Renowned playwright and Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has denounced Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State for the dethronement of Sanusi Lamido Sanusi as the Emir of Kano.
Soyinka labeled Ganduje’s action as an “innate travesty of justice, at a par with the repudiated colonial order and synonymous with authoritarianism of the crudest temper.”
Reflecting on a similar scenario in Ogun State, where a monarch was almost removed before a friend intervened, Soyinka suggested that Governor Ganduje lacks good friends.
In a statement, Soyinka recounted, “I was a participant, albeit on the sidelines, when a similar scenario began to unfold in my own state, Ogun some years ago. The then governor, on account of an imagined slight by one of the monarchs in his domain, was actually poised to sign the dethronement and banishment order on that traditional ruler. His office was invaded by some of the panicked chiefs and stalwarts of Ogun state who rushed to ward off the impending order. One of them stopped at my home after the pacification session to narrate what had transpired, and how some of them had actually gone on their knees to plead with that governor to stay action. I was furious. I knew every detail of that affair, had listened to a recording of the speech that was supposed to have given this mighty offence. It was pure piffle!”
Soyinka continued, “The man, an independent businessman of absolute integrity, and one of that governor’s intimate circle, smiled and said, ‘No, we couldn’t do that. We are his friends. We were pleading with him to save him from himself.’ What a pity Ganduje lacked friends who could have saved him from himself! Insofar as one can acknowledge certain valued elements in traditional institutions, the man he thinks he has humiliated has demonstrated that he is one of the greatest reformers even of the feudal order. That is beyond question, a position publicly manifested in both act and pronouncements. By contrast, Ganduje’s conduct, apart from the innate travesty of justice in this recent move, is on a par with the repudiated colonial order, one that out-feudalized feudalism itself, and is synonymous with authoritarianism of the crudest temper.”
Soyinka commended Sanusi as one of the greatest reformers, highlighting his efforts in sanitizing the banking sector during his tenure as governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). He also acknowledged Sanusi’s role as an early warning voice against religious extremism due to his expertise as an Islamic scholar.
Recounting a conversation with the dethroned monarch during a recent visit, the playwright added, “Sanusi had sounded much aware of the impending fall of the axe of vengefulness and power primitivism. I can testify that he remained totally unfazed. I do have the feeling that the palace gates of the Kano emirate are not yet definitively slammed against this Islamic scholar, royal scion, and seasoned economist. It is just a feeling. Closed and bared, or merely shut however, the doors of enlightened society remain wide open to Muhammad Sanusi.”