Sanusi And The Very Important Parasites

For the former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Lamido Sanusi Lamido Monday last week was a ‘special’ day indeed in his eventful life. In the life cycle of every man two special events mark the beginning and the end of their passage on this earth. The day (event) of their birth and the day they keep a date with the grim reaper. Sanusi had witnessed the first special event, the day he was delivered onto his community thereby joining the descendants of Adam. And signalling his membership of our global community with the future pregnant with the unknown.

The uncertainty of the future upon his birth has now become a certainty given what he has accomplished in life generally. Since he is now grown into adulthood attaining the golden age of 58 it stands to reason to indicate that his Nigerianess has been consummated by his natural blood pedigree. From the cradle (awaiting the inevitable grave thereof) he has risen to become famous by his royal heritage and impressive academic record. It is not given to every Adamic element among us to belong to the royalty or achieve greatness by dint of scholarly hardwork.

Monday last week the brewing feud between the ex-Emir of Kano and the Governor of the state blew open culminating in the dethronement of the former as the local king of modern Kano. For the tormentor-in-chief and the tormented the royal deposition portended bad omen for the emirate politics of the northern state. It bore grave consequencies for the man that exercised his power abusively to dethrone and the dethroned.

Emir Sanusi must have had the premonition of his deposition given the long-standing rift he had had with the executive Governor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje. So his downfall may have stunned some Nigerians at home and abroad but not Sanusi himself. When as an intellectual of world-class status you are in conflict with a primitive corrupt Governor then the differences in worldview could be irreconciliable given the academic and professional gap existing between the two foes.

Now, last Monday Governor Ganduje struck reminding Sanusi who the ‘boss’ was. The Kano State House of Assembly was reportedly thrown into commotion as the legislators debated the motion that could give a legal cover to the removal of the Emir. At the end of the day Ganduje approved the immediate removal and banishment of his nemesis. He gave what sounded ordinarily like cogent reasons (insurbodination and disrespect for constituted authority) for the rash and brash, crude and rude decision.

Before the Emir could digest the state government edict ordering his deposition security forces were sent in to remove him forcefully from the Palace! He was consequently escorted to a remote town in Nasarawa state where he was ‘held’ under house arrest. Days later it took the judicial intervention of a Federal High Court in Abuja to restore Sanusi’s freedom of movement and association. He is presently in Lagos.

The Ganduje/Sanusi rift had defied mediation efforts of statesmen (including the former Head of State, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar). According to the retired General who spoke recently from outside our shores on the matter the reconciliation team he led had met both parties and had concluded their task and submitted their recommendations to President Buhari. However, he averred that it appeared from the latest development that the President never intervened to let Ganduje stay action or cease hostilities.

Gen. Abubakar argued that since Governor Ganduje was holding the yam and the knife he had the power to do whatever pleased him without blinking an eye. Since the dethronement and banishment a whole lot of criticisms had trailed Sanusi’s travails. The presidency issued a statement somewhat validating the Ganduje act by saying that Governors had the constitutional power to depose any ‘king’ in their domain!

President Buhari’s media handlers, following the controversial dethronement, had said that the Daura-born lanky retired General had no hand in Sanusi’s ordeal. And before we could ruminate over that wild claim another of his media aide told a bewildered nation that the embattled President had ‘ordered’ his ‘godson’, the Kaduna state Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, to offer Sanusi appointment(s).

The issue here as a matter of fact is that there was no way Governor Ganduje would have bared his medieval fangs without the prior express knowledge of the chief Aso Rock occupant. The President must have been informed before the announcement was made.

Sanusi’s fallout with the Ganduje started some years ago when he called out Ganduje over billions of Naira project he claimed to have executed exorbitantly. Of course Ganduje is notorious for scandals bothering on graft. Few years ago he was caught in a video that went viral online stuffing bundles of millions of Dollars in his ‘babanriga’ outfit! Though he denied it we all know that he is as corrupt as many of his colleagues elsewhere.

From all indications Sanusi is morally and academically superior to Ganduje and the Governor knows it. This inferiority complex of his could be said to have manifested itself in the crude show of classless power. We hold that no matter what the present or the future reserves for Sanusi he will infinitely remain greater than the entirety of the Ganduje personality — whatever that personality is worth.

Sanusi should not have ventured into the emirate politics in the first place given his radicalism and frankness. Speaking the inconvenient truth to the power elite you are part of could boomerang someday, somehow, taking your ‘soul’ away.

Between the fallen Emir Sanusi and the Very Important Parasites (VIPs led by the executive herdsman in Aso Villa) the road to Damascus has just begun. When the narratives are over and history beckons to drop the bombshell of veracity this generation and the next would come to the conclusion that an executive big fool in Kano had acted foolishly by bringing down a great man from his royal temple.

The executive parasites in Kano and Abuja may have succeeded in giving Sanusi a bloody nose sending him away from the ancient land of his birth but be rest assured that the end of this graceless tale is yet to be told. In the end when Providence would have intervened Sanusi may end up laughing last. And he who laughs last, laughs the best!

We extend our hand of solidarity to the dethroned Emir and wish him well in his future endeavour. Nigeria and Nigerians still need the economic and intellectual services of Sanusi in these trying times.

By Ozodinukwe Okenwa…

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