Quite very often, I get a sense that the light-hearted nature of many Nigerians is a major reason why our leaders do not take us seriously. Our ability to make a joke out of anything, no matter how serious and fundamental they are to the development or lack of it of our country is notably uncanny. I do not know how to come to terms with it.
One of such intriguing moments was the comedy that Nigerians recently made of First Lady Patience Jonathan’s attempt to intervene in the efforts to recover the girls kidnapped from Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State in April.
Of course, Mrs Jonathan said a few things that could pass as unsophisticated but the extent that a lot of us went in escalating the matter and making a total mockery of the First Lady had a smack of people with no important matters to deal with.
My grouse with this response was two-fold. The first was that the First Lady is a woman whose seeming grammatical limitations have been obvious to us for at least five years and so she said or did nothing more significantly unbefitting than anything we had seen before.
The second reason why I found the loud mockery that followed her “Na only you waka come” latest faux pau unacceptable was that we totally forgot the graveness of the situation that warranted that meeting. Maybe, I am too serious-minded, but I do not consider errors of grammar or wobbly statements made by anyone in the effort to recover the abducted girls capable of instigating the kind of fun that Nigerians were having in the aftermath of that statement. Perhaps, that is why we were said to be some of the happiest people on the earth in spite of all our deprivations!
Another of such unsettling events came up when the outgone Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mallam Lamido Sanusi, was named as the successor to the royal throne of Kano after the demise of Alhaji Ado Bayero exactly one week today.
Bayero who died at 83 reigned for 50 years. Although he was known as a man of peace and principle, observers would say that Bayero, the 13th Emir of Kano, was never the same since he was attacked by the terrorist Boko Haram group in January 2013. At least, six close persons to the late emir died in that incident. The revered traditional ruler finally passed on last Friday and was buried in Kano. Two days later, a successor in the name of Sanusi was announced by the Kano State Government.
Now, I do not think the appointment of Sanusi should have surprised anyone. For one, Sanusi desired to be emir after the late Bayero without apologies to anyone. He lived it, walked it and spoke it. And in a country like ours, when a man has clout and resources, only God can stop such ambitions.
Added to Sanusi’s personal preparation is his alliance with the political bloc with the authority to make or mar his ambition. It was impossible that the Rabiu Kwankwaso-led All Progressives Congress administration in Kano State would appoint anyone other than Sanusi to the position of the Emir of Kano. It is also almost certain in Nigeria that kingmakers would pander to the desire of a state government when push comes to shove. Fortunately, it did not have to get to this in the case of Sanusi as the Kano State Government offered that he was number one on the list presented to the governor by the kingmakers.
Upon the announcement of Sanusi’s appointment however, Nigerians went to town on literarily every social media platform showing how this was a “disgrace” to the Jonathan administration, how the appointment had vindicated the former CBN governor who was unceremoniously suspended by Jonathan, how they were waiting for Jonathan to come and pay homage to Sanusi and how the appointment may be a major impediment to the President’s undeclared second term ambition in 2015. Some even speculated that Jonathan tried to influence the process towards the end of stopping his sworn enemy – Sanusi.
This last point is one that I find most laughable. It is almost ludicrous for anyone, including Jonathan himself, to contemplate influencing who became the Emir of Kano when the governor of the state is the final authority in such appointments. Not even the chance that if Kwankwaso had remained in Jonathan’s Peoples Democratic Party could have diminished Sanusi’s chances. Keen watchers of politics in Nigeria would agree that every governor is the lord and master of his state and that Kwankwaso in particular, has run riot on the President and the PDP almost since the inception of the administration in 2011. How then would the President or PDP have influenced him?
So, rather than dissipate energy on conspiracy theories that do nothing than excite those who propound them and create unnecessary tension in the country, those who love Sanusi should pray that he makes a success of the new responsibility which he just acquired.
Unlike his temporal position as Nigeria’s number one banker, Sanusi from Sunday, June 8, 2014, attained a position that is as spiritual as it is temporal, he became more like a representative of God to his subjects. Is the Holy Quran not part of his staff of office? He needs grace and patience, he needs wisdom and decorum, he needs finesse and some measure of conservatism to succeed in this position. An emir who wants to succeed cannot see anyone, including the President who removed him from his previous office, as an enemy. He is the father of all and must show love for everyone. The beginning of the failure of a lot of leaders, especially those with traditional connotation, is their failure to treat their followers equally.
Even as we see that the APC government in his state has facilitated his appointment, Sanusi cannot be seen to publicly sympathise with any political party. The level of accommodation that he gives to each and every political party in his domain would to a large extent shape the history of his tenure.
If Sanusi had no role to play in the very urgent need to rein in the Boko Haram insurgency, things have assumed a different dimension currently. Nigeria needs Sanusi’s radical spirit and boldness towards rescuing the over 200 girls who have been under the keep of Boko Haram elements for about 60 days now and saving Nigeria from the endless heartache which Boko Haram has become.
I am looking forward to an initiative from the new emir on how more children would go to school in the north and how the issues of child marriage and a myriad of other developmental challenges faced by the north would come to an end.
Good enough, Sanusi is conversant with a lot of these problems; has the ears of the governor of his state and most governors in northern Nigeria; and is an international citizen with recognition all over the world. What we should see in the next few years is how the new emir would bring all his power to bear on the development of the north.
Sanusi cannot allow himself to be distracted by the side cries of those who think he has attained heights unimagined since after Sunday, June 8. He may have accomplished so much in every station that he had found himself before now, but great men are not rated by their past accomplishments, they define their names by the way they finish. This is the opportunity for Sanusi to finish well and have a satisfying end. I can only wish him the best.