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Fifth columnists and Ganduje-Sanusi relations

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Emir Muhammadu Sanusi II

Ibrahim Ado Kurawa

So much has been said and written on the relationship between the two leaders that became sour in 2017 before the recent escalation in Ramadan of 2019. The intervention of national leaders brought a truce.

However the beneficiaries of the crisis who are the fifth columnists did not relent in their efforts even this week. The Nation newspaper carried a story that Emir Sanusi has sacked his aide for welcoming Ganduje. The story has been kept alive in the social media and even further with additional coverage by the foreign media. This is because the fifth columnists want to maintain their positions.

They are in two categories those close to the Governor who have written and spoken that there was no reconciliation between the Governor and the Emir. Some of them have even vowed that they will never allow any peace between the two leaders, hence the escalation of this story in the media.

The second category, are those in the Emir’s Palace. Most of them have moved to Bichi but they still have sympathizers who are still in the palace. They are more diabolical because of their hatred for the Emir as a result of envy and they don’t even care that they are destroying the Dabo heritage.

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These collaborators are not happy that both the Governor and the Emir are no more concerned about any differences. The Governor visited the Emir in Abuja and the Emir was at the Government House recently. All these are signs of peace for the benefit of Kano but these fifth columnists have vowed never to allow peace. In fact one of them made such an evil declaration in my presence.

Who is Maja Sirdi?

Anyone remotely connected to the Emir’s Palace knows that the person allegedly sacked is so inconsequential in the traditional and bureaucratic hierarchies. He is the Maja Sirdi a slave titleholder in-charge of the saddles and not even the horses used by the Emir. In the traditional hierarchy he is under Shamaki who turbans and disciplines him. The Emir does not even appoint him. So how can he even sack him?

But now he has wide coverage making spurious claims and statements. Apparently he is being used because those supporting this evil action cannot come out and speak ill of the Emir. In fact I even overheard one of them who is a representative of one of the District Heads saying they will only expose the Emir and that they will not harm the legacy of his predecessor. They think by destroying Emir Sanusi they are promoting his relatives who contested the Emirship along with him.

As for those in the APC Kano State Government some of them are not happy that the crisis is ending. The Governor and Emir have met twice since their first meeting in Abuja and have continued with their normal cordial relationship.

Emir promoting Kano

The Emir is currently leading the State Delegation to Shandong City in Peoples Republic of China. He is leading the Delegation because the Chinese Government has extended invitation to him to attend their cultural exchange program every year. But after his first visit the Emir said, he cannot be tourist therefore he informed the Chinese authorities that he wants economically beneficial trips annually. He wants investment for Kano in his capacity as the Chairman of the State’s Economic Advisory Committee.

As a man of knowledge the Emir does not do things unprepared hence he made the African Development Bank (AfDB) to finance the study on the industrialization of Kano. The Bank commissioned McKensy an international consulting firm and the study was conducted successfully. And it was presented to the Governor who was also very happy.

The Emir is aware that it takes much time and persistence for the investors from China to make investment in the leather industry as they did in Ethiopia hence he remained consistent in his pursuit investments. This is his major target because he is involved in the multi-billion electric power investment in Ethiopia therefore he is aware of the Chinese investments in that country.

Ignorant Legislator

While the Emir is still on an economic mission for the State along with the Deputy Governor and other members of the State Economic Advisory Committee, some members of the National Assembly visited the Governor in Abuja according to a widely circulated social media clip. One of them stood up and spoke disrespectfully to the Governor because he lacked the Islamic decorum.

This is because he said the Governor is too patient and that the time for patience is over. No educated and morally upright Muslim will do this. Patience is a virtue. Only an ignorant person will consider it, a vice or weakness. In fact our beloved Prophet (peace and blessings be upon) said it is strength. Allah has called on the believers to be patient but here is an ignorant member of the National Assembly calling on the Governor to abandon patience and embrace the path of hate.

This same member of the National Assembly made a speech at a rally calling for violence against opponents. In the widely circulated video clip this member of the National Assembly said the Governor’s patience is enough and that the Governor has strong loyalists who were present including him and the State APC Chairman who is also from the royalty.

