill, which can give him full autonomy to reinstate a new Emir and bring back the Emirate. Should this be the fate of Kano’s traditional ruling system, can the mistake be corrected? This is a question only time can answer, where interest and loyalty will pay.
I will conclude with the word of HH Sanusi II, he said, “Whichever way this turns out, I am not a loser and Insha Allah, and justice will be done”. Is the installment of HH Sanusi II a justice on the play, time shall tell.
