Sen. Owie vs Emir Sanusi: A case for selective memory

Recently, Senator Rowland Owie, former PDP Chief Whip in the Senate, advised the Emir of Kano Muhammadu Sanusi II to abdicate his throne for commenting on financial and economic issues in the country. He accused the former CBN Governor of playing politics. Was Sanusi as a former civil servant also playing politics for blowing the […]

Recently, Senator Rowland Owie, former PDP Chief Whip in the Senate, advised the Emir of Kano Muhammadu Sanusi II to abdicate his throne for commenting on financial and economic issues in the country. He accused the former CBN Governor of playing politics. Was Sanusi as a former civil servant also playing politics for blowing the whistle on the unaccounted $20 billion NNPC oil revenues? Owie’s arguments that Sanusi’s views are inconsistent with his status as an emir are not compelling and well thought out.
According to Vanguard newspaper, Senator Owie criticised Emir Sanusi “for throwing his weight behind the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, over a major policy disagreement with the Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun, on interest rate”. According to Senator Owie, the Emir of Kano should emulate dignified and respectable emirs like the Emir of Dutse and stop playing with national issues in Nigeria.”
How do you expect Emir Sanusi not to talk economic and financial issues when the events to which he was invited pertained to those issues? It is like saying a retired army General who later became an Emir should not talk about security issues when the event to which he was invited deals with that topic. Emir Sanusi is not only a trained Economist, but he was also a former CBN Governor. Then you expect him not to talk about financial and economic issues at events purposely organized to discuss those issues? I don’t call that playing politics by an Emir. If former US Vice President Albert Gore were an Emir, would you tell him not to talk about global warming when the event to which he is invited is primarily intended to dissect that issue? Al Gore won a Nobel Prize in that scientific field and once he is an Emir, is Senator Owie suggesting that he cannot talk about global warming! This kind of thought is preposterous.
Which is more politically inappropriate between a traditional ruler that talks about issues within his field of training, experience for which he is usually invited to share his thoughts, and another traditional ruler who openly registered as a card carrying member of a particular political party? In 2014, the Alaafin of Oyo Oba Lamidi Adeyemi publicly registered as an APC member. Isn’t it better for an Emir or Chief to vote for a party and candidate of his choice than to publicly register as a card carrying member of any political party? Why didn’t Senator Rowland Owie advise the Alaafin of Oyo to abdicate his throne for direct involvement in partisanship which compromised his neutrality as a leader of all, regardless the people’s individual political sympathies? The late Oba of Benin Erediauwa also publicly endorsed the candidature Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State, a move that was politically unwise because both APC and PDP members were his children. Where was Senator Owie then? Why didn’t he tell the late Erediauwa to abdicate his throne?
Na-Allah Mohammed Zagga, Abuja.