He referred to the alleged sacking of the palace sub-staff for welcoming the Governor and that it should not be tolerated. He insinuated that the Emir is nothing and that the Governor should deal with him. This is the point of attention. It is very dangerous. They have tried everything possible to get at the Emir. It is even circulated that the Governor has vowed to remove the Emir immediately after the declaration of his victory by the tribunal and let heavens fall.

What is wrong with Kano

Something is definitely wrong in Kano. Why is it that some people want to remove the Emir by all means? How can the issue of a sub-staff in the Palace be of importance at a meeting of some of the most important Government and party functionaries?

Suddenly the sub-staff released another video making all manner of allegations and abuses. A senior member of the National Assembly rising up, to call on Governor to do something because someone is alleged, to have been sacked by the Emir. The same person allegedly sacked then goes on air abusing the Emir after the release of the video clip of the member of the National Assembly instigating the Governor.

Within this period a national officer of a national guild was also invited by one of the law enforcement agencies and one of his crimes is that he is supporting the Emir who is being “rude” to the Governor as they alleged. What kind of a society is this? Here is a ranking member of the National Assembly calling on the Governor to cease being patient and allow them to deal with anyone especially the Emir. Does it mean they have nothing to discuss, despite the myriad of problems?

The Governor and the Emir recently launched school materials for the free education program. Isn’t this program important enough for discussion? Kano State has over four million pupils in public primary and junior secondary schools learning almost nothing. This has led many donor agencies to declare Kano State as one of the worst places on the planet.

Isn’t this pervasive lack of quality education for children more important issue than the sacking of the Emir who has gone on a trip soliciting for investments for the state? So many investors have rejected Kano because of our crude politics aired in local radio stations that portray a deeply divided and confused society steered by charlatans like this member of the National Assembly.

Ganduje’s Legacy

What kind of politicians do people of Kano State have? They have nothing to tell the Governor only to sit up and sack the Emir. How can this kind of people be of any use to the Governor and the State? What kind of legacy does the Governor want to bequeath?

This same member of the National Assembly used to carry the shoes of former Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso and he became one of the few politicians who challenged the former Governor to come out for violent confrontation.

What Governor Ganduje needs to do is to follow injunctions of Allah and his Prophet (SAW) who called on the believers to be patient and merciful to fellow human beings not what these charlatans are telling him. Both Governor Ganduje and Emir Sanusi must discard all those calling for enmity and not peace and magnanimity. Governor Ganduje needs support to govern properly and steer the State to progress ensuring a right legacy. The next three years are very important to him. It is time for reflection on what happened to his predecessors who listened to this kind of charlatans.

Emir Sanusi is useful to the world not only Kano that is why the United Nations appointed him an Advocate of the Sustainable Development Goals along with a President of Ghana, Prime Minister of Norway and Her Majesty the Queen of Belgium. No Nigerian has ever been so honored in recent times. Every Nigerian is proud of him including President Muhammadu Buhari who was at the United Nations General Assembly and at the launching of Sustainable Development Goals of which Emir Sanusi is the only Nigerian in the team of the Eminent Advocates.

And here in Kano a charlatan is calling on the Governor to destroy a global personality. What a shame!

Ibrahim Ado Kurawa, public affairs analyst can be reached at ibrahimado@yahoo.com

 

Opinion

The need to restore the prestige of Kano Pillars FC

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Kano Pillars FC

Isyaku Ibrahim

 

There is no doubt whenever you talk about Enyimba of Aba in Nigeria’s top flight who won the competition nine time, the next team that will come to your mind is Kano Pillars that lifted the trophy on four good occasions. But nowadays,it seems the Kano darling is losing its prestige, recognition and above all popularity in the local league. 

 

This was as a result of lack of total commitment, determination, tenacity, patriotism,diligence and seriousness which the side was known for in the past.

 

To say the fact, the pyramid City lad was previously rated among the traditional teams in the top flight as they have established and tested players that would not disappoint their teeming fans no matter where they are playing.

