By Ken Afor
Rabiu Kwankwaso, a former governor of Kano State, has denied involvement in the reinstatement of His Highness Sanusi Lamido Sanusi II as the 16th Emir of Kano.
It would be recalled that on Thursday, the Kano State House of Assembly deliberated on the Kano State Emirate Council Amendment Bill and eventually repealed the 2019 law that allowed for the creation of five separate emirates from the old Kano Emirate during the administration of Abdullahi Ganduje.
This development paved the way for the historic return of Lamido II, a former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), who was dethroned on March 9, 2020, as the Emir of Kano.
The proposed amendment to the bill was presented to the House of Assembly on Monday, May 20, 2024, and after passing the second and third readings successfully, the bill was signed on Thursday by the state governor, Abba Yusuf.
However, in an interview with BBC Hausa, Kwankwaso, the 2023 presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), clarified that he did not influence the state governor’s decision to reinstate Lamido II.
The former governor emphasized that he played no part in the decision-making process regarding the reinstatement.
Responding to remarks he made in 2023 when he said the dethronement of Lamido II would be reviewed, the former Senator who represented Kano Central said: “When I said we will revisit the case, I didn’t specify the direction to follow. I just said it would be reviewed… When I go there, I will hear what happened and I am sure they will tell me whatever happened, and whatever they tell me, we just pray for them. I heard the Assembly members have repealed the law.
“What we were telling them was they should go and investigate whether what happened was done out of goodwill or not. What happened appears to be vendetta or cheating. It’s just a matter of whether Ganduje did right or wrong. It’s not about going against him.”
He added: “I will go to Kano very soon and I will speak with some of the assembly members, especially the speaker, and the Governor on what is happening.
“Rabiu Kwankwaso has burnt his hands over dictating what to do. We are still with the Governor working together. It’s just a matter of offering advice and if you are not asked to, you keep quiet so long things are going right we just pray and hope that they succeed.”
He emphasized that despite criticism and concerns about the possibility of the governor influencing the selection of the revered throne’s occupant, it is crucial for people to understand the origins of the crisis.
“Those that are looking at it from the perspective of whether it’s going to be tenure-based are somehow right, but who started it? When I came back as Governor in 2011, everybody knew that the late Emir of Kano, Ado Bayero, was not supporting us, he was supporting Shekarau but when we got into power we didn’t even think of dethroning him. This is why we are telling people that everybody should sit down where he belongs,” he noted.
It will be recalled that the former Minister of Defence, during a live interview on a Hausa program broadcast on a local radio station in Kano following Yusuf’s Supreme Court victory in January 2024, stated that Yusuf would revisit the issue of creating new emirates in Kano under Ganduje’s administration.
He mentioned that Yusuf’s government would review the “dethronement and fragmentation of the Kano Emirate.”
He said: “Honestly, it is one of the things that nobody has sat with me to discuss so far, but I am sure we are going to sit and see how to go about it. Whether it’s going to be allowed, restructured, or whatever, it will definitely be revisited. Whatever is supposed to be done will be done. There are a lot of things involved and this might even be a trap, who knows? But the truth is that all these things were not done in good faith, or with good intention. They were done with some bad intentions which every one of you here and our listeners are aware of.
“Sometimes you come with things that are good and they turn out to be bad, while sometimes you bring things that are bad and they turn out to be good. But all I know is that I was not consulted as of now, but we will come to discuss and see what would be done.”
