A 41-year-old newspaper headline has shown that the crisis over the Kano emirate system is a repetition of an earlier crisis recorded over four decades ago.
The state House of Assembly, on 14 May, repealed the Kano State Emirate Council Law 2019, which Governor Abba Yusuf signed the following day.
The development led to the scrapping of the state’s five emirate councils created under the repealed law in 2019, the deposition of their emirs and the reinstatement of Lamido Sanusi as the sole emir of the state.
The four emirates that have been dissolved are Gaya, Karaye, Rano and Bichi.
However, a news report in 1983 showed similarities in the development to when the state’s first elected governor, Abubakar Rimi, created four additional emirates and how they were later scrapped by his successor, Sabo Bakin-zuwo.
The four emirates that Mr Rimi created were Dutse (now the capital of Jigawa State), Auyo, Gaya and Rano. The four were created in addition to the existing Kano, Hadejia, Gumel and Kazaure emirates.
Mr Bakin-zuwo, who defeated Governor Rimi in the bitterly fought governorship election of 1983, immediately scrapped the four new councils and demoted their emirs to district heads.
In more similarities of events that happened over four decades later, Messrs Rimi and Bakin-zuwo were members of the People’s Redemption Party (PRP) until the governor fell out with their party’s leader, Aminu Kano.
He defected to the Nigerian People’s Party (NPP) and stepped down from office to seek reelection on the ticket of his new party, while the PRP gave its ticket to Mr Bakinzuwo, who was then a senator.
In the general election, the PRP retook the governorship seat in the controversial general elections of that year.
But following the creation of Jigawa State by the military regime of Ibrahim Babangida in 1991 and with three of the emirates moving to the new state, Kano became a single emirate state, until former Governor Abdullahi Ganduje again broke it into five emirates in 2019.
A news report by the defunct New Nigerian Newspaper, of 21 October 1983, recently posted on Facebook by a journalist, Jaafar Jaafar, highlighted how history has been repeated in Kano, decades after in 2024.
“Four emirs appointed by the defunct Rimi/Tofa administration in Kano State have been downgraded as district heads. They are Alhaji Abdullahi Maikano (Dutse) Alhaji Aliyu Sambo (Auyo), Alhaji Adamu Gaya (Gaya),” the New Nigeria newspaper reported in 1983.
“No new emir has, however, been appointed for Rano since the death of Alhaji Abubakar Ita who was also appointed by the defunct administration as a result of a court restraint.
“The state governor, Sabo Bakin-zuwo downgraded the emirs on Thursday following the repealing of the chiefs appointment and deposition (Amendment) Law 1982 and the Council of Chiefs Law 1981 under which they were appointed, it stated.
“According to the new law, the four emirs have been reverted to their former status of district heads and have also ceased to be members of the council of chiefs. Other removed from the council are the Chief Imams of Auyo, Dutse, Gaya, Gumel, Hadejia, Kano, Kazaure, and Itano, a representative of the business community and five persons of proven integrity.
“The council is now made of the emirs of Kano Hadejia, Gumel, and Kazaure, as well as the secretary to the government, local government chairmen and one person learned in Islamic law.
“In a speech after assenting to the bill, Governor Bakin-zuwo observed that the legislature was perfectly in order in repealing the law since the suit concerning it had been disposed of.
“He said by repealing the law, it would be possible for the state council of chiefs to work efficiently through the appointment of the right people. He added that the secretary to the state government had already signed a legal notice of revoking the earlier one which authorised the appointment of the deposed emirs.
“With the signing of the law, all affected emirs reverted to their former position as district heads with effect from yesterday (Thursday 20, October 1983), the governor said.
“Traditional kingmakers of Kano had withdrawn their suit against the appointment of the deposed emirs from Kano High Court on Monday thus bringing to an end the protracted legal tussle between the kingmakers and the state government.
“The governor has also made good promise to revoke the appointment of the emirs as soon as it was out of court,” the report stated.
Deja Vu
PREMIUM TIMES’ analysis of the two incidents shows that the creation and subsequent scrapping of the emirates in both cases were done for political reasons – either to spite allies turned opponents or to punish an emir for supporting the government’s political opponents.
Both Messrs Rimi and Bakin-zuwo, were followers of Aminu Kano, whose political goal was the emancipation of the common people of Northern Nigeria.
In May 1983, Mr Rimi fell out with Mr Kano and abandoned the PRP for the NPP in preparation for the 1983 general elections.
However, he lost the election to Mr Bakin-zuwo. Although the new governor lasted only three months in office before the Second Republic was overthrown by the military coup of December 31, 1983; it was enough time to reverse most of Mr Rimi’s policies, including the dissolution of the emirates.
Like in the 1983 situation, former governor Ganduje also fell out with Mr Kwankwaso, the leader of their political family, which adopted Aminu Kano’s red cap as its insignia.
Since Mr Ganduje’s party lost the 2023 election, his successor, Mr Yusuf of the NNPP has reversed several of his policies, including the Emirate Council Law 2019 that created the additional four emirates.
Ironically, in 1982, Emir Ado Bayero was stoutly opposed to the balkanisation of the Kano Emirate and benefitted from a new state government reversing the policy.
But in 2020, his son, Aminu Ado-Bayero, became emir after the emirate was split into five and lost the throne four years later after a new state government reunited the emirate.
The Kano emirate crisis led to a riot in July 1981 after former Governor Rimi suspended Emir Ado Bayero. Mr Rimi’s political adviser, Bala Mohammed, was brutally assassinated and the offices of the state-owned Triumph Newspapers; Radio Kano, and several ministries burnt down in the upheaval.
Both Messrs Kwankwakso and Ganduje were in active politics when the bloody crisis occurred in the Second Republic.
Forty years later, they are the protagonist and antagonist as the crisis reoccurred in a state with one of the highest numbers of out-of-school children, a healthcare delivery crisis and uneven development between the the capital city and other parts of the state.
Many observers have asked the question: when will Kano political leaders rise above ego-driven petty politics to face their state’s critical developmental challenges?
PREMIUM TIMES
