Northern monarch begs Buhari to intervene in Ganduje, Sanusi feud

The Emir of Ningi in Bauchi State, Yunusa Danyaya, has implored President Muhammadu Buhari to intervene in the raging dispute between Kano State Governor Abdullahi Ganduje and Kano Emir, Muhammadu Sanusi.

The emir, who has been on the throne for 42 years, made this call in an interview with journalists.

Mr Ganduje had sponsored legislation that empowers him to create four new emirates in the state and appointed first-class emirs for them. The new law ended the status of the Emir of Kano as the only first-class emir and permanent chairman of the state’s traditional council.

The move generated criticism that Mr. Sanusi was being persecuted for his critical stance on affairs of Kano State government but Mr Ganduje said it was in response to popular demand of the people of Kano.

The Emir of Ningi warned that the feud can destroy the traditional institution in the north unless it is quickly resolved.

He said many attempts by prominent Nigerians to reconcile the two foremost leaders in Kano had yielded little or no positive outcome.

Mr Danyaya said he considers it his duty as one of the oldest serving emirs in the north to speak out on the matter.

“It has become very necessary to take this matter to our father, the father of the land, President Muhammadu Buhari,” the Bauchi monarch said.
He said only President Buhari “can solve this problem once and for all.

“President Buhari has settled difficult issues like this in the past. I know him to an extent that he grew up in the Daura royal home so he has a relationship with that traditional institution.

“Buhari has proven to me to be a person who has high respect and regard for the traditional institution. It is because of that, that I am begging him, to please, in the name of God, to intervene in the problem happening in Kano and settle this dispute between the emir and the governor.

“I have high hopes that Buhari will not allow the traditional institution to be humiliated and bastardised.

“Your Excellency, Mr President, we are begging you, for God’s sake, intervene in this matter so that every problem can be put to rest. The Emir will have his dignity, the government should also have its dignity, that is my plea.”

The emir said he was speaking as an unbiased but concerned “stakeholder”.

“I am not speaking because I am supporting the Emir of Kano, no. I am speaking because I see that what is happening will destroy the traditional institution completely. So I feel it is necessary to speak on this matter because I am in the position to speak out on what we see is not right.”

He added that the actions of the Kano state government against the Emir of Kano were humiliating enough, so he should be spared of ridicule due to his ranking position as one of the foremost emirs of Northern Nigeria.

“Whatever thing that could be done to humiliate Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, the Emir of Kano, has been done and there is a need for restrainment and forgiveness.

“When someone does something that is wrong, what we know in Islam is forgiveness. Everyone does wrong and we have seen people being forgiven many times and we hear it being said that people are forgiven. If Sanusi Lamido Sanusi has erred, why would the people, the government and the House of Assembly of Kano not forgive him?”

The elderly emir called on his younger colleague in Kano “to be obedient to the government and the government should, in turn, be just and fair to the Emir because we see that injustice has crept into the matter.”