A few weeks ago, Sanusi, a former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), openly declared that it would be unfair to blame President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for the current bad shape of the economy, citing reasons that exonerated Tinubu’s administration. Sanusi, an economist, did not hesitate to put the blame on the immediate past administration of President Muhammadu Buhari for the woes; claiming that the Buhari administration left the country’s economy in a deplorable condition.
Sanusi, who spoke during a religious event last Sunday, said Nigerians who expected him to speak about the economic hardship deliberately wanted him to oppose President Tinubu.
His words: “I have been over the years talking about the pending crisis ahead of the current economic hardship. Any economist who has studied monetary policy in the last eight years knows that Nigerians will fall into this difficult situation.
“The previous administration turned adamant about our appeal for corrective measures (on the economy). I have said in the presence of the now sitting President in Kaduna State, any politician who tells you that things will be easy, don’t vote for him because he is lying. People merely dismissed my advisory as a political statement.
“If I am to be fair and just to President Bola Tinubu, he is not to blame for the current hardship. For eight years, we were living a fake lifestyle with huge debt from foreign and domestic debts. The Central Bank of Nigeria owes over N30 trillion, which resulted in debt service surpassing 100 per cent.
“I can’t join other Nigerians criticising Tinubu on the current economic hardship, and I am not saying he is a saint free from wrongdoing. But in this current economic situation, President Tinubu is not to be blamed. I will also speak if I see any wrong economic policy of the Tinubu administration in the future.
“It’s injustice for anyone to blame the Tinubu administration for the current economic hardship because there is no other alternative than the removal of the fuel subsidy. After all, Nigeria cannot even afford to pay the subsidy.”
On the contrary, Emir Bayero tilted more to the popular view among Nigerians battling for survival amid the high cost of food and fast-diminishing standard of living that policies of the Tinubu administration are the cause of the current economic pains.
Bayero, who seized the opportunity of the visit of the First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, to the palace a few days ago to bare his mind on the state of the economy, passed a strong message on the pervasive hunger in the land to the Presidency.
Although he admitted that the current economic hardship did not just emanate, the monarch insisted that the situation is getting worse under Tinubu, who many thought could have properly managed the situation considering his antecedents as former governor of Lagos State.
Bayero pointedly asked the First Lady to deliver the palace message to the President.
He said: “Although we have several means of communicating to the government on our needs and requests, your ways and means are the surest our message would reach the President.
“There is hunger and starvation in the land. Though the current situation didn’t start with this government, the situation has become more alarming and needs urgent attention. The issue of insecurity is another serious problem we are facing; I know your government inherited it, but something more serious should be done to take care of the threats.”
The sensitivity of these comments has attracted multiple interpretations in the public domain considering the personalities behind them and the delicate situation around the emirship throne in Kano.
Nevertheless, what appeals to be a defence of the Tinubu government in Sanusi’s utterances has brought to memory what the former CBN governor personifies.
Beyond his intellectual prowess, Sanusi is reputed for his penchant to speak truth to power. No matter whose ox is gored, he would criticise any public policy he perceives as wrongly conceived and rightly suggest solutions as required. Though such a candid lifestyle had cost dearly before, he may not change anytime soon.
In February 2014, Sanusi lost his plum seat as governor of the CBN under the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan after he raised concerns over the failure of the then Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to remit USD 20 billion in oil proceeds to the Federal Government account.
He not only resisted all attempts by the Federal Government to cover up the controversial missing funds, but also wrote an open letter to president Jonathan in December 2013, questioning his negligence in probing those he (Sanusi) accused of looting the commonwealth in his cabinet. That affront on the president ultimately cost him his job.
Then in March 2020, he was deposed from his ancestral throne as the 14th Emir of Kano, having been accused of insubordination by the then governor of Kano State, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje.
But it was not difficult for keen observers to figure out the real reason Ganduje dethroned Sanusi. In May 2019, Sanusi, in his usual audacity, criticised Ganduje’s attempt to borrow USD 1.85 million from Chinese Nexim Bank to finance a light rail project. Sanusi alleged that the project would only plunge innocent generations yet unborn into endemic debt. Although the state government jettisoned the project, Ganduje took his pound of flesh on Sanusi with the balkanisation of the Kano emirate, which was apparently intended to weaken the overwhelming influence of the throne Sanusi occupied. Not done, Ganduje went the extra mile by dethroning the big elephant in the room, Sanusi. After his removal, Sanusi was banished to Loko, a remote village in Nasarawa State. He was later relocated to Lagos but has since regained full freedom after a Federal high Court, FCT Division, declared his banishment as illegal and primitive.
