After several days of relentless efforts to track down Kano State Governor Abdullahi Ganduje, five Northern Governors managed at the weekend to broker peace between the Kano State Government and Emir of Kano Muhammadu Sanusi II. The governor and the emir have been embroiled in a proxy war for many weeks, with the state government’s anti-corruption agency launching a probe of Kano Emirate Council finances in apparent retaliation for Emir Sanusi’s open criticism of the governor’s top project priorities.
Impeccable sources said that Governors Aminu Waziri Tambuwal of Sokoto, Nasiru El-Rufa’i of Kaduna, Kashim Shettima of Borno, Aminu Masari of Katsina and Abubakar Sani Bello of Niger brokered the peace meeting in Kaduna on Friday night with Governor Ganduje and the Emir also in attendance. The meeting held at the Government House in Kaduna and was first attended by the Emir and the Governors before they were joined by some senior officials from the Kano State Government and the Emirate Council.
Governors Tambuwal, Shettima and El-Rufa’i had earlier met with Ganduje in Abuja on Thursday night before resolving to invite the Emir to Kaduna the following day since all parties were planning to be in Kaduna on Friday ahead of a wedding involving a nephew of President Muhammadu Buhari who is close to most APC chieftains. The wedding took place on Saturday with the Emir seated next to Ganduje at one of the wedding events. They chatted amiably and also walked out of the hall together in an apparent show of reconciliation.
It was learned on Sunday learnt that in took days before the mediating governors were able to track down Ganduje as the Kano Governor switched off his telephone lines and made himself unreachable. The governors finally got through to him and Ganduje arrived in Lagos on Thursday from China, from where he headed to Abuja to meet his colleagues. Sources said Governor Tambuwal was the one that first identified governors with close relationships to both the Emir and Ganduje and he mobilized the two meetings even though all the governors, particularly El-Rufa’i and Shettima showed keen interest in resolving the matter given their individual friendship with the Emir.
During the first meeting in Abuja, Ganduje opened up to his colleagues on what he described as the Emir’s “clear disrespect for his office as Governor of Kano State.” He said the Emir was behaving as if he was independent of the State Government whereas he is an appointee of the Government who is answerable to a Commissioner, not even to the Governor. The Governor, it was learnt, vented his frustration with the Emir and said he was determined to remind him that he had limits.
The three Northern Governors at the Abuja meeting were said to have strongly urged Ganduje to forgive the Emir in the interest of stability in Kano, which they said is the heartbeat of Northern Nigeria and also to protect and preserve the image of Northern Nigeria and of the ruling APC. They said any further escalation of the crisis will give room for opposition elements, particularly former President Goodluck Jonathan and his associates, to celebrate and to claim that they have been vindicated. Each of the governors took time to plead with Ganduje while they pledged to ensure the Emir showed remorse at the follow up meeting in Kaduna.
At the Kaduna meeting, Daily Trust on Sunday learnt that Emir Sanusi accepted his “faults” after the five governors reminded him that he was an appointee of the governor and his palace was being funded with public funds approved by the Governor. Several top associates of the Kano governor were seen in Kaduna at the weekend, where they apparently attended a strategy meeting ahead of the reconciliation efforts. Among those seen were Chief Whip of the House of Representatives Alhassan Ado Doguwa; Senior Special Assistant to President Buhari on National Assembly Kawu Sumaila; Secretary to the Kano State Government Usman Alhaji; Commissioner for Local Government Murtala Sule-Garo; Commissioner of Environment Ali Bukar Makoda and the state APC chairman, Abdullahi Abbas.
It was further learned on Sunday that Ganduje’s top associates advocated that Emir Sanusi should be deposed but that the five Northern Governors who met with Ganduje managed to persuade him to drop the idea after the Emir apologised for his conduct. Sources said Ganduje found it difficult to ignore his colleagues’ appeal partly because he might need their solidarity in battling his estranged godfather, Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso ahead of the 2019 general elections. Unless reconciliation is effected, Ganduje is expected to meet stiff opposition in his re-election bid from the powerful Kwankwasiyya movement both at the APC primaries and in the general election.
