Dethronement of Emir of Kano as Enthronement of Corruption: The Foreign Policy Implications
Dethronement is an act of deposition, or forcible relief, of a monarch in a monarchy. Dethronement is a manifestation of a coup, and even a coup d’état in another form. When it is an act of deposition of an elected president of a nation-state, it is called a coup d’état, which is generally frowned at in international law and relations. For instance, in intra-African relations, the African Union does not accept any leader coming into power by use of force to participate in the activities of the organisation. In other words, coup-making has been prohibited in African politics. Electoral politics is being encouraged in lieu.
Dethronement has the same objective as coup-making, which is to effect a change in government. It is only different in the method and who becomes the new leader. In terms of method, it is necessarily military for coup d’états, while it is manu militari for dethronement. Military methods necessarily involve the use of brute force. Dethronement only involves the use of force at the level of pressure, intimidation, and other means not involving the use of brute force. An example of this method is the arrest, detention and banishment of the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Muhammadu Sanusi II, a former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria.
He was enthroned the Emir of Kano in 2014 amidst various controversies. He was, for instance, removed as Governor of the Central Bank by the Goodluck Jonathan administration over controversies surrounding missing oil revenues. On Monday, March 9, 2020, he was dethroned by the Governor of Kano State, Abdullahi Ganduje, and put under detention of the type of house arrest, first in Loko, and thereafter in Awe, in Nasarawa State.
As explained by Governor Ganduje, Emir Sanusi II has a total disrespect for ‘lawful instructions from the Office of the State Governor.’ The implication of this is that the Governor is insinuating that Emir Sanusi II is behaving as if he is above the law, a situation that should not be allowed. True, he is not above the law. As Governor Ganduje actually put it, he was removed ‘in order to safeguard the sanctity, culture, tradition, religion, and prestige of the Kano Emirate.’
Explained differently, the dethronement of Alhaji Muhammadu Sanusi II is nothing more than whatever militates against the cultural values of the Kano Emirate in the areas of tradition, religion and culture. The Governor wants to maintain the sanctity of these values. And without jot of doubt, the public pronouncement of Emir Sanusi II, and particularly his attitudinal disposition towards the classical mania of doing things in the North has generally been a cause for worry for the conservative elite.
It is on record about three weeks ago that Emir Sanusi II advised that parents who encourage or actually send their wards out to plead for alms should be arrested and prosecuted. This type of advice, in whichever way it is looked at, is aimed at growing the society within the framework of modernity. It is an advice that is in the long term interest of the Northern youth, but which necessarily conflicts with the practice as at today.
More interestingly, he has it that ‘Islam in Africa has its own schools of thought, its ancient empires and its own history.’ Consequently, he believes that there is ‘no need for Saudi Arabia and Iran to explain Islam to us.’ Again, Emir Sanusi II is actually preaching the sermon of Africa for Africa, African solutions to African problems, etc, as being propounded in the African Union circles. By rejecting explications on Islam by Saudi Arabia and Iran, and underscoring those of the African schools on Islam, the Emir is simply preaching the gospel of self-reliance, patriotism and self-enhancement. However, it is quite apparent that the conservative elite in the North is not much interested in such gospels according to Sanusi. Emir Sanusi II is showing much concerns about the future of the youths in the North, believing that, if their future is not redefined quickly today, before it will be too late, they may end up becoming threats to the whole country, in general, and the Northern region, in particular. This is the main rationale for his dethronement, but the dethronement, indeed, not only has its many foreign policy, but also critical corruption, dimensions. Put differently, his dethronement cannot but lead to enthronement of corruption in the strategic calculations of many countries of the world.
Culture: Dethronement and Enthronement
Emir Sanusi II is an embodiment of wanted and unwanted culture. He is unwanted by some of his own people for trying to change the status quo. He is solicited for by some others because of his beliefs and quest for a better organised North that will be capable of responding to development challenges in a constantly changing world. Thus Emir Sanusi II is a symbol of the two schools of thought. As a symbol of culture, he has been dethroned. What he stands for, as a leader, has also been dethroned.
Those who are his fans have re-enthroned him with fresh appointments. Governor El-Rufai of Kaduna State is on record to have not only visited him in his house of arrest, where he has a two-bed room to live in, but has also appointed him the Chancellor of the Kaduna State University and Vice Chairman of the Board of Kaduna Investments Promotion Agency. The dethroned emir has accepted the two appointments. Culture of dethronement, culture of enthronement, culture of sympathy and culture of solidarity is what is at stake with the case of the dethroned emir.
It is all about politics. Politics in Nigeria is more about self-destruction and not about self-development. The dethronement of Emir Sanusi II is not new and not also a big deal. His grandfather, Muhammadu Sanusi I, who was Emir of Kano in the period from 1953 to 1963, was dethroned by the then Premier of Northern Region, Ahmadu Bello, who also happens to be his cousin. The dynamics of the recent dethronement of Emir Sanusi II are therefore quite interesting.