With his long pedigree as a critic of fiscal and monetary policies perceived to be anti-people, analysts are wondering why he chose to align with President Tinubu amid the harsh economic reality in the country under the administration. The analysts are also wondering why he has not seen anything wrong with the current government yet. They are also at a loss on why Sanusi chose to toe the lone path when other eminent Nigerians from the northern part of the country are all crying out over the level of poverty in the land.
The Sultan of Sokoto, His Eminence, Alhaji Saad Abubakar III, had a few days ago in Kaduna told the Federal Government that the level of poverty and hunger, especially in the northern part of the country, was alarming.
The Sultan, who spoke at the end of the Northern Traditional Rulers Council, said Nigeria was sitting on a keg of gunpowder that may explode if the Federal Government fails to act urgently.
Thus, analysts believe that the divergent views expressed by the two Kano top personalities have opened a new vista to the renewed battle for the throne – one seeking to use political influence to reclaim the throne and the other seeking to use the power of the masses to retain the throne.
Commenting on the development, a public affairs analyst in Kano, who requested not to be named, said Bayero has only demonstrated the quality of his late father, who always seized any opportunity to convey the message of the grassroots to those in authority.
“For me, the statement made by the Emir of Kano, Alh. Aminu Ado Bayero, is in order and that is the tradition of the palace where the emir will tell the government the whole truth when he has the opportunity. Whoever knows his father, Ado Bayero, can testify to this.
“When the Federal Government abandoned the Alh. Adamu Dan Kabo terminal project at the Kano airport, the then Emir Ado Bayero got the opportunity to remind the Federal Government when a minister of aviation paid him a courtesy visit. He did remind the government of the need to resuscitate the project. So, Bayero’s comment should not be seen with any political motive,” he said.
On why Sanusi has not seen anything wrong in the Tinubu administration, the source added: “You know Sanusi is inching closer to Tinubu probably because he wants to be returned as emir.
“Remember when Ganduje wanted to get the consent of the former president to remove Sanusi, he went along with Emir Aminu Ado to the Villa and during the visit, Buhari gave Ganduje the go-ahead by saying that a governor has a right to remove an emir. This is the green card Ganduje got from Buhari to dethrone Sanusi.”
To a legal practitioner in the state, Saeed Mohammed, Bayero wouldn’t have chosen to send a message to the president openly if he was not politically motivated.
“For me, I think he is afraid now that what he dreaded most is lurking in the dark, threatening to consume him. That’s why he’s seeking to appeal to the conscience of the people. But the people can’t help him. They could have if they had an elastic limit. No.
“Emir Aminu goofed. He would soon be running from pillar to post to save himself. What is delaying his fall now is the terrible economic situation in the country, which the government is trying to figure out how to deal with.
“Once that has ceased to be the source of its worries and the people have latched, like they always do by providing their skulls for the elite to use as their drinking cups, on to being at home with difficulties, Emir Aminu will then know the score, albeit precariously,” Mohammed noted.
He was also of the view that the deposed emir may be leveraging his long time relationship with President Tinubu to feather his nest.
“Do not forget the fact that any other thing in Sanusi’s life is secondary except the monarchy. That is also the tradition of many aristocrats the world over. They hardly give up on their ascribed status.
“This is also applicable to Sanusi Lamido Sanusi. All his life he worked conscientiously to prepare and capture the emirship of Kano. He acquired quality education, rose through the ranks to the zenith of his banking career, and accumulated stupendous wealth; all to claim the stool of his ancestors grandly.
“He invested all he got into his aristocratic lifestyle: he transformed the palace to suit his taste architecturally, and he adorned a section of the palace with a huge library. Like every man his peccadilloes were his greatest undoing. However, age is on his side. Coupled with forage for advanced studies and his array of friends in high places, his eye is now, as ever, on the Kano stool: the only thing he covets ceaselessly,” Mohammed submitted.
