I received a number of mails and messages challenging my silence over the Kano story of the weeks before, and why I ‘seem to be so engrossed with the public good, public interest and public values, because I talked about them anytime I write.
Why I was silent on the Governor Ganduje and Kano Emirate imbroglio over the weeks? I will start with it this week. It may end up giving the reason for my romance with public issues as an added answer by the way. Or I will follow with that next week, in a separate account. Many thanks to those who wrote.
I didn’t want to write about the Kano imbroglio, for many personal reasons. But then uncertainty eclipsed the issue. Thanks to a court of law that asked parties to ‘maintain statusquo’, until it finally decides. Pending judgment day, I take the risk to swim in the lake of crocs and mangroves.
But the matter isn’t dead yet. By the time the same court judges, whatever decision passed will just rewake everything back and more issues to the public sphere. We like controversy. It gives some of us personal gratification. We like it when two are fighting, when someone of confidence and legitimacy are in trouble.
But it is good for a writer to record something, to be part of history. Over a writer’s head, readers hold a right of comment and response over key issues. And for the might of a column, it is good to let or help readers think along the rights or the lefts in the stead of sitting on the fence, inspite of the damning consequences of either losing or gaining goodwill.
Either way, a writer who says what is not said before, what is insulting to the perpetrators, or what is unsayable because of a society’s selfpretence about its own problems, is capable of becoming an enemy to many. In the process of doing this, I stand to be another victim like Emir Sanusi is, a victim of my own words, for an interest of a child, a woman or a challenged human – just some victim of the system.
First, let me say that I have no personal interest in the saga like many others who talked about it. I never had in any comment on any public issue. It is pure public concern, which is actually my concern as I went through others’ comments. But again I was shocked to read the more than usual in some usual ways. I dont trade the familiar. Familiarity makes some comments safe but it breads contempt of, especially, the critical mind behind the comments.
Well, Sarki Sanusi may be a capitalist – an immodest one, maybe – which is why shortly after assuming the throne, a scandal trailed the use of the finances of the Emirate which is used as one of the reasons to beat him back into the dark tunnel for his many other unspeakable sins. Not many cared back then. But I read the signs.
In the typical Northern manner, even a segment of the jubilant over his politically relevant appointment can later be or be converted against him by the press of the minute remote control button. In our part of the world, truth, good and the best are defined and redefined for most of public opinion and for all even, anytime by a switch, of the whims of the few and the mischievous.
I read the various accounts of how the Emir acted and inacted before, during and even after the recent elections to make sure Governor Abdullahi Ganduge doesn’t return. The heart, by nature, will always reside. But knowing his constitutional weaknesses, limits and handcuffs, Emir Sanusi’s conduct and use of Kano State human and material resources at his disposal to fight an incumbency was unthinkable.
Which brings up the wonder what sort of interest can push an Emir of SLS calibre to go that far? Many times I think if the Emir or most of our leaders in the various places actually got wellwishers, friends or confidants at all. How can an Emir go to such an extent? Where are their families? Sometimes we ignore them, but at some point, the family is your best bet out of trouble or avoiding it.
The little I learnt in leadership is you don’t rush to utter bad words or accuse a fellow leader in trouble. Karma is a devil. It can be anyone tomorrow. The temptations of office are much. Only God, not your smartness, is the safest. You may fall into the ditch tomorrow, even a deeper ditch. And that is it. It is what has come to the fore now. You only pray for them and yourself to end well, at best.
But Emir Sanusi’s problems didn’t stop at GAG’s doors. He has actually touched the tail of a snake for long. May the snake is only reacting now. He has shadowed virtually everybody, institution or organisation in many places he went to speak at occasions, assuming too critical on many issues for no reason, or many issues unemirelike, or issues too trivial for his calibre of Emirate, or issues he should have ignored as a leader of the traditional throne of the Kano type. As a leaders, you don’t talk too much, too often and not about everything.
I think he was enjoying the unpredecencies of the Emirate with him on the throne. He has been a writer and a social critic who talked so much about the ailments of the North and Kano as its heart. He saw the opportunity on assumption to do something about it.
His social and legal policies about marriage, education and society were too radical, sudden and controversial for men, academics, religious leaders and imams and judges. They are also tall enough to dwarf government presence in the areas where the latter was supposed to lead in the reform approaches. Who, where were offended by the Emir? No one also knows how because we live in a system that is too intolerant of change and the stipulate of the cost of how to do it.
Shortly on assumption and long before the election, the Emir had demonstrated shabby dislike for the ruling APC at both levels and many of us still think that with all of Ganduje’s reaction, both GAG and PMB tried to be firm, stable leaders. They actually swallowed much for him.
I watched many videos where stark criticism sharped on the persons of both the Governor and the President in the name of advice, until the remote control touched the puff in the dust of the Emirate’s Treasury at some point just to slow him down until the big reason. But more than the suggestion, the Emir was just misunderstood first and the opinion didn’t change but it lasts to date.