Ties between Emir Sanusi II and Governor Ganduje have generally not been good. Their relationship can be likened to that of hide-and-seek game. It was when the relationship deteriorated to its lowest ebb that power rivalry became the hallmark. The Governor made attempts to suspend the emir, but on February 19, 2020 a Kano State High Court put a stop to the plan of suspension. Governor Ganduje was carrying out investigations into the alleged involvement of the Kano Emirate Council in financial impropriety.
In fact, Emir Sanusi II was actually accused of misappropriating N3.4 billion, reasons for which efforts were being made to investigate him. On February 25, 2020 the Kano State Public Complaints and Anti-Corruption Commission announced its intention to appeal the judgment against the investigation of the alleged N3.4 billion misappropriation. In this regard, if there was a case of suspected misappropriation of funds, why would there not be investigation? This reasoning appeared to have informed the thinking of the Kano State House of Assembly which, on March 4, 2020 empanelled an 8-man committee to investigate the allegations, and particularly allegations of violations by Emir Sanusi II of religious norms and cultural values.
Even though Governor Ganduje’s government instructed Emir Sanusi II to initiate a process of assigning the four Kano Kingmakers as District Heads of Local Governments under the jurisdiction of the Kano Emirate Council, and despite the fact that, the following day, Emir Sanusi II requested for a new day to appear before the State anti-corruption body over accusations of land racketeering, Governor Ganduje did not hesitate on March 9, 2020 to dethrone the emir. What really is behind the foregoing hullaballoo? Is it simply political rivalry? Is it an expression of decline in Fulani or Hausa power or disagreement over domination of the North, if not of the whole of Nigeria, strategy?
Without any shadow of doubt, culture is at the epicentre of the dethronement of Emir Sanusi II. The culture is not simply limited to religion and tradition, but also extends to the culture of politics, as well as culture of corruption, which has not been receiving the attention it deserves. In an attempt to stop Emir Sanusi II from possibly ‘bastardising’ the culture of the people of the North under the guise of modernisation, Governor Ganduje has also unconsciously enthroned the issue of corruption in the dethronement equations.
First, Governor Ganduje was on record, in a well distributed video, to have received a dollarised bribe from a business contractor. The report was quite damaging not only for the Governor, but particularly for the Administration of President Muhammadu Buhari. One of the three strategic objectives of his administration is suppressing corruption. The other two are revamping the economy and neutralising the Boko Haram insurgency. In the attainment of the three objectives, it can be rightly observed that President Buhari has not been lucky, and therefore has been far away from achieving them.
At the level of Boko Haramism, the country is still much threatened than ever before, this is in spite of the claims by Government that it had technically defeated the Boko Haram in the battle fields. In the thinking of Government, the fact that the flags of an Islamic State hoisted in some Local Government Areas in the North East had been removed and the Boko Haram fighters chased out, President Buhari and his government unnecessarily underestimated the magnitude of the problems involved. In the mania of General Charles de Gaulle of France, it was a case of winning the battle but losing the war.
As at today, the Boko Haram has become more than a noisome threat to Nigeria’s national peace and security. The Boko Haram has apparently transformed itself into warring herdsmen, armed bandits and heartless kidnappers. Consequently, international help has become a desideratum. In fact, the President of the United States, Mr. Donald Trump, renewed its $7m bounty offer to anyone who can provide useful information that can lead to the arrest of the leader of the Boko Haram group, Abubakar Shekau. It should be recalled here that it was in 2013 that the administration of President Barack Obama first offered to pay $7million bounty for such information.
As regards bringing about economic vibrancy, President Buhari has not been lucky again. This is mainly as a result of the economic recession that came to characterise his first term in office. Life was made difficult for the people of Nigeria. Even though he eventually overcame the problem, there was little time to perform any useful magic. And perhaps more disturbingly, during his current second term in office, the international price of oil, Nigeria’s foreign exchange chief earner, has drastically reduced to a barest minimum of $32 per barrel. In the 2020 budget, the benchmark for revenue generation from crude oil was $57 per barrel. However, the reduction of oil price to about $30 per barrel has prompted the consideration of devaluation of the naira.
Again, concerning the anti-corruption fight, there are always reports on government’s success. However, the more the narratives of success, the more the revelation of new cases of corruption. What is much tainting about the cases of corruption is the public perception that many politicians accused of corruption practices are taking refuge under the ruling party, All Progressives Congress (APC) and are protected in one way or the other by the Buhari administration. This means that the APC is not only a congress of progressives, but also a congress of corruptionists. This cannot but send a signal of the president as a non-serious anti-corruption fighter to the world.
And most unfortunately, too, by coincidence, Nigeria’s problems unnecessarily got heightened under President Muhammadu Buhari. Crises deepened into conflicts. Insecurity deepened with the sharpening of the Fulani herdsmen and farmers’ misunderstanding.
(See concluding part on www.thisdaylive.com)