 

It was based on this late Rashidi Yekini while watching the team at Adamasingba Stadium now Lekan Salami Stadium in Ibadan said if he was to play for a local team he would prefer to lace his boot for Kano Pillars ahead of others.

 

The reason he Said was simply due to excellent free flow football of the team but now it seems that has gone for bad.

When the club was established as early as 1990 among the objectives behind was to boost the name of the state through football and beside that win trophies with a view to competing favourably with others.

 

While those behind the idea should be commended to a large extent for their foresight in that respect in view of how the team is now a household name in the round leather game countrywide but there is the need for a collaborative effort with a view to normalising things in the ancient city side as the club has now stepped down from its aforementioned aims and objectives.

It is painful that the team’s main priority nowadays was not to lift the league as the case was previously but to survive relegation which was baseless,laughable and nothing to write home about considering their past experience particularly when they were based at Sabongari Stadium.

 

Definitely,this season is almost over as Remo Stars are as good as being crowned the winners of the event

The best option for Sai Masu Gida is to start early preparation for the upcoming season through putting their house in order aimed at restoring their winning culture as the teeming fans are tired of flimsy excuses on the reason behind their lack lustre performance year in year out.

 

Honestly, what they are basically hoping for is to see the club matches theory with practice through grabbing the trophy or at least earning one of the three continental tickets in the country.

optimistically this is achievable with the full support of Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf coupled with that of his laborious and submissive Deputy Comrade Aminu Abdulsalam, good management, superb technical crew and the support of ardent fans who are always with the side in either thick or thin.

 

 

Ibrahim is a Director Public Enlightenment at Kano State Ministry of Special Duties. 

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In defence of Prof Abdalla Uba Adamu’s beautiful quip on Kano – IBK

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Prof. Ibrahim Bello-Kano (IBK)

 

Double Professor Uba Abdallah Adamu has angered many non-Kano people resident in Kano by his famous, widely circulated quip, an aphoristic description of Kano in which says the anyone tired of (living in) Kano is tired of life. Prof Adamu’s appraisal of Kano is based on a sound premise and a powerful emotional logic. Prof. Adamu’s comment has a powerful pedigree. On the arguments of the highly acclaimed French sociologist and space theorist, Henri Lefebre in “The Production of Space” (1974), it can be shown that Kano, especially the city and the metropolitan area, has three characteristics, typical of the greatest cities in the world since Antiquity: 

 

1. It is a conceived space (an urban area, complete with a series of interlacing and interloping and interlocking urban designs since the 9th century). Kano was already a city and an urban space well before 1903. It’s one of the oldest urban areas in the Sudan.

 

2. It is a lived space, complete with the everyday experiences of its inhabitants and their emotional identification with it. Hence the many “quarters of the city”— from Alkantara, Alfindiki, Ayagi, to Mubi and Gwangwazo and beyond those.

 

3. Kano is also a practiced/practised space, with its inhabitants, visitors, and emigré population working to “practice up” the city in their daily lived experiences and within its urban and emotional spaces. That’s the truth of Prof. Abdallah Uba Adamu’s hyperbolic reference to Kano as a barometer of happiness or depression.

 

