WHAT SANUSI'S VISIT TO GEJ MEANS

It is no more news that the controversial Emir of Kano, Alhaji Sanusi Lamido Sanusi has finally met with President Jonathan Goodluck in a goodwill visit to break the Ramadan fast in Aso Rock villa. What it portends really is what I would love to discuss.

The tussle and power play between both parties can’t be over-emphasised after the former reeled out misgivings and misalignment of monies supposedly meant for the NNPC being unremitted. Banters came out flying from overzealous SA’s of the President back to social bloggers apologetic to the politically inclined then head of the CBN. To cut the long story short, Sanusi was quickly axed from his position on quickly cooked up charges of financial misappropriation himself and the handwritten on the wall spoke differently from the one in the book.

He recluse himself to the background immediately after the incidence of his passport being seized and immediately released at the international airport and after some activism by his friend and close confidant Nasir El’ Rufai, Lamido Sanusi left the scene with a parting shot that he will contest all the misgivings against him in the court of competent jurisdiction.

He however had eyes for something grander, more glorious, and more spiritual than the helm of affair of the Central Bank of Nigeria. He never kept secret his desire to be the Emir of Kano and in all the interview he granted in prints or visuals, his eyes lit up anytime the question was raised. Sanusi is a man with values. He could be harsh sometimes, dogged mostly when his values are threatened but he lived a life resplendent with fervor, energy and transparency.

I remember my brother, Pastor Abayomi Atoloye, who worked with him closely before he resigned as a director in CBN in 2012, spoke glowingly about him and how he usually walked into his office most mornings to share a banter and drink coffee. He was not tribalistic, he was a realist and an ardent doer and preacher of hard work.

So what does the visit from the new Emir of Kano to the sitting President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria mean? Especially since they used to be foes (I use ‘used’ because with this visit it means the sword has been sheathed ‘assumingly’) and most glaringly, since Jonathan is from the South South.

I hope this visit means the North and the South can seriously see each other’s fight and struggle as meaningless and baseless. At the end we are all brothers and no one has monopoly of violence as means of dialogue. It also mean that man’s search for self and personal gratification becomes useless as soon as an assignment bigger than such man has been placed on him. Sanusi swore all heavens to fight the presidency over his hurried and dishonourable discharge from duty; but that was before he got even a bigger assignment which was to be the spiritual custodian of the Hausa people and a bigger figure for the Muslim community in Nigeria.

This visit connotes also on the part of the President, his magnanimity and maturity as a leader of a country to overlook the many media banter and personal slights leveled towards him during the brouhaha and still shook hands and promised cohesive governance with traditional rulers. The Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’ad Abubakar III must be duly praised for convening this meeting and brokering peace between two warring leaders; because no meaningful development can be achieved in an atmosphere of fight and prolonged disagreement.

The leaders have shook hands, it is time we also as citizens and followers shake hands and together find lasting solutions to the many issues that bedevil us. Sanusi is a wise man; he realised that his personal battles must be discontinued now that he has the burden of monarchy to shoulder. Would he rather allow his ego to supersede the position of a supreme spiritual head whose morals and tenets should denounce such acts as pride and egocentric attitudes? I guess his visit to the President’s Aso Rock shows it all. A man who knows when to stop; when to sheath the sword and a man who puts public interest first before personal consideration.

Some have said that he was scared of the power of the presidency that’s why he came to pay homage to Jonathan. I say that is far from the truth. The popularity of the GEJ candidacy in the North is at the lowest right now and Sanusi could simply have leveraged on that and keep fostering hatred towards him but he rather towed the honourable path of respecting the first office of the Federation. And you know what they say about respect? It is reciprocal.

Till I find joy in writing another inspired article, please bear with my long hiatus.

Shalom!