Why Sanusi was deposed as Emir of Kano – Tanko Yakasai

A northern politician and founding member of the Arewa Consultative Forum (NCF), Alhaji Tanko Yakasai, has adduced reasons for the fate of dethronement that befell former Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, on 9 March 2020.

In a newspaper interview, Yakasai said the first reason was that Emir Sanusi believed he held allegiance to the man who appointed him Emir, that is, former Kano State Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso who has for a long time been at loggerheads with the incumbent Governor Abdullahi Ganduje.

Secondly, he said the deposed Emir lacked sufficient knowledge of the long-held traditions of Kano and thus acted at variance with them.

“I was born here in Kano and I know the tradition in the palace. Since when I was young till today, (the tradition) is that both educated and uneducated emirs tend not to speak too much. They treasure their words. The Emir (Sanusi) was born in Kano, but he was largely brought up in Lagos and Kaduna. His father was a federal civil servant who rose to the position of a Permanent Secretary. As it is natural with civil servants, particularly at the federal level in Foreign Affairs, they don’t stay in one place. The result is that the emir was initially living with the late Minister of Defence, Alhaji Inuwa Wada, but later when the father was back, they changed him. The emir is only a Kano man; he did not live alongside Kano people until he mounted the throne. That was the beginning.” Yakasai told the newspaper.

Alhaji Yakasai also said the eldest son of the late Emir of Kano, Ado Bayero, was the preferred candidate for the stool and was initially announced as the emir before the then incumbent governor kwankaso announced Sanusi’s name.

According to him, another responsible factor was that Emir Sanusi was too outspoken, and that most of his publicly expressed opinions were not in consonance with the established tradition.