The Emir was also seen as arrogant by many accounts and conducts deduced from some big time unstated opinion. Is he? May be he is. But then arrogance is something that every intelligent, blunt and bold person who got guts can easily pass for. I have a strong experience of one of my bosses who suffered the wrong assumption and sad misconception. It is an easy exercise in the North.
In one of the videos, the Emir was asked to speak for a minute before an occasion in Kano attended by the President would close. As he reached the lectern holding the mike, the Emir looked at the MC and said, “Yes. I will speak for only a minute. But it will be the Emir’s kind of minute.” Laughter ensued.
As a Buharist, I never liked his open criticisms on the President and even the Governor, not for no serious, pre-dollar scandal issues. And no matter the other opinion on my other sentiment for the Emir, it has been a comfort zone for me. Like I will keep saying, PMB was not an option. He was, he is, he remains, the only option.
Anyone with strong sense of history of the country and the North, there is just no alternative to PMB, if you go by the sanctity of public good as the yardstick. But for personal, selfish interest, he is always the last option for the most of the north, among working and educated class at different levels. May be his opinion on the scandal was bad, too.
But there is the Emir’s other unsaid offence. I saw his open brandish of the rosary in open allegiance to the Sheikh Ibrahim Inyass’ Faidha of the Tijjaniyya, his weekly Friday Zikr at the Emirate as huge offence that was coming. When I first whispered the point to a colleague, he jumped: “but ….” Yes. I know, I said
The House of Dabo has been an ardent adherent of the same sect. Yes late Emir Ado was a strict follower who was regular on the road to Kaolakh. But he was not as learned in religion or in the advanced values of Islam in the Sect. Not as learned.
I don’t know much more than this and the history of the House is not an area I can dread. May someone was right. Kano issues are for the Kanoians. They know better. But the only problem is that the oozes of the bad heart’s bias, sentiment and cruelty can change even the holiest knowledge.
But again, by the virtue of Kano in history, which was the route for the sectarian connect of the Emirate’s leadership with scholars, and for the status of Kano in Africa, many of holders of religious, scholarship and trade values can lay many claims to the place. This is because as some renowned scholar said in the recent wake that Kano is an unlikely place, more than just for its people
In any case, it is true. For me, it is damn limited. I can’t even figure if there was the open staging of the weekly or even occasional Zikr at the Palace during the late Ado. Yes. GAG was, may be still is, also follower of the same Sect, too. If politics, leadership and the recent fight have not forced him change his heart, that is. It is now clear how easy for many of us to sell out their faith for a meagre price. But then, even as a brother, who says that brothers from the same family won’t have clash of interest and go to any height of proving them.
We live in an extremely naive society which is guided by the less placedup minds, who drive with the heart on every road under any weather, no matter the distance. In Government and politics, some men can choose to be bastards or disown even their relations to go to any length in order to actualise a political mischief or settle a score, especially if there are other interests that can be netted or drafted in the settle of the score.
That is the reason we keep saying that religion has denied us the good value of conjoin of brothers and sisters’ hearts, the unity of purpose or the impetus for the mobilisation of all for common good. All the crises in Nigeria related to religion are offshoots of the extreme extension of personal/selfish interest, injustice and corruption that shadows the hearts and the clandestine hands of men we entrust religious affairs.
Many other issues need to come to limelight if you agree with your open words on the social media that we need to do something to change the situations of the North – almajiri, women, children, poverty and education of quality, not quantity. Face it. But if you are one who can’t comment on the unusual ideas about us, then your words for change won’t matter again.
Instead, some few men in both religions and across all the sects and seized the leadership of the structures of religion at different levels to perpetrate and actualise their whims and overriding interests at the cost of the public welfare or even the progress of members of the different societies and denominations. There is as much corruption in our religious institutions and societies today. Let us not take offence. Let us take out and away the offence.
And that is reason I take on GAG as the leader in the saga. The Emir, with all the influence and unbearable influence, follows. The inconclusiveness of that election may have been ensured by the Emir’s excesses. May be. It would have been a walkover. But then, after everything, the APC won and GAG returned. It would have been a good point for praising and thanking God for His favours. They were tremendous favours indeed.
But GAG appeared a shrinkheart instead, unlike a leader he has been, as seen from outside Kano. With all his knowledge of the unfairness of the Emir’s long list of offences, GAG would have enlarged his breast to ignore the Emir. It may even be most hurting when you ignore the antics and mischief of who hates you. It teaches them a better lesson. The successful doesn’t fight back, retaliate. They let their enemies’ slippers slip them on their own.
He went beyond the limit. He targets the wrong. He wanted the person but hit the stool. The Emir is your problem, not the Emirate. It is even easier to remove the Emir than to mutilate the Emirate, except for the other much interest we know and those we don’t know. Except for the remote but prominent reason that Prince GAG’s family is also a beneficiary of the destruction of the famous place.
