LONG LIVE THE KING!
AN AMBITION FULFILLED: This Thursday, Sarki Sanusi told a select group of journalists in Kano that: “As far as I am concerned, I can tell you that I have achieved my ambition. I have no further ambition in life and I am not willing to move an inch in the name of looking for any […]
AN AMBITION FULFILLED: This Thursday, Sarki Sanusi told a select group of journalists in Kano that: “As far as I am concerned, I can tell you that I have achieved my ambition. I have no further ambition in life and I am not willing to move an inch in the name of looking for any revered status. I know what my predecessors did to earn the confidence of the people; I am also taking a cue from their good legacies to prove my prowess.” Yes, for anyone who knows Sanusi, or who had come into acquaintance with him, it is indeed an ambition fulfilled. It was even once reported that Sanusi was asked whether he would prefer being Emir of Kano than President of Nigeria; he was said to have, without hesitation, chosen Emir.
GREAT-UNCLE’S TESTIMONY: When he made him Danmaje, late Emir Ado Bayero, Sanusi’s great-uncle and father-in-law and benefactor and whom he succeeded, had told him: “We have installed you Danmajen Kano in recognition of your experience and exposure as well as your good character. We are aware of your good work not only in Nigeria but also abroad. We are also aware of your patriotism and cordial relationship with the people including your support for the less privileged and your effort at reviving the economy and urge you not to relent on your good work.”
JUNE AND FEBRUARY: But for this momentous day of Saturday February 7, June would have been the best month for the new Sarki: after all it was in June 2009 that the late President Umaru Musa Yar’adua appointed Sanusi as Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN); it was in June 2012 that the late Emir of Kano Ado Bayero, appointed him Danmajen Kano, an appointment which started this journey to the exalted throne; and it was in June 2014 that the Kano State Government, on the advice of the Kano Kingmakers, announced him new Emir of Kano after Emir Ado Bayero’s demise. But February is also significant to Sanusi – it was in February 2014 that he was suspended as CBN Governor by President Goodluck Jonathan, and today, another February day, sees his official coronation as Sarki.
IN GRANDFATHER’S IMAGE: His grandfather, Emir Muhammadu Sanusi (who should now be addressed as Muhammadu Sanusi I) used to be an all-encompassing Sarki – Emir, Imam, Judge. Already, Sanusi II has started out on the First’s steps – he regularly leads the Friday prayers at the Kano City Grand Mosque and sits in judgement on many civil cases brought to his palace by local litigants. And indeed, those who lived during his grandfather’s time say Sanusi the First was stern and firm, and was controversial of the positive kind. Like grandfather like grandson?
CONROVERSY AS BYEWORD: As CBN governor (and for us who knew him much earlier), Sanusi was controversy incorporated. And in almost every so-called controversial situation, it would turn out that he was right – only that the world was too cowardly, or not ready, for such bitter truths. We remember this: “By my upbringing, if I’m wrong, I don’t need to be told to come and say I’m wrong and I would apologise. By my nature, if I am not convinced that I’m wrong, I do not apologise and this is really where the point is,” Sanusi once told a National Assembly (NASS) Committee. The NASS were miffed because the CBN Governor had told a convocation lecture of the Igbinedion University, Okada, Edo State: “If you look at the budget, the bulk of government’s revenue expenditure is on overheads. That is a big problem. Twenty-five per cent of overheads of the federal government go to the National Assembly…” It was another controversial claim, part of it now confirmed by a recent PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) audit, that the NNPC was not being honest with Nigerians, that earned him suspension as CBN governor in the first place.
ON BANKING REFORMS:
A newspaper report reminds us that signs that Sanusi’s tenure as CBN Governor would be both eventful and controversial played out first when he declared on assumption of office that he would not seek a second term once his tenure expires, and second during his screening at the Senate. The first person to come under his attack was his boss, Yar’Adua, who nominated him. He took a swipe at the president’s seven-point agenda, describing it as ‘a wasteful exercise’ and suggested that a good agenda should not bear more than two points. But Sanusi went on to sanitise the banking industry. On August 14, 2009, just a few months into his tenure, Sanusi announced results of the stress test of 10 banks and determined that five of them were insolvent: Oceanic Bank, Union Bank, Afribank, Finbank, and Intercontinental Bank. As a result, the CEOs of the banks were fired and replaced immediately. The rest, as they say, is history.
ON EMIRATE REFORMS: Sarki Muhammadu Sanusi II is concerned with the different maladies that affect our societies – principally access to education. He had told those select journalists he met in Kano a couple of days ago that what is badly needed at present in the Kano Emirate is quality education to enable the people to understand the indices of life, stressing that it was based on such a premise that he was poised to place high premium on education.
AS ROLE MODEL: In an article titled A GLIMPSE OF THE NEW KING which she shared with this Column, a fresh Accounting graduate of Bayero University, Kano, Zainab Ibrahim Baiwa ([email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>😉 narrates how the young of Kano look up to the new Sarki. She says, interalia: “Once in the university cafeteria, I sat at a table next to a clutch of new students. ‘JJCs’ we call them – Johnny Just Come. They were all filled with spirit and aspirations, as they kept asking each other what they would like to become in the future. There were answers of bright ideologies, life changing concepts. But most vividly of all, I remember a firm and direct answer: ‘My ambition is to become Sunusi Lamido Sunusi’, one had exclaimed. “Bravo alaik!” I wanted to burst out. An aspirant for a model indeed! His Imperial Majesty is indisputably a man of strength and virtue. A warrior like none other; it is irrefutable to associate him with great ancient warriors, those momentous warriors of the past who built the world, those noble warriors upon whom the voice turns hoarse chanting names of; their weapons being the only divergence – swords, axes and arrows to them, while to them is only metier, strength, intellect. His Highness is deemed the star of the era, an icon, a prodigy, the headliner, ‘Tauraron Zamani’! Whenever he makes an emergence, like a cluster of stars in a dark night’s sky, his presence is felt lighting the world!”
Long live the King, then. Allah Ya za zamanin Sarki Muhammadu Sanusi II