For the apolitical, it could seem all exhausting; the furor over the renewed investigations into the expenditure of the Kano State Emirate Council under Lamido Sanusi II and the public shadow-boxing and proxy war between Emir Sanusi II and Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, who seems determined to remove the Emir; or splinter the emirate to whittle down Sanusi’s power. The Emir has dismissed the governor’s antics as inconsequential, saying he neither lose sleep nor dignify Ganduje with a response.
“The governor is borrowing a page from his in-law of Oyo State, outgoing Governor Abiola Ajimobi who decimated the authority of the Olubadan of Ibadan, Saliu Adetunji, whose authority Ajimobi sought to undermine by approving 21 beaded kings for Ibadan,” a source close to Ganduje told Huhuonline.com.
Sanusi II is the grandson of Muhammadu Sanusi I, the 11th emir of Kano who was deposed and ousted in 1963 after a protracted disagreement with Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sarduana of Sokoto caliphate and prime minister of the northern region of Nigeria at the time. Sanusi II was appointed 4th Emir of Kano in 2014 after he was unceremoniously suspended and removed from office as Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) by former president Goodluck Jonathan.
Ganduje was then, deputy governor to Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso when Sanusi II was appointed, but there seems to be no love lost between the former governor and his protégé successor; to the extent that Kwankwaso supported his son-in-law, Abba Yusuf, to challenge Ganduje, but the incumbent won re-election with a narrow victory margin of 8,982 votes. Sanusi II made no secret of his opposition to the re-election of Ganduje, who needed a disputed supplementary re-run to be returned to office in the March 2019 governorship election. Ganduje suffered his heaviest defeat in the Kano municipality, fueling rumors that the Emir had waged a silent campaign against his re-election.
Sanusi II’s problem with Ganduje is usually traced to his critical comments in 2017 on the award of contracts to Chinese companies by the state government and the governor’s numerous foreign trips, even as insecurity ravaged the state. Shortly after Sanusi’s public rebuke of Ganduje, the Kano Public Complaints and Anti-Corruption Commission alleged the Kano Emirate Council had misappropriated N6 billion and announced an investigation. The probe was halted then but has now been revived, with the elections now over; it is payback time for real and perceived enemies of Gov. Ganduje.
On Monday, the Kano State Public Complaints and Anti-corruption Commission announced it was reopening the investigation into the expenditure of the state emirate council under Sanusi II; at the same time that the Kano State House Speaker, Kabiru Alhassan Rurum; in a plenary session, read a letter from a certain Ibrahim Salisu, seeking the creation of new Kano emirates in Karaye, Bichi, Rano and Gaya. The anti-graft Commission, had, in a letter dated May 2, 2019; a copy of which was obtained by Huhuonline.com, invited one Isa Bayero to appear before it to explain payment vouchers from 2013 to 2017 in his name.
Other officers in the emirate council to be questioned, include Mohammad Sani Kwaru, the Emirate Accountant, Mannir Sanusi, the chief of staff, Danburan Mujittafa and Falakin Kano. The letter said the anti-graft commission was inviting the staff over alleged violation of section 26 of its enabling law in the management of the emirate’s funds. The letter also stated that the invitation was sequel to the authority vested to it under “section 9 and 15 of Kano State Public Complaints and Anti-corruption Commission Law 2008 (as amended).”
Under the guise of rejigging the Kano state administration, Governor Ganduje seems to be tightening the screws around Emir Sanusi II. The Governor has announced a major purge in the administrative machinery of the state, to ensure that only the right people are allowed to play roles in the new scheme of things – a euphemism to mean that Sanusi loyalists will be weeded out from the commanding heights of authority positions in the state. Ganduje explained the shake-up as part of a broad vision to move the state to the next level, would affect all political office appointees except his Deputy, Dr. Nasiru Gawuna.
A statement by Ameen K. Yassar, Director General, Media and Publicity noted that: “The shake-up will affect all Commissioners, Special Advisers, Senior Special Assistants, Personal Assistants, heads of government agencies and directors, among others. In the same vein, the State Hisbah Board and local governments will face major reorganization”, the governor disclosed. He, however, assured that nobody will be victimized. “We will not retrench anybody but we will appoint only loyal and dedicated people into sensitive positions,” Ganduje promised.
Ganduje was also quoted as telling an APC stakeholders meeting at Government House Kano that the managerial changes have already commenced with sweeping reforms on the top stratum of the state civil service. Stating that he would not allow with fifth columnists to derail his second tenure as they attempted in the past, the governor maintained that those who supported the APC in the recent presidential and other elections would be compensated.
Accordingly, Gov. Ganduje mandated APC stakeholders in all 44 local government areas of the state to, within two weeks, nominate 10 people each, to be given positions. The nominees, he added, must be selected based on carefully defined criteria, including loyalty, experience, political dexterity, academic qualification and zoning, among others. He assured that his administration would continue to support the APC to become stronger, highlighting that “the 2019 election was a school that taught us many things ahead of 2023”.
