Kano State Governor, Abdulahi Ganduje has explained that former Emir of Kano State, Muhammad Sanusi II was deposed from the traditional role because he was not able to differentiate between being as a social critic and a traditional ruler.
Mr Ganduje stated this when he appeared as a guest in a Channel’s Television programme, Politics Today aired on Friday.
Sanusi was dethroned as the Emir of Kano in March 2020 over disrespect to the Office of the Governor and other government agencies.
He was then banished from Kano State to Nasarawa State.
When quizzed about the dethronement of the Sanusi which then caused a lot of outrage, Ganduje accused Sanusi of wanting to run a parallel government while enjoying the good things that comes with being the Emir.
Ganduje said Sanusi as an economist has a history of being a critic of the government in Kano State and even had a running with the Kano State government before he was an Emir.
And when Sanusi became the Emir, he did lower his criticism as the role demands.
He said, “He (Sanusi) was a celebrated social critic and there was nothing wrong with that. Because he is an educated person, there is freedom of speech.
“Let me give you one example, when I was the deputy governor of the state with my former Governor Kwankwaso. Sanusi was an Executive Director in a bank and he made a statement that instead of providing water in Kano State, we are building a house in Abuja. That is the house belonging to Kano State house like any other.
“And also he said when we were fixing the roads with tiles for those who walk along the streets can walk smoothly, he said instead of us renovating schools; we were doing such pavements.
“So you can see that he is social critic. I could remember my government asked the ban to sack him or we should withdraw our money from the bank.
The bank did not sack him so we withdrew N969 million from the bank.
“That was the work of a social critic. But when he became the Emir of Kano, he refused to change from that stature to the stature of a traditional rule. He was an economist, but he failed to understand that in Economics, you have to inherit assets and liability. But he only inherited the assets of a traditional institution by giving orders, staying in a mansion, dressing gorgeously, being addressed as a king. That is a liability of that institution.
“You have to watch you mouth, you have to watch your tongue, and he didn’t do that.”