Prof Adamu is also correct in that most immigrants to the city never leave it, even if their last name may indicate other towns or cities. Already, Kano is one of the most truly cosmopolitan cities in Nigeria, surpassed only by New York, London, and Abidjan. In 1958, almost a decade before Lefebre’s book, the philosopher of science and urban studies, Gaston Bachelard published “The Poetics of Space” in which he argues that to live, or to choose to live, in a place, say the Kano metropolis, is already to enact an emotional act, and an existential event, in and for which Kano is already a resonant space of intimacy, or an intimate place of lived subjectivity. This is the case because one cannot live in Kano, even for a brief period, without (seeking to) creating a home, a nest, and an intimate space of “Kano beingness” or a Kano-based “being- in-the world”. That’s why Kano evokes and resonates with a strong emotional identification with it. When I was about 8 years old, I was told, on visiting the Dala Hill, that God had planned to create a holy city in Kano, but a dog urinated on the hallowed ground, and that’s how the divine plan was moved elsewhere. Of course, that story is clearly apocryphal, yet it shows how the Kano people are intensely proud of their places and spaces. So, Prof. Abdullah Uba Adamu’s hyperbolic and surreal description of Kano is essentially correct and pleasingly poignant. Many emigré groups are unhappy with his remarks, but if you live in a place, earn a living in it, or draw opportunities of all kinds from it, then you have got to love Kano, the most romantic of cities, a city full of dreams, aspirations, emotional highs and lows, and learn to identify with its fortunes. Kano, the city of gold and piety, recalcitrance and hope, modern politics and ideological contestations; the city of majestic royalty; the city of women and cars, as Shata once described it. Kano… the great Entreport. Kano, your name will endure through the ages. Cheers.

 

Ibrahim Bello-Kano (IBK) is a Professor of English at Bayero University, Kano. 

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Opinion

Kano: My City, My State

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By Huzaifa Dokaji

 

Kano is not a place you reduce to a headline or dismiss with a stereotype. It is a city with too many layers for that- too much memory, too many voices. This is the Kano of Muhammadu Rumfa, the ruler who gave it form and vision, and of Ibrahim Dabo, the scholar-king. The Kano of Kundila and Dangote, where wealth meets ingenuity.

 

It is the Kano the British once described as the ‘London of Africa,’ the Tripolitans praised as ‘a city like a thousand others’, each one magnificent—and its own people, knowing its complex social and ideological chemistry, named tumbin giwa, the intestine of an elephant: vast, winding, and full of hidden depths.

 

Kano has always carried many lives at once. It is the home of Shehu Tijjani Na Yan Mota and the sanctuary of Abdullahi dan Fodio when he felt the revolution had been betrayed. It is Madinar Mamman Shata and the home of Aminu Ala, the author of the philosophical Shahara and masterfully composed Bara a Kufai. This is the same Kano that made Dauda Kahutu Rara, the master of invective lyrics, and Rabiu Usman Baba, the Jagaban of Sha’irai.

 

Here, contradictions do not cancel each other, they coexist. It is the city of yan hakika and yan shari’a, of Izala and Tariqa, of Shaykh Rijiyar Lemo and of Shaykh Turi. It is the Kano where people will argue passionately about doctrine, then share tea afterward. Where silence and speech, mysticism and reform, are all part of the same long interesting yet boring conversation.

 

This is the Kano of the diplomatic Emir Ado Bayero and combatant Muhammad Sanusi II. Of Rabiu Kwankwaso, the red-cap-wearing jagora, and of the agreeable Ibrahim Shekarau. It is that same Kano of the incorruptible Malam Aminu Kano and Dollar-stuffing Ganduje. The cosmopolitan city of Sabo Wakilin Tauri and of the saintly Malam Ibrahim Natsugune.

 

If not Kano, then what other city could birth Barau Kwallon Shege, the bard of the profane, and welcome Shaykh Ibrahim Nyass, the towering saint of the mystics? Where else but Kano would you find Shaykh Nasiru Kabara- scholar and Sufi master- sharing the same cityscape with Rashida dan Daudu and all the remembered and forgotten Magajiyoyin Karuwai? This is the Kano of yan jagaliya and attajirai, of the sacred and the profane, the pulpit and the street. The Salga and of Sanya Olu and Ibedi streets. Kano has never pretended to be a city of one truth, its greatness lies in the multitude it carries.

 

So when people speak carelessly about Kano, they miss the point. Kano is not a relic. It is alive. It debates itself. It holds its tensions with pride. And like Adamu Adamu said, “the story of this enigmatic city is simple and straight backward – and , in the end one can only say Kano is Kano because Kano is Kano – and that’s all; for; it is its own reason for being.”

 

You don’t explain Kano. You respect it.

 

 

This was first published on Huzaifa Dokaji’s Facebook account. 

 

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