Unless we begin to detach our bias for tribe, religion, place, sect or ideology interest from public issues, Nigeria and the North’s many socioeconomic problems can only manifold. At the tug of the events, I almost jumped to ask, where are the advocates of development or change of this impossible society?
Except the responsible few, many of us don’t see the import of who is in or out of what office only for what they do different from the bandwagon, because being different from those on the omnibus is itself offensive. We live in a society where few, selfish men and their women who live at the expense of lives of the weak and the poor, use the social divides of tribe, religion, sect, place and ideology to do anything inconceivable to intimidate, harass, deny, threaten and outcast the few who rise with their voices to ask for the difference that can reduce our problems.
They encourage badness and discourage its twin. They never let any chance pass. They claim every opportunity and they never relent, trying impossible numbers of times to actualise the agenda. I have come to another question about these evil men in every nook, at every level of the social strata, official or open: who is the patron of impunity?
The question is important because members of society under review are not outwardly followers of only a particular tribe, religion, sect, ideology, place or group. They are inwardly a clandestine set of collected likeminds who take pleasure in the misfortunes of individuals, groups or organisations and can do anything to derail others’ interests and those of organisations they work under to usurp every plum to their advantage. And they seem to succeed with less or no eyebrow. Incidental is that even if they are caught, they are ignored or left alone.
That is okay. It isn’t every offence that attracts punishment. But what of the many cases where hardwork, integrity and principles are ignored, denied and misspelt. In many cases, many persons are even punished and denied rights for demonstrating the qualities in the work place. Why? How do they do it?
Right now in the north, selfish individualism values vendored by selfish individuals is the normal thing through which things are seen, done, accepted, rejected, backed or baked off. So it is difficult for the selfless public advocates to permeate the sea of public opinion on public issues since few individuals’ interest supersede by far terms, any common interest they paddle to limelight.
Not even the victims of individualism appreciate the diameter by which their interest is clumped into the personal pockets of agents against human progress of Northern Nigeria? Who is the patron of impunity? I can’t find any. I look back, all through the routes I have followed to stage; I met and was taught by noble men and women from different places, tribes, values and characters.
None of them hinted the opposite of good as a value. Where did I miss the point? What happened? How did we reach this point of massive spoil? For what end? What is the immediate and the remote, the personal and the general, objective of persons dealing in the business of encouraging, supporting bad and denying, discouraging public good
This is not said before. It is a taboo to say but it can’t be silent again. Like the publisher of this medium, Haruna Mohammad once observed, the North is just allergic to anything, any person good. Sarki Sanusi is good. Face it. Live with it. The truth heals. Take it. Say it. His strengths are his mind and voice. What he can do on the Throne remember he can triple out of it.
He is actually more than whatever you think of him. He is normal but down to earth human. Everything we saw the Emir do wrong or overdo right was actually further graced by the dignity of the Throne even at that.
Remove him and see what he would say and do outside that heavy lump of turban over his head. So to limit his bearings, try to let and respect him as Emir. It is much easier you tame him to the Throne. Don’t let him out as an activist. You may not breathe as anything.
He reminds us about the glory of the past we seek to find, to get back, because we have emptied the caskets that our homes have become, of just everything good. Look at the message. Ignore the messenger. Take the message and drop the medium.
Forget any other thing you take too serious about the man. Take his mind and see how it connects to his service for the Throne, for Kano and for the North. Anything else doesn’t matter, if you understand the depth of the shit we are in the North, much so if you also carry the weight. Everyone’s life is defined by the condition of others’ life and what we do to improve the. Any contrary idea is not human.
Take the values he lumps to the Throne. Look at the influences, the reforms, the corrections and the fame, grace of the ancestry leadership. He represents all those good values we have lost as a diverse society. We have cried a number of times on the road to this longing. The loss of our common history, values and the great lessons and good leaders who can make and repair is the reason for the deep wounds we try to heal to no good measure.
Sarki Sanusi should be a rallying point for all – everyone across the divides – in the north and even the country to come to sit and discuss ways out. Our common problems and they will eat us all at one if we remain divided over them today. We don’t want to lose Emir Sanusi’s influence as a leader who can do, can make, can inspire and can mobilise.
It is ok to hold whatever belief personal, for your own, personal connect with God. Religious practise is personal but the goodness out of the practise is public.
So put out your hand and reach out to the individuals, groups and organisations that builds not destroy, make things happen and not mar the happening of things. For you can’t do it alone.
But first reach out to us. Contact us and tell us your mind. Let us talk.
Hassan Alhaji Hassan can be contacted on 08032829772/08050551220 (text only with full names and address)a[email protected]
The views expressed in this article are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect WikkiTimes’ editorial stance.
