Malam Muhammadu Sanusi II: Three years after (II)
Read the first part here Unlike those that traduce him, Emir Muhammadu Sanusi II has a track record of speaking the truth and letting you know where he stands on almost every issue. I first learnt about Sanusi’s fiery scholarship when I read his intervention on Hudud in Daily Trust newspaper many years ago. I […]
Unlike those that traduce him, Emir Muhammadu Sanusi II has a track record of speaking the truth and letting you know where he stands on almost every issue. I first learnt about Sanusi’s fiery scholarship when I read his intervention on Hudud in Daily Trust newspaper many years ago. I had the opportunity of meeting him one on one in May 2014.
His outspokenness manifested early and the story is out there of how pupils’ comestibles routinely disappeared in the care of a matron of his primary school each time the children went to the class and nobody dared do anything. One day, the kids were fed up and didn’t know what to do; it was Sanusi’s duty to accuse her. “You accuse me of theft?” the woman protested. “Yes, why do our things get stolen each time we leave them in your care?” Since that day, nothing that belonged to the pupils got missing!
When he served as the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Sanusi took on special interests. Recently, I went back to have a good view of the video of his TEDex lecture to the youths as well as his Jonathan-era discourse on the removal of subsidy on petroleum products. Both were brilliant and inspiring. In the subsidy removal lecture in particular, Sanusi held his audience spell bound and among those who watched him were Oronto Douglas, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Diezani Alison-Madueke, as she continuously shifted in her seat and fanned herself! The snippets of the heat she felt then and now were contained in that Sanusi erudition. Looking back now, we could all see why Sanusi actively supported the removal of the so called subsidy! The Goodluck Jonathan government was using the subsidy as a smokescreen to bleed the treasury and Sanusi wanted the country to accept the removal so as to eliminate the foundation of the fraud!
It was all okay then for Sanusi to challenge his employers, not so any longer; does he not know that he is now an Emir and has to keep quiet?
According to cynics, by criticising the way the economy is handled, Sanusi is taking on President Muhammadu Buhari; by questioning the economics of the proposed Kano intra-city rail line, he’s challenging Governor Umar Abdullahi Ganduje and by telling AbdulAziz Yari of Zamfara to go get vaccines for his people being wasted by meningitis, he’s provoking a whole (chairman of) Governors Forum! Is it so unclear to the Emir? Didn’t this same Sanusi challenge their Sharia system?
And what did Emir Muhammadu Sanusi II do? In reality, he called for reforms. He wants us to have stiff laws against rape and to protect our women. He wants good education for our children, particularly the girl-child. He wants laws against indiscriminate polygamy. He wants functional skills for our youths so they can live a life of dignity instead of serving as cannon fodder for thuggery. Sanusi also reminded our elites about our misery index, the almajiri phenomenon, the illiteracy, disease and unspeakable poverty holding our people down. Sanusi is questioning the brand of Islam we are practising which has stripped us of compassion and progressive thoughts such that we remain backward, whereas other Muslims in Indonesia, Malaysia, United Arab Emirates, etc. are developing a more contented citizenry
I sympathise with the Emir for thinking that politicians will permit an honest or intellectual debate; they don’t and never will. The politician doesn’t want facts and figures or the unassailable truth showing he has failed. No, that’s an affront and a challenge to him in the face of his gullible supporters, which explains why every governor or President has employed a chain of publicists and spokespersons to maintain the spin and mask his failure. Who’s, how many spokespersons has Muhammadu Sanusi?
Sanusi’s current squabble with other people in authority is probably a wakeup call to him to further feed the hungry, house the homeless, educate the ignorant and strengthen the weak using his personal resources. Emir Muhammadu Sanusi II is wealthy, he has powerful connection in and outside the country, he has a duty to use his throne to do something big and long lasting that will uplift the poor folks and serve as a testimony to his love of them.
Make no mistake about it, Kano couldn’t have acquired a better educated, a more cultured and cosmopolitan person to serve it as Emir than Muhammadu Sanusi II and it is the better for it. Last week, I read a news story of how Emir Sanusi II made it among Reputation Poll International’s inaugural list of 100 Most Reputable People on Earth. The list is made up of individuals from diverse sectors who have amassed high reputation for themselves through their works and achievements through their works and achievements in policy, entertainment, leadership, education, business, religion, etc.
Praise be to Almighty Allah the probe of Emir Muhammadu Sanusi II has been suspended by the Kano anti-corruption agency. Thanks be to God the Kano State House of Assembly has halted its investigation of Sanusi. Thanks be to God Emir Muhammadu Sanusi II is still on the throne. It seems to me Sanusi has achieved all his personal goals in life and his main concern now is to help shape the debate on how we can overcome our backwardness and propel our people to greatness- and this requires a collective action. We have to understand and accept him for who he is. It is doubtful if Emir Muhammadu Sanusi II will keep quiet in these termagant times, nor is it desirable he does so.
Here is congratulating the San Kano on his three years’ service to the people and wishing him good health, long life and a flourishing reign.