Dr.Abdullahi Dahiru
Many people reduce the current Emirate tussle in Kano to a ‘selfish’ fight between Muhammad Sanusi II and Aminu Ado Bayero over the throne of Kano Emirate. They think the matter should not be given and importance by the government since the Emirs have no constitutional power and no roles specified in the constitution.
But the imbroglio is far more than that. When Ganduje decided to depose Muhammad Sanusi I I, he did other things that were inimical to the sarauta system that made the return of Sanusi II very much easy and desirable.
Ganduje decided to balkanize the Kano Emirate into five bew distinct entities. He then took a map and decided to allocate each Emirate some local government areas as districts without looking at history or and cogent consideration. Part of the problem he created was posting of the four Kano kingmakers out of the Kano Emirate to the new ones he created and hence becoming subservient to the new Emirs. Traditionally, the kingmakers are next in importance to the Emir. The kingmakers defied their new postings and the new Emirs expelled them and remove some of them from being district heads of ancestral homes in Dambatta, Wudil and Dawakin Tofa. There were other important district heads that did not pay allegience to the new Emirs and were also expelled from their districts.
After expulsion of the Madaki from Dawakin Tofa, one of Ganduje’s relation was appointed as the district head. Many important APC stalwarts were appointed as title holders in the new Emirates like Alhassan Ado Doguwa and Musa Iliyasu Kwankwaso. The new Emirates came with appointment of new title holders, district heads and recruitment of several palace officials. The new Emirate law allocated right to be appointed as Emirs to certain families excluding others that were equally heirs in some of the new Emirates. The budget to maintain the five Emirate increased significantly.
The government decided to construct new township roads in the headquarters of the new Emirates and elevated the ststus of General Hospitals there to specialist hospitals to show that the creation of the Emirates has brought development to the rural areas. But the specialists hospitals were there only in name because there was no single specialist working there. Government could have brought the same development without creation of the new Emirates.
The APC government campaigned that voting it into power will make the new Emirates survive but that didn’t help the party as it lost election in the headquarters of most of the Emirates.
The repeal of the law that balkanized the Kano Emirare that made it possible for Ganduje to depose Sanusi II was not only about returning Sanusi but redressing many anomalies that emanated from Ganduje’s previous Emirate laws. Since the repeal of the law and return of Sanusi II to the throne many district heads and the Kano kingmakers have returned to the leadership of their ancestral towns that were hitherto usurped from them.
Some people are complaining that Kano people are fighting over a throne that has no value. But are people really fighting in Kano? I don’t think so. People are going about their normal businesses. Nobody was beaten or injured since the imbroglio started. It is only legal tussles that are on going and the courts will decide on all petitions over time.
The sarauta system in Kano is about the people, their culture and history. There are people that considers it important even when many think it is just relics of the past. Those that are not interested in the institution should stop whining and leave the interested parties to persue what they consider important legally.
Abdullahi Dahiru Writes from Kano
